Romans 5:1-5

As I was checking in at the Annual Conference registration table last Wednesday I met up with a colleague who I had just heard was about to be appointed to the church that I served before coming to Moorestown 13 years ago. I said, “Congratulations, I think you’ll do very well there!” And I meant it, he’s a good man, and a good pastor. 

He said, “You know, they still talk about you.”

And I said, “Well, I did have five good years there…” (Now unfortunately, I was at the church for ten!  But the last five were pretty good!) 

That short conversation brought back some powerful old memories for me – some good, and some on the painful side. I had a whopping four years of ministry experience when I was appointed to that church which was, at that time, not only reeling due to the sexual misconduct of the previous pastor, but they had other issues going on as well – issues that I knew nothing about. 

Looking back, I realize that I made some mistakes – more than ‘some’, actually – and if I had known back then a little more of what I know now, I could have probably avoided a lot of problems for myself. But there was one point where things were going so poorly that I seriously considered getting out of ministry altogether. I went one day to what was then Glassboro State College to speak someone about what I needed to do to be certified to teach English, only to discover that even as a full time student I was looking at a minimum of two years; something that was not going to happen with two children to support.

Just to put that into context, when you spend seven years of your life going to school at great expense, and three more years pursuing ordination based on what you were convinced was a calling from God…and then find yourself at a point just 6 – 7 years later where you are questioning it all – your call, your training, your competence – friends, that is a serious low point in life. And it was for me. 

That was, incidentally, the time when Harlan Baxter and I first became friends. He was my District Superintendent at the time, and his was the one voice of authority in my life that consistently said to me, “Steve, you haven’t made a mistake. You’re going to get through this. Someday you are going to look back on this time as a growing experience, and you’ll be thankful for it.” I thought, “That’s nice, but you’re nuts!” Little did either of us know that about six years later we would be working together, and ten years after that I would be here attempting to fill some rather large shoes. 

This all came to my mind for me as I read the epistle reading from this week’s Lectionary.  One of those things that I know now, that Harlan knew back then, something that would have helped me back in those very difficult days, is a better understanding of Romans 5 where Paul says that difficult times in our lives can be used by God for our spiritual growth.  Let’s take a look at this wonderful passage together: 

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.  Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. 

Note the interplay between past, present, and future: 

Past: vs. 1 “We have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. The peace with our God that we presently experience is built on the foundation of the finished work of Jesus Christ. Peace is not something that we have figured out on our own, (we haven’t discovered the way to peace, either – peace is given to us). It is not based on anything we have done, or can do, other than our being willing to receive that gift. It is built on the found of the Cross. It is this past that leads to the present… 

Present:  ²Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand. We – as believers in Christ – now stand in this wonderful place of undeserved privilege. 

To ‘stand in this place’ means that we are the joyful recipients of all the gifts that God lavishes upon us – we are children of God, we are forgiven people. We are people living with the sure confidence that all our sins have been nailed to the Cross! 

We stand in the undeserved privilege of being co-workers with God in the redemption of Creation, i.e., we know that we have work to do that makes an eternal difference. Undeserved privilege! We know – experience - peace with God that passes all understanding. All of this – and, of course, much more – is the present reality of all believers in Christ. Undeserved privilege! (Any “Amens”?) 

OK? As wonderful as this all is, we are not ‘locked into’ the present – in the sense that it is not necessary for us to try and hold on to what we have; it is not up to us to try and maintain this ‘present in which we now stand’. Put it this way – we are not a static people, stuck in some time or experience that we are trying desperately to maintain, or hold onto. We are forward looking people – people who are “moving on”.  There is growth and development that is built into who we are. There is a plan that God is working out in our lives and in the world, and that plan incorporates everything that we experience in this life. Good and bad. So we look forward, no matter what is happening at any given moment. 

Future: As good as this present reality is, the Scriptures are clear in their affirmation that what we are experiencing today isn’t all there is to our faith. So Paul writes: 

… we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. 

So not only does God always have more in store for us, but the future is always better! It is an upward progression that we are on. We confidently and joyfully look forward “to sharing God’s glory”. Do you hear this? I’m not sure my imagination is big enough to grasp what it might mean to ‘share in God’s glory’, but one thing for sure is that I know it is going to be good! And so we look for it with confidence and joy. 

When the present is already pretty good, as we stand together in this place of undeserved privilege, with all those benefits that we just looked at; to (then) confidently affirm that the future is even brighter is saying something quite important. 

We are growing and moving on. That is the natural state of children of God. Let’s sum it up: We stand in a present reality, based on a past work of God in Christ, pressing ahead to a confident future. 

The next paragraph then, addresses a practical issue in relation to that teaching. Specifically, ‘How can Paul say these things, when the reality is that ‘real’ life is not always that great, in fact it is full of problems, and trials, and all sorts of setbacks?” Is he serious? 

The Apostle Paul was someone who had considerable firsthand experience of suffering, persecution and the lot, but nevertheless he tells us that we don’t need to despair when we run into problems in this life. And he says that is because God can and will use these difficult, even painful experiences of our lives toward the purpose of continuing to work out his perfect plan in us… which is to bring us into that shared glory with himself that we now look for - hope for - with joy and confidence. 

Here’s what he writes:

³We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. ⁴And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. ⁵And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. 

What I hear Paul saying in this passage is his affirmation that things that are important in the Kingdom of God are somewhat different than the things that are important in the kingdom of ‘this world’.  He says that we can even rejoice – think about that word! – we rejoice when we run into problems and trials. [Is that your first response when stuff happens?] Back during that time when I was trying to find a way to get out of ministry, that wasn’t my first response, either! 

This needs to be practiced. It needs to be learned. It is not an automatic process. Trials and tribulations can just as easily knock the pegs right out from under us as help us grow. The choice lies in us, and how we decide to respond to them. 

Now why does Paul say this? Because as believers in Christ, we are working in a different economy with a different system of values than the rest of the world. 

To be specific, as Christians we are part of a value system that considers the development of our character to be much more important than our outward well-being. Do you hear that? That means that God will at times allow troubles to come into our lives, because they can be used to mold us into better people. To God, that is worth our temporary suffering. [I still don’t believe that God causes our sufferings, but common sense tells us that he allows it.] So the scripture says that it is through trials that we develop endurance, and through endurance we develops strength of character, which leads us to a greater hope. 

And that hope the Bible says, does not disappoint us – because it is confirmed by the Holy Spirit who is constantly pouring out the love of God into our hearts.  God’s love in our hearts assures us that even in these tough times we have not been abandoned. God hasn’t left us. We are moving on, we are growing. There’s a plan and it is good. 

Once Jesus gathered the disciples together (Matthew 16) and asked them, “Who do people say I am?” What’s the word on the street about me?  And they told him what they knew. “Some say you are a prophet. Some say you are Elijah, or Jeremiah who has come back to life.” 

And he says, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?”

Peter – as usual – was the one who spoke for all of them. “You are the Christ” (the Messiah) he said, “the son of the living God.”  And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.”  (In other words, I have never said this directly”. You received this from the Holy Spirit). 

It says that right after that, Jesus began to explain to them that the Messiah had to go to Jerusalem where he would suffer and die.  And Peter – again, he can’t help himself! – says to him, “Never, Lord!  You will never suffer if I have anything to do with it.”

To which Jesus replies, “Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me!”

So Peter goes from having an incredible insight, the first to say aloud that Jesus was the Messiah, to being called “Satan”. But in between there Jesus has another surprise for him. He gives him a new name. 

“Your name is Simon, but from now on you are Peter [the Greek word for rock was petros]. “You are the rock. On this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell won’t stand against it.” 

It is interesting when you think about it that Peter would be given that name. ‘The Rock’.  He was anything but that up until then – and even after that point. He was one of the disciples who argued all day long about who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 

He was the one who tells Jesus in the Upper Room, “You will never wash my feet.” And when Jesus says that it was necessary for him to do this, Peter then says, “Then wash all of me – do my head and my hands too!”  He just had to say something! I heard someone say this week that Peter only opened his mouth so he could change feet! 

Peter – ‘the Rock’ – was the one, when the time of real testing came, on the night of Jesus’ arrest, who failed miserably. He denied that he even knew Jesus. Three times. Denied with oaths and curses, just as Jesus said he would. 

But back there in Caesarea Philippi, Jesus says, “From now on, I’m going to call you the Rock.”  Now Jesus wasn’t naive. He knew who Peter was. He knew everything that Peter would do (or wouldn’t do) that would embarrass and even shame himself, including, I’m certain, a lot more than the things we read about in the Scripture.  That name – ‘the rock’ – wasn’t based on who he was, it was looking ahead to who he would be, the man he – could –  become. 

In the Upper Room, John records something that Jesus said to Peter. After predicting Peter’s denials, Jesus says, “But when you have turned, strengthen your brothers (Luke 22:32).”  He was saying to him – ‘You are going to mess up, Peter. And you are going to hurt because of it. That is going to be a dark time for you. But you are going to get through it! So be ready to learn from it, and use what you’ve learned by your own failure to help others in the church.’ And Peter did. 

And later on in the Book of Acts we see this man of God become a powerful leader in the early church and a spokesperson persuading people that the Good News was for everyone.  He really did become the rock that Jesus saw in him. 

Not in spite of his troubles and failures – but through them.

And Paul is telling us here, that this is the way that God works. Taking our failures, our pains, our testings… and through them building people of deep character. People with a hope that does not disappoint. 

Max Lucado wrote that the most-sacred symbol in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a tree: a sprawling, shade-bearing, 80-year-old American Elm. Tourists drive from miles around to see her. People pose for pictures around it. Arborists carefully protect it. It appears on posters and letterhead. Other trees, he says, certainly have grown larger, fuller—even greener. But not one is equally cherished. The city treasures the tree not because of its appearance, but its endurance. She endured the Oklahoma City bombing. 

Timothy McVeigh parked his truck only yards from this tree. This evil act killed 168 people, wounded 850, destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, and buried the tree in rubble. No one expected it to survive. No one, in fact, gave any thought to the dusty, branch-stripped stick that it had become. But then she began to bud. 

Sprouts pressed through damaged bark; green leaves pushed away gray soot. Life resurrected from an acre of death. And people noticed. The tree modeled the resilience the victims desired. So they gave the elm a name: the Survivor Tree.[1]

From the rubble of evil, something beautiful and wonderful appeared.

The Scriptures tell us that God does the same thing with the lives of those who trust him, who walk with him in discipleship. People who stand in a present reality, based on a past work of God in Christ, pressing ahead to a confident future.

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[1] Max Lucado, Facing Your Giants (W Publishing Group, 2006), p. 43-44