Romans 5:1-11
This post is a condensed recap of two sermons from this text. I’ll post the audio from the first sermon once Posterous fixes the glitch. I won’t post the audio from the second sermon because it was a train wreck.
The big idea is this: Christians can rejoice in suffering because they know God loves them.
Christians have peace with God (verse 1) and the grace of God (verse 2). This means that God is no longer against us (peace). But more than that, God is now for us (grace), actively working for our good in all things. He is not against us, nor is he neutral. At work, if your boss is against you, that’s bad. If he’s neutral toward you, that’s fine. But if he’s aggressively for you, that’s great! And that’s what we have in Jesus.
And it is in this grace that Christians stand and rejoice, heads held high, even in suffering (verse 3). That word translated suffering carries the idea of pressure. It includes any experience of pressure, from the worst suffering in Sudan to the mildest suffering of a stressed out middle schooler heading into class.
Suffering is a part of life, even Christian life (look at Paul’s trouble in 2 Corinthians 11). The hope we have as Christians is not that we’ll avoid suffering or somehow not feel it. Christianity is not anesthetic, it’s surgery. And suffering is often the scalpel.
And what is the result of Christian suffering? Endurance, which produces character, which produces hope (verses 3-4). The most hopeful among us are those with the truest character. The people of true character among us are those who have been trained to endure. And the most enduring among us are those who have suffered.
Therefore, in our suffering, we must not frantically search for escape, but press through the suffering toward the endurance, and through the endurance toward the character, and through the character toward the hope we have in God through Jesus; standing, heads high, on the grace of God.
And this hope does not put us to shame, like so many of the release valves do (think of the drunk dad, making a fool of himself). It does not put us to shame because we can be sure our God loves us (verse 5).
How can we be so sure? Because he didn’t send Jesus to die for our rescue on our best day. He came for us with full knowledge of our worst (verses 6-11).
Believe in Jesus. Follow him. Receive justification through faith in him. And stand tall in God’s grace through him. Even during suffering. Especially during suffering.
