PEACE: how can we find rest in a stressful world?
ROMANS: Peace – how can we find rest in a stressful world?
(ASD 8 and 10am – 03rd Aug. Romans – a letter that makes sense of life by Andrew Ollerton- pgs. 79-101)
Several weeks ago, we began a new series working through the book of Romans – if you’ve missed these opening weeks can I encourage you to take one of these leaflets – it will introduce you to Romans. You may also want to purchase one of these books - this will help you to explore in more depth as we travel through.
We have now also included, on our website, the sermons from the last few weeks, so you can read through them again, or catch up with any you may have missed.
Almighty God, may my spoken words, be faithful to your written word, and lead us the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord and King. Amen
Romans 5 begins with ‘therefore’ - when we read this in Paul’s letters, we have to ask what is it there for? Invariably, Paul uses ‘therefore’ as a place to change pace, reflect and take on board the journey so far.
And it has been quite an adventure, we moved through 4 weighty chapters, covered a lot of ground, we’ve been brutally honest about the mess of our own lives, the sin that surrounds us, and the sin that invades our own hearts and minds. We’ve acknowledged our inability to rescue ourselves and so we’ve faced the crux of salvation – the good news – that Jesus Christ came to bring us the free gift of righteousness with God – healing, hope and salvation.
Recently Chris and I marked 25 years of marriage. Now you could imagine some asking ‘but how do you know you are married – how can you be sure?
My response might be to point to my wedding band – or to my marriage certificate. Both bear witness to our marriage ceremony – a time where Chris and I entered a covenantal relationship with binding vows made before God and many witnesses. So, these are objective facts – but if that were the only proof – we might be concerned. Chris and I communicate our love to each other in all sorts of different ways on a daily basis. It is a subjective experience that flows out of objective fact. And both together bear witness to a deep and profound reality.
And in a similar way, our relationship with God is built on objective facts and lived experiences.
Now, at times, I think it’s fair to say we sometimes doubt God’s love? Sometimes we feel a failure, and that self-condemnation leaves us questioning how God feels about us. Other times we feel we need to prove ourselves or earn forgiveness.
Well Romans 5 - which remember begins with therefore is conveying our assurance…
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God.”
The shock here is the certainty with which Paul speaks... he uses the past tense. We’ve already been justified.
To religious ears, justification is an end-time verdict that belongs in the future and its often based on performance. But here Paul is clear, you and me, we have been justified in and through Christ – it is a free gift. Christ took our guilt and shame to the cross so that we could be declared righteous simply by faith.
Through faith in Christ, God declares his acceptance of us upfront and confers a new status on us – we are righteous in God’s sight and deeply loved by him. The moment we repent, and trust in Christ, we are secure in the love of God.
In a stressful and strained world, with many demands and many pressures, we need to hear these words and find assurance. We are justified through faith in Christ and so we can know peace with God.
In our frantic world, this idea of peace is appealing. We need to know that we are right with our maker. In verses 9-10 Paul gives the basis for such a confidence:
“Since we have been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved form God’s wrath through Him! 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.”
Jesus is the true peacemaker – for all humanity. Jesus’ blood established a permanent peace treaty between God and us.
Sometimes, we think this peace treaty is fragile – that if we slip up, the fun is over – that God will turn against us. But if we are in Christ, God’s love is a permanent state – we have been put right, welcomed into God’s family, so God will no more turn against us that against his only begotten son, Jesus.
So, God, when he looks at us, doesn’t frown or feel disappointment, but rather smiles with great joy. And this is true whether we feel it or not, because it isn’t based on our moods or feelings, or on our behaviour, but a formal declaration, signed in the blood of Jesus. This is a solid foundation for living in peace.
There is no greater person who could love you and rejoice over you, than the one who already does… Almighty God has declared peace with us forever -so we need not fear.
The second objective fact we need to reflect on is that through Christ we have gained access by faith into God’s grace in which we now stand.
Back in 2018 I was invited, with a guest to visit the Queen at Buckingham Palace for a garden party. I was so excited, I would be brought near, gain access to our late Queen. And sure enough, on the day, after checks and security, you are ushered in through the gates, through the palace, and out into her back yard! I longed for an opportunity when she might draw near, stop, maybe even talk to me. As it turned out, I wasn’t on her list that day, she passed by, we saw her at a distance, and grabbed a quick photo, by I must confess I came home with a sense of disappointment.
Unlike the Old Testament pilgrims, we don’t have to travel to a special building, offer animal sacrifices, or watch other priests entering on our behalf. Rather through the blood of Jesus, we can come straight to God. We have the keys; we don’t need to pass security. We can enter freely and receive grace on a daily basis.
So don’t let guilt or shame keep you away – we have access to God’s presence. In verse 8, Paul says,
“but God demonstrates his love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
In real time and space, God sent a part of himself, his only begotten son, to demonstrate is passion for us. In love, a deep agape love, a love that bleed and died, to save those who had nothing to offer him, no way to impress him. Nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Through a single event in history, God has defined his love for eternity.
God’s love is visceral and bloody. It is etched on time and space. On a rocky outcrop called Golgotha, outside the city walls of Jerusalem, the Son of God was brutally crucified. Why? Christ died for us because God loves us.
Romans 5 invites us to sit down and rest at the foot of the cross. For here, we find God demonstrated his love for us. Here the prince of glory died for us. Take a moment to pause and reflect. Rest your tired legs and weary soul awhile. Take in the extraordinary view of God’s agape love.
As we do so, I’m going to put up five phrases on our screen… each taken from Romans 5. Where it is underlined, insert your own name… let’s use these statements to declare God’s love over and in our lives and make these objective facts personal.
So a few more minutes charting two more truths.
We are often dependent upon feelings, faith and facts. If facts take the lead, he can show faith the way, and feelings will follow on behind. But if faith starts worrying about how feelings is doing, and looks anxiously behind, faith will start to wobble and fall of the path. Faith must keep their eyes on the facts.
According to Paul, we have been justified, we have peace with God, we have access to God, Christ died for us, God demonstrates his love for us. All facts!
Three times in Romans 5 Paul references to a lived experience of God’s love, crying out, ‘we rejoice!’
Faith that neglects the facts becomes sentimental, but the opposite danger is that our faith remains theoretical, a dry, sterile set of beliefs and religious exercises. If God’s love does not travel form our heads to our hearts, other passions, relationships and interests will quickly become more appealing. Like a marriage relationship, mere duty and formality are never enough. True Christianity should also stir our emotions and desires.
Verses 3-4 say, “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that the suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces hope.“
Being a Christian does not mean avoiding bad times, or times of suffering and pain. If we haven’t grasped the truth of God’s love, when something bad happens, we start to question everything at a deeper level. What have I done wrong? Why is God angry? Doesn’t he love me anymore? These doubts add a layer of depression on to what was already a tough set of circumstances.
But, if we can keep our eyes on the facts, even in the storms, we can remain hopeful. In fact, our hearts may rejoice in God’s love and experience his peace more profoundly because of the trials.
Our final truth reminds us, that we experience God’s love by the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5 says, “Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts, through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
In this beautiful verse, Paul refers to an intimate moment of God’s love through the Holy Spirit. Though he uses the past tense in verse 5, this experience is available to us on an ongoing basis. God’s love does not fluctuate or change, but our emotions do. Like a balloon, our hearts can become deflated. But equally they can expand to new compacities and take in more of God’s love.
For Paul, the love of God is a historic event, and a present experience. The Holy Spirit allows us to personally experience the very love of Christ when he died on the cross all those years ago. The depth and quality of God’s agape love has not changed since then. His heart is still whit-hot with passion for us. It is the regular ministry of the Holy Spirit to help us know it and feel it for ourselves.
Tom Wright says this:
“As a result of being justified by faith, we are surrounded by God’s love and generosity, invited to breathe it like native air – this is what human existence ought to be like and it is so big, so massive, so unimaginably beautiful and powerful, that we almost burst as think of it.”
I can remember first experiencing God’s love in a profoundly personal way… as a young girl. All my life I’d been raised in a Christian home – I knew the facts – but one night I remember praying God fill me with you love, fill me with your Spirit – make this alive for me – and in the most amazing way, a warm sensation came over me, an assurance rushed into me… and it was the words of this song that suddenly took a new meaning…
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine;
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Saviour all the day long.
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Saviour all the day long.
So, let me bring us into land…
There is so much on offer: freedom from sin, the promise of eternal life, relationship with God our maker, an experience of his love, peace that sustains us, and hope in the midst of trials.
These are facts and these are lived experiences. This is head knowledge, and it is heart knowledge.
And so, if you’re hear with us today and you never made that commitment to follow Jesus, can I encourage you to do so......
Or perhaps you’re here today knowing your head knowledge needs to become a lived experience too - and so we’re going to spend a few minutes now by asking God’s Spirit to fill us afresh with God’s love. In a few minutes of quiet, can I encourage you to breathe deeply, ask the Holy Spirit to fill you afresh.
Holy Spirit, bless us, fill us, lead us, guide us, that we might be assured of your amazing love and know your peace in all things. Amen