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!