“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we EXULT in hope of the glory of God, AND NOT ONLY THIS, but we also EXULT in our tribulations…”Romans 5:1-3
The context of this incredible, jaw dropping, how do I
really “get this” truth, should not be overlooked. This letter (my personal favorite) was
written to the Roman Church. We know
that the church at Rome (not begun by Paul) was a church that was renowned
among Christendom. Romans 1:8 “your faith is being proclaimed throughout
the whole world.” Paul longed to go
there “to impart some spiritual gift to you that you may be established.”(Rom.1:11) In the meantime; however, God through Paul
imparted a spiritual gift to all of us through this letter that has often (and
rightly so) been called the constitution of our faith. The letter, I might add that God used to change
one of my favorite spiritual heroes, Martin Luther.
Yes, I digress, sorry.
Ok, so back to the context and interpretation of our verse. Because Paul
did not establish the church in Rome, nor had he been able to even visit Rome
(at the time of his writing), God through him explains all of the particulars
of our faith. Romans 1, God is evident
through the creation and all men are “without excuse”, Romans 2, The Jews are
also “without excuse” in that they teach truth they do not live, and then
Romans 3, so everyone is “without excuse” and we all need Jesus. “For all have sinned and fall short of the
Glory of God.” Romans 4, the chapter of
chapters in the Bible, explaining and liberating all in that Righteousness
comes by faith, by faith Abraham was made righteous. Not by his works. So, I did nothing to deserve God’s salvation
and cannot lose it. A gift is not a
payment. Praise Jesus!
Now to our verse, Romans 5 begins with (in Sarah-speak)
“How cool is it that we (being the worms we all are) actually have peace with
God, and we stand (or live) in this peace.
So, this is something we are naturally so pumped up about that we Can’t
stand it, AND because of that continual amazement, we are able to rejoice in
our trials.
So, our rejoicing in our trials is invariably connected to
our hope in salvation, this link is often overlooked and to our detriment. What does the fact that I am saved, not by
works, and even stay in peace with God, have to do with the fact that:
I am in a terrible financial
fix
My child is undergoing very
painful trials (albeit some by her own making)
Sometimes, I
can’t breathe well… etc, etc,
EVERYTHING! I have
peace with God. He loves me and accepts
me. I cannot lose that. Our lives are like a blade of grass, so does
anything else truly matter? Think about
that for a minute... Think of the big IF
of God not changing a single thing in the trials in your life. Does it matter? Truly? You may say, “does not faith consist of
assurance of things hoped for?” (Hebrews 11:1)
Yes, but are these “things hoped for” necessarily given in this life or
are the things hoped for more eternal in nature? God wrote the Bible and His perspective is always eternal, and does not
line up with ours. Our perspective is unfortunately tainted by the here and
now.
We know from Hebrews 11 that the “hall of famers” of faith
were desiring a better country, a heavenly one (11:16). Many of them died without seeing the awaited
promise of the new covenant (the city they desired) men of whom the world was
not worthy…(11:37) When their earthly
circumstances put them through horrors unimaginable to us (i.e., being sawed in
two, etc). They were still desiring the
heavenly country. You don’t see that
they petitioned God incessantly for a better deal here. This is not our home so why should we be
comfortable?
You see our lessons from scripture should be: NOT to “hang
in there” and then God will give you what you want, which is quite possibly
something earthly and passing away. NO,
our lesson is DESIRE the things of God.
Party, as a way of Life, that you are a partaker in the new covenant and
so able to “stand” in peace with God. We
have received everything worth having and that my friends, cannot be taken
away.
Yes, God wants us to be happy and yes He does answer
prayers with exceeding and abundant blessings; quite often, and always for His
glory. My point is, He has already given
us more than we could ever sincerely be thankful enough for, why not live in
light of what you and I neglect instead of bemoaning the passing away silliness
of this world, which is not our home anyway.
J I am preaching to myself, believe me. ‘
May we all be women “of whom the world is not worthy” and
fix our eyes on Jesus, knowing we are given breath to correctly glorify or show
HIM, with every minute we are given.
Everything else is incidental……
Sarah Beasley
