The Holy Trinity (Confirmation)
Shepherd
of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)
To Stay at Peace, Stay Put
Romans 5:1-5
1 Therefore, since we have
been justified through faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained
access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our
sufferings, because we know that
suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance,
character; and character, hope. 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.
(NIV)
Absolutely sick-to-my-stomach
disgusting. How else could one describe
the news reports that developed this past week from London? The mere mention of this account starts to
make our blood boil. Acts of atrocity
like this actually tend to bring out the worst in us sometimes as well, for we
can’t help but dream up what we feel would be appropriate punishment for the
cleaver-carrying terrorists who violently attacked and murdered another man
without any remorse whatsoever. As far
as we’re concerned, no punishment would be sufficient for such scum. They deserve the worst imaginable.
So if you had the chance,
would you let them off the hook and take their place so that they could be
free? Would you let someone who had it
in himself to hack and carve up another human being get away with it by
enduring their punishment for them? I
strongly doubt any one of us would, and I might have a difficult time believing
anyone who claimed as much. We want to
see them suffer for what they did. We
want to see justice carried out.
You know that it was,
right? In our situation, justice was
carried out. See, we too were standing
there, hands bloodied in sin, unable to hide our guilt, and making no effort to
do so. We committed the despicable, the
unthinkable, the incomprehensible.
Because of that sin we deserved extreme punishment.
But he traded places with us. He substituted himself for us and endured our
punishment so that we could be free.
Jesus did that for you, for me.
Because he did, justice has been served.
Sin was rightfully punished. His
innocence got us off scot-free. We have been declared “not guilty.” That is what it means to say that we have
been justified.
With that thought in mind,
the fifth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans continues. Having firmly established in the preceding
chapters of his letter that a man is justified, “declared not guilty,” only by
faith and not by any obedience to any law, Paul now builds on that
foundation. With the care and detail and
precision with which Paul clarified the teaching of justification, it is no
wonder this central teaching has been called “the string on which all the
pearls of Christian revelation are strung” (F.A. Mayer). In our verses this morning Paul shifts his
focus to pointing out the difference justification makes in the life of a
believer. He writes, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ” (v.1).
He may not admit it, perhaps because he isn’t even aware of
it, but the man without God spends his entire life seeking to scratch an itch
that only God can relieve. Inside he is
restless, always looking for something else, ever searching, but never
satisfying that yearning for something more.
He turns everywhere – stocking up on stuff, climbing the corporate
ladder, giving in to various vices, then overcoming them, improving self,
serving others, and the list goes on.
And certainly some of those endeavors are good and beneficial pursuits,
but when not walking side-by-side with God, they disappoint or fail to fill the
void. The restlessness continues. The peace that passes all understanding is
passing him over. It is as Augustine
said, “our soul was created by God
and exists for God and is therefore
never quiet till it rests in God.”
Doesn’t that phrase “rest in
God” describe what children in our elementary school or Sunday school or
catechism instruction are offered? Isn’t
the purpose behind such an education simply to reinforce to our children that
through Christ Jesus we do have that peace with God? Our souls have found rest, by God’s
grace. Our confirmand, Trevor McDonough,
can confidently move forward in his life with the sure and certain peace that
is his through the life and death of Jesus.
Not only do we have peace through Jesus, but he is also the
one “through
whom we have gained access by faith into this grace
in which we now stand” (v.2a). The peace we have is ongoing, because we have
open access to the grace of God, and are in fact standing in that grace of God
right this very moment. Jesus has given
us access, so that we might see that our peace does not run out, so that we can
live and work and seek and serve all while standing under the umbrella of God’s
grace. We have full and complete access
to it.
How unfortunate if we refused to take advantage of that
access for the rest of our lives!
Imagine staying at a luxury hotel and being told that you have access to
every amenity offered at no charge: room service, any suite of your choice,
complimentary drinks at the lounge, spa treatment or massages, and on and on
and on. However, you choose instead to sleep
on a cot in the laundry room. You had
free access to the best the hotel had to offer, and you didn’t take advantage
of any of it. What a waste!
The sad irony is that we are in such deep need of this access
to God’s grace in part because we so
regularly despise it. God has rolled out the red carpet of his grace for us in
multiple ways, and we respond by rolling our eyes. “Doesn’t God get that I’ve got so much going
on in life that I don’t have time for all this ‘Jesus’ he wants to shove down
my throat? Can’t he just be happy that
I’m in church once in a while or simply that I consider myself a
Christian? Isn’t it enough that I’m a
communicant member at Shepherd of the Hills?”
Such frustrations will naturally arise for the Christian who
refuses to take advantage of the full amenities that the Christian faith
offers, even though he knows he has been justified through faith in Jesus and
is at peace with God. The sad reality is
that it is we – not God – miss out when full advantage of such spiritual
amenities is not taken. Worship is so
that our faith can be fed. The Lord’s
Supper is so that our guilty consciences can be cleansed. Bible study and devotions are so that our
faith can stretch and grow. Prayer is so
that we can pour out our heart and souls with the assurance that the Lord hears
and longs to answer our prayers. All of
these blessings and so many more are included in that access to God’s grace
that we have by faith, and they are blessings by which God intends to enrich
our lives.
Paul goes on to point out what this access to God means for
those who take advantage of it. First, “we boast in the hope of the glory of God”
(v.2b). The old
NIV has “rejoice” where the NIV 2011 has “boast,” which more accurately
reflects the original language. We can
boast confidently because our boasting is based in the Lord. Such boasting is based not on what we’ve
done, but on everything he has done to provide us with sure-fire hope.
Don’t forget to boast.
We spend enough time pointing out the negatives in the church, or
harping on what others aren’t doing. We
spend enough time on the defensive from the world as Christians. But do we spend enough time boasting,
proclaiming, rejoicing, in the hope that we have on a daily basis? From the time we pop out of bed in the
morning until we rest our heads our pillows at night, we only have so much
control over what’s going to happen each day.
Yet, while we don’t know what each day is going to bring, we do know
that we have hope in the Lord. Let’s rejoice
and boast in that hope more often!
There’s more to this access to God and his grace for us
Christians. Secondly, “Not
only so, but we also glory
in our sufferings, because we
know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope” (v.3,4). Trevor, I wish I could tell you that your
life as a Christian means nothing but a smooth, perfectly paved road
ahead. But you know that won’t be the
case. That road is going to be filled
with potholes, and some pretty large ones at that. What’s more, many of those bumps along the
way are going to come not just because “that’s life,” but directly because of
your Christian faith. Your faith will be
tried. Your faith will be tested.
But those sufferings will not change the fact that you are
still at peace with God. And that peace
will enable you to take suffering in stride, and even to welcome it, because
you know that God is working something good in you through it. Successful companies that build enduring
products take the time to test their products before making them available to
the consumer. If it’s a car, they run
crash tests, driving tests, safety tests, etc.
Why? So they can see how it would
stand up to the real thing. As the
product is tested, it can be improved in certain areas in which it didn’t test
so well, so that when the finished product comes out, it’s ready to stand
against anything. It got that way
because it was tested. Ultimately, those
sufferings and tests that you face will teach you perseverance and character,
each preparing you for the next test by also reinforcing the hope you have in
Jesus.
Why is that hope so important? Because it doesn’t disappoint. That may not be able to be said with 100%
assurance of any other “hope” a person can have in this world. But with hope that rests in God, we will not
be put to shame. We will not be made
fools, no matter what the world may think, and that is because you received
this hope not from men, but from God the Holy Spirit. Hope promised by men may be hope never seen
or experienced, but the hope that God brings about through perseverance will
not ever disappoint. One day it will be
fully recognized in heaven, where peace will take center stage.
And until we’re there, he’ll still grant us his peace throughout
our lives. Confirmation day is a special
day. Hard as it might be to believe, it
is actually about more than getting all the examination questions correct. It’s about celebrating that God has sent his
Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our confirmand(s) to be convinced that in Jesus
they have full access to peace with God.
Now if that is the case, and I assure you it is, then Trevor, where else
would you ever wish to be but where the peace is consistently proclaimed – in
God’s Word and his worship? Do you want
to stay at peace? Then stay put. Amen.
“For the freer confidence is
from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ
alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)
