Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Romans 5:1-5
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  June 16, 2019

There’s an old saying that goes, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!” That saying has never been truer in our age of scams and quick fixes. You can hardly believe anyone anymore with all of these promises of massive weight loss or quick financial gain. Everywhere you turn there’s someone else sending up a smokescreen of wonderful promises when their intention is to get their hands on your personal information. It’s sad, really sad. And perhaps the worst part of it is that it has turned us into a bunch of skeptics.

That skepticism lingers. It becomes part of our worldview and unfortunately it carries over into the life of the church. Our society has, for good reason, bought into the “these no such thing as a free lunch,” or “if it sounds too good to be true, it is,” philosophy. So when the Bible says that salvation is free, that God has done everything for us and given everything to us, and all that he asks is that we believe this is true, our world is naturally skeptical. And maybe we are too? What a wonderful opportunity we have today to root out that skepticism! Today, as we ponder anew the mystery of the Trinity, we will see what role each person–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–has played in our salvation. We will see, despite the world’s skepticism, Our Triune God Has Given Us Everything!

The doctrine of the Trinity is what we call an “Article of Faith.” It’s something that we simply believe, even if we can’t rationally understand it, because we find it clearly in God’s Word. How God can be three distinct persons in one God is truly beyond our comprehension. Yet, that’s exactly what the Bible tells us. Similarly in Romans 5, Paul tells us something that is equally hard to comprehend. He says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we also have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” Where do you stand in your relationship with God? Are you in God’s favor? Are you worthy of God’s anger? Do you love God or are you afraid of him? Ultimately, those are questions all of us have to face. And by nature, we would not be able to answer any of them positively. By nature we are worthy of God’s anger because we haven’t done what he’s commanded us to do.  By nature, we are afraid of God because of the punishment he promises for those who break his commands. And all of us realize this. And if we were somehow to forget, our consciences are there to remind us. We know deep down that there is nothing good in us and we have nothing to offer God.

And so, it’s very hard to believe what Paul says in verse 1 of chapter 5. How can we have peace with God when we’ve done nothing to change it? How can we have access to grace, how can we stand in the state of grace without contributing something? It sounds too good to be true! It all comes down to that word, “justified.” Just before our verses, back in chapter 4, Paul explains how Jesus has died for the sins of the whole world. The whole world has been justified, declared “not guilty” for the sake of Jesus. Here in chapter 5, Paul is making that truth personal for each one of us.  “Therefore, since we have been justified…” Imagine yourself sitting in the courtroom of God’s justice, and you’re the defendant. You’re on trial. All the facts have been laid out. Every single sin that you’ve ever committed, even the sins that no one else knows about, have been laid before the judge. But your lawyer says he has evidence to the contrary. He says that all of your sins are inadmissible as evidence because they’ve already been paid for. There’s no double jeopardy here! Jesus paid for those sins! The judge has reached his verdict. He declares you not guilty of all charges! You are innocent and free! That’s justification! It’s God’s declaration to us about us. We just sit there and listen. If we don’t believe what the judge says, does that change the fact that we are declared not guilty? Of course not! But if we believe it, how much richer our lives are because we can live in the peace and freedom of innocence. And that’s exactly what God has done for us! He’s given us peace in the declaration of our innocence.

That peace comes only through faith because of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we also have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice confidently on the basis of our hope for the glory of God.” How did ic come to be that we can be called innocent? It’s because of Jesus. It’s because Jesus willingly took our place under God’s Law and kept it flawlessly. It’s because Jesus took his innocence and offered it to God as the payment for the sins of the whole world. We are innocent because God accepted Jesus’ perfect sacrifice! And Jesus rose from the dead proving that our sins have been removed forever. This is what gives us confidence! This is what allows us to answer the questions completely differently. Are we in God’s favor? Because of Jesus and his redeeming work, yes we are! Are we afraid of God? No, because we stand in God’s undeserved love! Everything that we need to be in a right relationship with God, Jesus has provided by his life, death and resurrection.

And yet there’s more! The Holy Spirit also plays a role in giving us everything! “And hope will not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us.” What a beautiful picture Paul paints here in verse 5. The Holy Spirit is working through Word and Sacrament to give us God’s love. You can even visualize it, can’t you? The word that Paul uses here is the same word that is used to describe the pouring of water. And immediately we think of the Holy Spirit’s work in Baptism. Through the power of the Word, with the pouring of water– the love of God, a not-guilty verdict, access to the Father–are poured into our hearts. And then the Holy Spirit follows that love and makes his dwelling in our hearts and enables us and assists us in godly living. Everything that we need–a change in status, access to God, power for living, our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has given us!

What a blessing it is to know, to comprehend, to embrace that God has given us everything! Because we need it. We need it to be able to endure what this sinful world is going to dish out. Listen to what Paul says, “And we rejoice confidently on the basis of our hope for the glory of God. Not only this, but we also rejoice confidently in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces patient endurance, and patient endurance produces tested character, and tested character produces hope.” Paul says that we can rejoice, very literally we can boast in two different things: hope for the glory of God and in our sufferings. How is this possible? How can something that causes us to suffer be something to boast about? Think about Paul’s life for a moment. Paul was familiar with suffering. Paul endured countless suffering for the sake of the Gospel. Yet, no matter where he writes, his message about suffering is consistent. Why? Why can Paul rejoice in suffering. Jesus said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, because my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will be glad to boast all the more in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may shelter me. That is why I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For whenever I am weak, then am I strong.”

The meaning of that word suffering is really pressure. There are many things that pressure us as Christians. It can be as simple as maintaining our faith in a world that hates us. It could be as complex as trying to remain true to God’s Word in the face of subtle, but deadly error. It could be pressures from society, from family, even from our own sinful nature. But whatever pressure there may be, whatever suffering we may face, we have God’s promise that it will ultimately be good for us. Very much like gold has to be put under pressure by fire in order to remove the impurities, so also the Christian is improved by facing pressure and suffering. Notice the progression. Suffering produces patient endurance We are able to hold up under the pressure, not because our our great faith or effort, but because of what God has given us. That patient endurance produces tested character. As times get tough, Christians turn to Christ and stand on God’s Word of promise and their faith grows stronger. We’ve been tried and tested. Sufferings have come and gone, and by God’s grace, we’ve remained steadfast. In fact, after each suffering we’ve come out of it with a stronger, tested character. And that character produces hope. The entire process slowly but surely strengthens our grip on God’s promises. It makes us hang on tighter when there seems to be nothing and no reason to believe. Ernest Hemingway once said: “The world breaks everyone, and afterwards many are stronger in the broken places.” That’s exactly true as God leads us to endure. The school of faith teaches us to trust God to solve our problems. The graduate school of faith teaches us to trust God even when he choose not to solve our problems.

Regardless of the outcome, God’s love sees us through it all.  “And hope will not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us.” If our hope was only wishful thinking, saying, “It will be alright, it always is…” That wouldn’t be much to go on. But we have so much more than wishful thinking. We have the love of God poured into our hearts.

It’s a troubled world we live in. We’re not fooled into thinking that just because we come to church that everything is going to roll smoothly in your life. We could argue that life would be easier if we didn’t have problems and troubles. But that’s not the kind of world our Father has given us. Likewise, God has never promised that all of our troubles will be solved in this lifetime. What he has promised is that he will make us hold on to him more tightly. We’ll learn that we need him more than we thought we used to, and we’ll learn he’s closer than we once imagined. We will know his love! In every aspect of our lives, our Triune God has given us everything, for now and eternity. May we turn to him again and again! You can believe me, it’s not too good to be true! Amen