New Life

 July 23 2023

Romans 6

         One of the things that still surprises me is that the daily newspaper is no longer a part of my life. I mean, I grew up with my Mom and Dad faithfully reading the paper everyday so I just assumed that this reading of the newspaper was one of those things which would continue on and on, little did I know. It didn’t help that the content of the newspaper dwindled down to such a point that the highlights began to be the obituaries and the comics, in that order. This lack of stuff to read about, in a newspaper, seemed a little weird because there are a lot of us who remember when there was all kinds of stuff to read about. When Jennifer and I were married the paper carried the news of our wedding, even explaining what kind of wedding dress was worn on that fateful day. And there were always a lot of different columnists to read. I remember that on Saturdays there was even a religious section. I recall, one time, reading in the newspaper a column written by a Catholic priest who had written a great response to the question of whether or not he had been born again. This was during a time when knowing whether one was born again or not was of utmost importance almost becoming a source of pride for some who not only knew that they had been born again but also when it had happened. To all of this interest in being born again, this Catholic priest replied to the question as to when he had been born again, stating that he had indeed been born again, it had happened on a Friday when the one called Jesus had been crucified for his sins. I was totally floored by his response which is obvious because more than thirty years later that response is still with me. How very true that our being born again is more about what Jesus has done for us then it is about us flaunting that it is by our faith that we have been born again.

         Paul, in todays scripture,  also focuses in on the mighty acts of Jesus when speaking about the subject of baptism. Paul does not speak to whether or not baptism is a public display of a personal faith decision; this does not concern him at all. No, Paul is speaking about baptism because in this instance he is concerned about baptism being the means by which we enter into the life of the church. Paul asks those who make up the church, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? I mean, if God is going to continue to hold out his forgiveness of our sins then why don’t we keep on sinning and then, we can repent and ask God for forgiveness and once we are forgiven then we can just head back out to do a little sinning once again. Is this the way we, as the church, are supposed to live as people who have been saved by grace? Paul already knew that such questions were nothing but nonsense. You see, right from the beginning, those who had gone through the waters of baptism were already aware of the true power of grace. Baptism is death and life, of dying to one world in order to live in another, to die to living in the age of sin and death so that we might live to the glory of God. You see, as Paul reminds his audience, when we were baptized into Christ Jesus, we were baptized into the very death of Jesus. Here is why this is so: The people of Israel were chosen by God to represent the nations. As their Messiah-King, Jesus represented the people of Israel, the very people who represented all of the people of the world. Jesus our Messiah-King took upon himself the judgment and condemnation of all people, so that what was necessary for the Old Covenant to be satisfied, a deserving death for those who lived under that contract, might be delivered by the one who did not deserve such a death at all. So as Paul writes in the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians, “…we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died…”. This very truth is what is on display when one is plunged beneath the waters of baptism. As Paul explains it here in this sixth chapter of Romans, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death…” So, in much the same way that the Catholic priest explained how it was that he had been born again, so Paul here is saying that when Jesus died and was plunged beneath the waves of death which rolled over his body for three days, we, in some mysterious way, were there in that moment, united with Jesus right there in that most God forsaken of times. Only as Jesus entered death, and we with him, only as we know that we have ceased to live in the age dominated by the sin of Adam, only then can we be done with sins control. As we rise out of the waters of baptism we enter into a new age, the age of the new Adam, an age where his resurrection reigns. Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so too we can now say that we can walk in a whole new way of life, a way of life that too brings glory to the Father.

         Over and over again in this sixth chapter of Romans, Paul speaks of death and life. Paul writes in many different ways that we are those people, the ones who have been united in the death of Jesus, people who are absolutely certain that we will be united in a resurrection just like his. This profound truth means so much to us. When we know that we have been raised from the dead with Christ then we know that our life in the old age, where sin reigned over us, this has at last come to an end. So, being united with Jesus Christ means that we are no longer slaves who are controlled by the power of sin because you know, dead men don’t do a whole lot of sinning. And death no longer has any power over us either because we are to conclude that we are most assuredly alive to God in Christ Jesus having been raised up in resurrection power.

         All of this is such great news, hallelujah, we are free, and the power of sin and death has been broken and we are able to experience life in the hope of the resurrection. And then, Paul goes and ruins it for us because he says ok, all you people who have risen to a new life, don’t let sin reign in your mortal bodies. He goes on to say, that we should not obey the desires of sin, to give ourselves over to the control of sin so that our very bodies becomes a weapon to be used in the cause of unrighteousness. So, what is it Paul, are we dead to sin, or not? Have we really been raised to new life,Paul, or have we been raised to a life which looks a lot like the old life, a life that is continually bothered by sin’s pursuits?

         What Paul is getting at when he bursts our bubble by telling us to not let sin reign in our body just as he gets done telling us that we are no longer a slave to sin, is that it is up to us, we are the ones who have to decide what we are going to do with our new found freedom that is ours when we are raised to new life. Paul states the issue as being just whose cause are we going to give ourselves to? Are we really going to let the sin which controlled us, the same sin which we died to, to now be the one that we allow to use us for all kinds of unrighteousness? Even the possibility of this happening seems a little absurd yet we know that Paul has mentioned such a thing because it seems that he has witnessed this turning back to sin in at least one person’s life. The question that Paul insists that all those who are baptized have to answer is just who is it that I will stand ready to do whatever they desire of me? Here again, Paul uses a word that bears this image of standing. We may recall that when Paul began the fifth chapter of his letter to the church at Rome, he began by stating that through Christ we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. Here in the sixth chapter, Paul again speaks of standing only this time Paul wants to know just who is it that we stand ready to do their bidding, who is it that we will now serve, sin or the God who has saved us from sin.

         When Paul says that we are to present ourselves either to sin or to God, the image that is conveyed is that of someone standing before their boss, ready to go and get to work. Now Paul seems to know that most people once they have found a way out of sin are not going to go back to a life under sins control. Paul expects that those who have been baptized are going to be those who stand ready to give themselves as workers of righteousness because they are responding in love to the God who has brought them from death to life. This response of love arises out of resurrection faith, a belief that out of the nothingness of a life bound to sin can come a life raised up, bound to the glory of God. And as we consider how profound all of this is, Paul goes further by making a pretty audacious claim, that sin will have no dominion over us since we are now not under law but under grace. Now, this seems to be somewhat opposite of what we might believe because for many people the way of grace seems to be the way of weakness and the way of law seems to be the way of strength. The offering of forgiveness and mercy, this willingness to be reconciled, this all seems to be the least effective way to keep someone on the straight and narrow. No, what many people think is needed is the upholding of the law and the proper punishment to make people respect that law, this is how we can eliminate the dominion of sin. Yet here Paul would respectfully disagree. No, what keeps sin from dominating our lives is this thing called grace, this favor of God welcoming us into his love.

         As Paul puts it, we are going to stand ready to do what ever we are told, either before sin, which leads to death, or before God which will lead to righteousness. The question is just which voice are you waiting to hear from, just who is it that really has our attention? You see, when it is put like this it is easy to understand why Paul knew that it is grace, not law, which is the power that keeps sin from having dominion over us. The power of grace is found in the holy love of God. This holy love of God does not love us just when we are obedient to the law; no, God in his holy love loves us even in our disobedience. This holy love of God is a love which loves us not for what we are able to do but rather this holy love loves us all because we are treasured by God. Where all the law could do was judge and condemn us, leaving us as good as dead, our God who esteems us to be of immeasurable worth, in his grace, searches for us and brings us home so that we might find life through him. This is our faith in the resurrection, this unshakable belief that God desires a life with us beyond the death that we so rightly deserve. Yes, the law keeps a record of our failures but the holy love of God sees beyond our weakness and pride and God draws us to himself out of his great love for us. You see, the reason that God gave Jesus upon the cross to take upon himself our death is that God treasures us. Through Jesus we are to know that we are of infinite worth to God. And here is what Paul knew, that as we become more and more convinced of who we are to God, a treasure to make his own, a treasure that is watched over, and kept safe within his steadfast, faithful love, if this is how we know who we are to God then it just makes sense that we will most assuredly treasure this God who treasures us.This is the power of grace.

         You see Jesus tells us that there are two places that we can lay up our treasure. In the sixth chapter of Matthew, Jesus teaches us, “Do not lay up treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. Instead lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there also is your heart.” The treasure that is in heaven is our Heavenly Father, he is the one we are to treasure, to hold within our hearts. The reason that this is so important is that this new resurrection life we are living out is a life under a new covenant, one where, as we read in the thirty-first chapter of Jeremiah, God will put his law within us, writing his very law on our hearts. When our Heavenly Father is our treasure, when we know him as being of infinite worth to us, then his words, the words which are his law, these words will also be treasured. This is when we will stand before him, obedient, listening intently, ready to go as he directs. I mean, is this not to have the law of God written upon our hearts? 

         You see, it is that we treasure our Heavenly Father, this is the reason for us to be obedient to the teaching as Paul says that we were committed to. This word, “committed” , is a word which means to hand over. The imagery is one where our Heavenly Father lovingly places those newly born again in the loving arms of his church. The church are those who will teach those newly baptized to know the ways of Jesus, to teach them to know the voice of the one who treasures them. At the very heart of the core teachings of Jesus is a prayer, the heart’s desire of the Heavenly Father who loves us. To learn the prayer is to learn the very aspirations of the Father who treasures us. The one we call, “Our Father”, desires that he is known as being holy, as the God who loves with a holy love. It is his kingdom that he longs to be brought into existence through the making of peace. It is his will that is to be done here on earth just as it is in heaven. His generosity is to be known as overflowing just like his extravagant forgiveness is to be the standard of our forgiveness. Our Heavenly Father is to be known by us as our sole means of deliverance from evil. This is what our Heavenly Father speaks about from his heart and when we treasure him then this is what will be carried in our hearts as well. When the Father’s longings become our longings then we can say that righteousness has taken hold of our very selves so that sin no longer has any power over us. When our heavenly Father’s prayer guides our lives, this is when we will be like him, holy, holy in our love, for our actions will happen because we treasure our Heavenly Father. This is when we will find that we love others without any regard to the worthiness of anyone to be loved by us. This is, I believe, what Paul was trying to get this church at Rome to remember. They were to remember baptism, the death of Christ being the very source of their own death; his life the very fountain of their life. Of course, they were not to let sin reign, obeying the desires which sin stirred up. No, they were to be listening to the one who treasured them, loving on all of them because he claimed them as his own. They were to remember the longings of their Heavenly Father and how they had learned to listen to his voice here within the love of this church. So perhaps Paul would say, those things which you have died to, let those things remain dead. And this new life you have been given, get on with living this life your Heavenly Father has given to you. Get on fighting the good fight of righteousness instead of fighting with each other. Focus yourselves on eternity for in that light the fleeting parts of this life seem all so trivial. To God be the glory! Amen!

         

Grace Reigns

 July 16 2023

Romans 5:12-21

         There are many ways that I become aware of my age, the list is growing everyday, but one of the more annoying ones is that when you go to the grocery store the background music is the same music that you used to listen to in high school. So, it has come to this, all the songs which remind me of my youth have now been declared to be good for nothing more than background music?! I mean it is rather sad if you think about it. Well, not only does the music of my youth become someone else’s oldies but groups are always remaking the music we used to listen to, and that too catches me off guard. My daughter sent me a link of the band, Fall Out Boy, who re-wrote, Billy Joel’s song, “We Didn’t Start The Fire”. The new version though still has the original chorus that goes, “We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning since the world been turnin’…”. As I listened to those lyrics again I thought it sounds like Billy Joel and Saint Paul could share notes because what Paul writes here at the end of the fifth chapter of this letter to the church at Rome, Paul is telling his audience and us, that, no, we didn’t start the fire, you know this fire that has swept across all creation, the fire of sin and death. This fire has been burning not quite since the world’s been turnin’ but pretty close since it was, as Paul pointed out, Adam who had struck the match. And this fire of sin gave rise to death, and this death gave rise to more sin and the whole thing just took on a very evil life of its own. So, yes, we did not start this fire, it has been burning since the world was turning but this is not the end for Paul is going to let us in on what God has to say about just such a song.

         So, as Paul continues here at the end of this fifth chapter of his letter to this church at Rome, he begins with the period of time before God ever gave the law to the people of Israel. Was there sin from Adam until the law was given to Moses? Yes, sin was alive and well, it could be said that during this time sin was the king, the one in control. Yet the sinning that occurred in this time frame was not a transgression. A transgression is a deliberate crossing of a line which God has specifically said that we are not to cross. This is seen clearly in the life of Adam and Eve who were told not to eat of the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden of Eden but Adam and Eve chose to thumb their nose at God and they just got on making a little fruit salad for dinner.   

         So, yes, sin was in the world even before the law was given to Moses and the people of Israel but we have to wonder, just what affect will the law have on our world held captive in this swirling fire of sin and death? I mean, if you had been given the most perfect law, written down as the very words from heaven, wouldn’t you expect Paul here in this second paragraph of his writing about sin, that when the people of God obeyed the law they overcame their sin and the powers of death were at last defeated? But this is not what happened at all because what Paul writes about is how the transgression of Adam brought about judgment and after this judgment, there came condemnation. Now, in order for this judgment to be just, to be deserved, it just makes sense that this judgment was spelled out as being a real possibility when the people of God received the law from God. This is exactly what we find in the twenty-eighth chapter of  the book of Deuteronomy. There we find, first what we might call the good news, the blessings God promises to the people of Israel if they are obedient. And then comes the bad news, the curses that await the people of God if they disobey the laws that God had spelled out to them. The worst and final of these curses was the curse of exile where God would bring a nation against the people of Israel and God’s people would find themselves scattered among the nations. This is the promised judgment of God to his people and as we read in what we call, the Old Testament, the people of God did disobey God, quite horribly so. Ten of the twelve tribes of Israel were scattered among the nations by Assyria. The other two tribes, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin lived in what was known as being Judaea. As we read in the prophets, especially the prophet of Jeremiah, the Babylonian army did come against Judaea and the city of Jerusalem and the best and brightest were hauled off to Babylon. So, the judgment and condemnation that Paul writes of is found there in the historical fact of exile. It is this judgment and condemnation which always hung over God’s people that brought fear of punishment into their hearts so that what the law ended up doing is just adding power to the reign of evil, the sin and death that feed off of each other. Paul writes that the law came in along side of sin, as if it were an ally that was able to give sin even more power.

         Now it seems that when the course of history looks as bleak as it does according to Paul, you have to wonder what the answer is and what the answer is is that judgment and condemnation were not the end of the story. You see, what the giving of the law did was not just to point out the inability of God’s people to be obedient to the law but it was rather to point out something very profound about God and his love. Listen to how Jesus speaks about his Father’s love for his people, from the forty-fifth verse of the fifth chapter of Matthew, “For your Heavenly Father makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust”. You see, these terms, “evil”, and “good”, as well as “just”, and “unjust”, are terms that can only be understood through the law. What was discovered through the law is that God’s love is not dependent on anything that his people did. When they were obedient, following in the goodness of God, God loved them. And when they were evil, unjust people condemned to exile, God loved them. The love of God did not just love those who loved him in return, as we so want to have happen when we love on someone. And God did not just love those who were like him, because God is the total opposite of evil or unjust and even still, God still loves even those who are evil and unjust. God’s love, you see, is a holy love, a love quite different from the way we want to love people. When we set out to love we want to love on people who are very much like us, loving on people that we are fairly certain will love us in return if we love on them. The very common way to treat people is to be against our enemies and be all for those whom we know love us and who are on our side. But holy love is so radically different because God does not love anyone for what they do but God loves people for who they are, and that is that people are what God treasures. At the beginning of his journey with Moses and the people of Israel, God told the people of Israel that they were his treasured possession. That God considered his people his most treasured possession is the very foundation of his holy love. This is why we also find in the book of Deuteronomy in the thirtieth chapter that God tells his people that when they are in exile, very far from home, if from there they think upon the Lord their God, and they return to God, then God assures his people that he will have compassion on them. You see, when God’s people stopped and thought about the blessings and the curses, it was quite obvious that they deserved to be left in exile for what they had done could be considered a very certain death for them. Yet even so, this was not the end, for there beyond this certain death, there was God waiting for his people to turn around and allow God to receive them back to him, in an act of lavish compassion. The law came in and increased the sin within the lives of God’s people, but as Paul so rightly knows, where sin abounded in God’s people there was seen the overflowing, excessive, abundant, lavish welcome of God who greets his people with compassion all because he treasures them. Jesus knew that his disciples were treasures of infinite worth this is why on the night that he was betrayed, he prayed that his Heavenly Father keep watch over those he loved, and guard them, he asks, for they were greatly valued. Jesus states that where the very treasures of God are kept beyond harm is right there in the name of God, a name that speaks of God being a God of faithful, steadfast love. This is what Paul speaks of when he speaks of grace, or the favor, the very welcome of God. Jesus upon the cross took upon himself the condemnation of all people, receiving the very judgment of death so that through this one righteous act we might know that God desires a life with us beyond this death we deserve. We are justified in our belief in the resurrection because Jesus shed his blood for us so that we might know forever our unbelievable worth to God, that he considers us a treasure worth in exchange of the precious blood of his own dear Son. Through what Jesus has done for us we are welcomed to stand where Jesus stood, welcomed to come and be loved on just as our Heavenly Father has always loved the Son. This is God’s amazing grace. Here in the Father’s love we discover that we have come to be in the safest place for us to be, in his love where we are watched and guarded over because we are treasured by God. Yet, there is more, because Paul does not only speak of God’s amazing grace but he also speaks of the gift that is ours through the favor or welcome of the one we call Jesus. Jesus welcomes us, and he pours out on us the Holy Spirit, the living presence of God’s holy love. The Holy Spirit pours the love of God into our hearts, this love which treasures people, loving people whether they respond with love or if they respond with contempt, loving on those who are so unlike us, loving people as being the very treasures of God. The Holy Spirit is the living presence of love which finds people beyond their certain death and through his love brings them to find life within their Father’s arms. Yes, the transgression of Adam’s death, brought judgment and condemnation, and yes, through this one transgression, death and its power controlled people but this is nothing compared to what Jesus has accomplished on our behalf because instead of death reigning over us we are able to reign in this life we have been given. You see, through Jesus, all of us have been welcomed into the very love of God, the love which the Son of God has always experienced is now ours to enjoy. And through our being welcomed by Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the living presence of the holy love of God has been poured out on us from the wonder of heaven. Now we can be absolutely certain that we are held safe in the arms of the Father and this is how we endure in a world dominated by sin and death. Yet, we do not merely endure because the Holy Spirit fills us to overflowing with the living presence of the holy love of God so that we are moved to go out to treasure the ones who are treasured by the one who treasures us. This holy love of God moves us to go to those suffering in a world dominated by sin and death and by our faith in the resurrection we bring hope of life beyond the most certain of endings. This is what it means for us to be people who reign in life. This is what John is speaking of when in the fifth chapter of his first letter he writes that those who are born of God overcome the world and the victory that overcomes this world is our faith, our faith in the resurrection. It is through the obedience of Jesus, this is how we now have faith in the resurrection from the dead, the overpowering of the very power of death. Sin may have reigned in death but as Paul teaches us it is this grace of God, his favor and welcome of us because he treasures us that we are now held in his love where death no longer has any control over us. God keeps us safe in his love, in his grace, so that the righteousness we claim by faith will now be found in our actions. This is when grace reigns over sin and death. Thus as Paul puts it, by one man’s disobedience the many become people who were firmly set in the ways of sin. The question then was how could those who are so immovable in their sin become people who could be found to be set firmly in righteousness? The answer is that it is the grace of God, his welcome of sinners which he claimed as his treasures, this reaching out in love by the very one the sinful scorned, this is what is able to move those so immovable in their sin.

         So, back and forth, Paul has gone, first speaking to the hell on earth that was unleashed through the transgression of Adam, and then speaking of the intervention of heaven, the welcome and favor of our Heavenly Father and the favor of Jesus who baptizes us in the Holy Spirit. All the law could do under the reign of death is to just bring forth judgment and condemnation. Condemnation as sinners and the certainty of death are what this world has to offer. And it seems as if Paul is asking the members of his church to consider which scenario they are living under when they judge people, condemning them as being nothing more than sinners? Isn’t it rather obvious that in doing so these so called believers in Jesus seem to be under the reign of death instead of reigning in life through the grace of God? It is our faith in the resurrection, this is how we are now declared righteous by God and this means that we believe that God desires a life with us beyond death, beyond judgment and condemnation. It is there beyond our judgment and our condemnation that we believe God in his grace stands with arms wide open welcoming us into his life. Grace, this is the very welcome of God, and if we are welcomed in then how can we not believe that God desires to welcome everyone in. Grace, this is what transforms a world, which is ablaze with the fire of sin and death. Grace, this is what brings forth faith in God’s claim that we are at last righteous in our relationship with him; sin stands defeated. Grace and this gift of righteousness, this is how we reign in life; death no longer has control over us. Grace is our victory. So, why would we want to judge and condemn others when this is the way of the defeated powers of sin and death? Why would we not want to live out the victory of life which reigns over sin and death? Why would we not want to instead live in the power and victory of grace which is ours because we are treasured by God?And God not only treasures us but he treasures all people so why would we not believe that if people knew their incredible worth to God that this would not transform them just as it has transformed us? This is what our faith in the resurrection demands that we believe for this very transformation from death to life awaits the whole world and everyone in it.  When we live out our faith in grace this is when we can say that we reign in life through resurrection power. Yes, sin and death seem oh, so strong but they are merely defeated powers whose reign has passed. Now, God calls us to live as people who know that grace reigns, righteousness reigns, life reigns, and resurrection reigns, for this is the life eternal which is ours in Jesus Christ. Praise be to God. Amen!

         

Abounding Grace

 July 9 2023

Romans 5:6-18

         As many people who have read the Bible find out, there are a lot of really profound nuggets of truth to be found within its pages. All we have to hear is, “God so loved…”, and we know by heart a life changing truth about the love of God because he has given us the most wondrous gift called Jesus. Or we might begin, “The Lord is my shepherd…”, and when we hear these words we remember that we will not want for anything for we have a good shepherd who will lead us to where there are green pastures and he will cause us to rest beside those still waters. These are just two of these small little sayings that are just densely packed with life giving truth. And there are so many more of these little bundles of truth that await being discovered within the pages of scripture. What a joy it is when you come across one of these little sayings that you had never heard and be so amazed at what it speaks to you. I had this experience just this past week as I was reading through the fifth chapter of Romans preparing the message for this Sunday. Now, I am not fluent at all in Greek, the original language of scripture, but Bible Gateway does have the Bible with the Greek and English together which is very interesting. What is fascinating is that those who translated the original Greek sometimes did not translate the Greek word into its normal reading simply because that normal understanding of this word did not fit their version of the story. Sometimes this using of a different reading of a word doesn’t change the overall teaching of Paul but sometimes, as I found this week, this overlooking the normal reading of the Greek words meant that a profound saying was literally lost in translation. What I am referring to is found there in the eighth verse of the fifth chapter of Romans which is normally translated as being, “God shows, or demonstrates, his love for us for while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” The word translated as, “shows”, or “demonstrate”, is actually a Greek word that is always translated as, “standing with”. In other words what Paul was really saying was, “God stands with us, this is his love for us.” That, to me, is a very profound statement. It may be that it was too profound of a statement for translators to stomach, this notion that the almighty God is to be found here standing with us. Yet, I have little doubt that this is exactly what Paul meant because this whole section of his letter to this church at Rome is bracketed off by this idea of standing. As we might remember from what we learned last week from this fifth chapter of Romans, there in the second verse of this chapter, Paul writes that we, “have also obtained access by faith  into this grace in which we stand”. Here grace is described as being a place, an unshakeable space where we can stand, there where the Son of God has always stood, within the very love of God. So, Paul begins this chapter with this image of standing right at the beginning and then in the very middle of this same section he again states rather bluntly, “God stands with us, this is his love for us.” The God of all creation, the God of all power and all knowing, this God loves us and because he loves us the place where our God desires to be standing is right here beside us. Yet, this is not the last time that Paul refers to this task of standing because in the nineteenth verse what Paul writes, “For as the one man’s disobedience the many stood firm as sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will stand firm in righteousness.” So, what is implied is that we not just stand in this grace but that we stand unwavering in our living out of the righteousness God expects of us. And the reason why we become planted firmly upon this grace which leads to righteousness is that, God stands with us. God stands with us, wherever we might find ourselves, at home, at work or school or at the store or at the doctors office, no matter where you or I might stand, there God stands with us, all because he loves us.

         Now, we have to agree that what Paul tells us here, that our God stands with us, is an awesome revelation, it really is good news, but as always when we study scriptures, we must know the context surrounding what we are reading. This good news, that our God stands with us, this is his love for us, this is found right at the center of what appears to be a discussion Paul is having about four types of people that Christ has died for. Paul says that the Messiah died upon the cross, for the spiritually dead people, and also for those people who do not fear God, and, of course, plain old sinners and last but not least, enemies. When you stand back and look at these four groups of people it becomes rather easy to see that these are those people that we would rather not stand with us. We would rather see people such as these on the outside of our little group instead of on the inside with us. I mean we already know that this church determined that those allowed to get a lunch pass were those who had placed their faith in the power of the resurrection because this is the faith which is a faith of the righteous. So, those who are righteous by their faith in the resurrection these are the ones who are allowed in and knowing this, we have to wonder, just who is it that is kept out? Perhaps, it might be that there was a sign over the righteous club house that stated that those who were spiritually weak, those who just can’t get it together by their own power, those who had no fear of God, just plain sinners and of course, enemies-if this is you, keep out! Yes, that sounds kind of harsh, perhaps it would be better to state that we would let in the very opposite of these four kinds of people, so that the sign read: Those who are spiritually with it, those who fear God, saints and friends of God- you all come right on in. You see, it is easy to state who we want in with terms that sound quite legitimate but are in fact quite wrong in what they imply. What is wrong in what was said about who is allowed to come in is that anything was said at all, and I think that this is what Paul was getting at. You see, Jesus did not die for those who had it all together spiritually, he did not hang on the tree just for those who had a healthy fear of God, Jesus did not suffer in agony just for the saints, and he sure did not give his very life just for his friends. Jesus simply could have not died for any of these kinds of people because the truth of the matter is that they never existed. No, Paul says that it was while we, that means all of us, were spiritually dead, when the right time had come and we could do nothing about it,  Jesus, at that right time, died for those who had no fear of God. This one called Jesus died a horrific death, so very different than if he had died for an upright or even, a good person. No, it was while we were sinners, this was when Christ died for us. Through the shedding of his blood, through this tasting of death for all of us, we are justified in saying that Jesus is our sin offering, taking upon himself our judgment, so that in exchange we might receive, mercy. Instead of death, Jesus has offered us, life, a life where we are at last able to stand with God. This is what we believe, this is our resurrection faith, the faith that justifies us as righteous. This resurrection faith is a faith that believes that the power of the resurrection, the power of God’s holy love, this is the power that is greater than the power of death. All those that Paul speaks of that Christ has died for, these were all those held by the power of death. They were the spiritually dead, those who feared death instead of fearing God who gives life, those who had spiritually missed the mark, the way of life and those who stand in opposition to God which is obviously a death sentence. Into these situations where death held sway, Jesus gave his life knowing that the power of the resurrection is greater than the power of death. The power of the resurrection is the power of God’s holy love, which desires to give us the very best no matter what the cost, a love which loves us no matter if we love in return, a love without conditions or limits. This holy love that binds us to our Heavenly Father, who is the well-spring of life, this is the power that sets us free from death.

What we can also say is that resurrection power is the power that brings life back into relationships which have died. The shedding of the blood of Jesus was so that our sins could be forgiven for as we are told in the seventeenth chapter of Leviticus, there is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood. This shedding of blood is the offering of life so a relationship that has died might be brought back to life. The underlying reason for the offering of this life is the belief that life together is better than a life apart. This belief is resurrection faith.

         This resurrection faith is how we are justified in our claim that we are righteous before God, yet this faith is not just some statement uttered before God and the faithful. No, our faith affects how we live because if we say that we believe that life is a greater power than death then we must demonstrate that belief by choosing life instead of death. To choose life is to choose life together because this is the resurrection life that Jesus has given to us. It is the living out of our resurrection faith, allowing our belief in life to affect our relationships, day by day, this helps us to understand why Paul speaks about our justification by the blood, or our reconciliation through the death of God’s Son on one hand, and then speaks about our salvation from the wrath of God, or our salvation through the life of Jesus, on the other. Our justification by faith is the beginning of our salvation journey. This journey begins when we know that the reconciliation God has made possible is our most certain hope. Salvation is the rest of the journey, the day by day, hanging on to our faith and the living out of this faith in our everyday lives.  You see, when we understand that resurrection faith is a faith which seeks life and life together, for this is why God stands with us, then does it not make sense that we, of all people, have to be busy forgiving those we are estranged from? When we forgive the gift that is offered before the relationship can be healed is us, the very gift of our life reaching out to repair a relationship for this is how dead relationships are brought to life. What is interesting is that it is Jesus who is there to keep us from the wrath of God. It is really rather surprising that we even need to worry about the wrath of God, after all we have resurrection faith. Yet, if our resurrection faith does not move us to forgive when forgiveness is needed then we need to hear once again what Jesus taught us to pray, as found in the sixth chapter of Matthew, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Do you see how the forgiveness of God hinges directly upon our own willingness to forgive? As Jesus teaches us in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew, those who refuse to demonstrate mercy as God first forgave their sins out of his great mercy, for these remains nothing but judgment. Another word for judgment is wrath. If we refuse to be merciful, than all that is left for us is judgment because by our actions we have said that we can stand in judgment of others and thus have no need of the mercy of God which is a deadly lie.

         So, we need to remain committed to our faith in the resurrection and Paul tells us that we are saved by him, by our resurrected Jesus. This is the Jesus who was willing to love us with the greatest act of love, the laying down of his very life for us, all in order that Jesus might have a life with us beyond death. Our very faith in the resurrection is found in the fact that Jesus is with us, we stand with God. Paul tells us that it was while we were enemies, when we were those who could just walk away from our broken and dead relationships without a thought, never leading with mercy or reaching out in forgiveness, this is when the Son died for us, all so that we might be reconciled to God. This word, “reconciled”, means, in much simpler terms, to walk together again. Can you see the image, God not only stands with us, he also walks with us, and we walk with him, and as we walk with him, he is teaching us how to walk in his ways, the very ways of life. The life that walks in the ways of God is a life that imitates God, so as God first became reconciled with us so also we must be people of reconciliation. This is what Paul is saying in the eleventh verse of this fifth chapter, where we again must clean up a word that needs a better translation, that word being, “rejoice”. The word translated as being, “rejoice”, is a word that is never translated as such but rather it is a word that means to hold ones head up. It is a word that speaks of honor. Despite the translators best guess, honor does make sense when we think about how those at Rome were overly concerned with who belongs with the righteous and who does not. The way that groups like these try and enforce their beliefs and rules is through shaming those who haven’t made the grade and honoring those who are clearly among the faithful. And Paul, being a good pastor, is not clueless that this is happening and he just takes this idea and uses it to his own end. Paul says that the highest honor is twofold. First, through Jesus our Messiah, we now find ourselves in God, and we are honored that God desires to stand with us. Secondly, through Jesus we can now seize a hold of, lay our hands upon, this act of reconciliation and we are to find honor in doing so. It’s a little wild that Paul is putting our standing with God in the same breath as this act of reconciliation but upon reflection, what he says does make sense. You see, if God honors our efforts to do all we can to walk together again with those we are out of step with, then perhaps we will more readily be willing to do the hard work of forgiveness. This will keep us from the temptation of not wanting to forgive someone for we know that if we withhold mercy this will in turn destroy our relationship with the God who has done all that he can so that he can stand with us. You see every time we forgive someone we are exercising our faith in the resurrection. Forgiveness is our belief that beyond a dead relationship there can indeed be life, so that when we seek to be reconciled with someone right there we can see the miracle of resurrection life springing forth out of our resurrection faith. Thus we also realize that being forgiven through the death of Christ has indeed transformed us. No longer are we spiritually dead because now our resurrection faith has brought forth resurrection life. No longer are we enamored by the power of death for now we are in awe in the life giving power of God and nothing else.  And no longer are we an out of step sinner for now we walk with God. We can say with certainty that no longer are we enemies with God refusing to forgive, for now we believe in the resurrection, in the power of God to bring lives together and we exercise our faith through the offering of forgiveness and reconciliation. This is the life that God honors, and so it is a life that we should honor as well. As God chooses to stand with us, for this is his love for us, we should desire to stand with all people for this is the way they will know our love is real. This is the life God honors because such a life honors the God who loves us. Can you imagine a world where the person who received the highest honor was the very one who was relentless in their seeking of forgiveness, the one who was tireless in their pursuit of reconciliation? It just makes sense that such a life should be honored for such a life is honored by the God who stands with us!. Amen!          

Peace With God

 July 2 2023

Romans 5:1-5

         Good morning! It is always difficult to decide just what should I preach on next because there are just so many great lessons in the Bible. As I thought about it, though, it became quite obvious that the book of Romans seemed to be where I should be this summer because I just recently discovered yet another intriguing commentary on Romans. You see, pretty much every year for the last several years, I have read some kind of commentary on Romans. Last year I shook things up and instead of reading a book I watched a video series on the book of Romans done by the author, N. T. Wright. So its no surprise that once again this year I would go searching for another study on the book of Romans and I found one with the strange title, “Reading Romans Backwards”, by Scot McNight. Doesn’t that title catch your interest?! I mean, who begins reading a book by starting where the ending is? Yet, there appears to be a very good reason why the book of Romans should be started by reading the fourteenth through the sixteenth chapters and that is that here is where Paul is most clearly seen as being a pastor to a church. You see, what is often forgotten when we read the book of Romans is that this really was a letter written by a pastor to a real church, a church that had some real problems. This letter was never written to be a textbook for the history of salvation or a roadmap to help people find eternal life, even though it has been used for those endeavors. No, this was a real letter written to a real church with real problems and if we are a real church we might want to figure out just what problems they did have and what was Paul’s answers to those problems, just in case, you know, our church might some day have problems.

         So, yes, this whole reading of the book of Romans from back to front has changed how I understand just what Paul was writing about here in this letter that he wrote to a little church in Rome. It is there in the last couple of chapters of Romans that we find out the plain truth of the problems plaguing this little church but today, instead of just focusing on their problems, I think maybe we should instead focus on the potential, just what could the church of Christ really be if God had his way. This focusing on what could be and should be in the life of the church, this is what Paul is going to write about before he ever gets to the problems going on in this church in Rome because his hope is that when this church consideres the ideal Paul sets before them they just might be convicted of just how far off the mark they really are.

         The core ideals of who we are as a church that Paul writes about are all contained in a small section right in the center of the book of Romans, the fifth through the eighth chapters. Now, right here, at the beginning of the fifth chapter, we have a term that is usually understood in some abstract way, this, being, “ justified by faith”. We have probably heard about this doctrine or core belief of the church, justification, which states that we are declared righteous through our faith in Jesus Christ. Now, yes, this is a true statement about being justified by faith but to a little church at Rome, to be justified by faith was a statement about who you were willing to eat lunch with. The question that needed answered is just who is it that we should be seen eating with? How can someone justify their claim that they have every right to set their lunch tray down right here at the table of the Jesus followers? The simple answer is faith, all that was necessary to sit and eat in the community of the righteous is faith. Right here, though, we have to all get on the same page as to just what is meant by faith. Well, we don’t have to worry about defining just what is meant by faith because Paul has done that for us, as we find in the fourth chapter of Romans. The faith that God is looking for is that faith that our God is the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence those things that do not exist. In other words, our faith is resurrection faith. Or to put it another way, the power of our resurrecting God is greater than the power of death, this is what we believe with absolute certainty. This is what is meant by faith. 

         So, yes, if you had resurrecting faith because of your resurrected Savior named Jesus, you could come on in and share in table fellowship with those who knew themselves as being declared, righteous. Yet, not only did this faith make possible a persons being counted one of Jesus’ followers, they, more importantly were now counted as having fellowship with God. This is what Paul means when he says that, “…since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. Here again, we have another word with many meanings, this word,”peace”. Here though our understanding of what is here meant by this word, “peace”, hinges on this peace with God being the result of our faith, our resurrection faith. When we know God as being the God who gives life to the dead, when we know that our God has defeated the power of death, this is when we have peace with God. And this peace we have with God is ours through our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who has conquered the power of death, our resurrected and resurrecting king.

         This is great news, isn’t it, that now through resurrection faith we can be at peace with God, yet we are kind of left wondering just what does a life that is at peace with God really look like? I mean, is this life where I and God are at last getting along, is this life going to be one where everything is calm seas and smooth sailing right up until we fly away to glory? Or is this life at peace with God perhaps very different than we might expect? This hint for us to expect the unexpected is found in what Paul writes next after proclaiming that now we have peace with God, because we read a rather odd statement, that through Jesus we have also  “…obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand…”. So, we could say that our faith is our all-access pass into this thing called grace. I think you have to admit, that it is kind of weird how Paul speaks of grace as being a place, as somewhere that we are now able to stand. Yet if you understand that Jesus took our place in death so that we might take his place in life, what Paul is saying grace really is begins to make sense. You see, when we have resurrecting faith then we are forever united with Christ so that where he has stood for all eternity as the Son of God, this is where we now find ourselves, held within the love of God, God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the very same experience Paul speaks of in the second chapter of Ephesians where he writes that, we of all people, we have been seated, with Jesus Christ in the heavenly places. Or as he describes it in the third chapter of Colossians, our life is hidden with Christ in God. Or as John has said of Jesus in the first chapter of his gospel, that Jesus came from the bosom of the Father, and if that is where the Son is found, then we can say that there is where we too are found. So grace is the favor of God who welcomes us into the eternal love which has always been in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

         All of this so far sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Yet, as we stand there where the Son of God has always stood, at the intersection of the Father and the Holy Spirit, we have to figure that our lives will end up being just like the life of Jesus. You see, Jesus, the very Son of God stands between the Father whose will he must do and the Holy Spirit who is the living presence of the holy love of God. It is the Spirit who flows forth from heaven to earth with the boundless, relentless, endless love of God. This is a love called agape, is a love which seeks the very best for someone no matter what the cost, it is a love that loves without expectations, a love which loves and keeps on loving no matter what. This is the love that pulsates through us through the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit. Into this most powerful moment though, comes the pounding words, suffering, endurance, a tested truth, hope, glory. Here are the sign posts for the life of Jesus. We must wonder, why, why must suffering be the headliner for this life? The answer is that all of humanity is suffering. Every person you meet, no matter where you go, is someone who at some point will experience suffering. The love of God is a love living in our hearts through the presence of the Holy Spirit which compels us to go out to the suffering of our world, to come along side of them and take their suffering upon ourselves. This is why we suffer because we are united by our love with a world full of suffering people. The suffering this world experiences comes out of the power of death and we overcome this power through the living presence of God’s holy love that pours out from within us. 

         So, yes, the holy love of God chases us out into the world, and unites us with people right at their point of suffering. The question that we have to be wondering is just how in the world does God expect us to keep on, keeping on, with our loving of this world? This call to get up every morning and carry our cross, you know, that’s hard duty. Crosses are heavy and they seem to get heavier the longer you carry them. To this Paul has a word: endure. Now the word Paul uses for endurance gives us a clue how we can remain faithful in our loving of the world. The word Paul uses is a word that means to abide, or rest under. The image this gives us is running under a roof during a rain storm. You rest under that roof knowing that it will keep you from getting soaking wet. In much the same way, where we must abide is in our Father’s arms. As Jesus was preparing to go to the cross, he tells his disciples, as found in the sixteenth chapter of John, that he is never alone because his Heavenly Father is always with him. Jesus endured the cross because he was held there by the Father. So, as the living presence of the holy love of God binds our life with the suffering of the world so that same love unites our life to the life of our Heavenly Father, the one we can abide under to weather out the storms we are called to endure.

         Paul here is sketching in broad strokes the very life of Jesus. Jesus, the living presence of the holy love of God residing within him, bound himself to our suffering humanity, taking upon himself our curse because the holy love of God would not permit him to do anything else. And Jesus endured the suffering unto death, faithfully loving with his very last breath, praying for the forgiveness of his enemies. Jesus endured because he was held safely in the arms of his Heavenly Father. What was seen in the life of Jesus is the truth, the truth that the power of the holy love of God is greater than the power of death. This is what becomes evident as we love those who suffer in a suffering world and we continue to love without conditions or limits, enduring patiently within the arms of our Heavenly Father. We have a very real need to experience the power of the holy love of God. We need to watch the victory as this holy love of God defeats the fear, the anxiety and the worry which drives people away from God. We have to have a personal knowledge of this power of the holy love of God because this is our only hope. Paul says that we should find our honor in the hope of the glory of God. This glory of God is the victory of the holy love of God over the power of death. This is our hope not because of some doctrine or statement of faith but because we have watched with our own eyes how the holy love of God overcame someone’s fear, or gave peace to counter a person’s anxiety, or watched as faith came alive in a person’s heart. These are just glimmers of a greater glory which one day will flood the earth. This is why this work that God’s love compels us to do is honorable work for this is a work that is always working towards a final victory for all the world.

         At this point we have to step back and consider just what Paul is really doing here, what is he trying to tell us as he is speaking to this church at Rome? I believe that first, Paul, is stating that the ones who are justified in their eating at the table of the righteous are indeed those who have resurrection faith. Yet, this faith has a higher and better purpose than to just serve as a badge of who is righteous and who is not. No, this resurrection faith gives us peace with God. This means that when we believe that our God can defeat the powers of death, we have bound ourselves up with the work that God is up to in our world. This resurrection faith opens the door for us so that we might know that our life is right there where Jesus the Son of God resides, right now, at the intersection of the Father and the Holy Spirit. There the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts, a vast unending current of holy love. This love compels us to go out and unite ourselves with the suffering people of our world, to make this world’s suffering our very own, to bear up that suffering and be willing to suffer ourselves for the sake of the world. This holy love of God also causes us to rest in the arms of our Heavenly Father, to be shielded under his wings, to know that with him is our ultimate security. As we allow the presence of God’s holy love to make alive this love in us, and we experience the power of this love over the power of death, we will know, in our little victories, the truth of the greater glory that is to come, the greater glory which is our only hope. So, yes, resurrection faith does mark us off as being righteous, but being righteous is not really about separating ourselves from the world so we can gather together as righteous people who stand apart from the world and its suffering. No, being righteous, rather than separating ourselves, is really rather about uniting ourselves, uniting ourselves with the suffering of our world, being united with the Father, being united in our hope and united in our glory. So, think about this: Is your faith more about separating yourself so that you see yourself as being one among the righteous or is your faith that which causes you to be united with others in their suffering, and that which moves you to find security in your Father’s arms? Can you really say that your faith in the resurrection is what causes you to be caught up in the righteous work of God, the God who calls us all to come  and experience for ourselves the overcoming of the power of death through the power of his holy love. Amen!