Faith = peace, grace, and joy

November 4, 2021 (Thursday)

 

I don’t know about you, but for the past few years I have felt unsettled. It’s not fear, just the kind of feeling when you feel when you lose your balance. It is the moment when I realize something has to change or I will fall. Let’s face it, it’s not 2019 anymore. You remember that year, when we believed the world could continue without interruption? Now I am left wondering if things will ever stabilize.

 

Here is some good news for you. While the world is currently burning itself down, God extends to us spiritual peace. Let’s crack open one of my favorite themes in Scripture, starting in Romans 5:1. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” [ESV] The word “justified” (in the Greek) is a legal word that means God considers us as if we had never sinned. This is due to Jesus.

 

Following this justification, we are confident that we have peace with God (the Father)! There is no wishful thinking about it. On top of this peace, we are given “grace.” Paul continues, “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” [Romans 5:2 ESV] For those paying attention to the last few lessons: we have faith (alone), Christ (alone), grace (alone), and the glory of God (alone). We stand on the grace God has given us. The bottom line, so to speak, is we now rejoice.

 

Please understand, the meaning of the word “hope” has shifted, in faith. In English when we use the work “hope” we mean “wishful thinking.” It is like saying, I hope there will be ice cream for desert Saturday, when we do not know for certain. In the Greek there is no uncertainty in the word. Now that our sins are forgiven (justified), we stand in grace before God and can rejoice. All that has been done for us, to us, and in us brings glory to God.

 

Yet, Paul is realist. Turning his attention to life, Paul offers encouragement, “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings…” [Romans 5:3a ESV] Does that sound like mental illness? How or why does one rejoice in sufferings? The key is to look past today and understand that what we suffer today produces something useful tomorrow. But what? Paul weighs the gains against the sufferings, “…knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” [Romans 5:3b – 4 ESV] What we gain is endurance, character, and hope.

 

There’s that word again, “hope.” People gain toughness under stressful circumstances, that’s endurance. A less popular, yet good translation of the word, is “patience.” We are patient only when we are tried. When we have gone through difficult things, it can produce either bitterness or character. Experience, or how we interpret experience, colors how we look at the next test, encounter, or expectation.

 

If God has worked in the past, we should be encouraged to trust that He will work now and tomorrow. This character is gained through experience. On the other hand, there are those who grow bitter due to the suffering they face. There are those who are not happy unless they are bitter. The thought of giving up bitterness is like a fish thinking about living without water: terrifying.

 

Saved (justified) we are free. Standing in grace we rejoice. Suffering we grow. “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” [Philippians 3:10 NIV]