Much More Surely

Sunday, June 3rd 2007
Trinity Sunday
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Romans 5: 1-11

1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

It’s the word ‘Therefore’ that we need to stop on for just a moment. It clues us into the fact that what is to follow is tied to what has been said earlier. It’s no different here with Paul. In broad strokes, the overriding theme of his letter to the Christians in Rome was regarding justification and salvation of a fallen people in the face of a God who is Holy. So we’re jumping into the middle of an argument here. Just wanted to remind you of that up front.

This is one of those passages that begs to be broken down into its component phrases and sentences and thoughts and ideas. Some Biblical scholars and theologians will argue that Paul was primarily a ‘systematic’ theologian – who sat down and, through the study of scripture and by the leading of the Holy Spirit, sort of ‘mapped out’ the ideas of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They will point primarily to the epistle to the Romans because it, more than any of the other epistles lays out in a clear, rational, one-thought-leads-to-another way what Paul’s understanding of the Gospel was. This approach is seen as a ‘Top-down’ theology, where an abstract issue is presented, discussed, argued and the conclusion drawn seemingly apart from what might or might not be happening in the life of that community of faith. Especially since Paul had never been to Rome at the time he wrote the letter.

Other Scholars and theologians will argue that Paul was primarily a ‘task theologian’, evidenced by most if not all of his other epistles – notably the letters to the church in Corinth, Galatia, Thessalonica and Ephesus. In each of THOSE epistles Paul addresses specific issues that have come up in the lives of each of those congregations, and so is engaged in theological reflection prompted by the situations and circumstances being faced by those Christians in those churches. It could almost be called a ‘grass roots’ theology, originating in the concrete, everyday lives of the congregations rather than from what you might call an ivory tower of pure thought – even though that ivory tower may well have been a prison cell in Ephesus.

I would suggest to you that Paul and for that matter, any other Christian who finds him or herself pondering issues of faith, whether independently or not of what they are living through in their life at that moment is BOTH a systematic theologian AND a task theologian. The determining factor is time – how much time do we have available to us to dedicate to reflection on a particular theme or idea? If we have a lot of time, we become systematic theologians. If we don’t have a lot of time before the next thing comes up, we tend to be task theologians.

We are rational beings – for the most part – after all, and we almost instinctively try to find a pattern if there is one present in things. We look for patterns in rocks and call them strata; we look for patterns in the stars and call them orbits; we look for patterns in sounds and call it speech. We look for patterns in fabric and call it plaid (just kidding!). There is something to the predictability of a pattern that gives us reassurance. It is in the knowing what comes next that we find some strength and security.

So is it any wonder that we would WANT to find and understand the rational sequence of meaning within the Gospel in order to be able to understand and expect what comes next? There is more than enough on this planet, much less this universe, that we DON’T understand to make us shudder and fall back onto that which we DO grasp and DO understand and ARE able to predict.

But, lets step back a minute and recap what the Gospel’s central claim is: God in Christ died on the Cross and rose from the dead, and through that – the paying of the price – death – for OUR sins, offered US a way to salvation – in other words – made a way for us – and anyone who would claim that offer – to eternally remain in communion with God God’s self, what Paul calls “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”

So, while there IS an internal – and Eternal cohesion to the gospel, we need to acknowledge that from the get-go there is a break with what the world would consider a predictable order. As we’ve said before, the concept of resurrection, while integral to our understanding of faith as well as some other faiths, is not something that fits into the everyday existence we would observe with our physical eyes.

So here we are, in the middle of Paul’s argument about being justified by faith – and he’s getting to the bit about suffering. And he goes through this striking litany

… suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

We’ve talked about suffering before. While it is not something we WISH for ourselves or anyone else, we recognize that it is part of what defines our existence. We are not exempt from it by virtue of having faith in Christ, and we are no more or less likely to avoid it BY holding that faith, yet it is THROUGH this suffering – whatever form it takes – that Paul is speaking of. Notice that he doesn’t specify the suffering. Although in HIS particular case there is a fair level of certainty that he was speaking of the suffering and persecution he had experienced on his missionary journeys – don’t forget, he was probably writing this letter from prison, awaiting transport to Rome for an audience with Caesar himself.

The way Paul constructs his argument is beautiful and powerful at the same time. He goes on to say,

6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die.

I think I’ve shared this with you before; in college, Joe Trafton, my professor of New Testament, spoke of the single most compelling reason to believe the Gospel – and that was the witness of the Apostles. They were the ones who would be in a position to confirm or deny the reports of Jesus’ resurrection, and they all went to their deaths proclaiming a risen Lord. This statement ties in with that this way: people will die for something they believe in, but they WON’T die for something they KNOW to be a lie. The Apostles would have KNOWN if the resurrection accounts had been lies. And none of them recanted. None of them said ‘stop the bus, I’m getting off. It was all a spoof. We wanted to see how far it would go.’ They all lived the rest of their TRANFORMED lives proclaiming that Christ had risen indeed.

Paul then goes into the final stage of THIS part of his argument:

8But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

It’s a foundational statement. A definitive statement – in other words – a statement that ends up defining something. In this case, the nature of God and how God feels toward humanity. It sets a precedent in terms of what we can expect from God.

So he sets that groundwork and comes to this point:

9Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.

It’s an interesting phrase, isn’t it, “Much more surely”? We would probably say ‘Even more so’ in today’s language – Paul is trying to make a clear point even more emphatic – not only in using the phrase, but in using it twice in as many sentences.

He’s building on the argument he’s presented so far – BECAUSE we’ve been justified – saved – by his (Christ’s) blood – we will NOT bear God’s wrath (or separation from God), because if God gave God’s self for us and reconciled our relationship while we were APART, how much MORE will God’s salvation be effective if we are living in GOD GOD’S self (Through Christ)!

And we come to the conclusion of the passage:

11But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

Paul is saying that the only ground we have to stand on is the offering and the gift and the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Period.

It comes with suffering, it comes with endurance, it builds character, and yes, it infuses us with hope. And that is central to the Gospel, because hope speaks of the promise we have in Christ Jesus. It speaks of the assurance of presence with us, regardless. It speaks of the power of the Holy Spirit to guide and comfort, strengthen and uphold us in our times of sorrow and our times of laughter. It speaks of communion and fellowship, found in many different ways in many different places, but always with the same spirit.

Salvation doesn’t depend on what we have done or left undone. It doesn’t depend on how we are feeling on a given day. It doesn’t depend on whether or not we followed the letter of the law or the spirit of the law. It depends on God in Christ, and understanding THAT is what frees us up to proclaim a risen Lord in the face of a world that would try to deny a reality that goes against ‘the system’, that goes to the heart of what ‘the task’ God was about the business of completing in reconciling the world to God’s self.

Let’s pray.