Peace and Hope
Romans 5:1-11
Key verse 5:1
Good morning. Last week we learned when we believe God who delivered his son Jesus over to death and raised him from the dead, God credits our faith as righteousness in his eyes. In today’s passage, Apostle Paul explains how our life will change when we become righteous before God. There are three big blessings in our life: peace with God, new attitude toward sufferings, and confidence in God’s love.
- Peace with God
The first blessing in our life when we are justified by faith is that we have peace with God. Let us read verse 1. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,“ When we are justified through faith, we have peace with God. This means in the past, we did not have peace with God. In fact, verse 9 says we were under God’s wrath. Verse 10 says we were God’s enemies. Enemies hate each other. They are ignorant each other. When was I the enemy of God? When I hate him? In Romans 1, it says people knew God but they did not glorify him nor gave thanks to him. People also knew God’s righteous decrees but they not only continue to do so, but also they approve those who practice them. Before I believed God, I was not interested in God at all. I think I did not hate him either. But I remember now whenever I heard a word “God” or “Jesus”, without any reason, I was very allergic against such words and even I felt some kind of rebellious spirit in my heart against God. In a movie, when some people curse something, they said “J—-“.
Not only this but also in Genesis 3, Adam was afraid of God when he heard God was walking. When he committee sins, he felt guilt and shame that he felt very burdened with the presence of God in front him. So he hid himself.
When people do not have peace with God, who suffers most? It is not God but us. Adam suffered most. We suffer most. The Bible says there will be wrath, anger, trouble, and distress for those who reject God. Nevertheless, people are so stubborn. They do not want to come to God. However, God was different. God was compassionate on us. He did not want us to have enemy relationship with him. He did not want us to have fear in front of him. He wanted us to have peach with him. So he sent his son Jesus as sacrifice of atonement. God forgave us from our sins. He took away our burden of sins, guilt, shame, and condemnation. As little kids are running to their parents without any fear “daddy”, “mom”, when we are justified by faith, God allowed us to come to him in peace.
When we hear a word “God” or “Jesus”, we are not afraid of him anymore. Rather when we hear of God, we feel secure, safe, so close to him. Instead of running away from him, we become thankful, grateful. Like little kids, we are running to him and say “Abba, Father”.
Jesus had peace with God in his life. At the last supper, Jesus said “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27) As you know, on the night, he was arrested and was crucified next day. If I were him, I might be filled with sorrow and worries. But Jesus had peace and he even wanted to share his peace with his anxious disciples. Do you have peace with God these days? We often think that peace has something to do with our situations. In general, we think when things are going well, we feel peaceful. When things are not going well, we have troubles in heart. However, keep in mind that true peace comes from God. Especially it comes from our relationship with God.
Once again, verse 9 says we were under God’s wrath. Verse 10 says we were God’s enemies. But through the blood of Jesus, when we believe God, God reconciled us to him. Let us read verses 9 and 10. “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” Reconcile means “restore friendly relationship”. In Genesis 3, after committing sins, the beautiful friendly relationship between him and God was broken. God could let him be punished as he deserved. But God knew Adam could not come to him. He knew he did not want to come to him. So God humbled himself and visited Adam, saying “Adam, where are you?” God tried to reconciled to him. In John’s gospel, Peter disowned Jesus three times. Because of what he did, even he heard Jesus was risen, he could not come to Jesus. Jesus knew him that he visited Peter first. Saying “do you love me?”, Jesus fixed their broken relationship. Peter was once again reconciled to Jesus. Then, finally Peter had peace with God. He was not afraid of God anymore. He did not hide himself anymore.
These days, some people have trouble in making good relationship with others. How can we have good or peaceful relationship with others? The root of troubled relationship began from Genesis 3. When Adam and Eve did have peace with God, they began to blame each other. This shows when we do not have peace relationship with others, we need to check if I have peach with Gods or not. When we have peace with God, we can solve many problems in relationship issues.
There is a move called “Christmas truce”. This is a true story during WW 1. France, German, and Scottish solders fought against each other as their enemies. On the Christmas Eve, a soldier began to sing a song, then a solder in the Scottish armies blew the pipe. Eventually the three chief army officers agreed peace on the Christmas Eve and on Christmas day, they even gathered, played soccer, and exchanged gifts. Jesus brought peace between God and sinners. He brought peace even among enemies.
When we have peace with him, we are not afraid to access him. Let us read verse 2. “through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And weboast in the hope of the glory of God.” In the past, people did not come to God. Or even if they wanted to come to God, it was very limited. In the OT, at the temple, only priests and men were able to stand inside the temple. Women and foreigners were outside the temple. Even the high priest was allowed to enter the most holy place once per year. But through Jesus, we have gained access to God in anytime and anyplace. Ephesians 3:12 says “Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.” Now we can access to God. The door opens for us 24/7. God is ready to welcome us. We are confident that he does not reject us. Then, we begin to boast in the glory of God. We boast in the name of God. I am a child of God! God is my heavenly father! What a blessed life it is!
- Hope in our sufferings
Second big blessing after being justified by faith is that God changed our attitude toward sufferings. Can we read verses 3 and 4? “Not only so, but wealso glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Here sufferings are sufferings we face as we live a life of following Jesus. Either believers or non-believers all have their own general sufferings. People get up early to study, to go to work. Mom and Dad have their own sufferings to take care of family or their children. But here sufferings do not mean such suffering, but it is more about sufferings when we follow Jesus. In Paul’s time, living as Christians in Rome was not easy. People looked down on Christians. It was anti-Christians society. In order to live a Christian, some people had to risk your career or your life. In fact, the Bible says, 2 Timothy 3:12 says “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” But through Apostle Paul, God encouraged them that their sufferings did not end in suffering itself. But it produces perseverance, character, and hope. In other words, usually we pray for no sufferings in our life but God does not remove sufferings but God let us suffer because it is a benefit for us in the end. So through sufferings, people learn endurance or patience. Also sufferings transforms our character too. Through being justified by faith, we become the children of God. However, only our status was changed. Our used to be slave mentality was not changed at all. I have mentioned a book “prince and pauper” several times, in the book, Tom was a beggar on street. One day he became a prince temporarily. But his mentality and behavior was the same as before even if he put on the clothes of prince. Likewise, even if we are saved, in God’s sight, we need discipline to grow as God’s godly people. Hebrew 12:8 says “If you are not disciplined–and everyone undergoes discipline–then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.” How does God discipline us? Through sufferings in our life. Also sufferings produce our hope in Jesus. In the past, our hope was me, success in this world. But through sufferings, God opened our eyes to see what is truly meaningful in our life: put our hope in our Lord Jesus.
I grew up youngest in my family. Usually youngest has free spirit and less patience. Then after coming to America, I suffered a lot in computer science study, job, and visa issue. I desperately prayed for God’s help. But God was not quick to solve my problems. He helped me step by step. Looking back now, I think he was more interested in transforming me as God’s children rather than getting me out of troubles in my life. I can see those sufferings were painful but it turned out to be good to me. God changed my attitude toward sufferings.
In a sense, God has used the Pandemic to train us to grow as God’s people and put our hope in him. As we have seen the power of COVID 19, God has humbled us, taught us patience, transformed our character, and changed our hope from this word to God. Thought worldly people consider Coronavirus as bad luck, to us the Pandemic is God’s tool for our good in his hands.
John has suffered for the work of God in DE. He could have stayed in MD. If he would stay there, he could live a comfortable life. But to support his parents, he moved to DE. He has been lonely and could not play with his friends much outside. But through sufferings, God has blessed him to be patient, to change his character as godly character and put his hope in God day by day.
- Confidence in God’s love
When we go through sufferings, on our head knowledge, we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope. However, in our heart, we are discouraged and even sometimes we doubt about the love of God. If God really loves me, why am I in the troubles? I must have been something wrong. Or God does not love me. But that is not true. Let us read verse 5? “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” God poured out his love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
Then, when did God love us? When we love him and obey him? No. Can we read verses 6 – 8? “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God loved us when we did not deserve his love. When we were still under the power of sin, Jesus died for us. We were under the power of sin because we committed sins. So it was our responsibility to pay for our sins. But God knew we were powerless. So he sent his son Jesus to pay for our sins on the cross. He died when we were sinners. At that time, we did not love him. We did not glorify him nor thanked him. We were his enemies. We did not seek him. But our of his love, our of his compassion, God demonstrated his love to us through Jesus: it says while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. His love has nothing to do us. His love is unconditional. Some people think when things are going well, that is the sign of God’s love. And when things are not going well, they doubt God’s love. That is not true: regardless of our circumstances, God loves us. Romans 8:35 says “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? “
In conclusion, we just learned the five benefits when we are justified by faith in God’s sight. We have peace with God, hope in our sufferings, confidence in God’s love. Thank God! I pray we may continue to our hope in God.