Romans 5:1-5 ... Peace through the pain.

What if I told you you could have peace, not just for the thing you’re going through right now but for the span of your life.  If that interests you, you should check this episode out!

Paul talks about the kind of peace that doesn’t take away life’s difficulties and chaos but it gives us an entirely different way to go through them. 

Transcript

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What if I told you you could have true peace? Not just to get through the hard thing you're facing right now, but to have peace throughout the span of your life. If that interests you, keep on listening. And on that happy note, welcome to Meet Me in the Word. I am genuinely glad that you have joined in with us today. We're in Romans chapter 5, verses 1 through 5. So you can go ahead and open up your copy of God's Word so you can follow along. Or if you would prefer to just listen, that is totally okay. You can go ahead and do that as well. By the way, if you're appreciating this podcast, share it with a friend. I'd appreciate it, and I bet they would too. We're going to dive into this text, but first let's pray. Jesus, thank you that you are with us in all kinds of situations. God, chaotic and peaceful. And yet, Lord, we just recognize that even when we go through the storm, you're there with us. And that can bring us just an incredible sense of assuredness, Lord, just knowing that you're here with us. God, with that said, we believe that you're here with us now. So would you lead us? We ask this in your name. Amen. All right. Just before we start into this, I'm going to just invite you to listen prayerfully and intently as we read the text. Sometimes the Lord will just highlight something for you as we're going through, whether that's a phrase, a word, and whatever that might be, just pay attention to that. Not trying to make things weird at all here, but I just believe that the Holy Spirit does speak to us and we should pay attention to that. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 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. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into or poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Let's just take a moment now to be quiet and listen, and then we'll continue with some observation. You can pause this if you'd like. Alright, let's jump into this. And this is one of those passages that actually lays out pretty, you know, chronologically or linearly. Yeah, you know what I'm trying to say here. So we're going to start with verses one and two, then move into three and four, kind of as two couplets, and then finish with verse five. It's as though we're going in order. Amazing. All right. So this first bit is really about peace with God through faith in Jesus. And I don't mean to oversimplify it at all, but but there's this sense like, wow, like we get to have this peace, this peace that I was referring to at the beginning, but beginning to like flesh that out and understand it in a way that can really change us in a in a profound kind of a way, right? We've been justified through faith. It's not really something that we've done. We've just simply believed God. And I think that's why uh Paul has referenced Abraham along the way. And if you're following along in our conversation in Genesis, uh which happens on Wednesday, uh, you'll hear a lot of that kind of uh conversation as well. But we have this peace through God, through our Lord Jesus, and then we've gained access uh into this grace that he talks about, access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. In other words, this peace that we're experiencing comes to us simply by believing, and and it's just this gracious, kind act that God does for us. And I noticed, you know, for me, like that whole, like what words kind of pop to you a little bit, the word stand with this in this grace in which we now stand, and I did just a just a light little dive on that word, and it actually includes this idea that that we can abide, like we're standing in it, like we're abiding, we're remaining in this grace. In other words, our position has changed. Not just our circumstance, not just where we happen to find ourselves, but the place from which we do life has shifted, right? All of a sudden, we're not operating from a place of fear or condemnation or judgment. All of that has been replaced by this peace that comes to us, this connection that we now have with God. And it's not just about connection, although that is certainly part of it. It is about this reality that there is no longer this barrier between us and God. There's no longer, what's that word, enmity, right? Which is a fun one to say. There's no there's no tension there between us anymore. Why? Because Jesus has made that way for us. So we stand in this grace. Doesn't that change perspective for you? It does for me. And he goes on to talk about this idea that we we we boast in the hope of the glory of God there at the end of a verse 2, boasting, you know, not for self, but just celebrating, right? Celebrating the goodness of God. Again, this understanding can completely change your day. Think about it this way. Instead of fighting against your creator, you're aligned with him. Instead of resisting your healer, you receive his goodness and you walk in wholeness. Instead of the chaos and storms of this world tossing you around, you get to hold steady through the storm. The storms will come. There's no doubt about it. Adversity will come. This isn't a promise of nothing ever happening in your life. This is a promise that Jesus is with us and he supplies peace. We get to stand in that place or abide in that place. Let's go on to verses three and four. So from that relationship of peace, the narrative, even around suffering, changes. And we see that progression. It's a very Paul-like thing to do where he he names them off, right? He goes, uh, we glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope, right? So suffering to perseverance to character to hope. All of these things happen and they can be something that shapes us and changes us. Right? Instead of that hard feeling when we're going through something like it's the big deal, we can see it as a pretty big deal. It's not like it's not a big deal, but it's not the end. It's not the ultimate. It's not even the penultimate or the thing right before the end. We can now hold it as something God uses in the development of our character and maturity. And the perspective shifts. We're going through something difficult or challenging, something that we maybe didn't ask for, right? It's like that old adage, I guess, you you prayed for patience, and now that's being tested, and we kind of chuckle at that a little bit. But that's that's a real thing. We might be going through a a health crisis or a a marriage crisis or something connected with your family or your career. And and you're just kind of battling through it, trying to make sense of the world around you. But when we when we start from that place of like, you know what? I am connected and aligned with Jesus. I I have placed my faith in him. And because of that, he sees me differently and I see him differently, and and I get to have this peace as I go through the difficult and challenging thing. And sometimes it takes us a while to let that truly sink in. But when we do, when we allow that truth to settle deep into our bones, then then it really does shift the way that we view life from that perspective. And then finally, verse five, I just want us to appreciate that our hope in God is not futile, right? 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. It's not the false hope that frustrates and disappoints. And he even kind of gives us a reason to believe that to be true. He gives us evidence. How can we be certain that this affection for God, or this um this hope that we have in God, I'm not sure why I said affection there, uh, why our hope in God isn't futile. Uh, and it and he says, Well, God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. And again, I did kind of a not a super deep dive, but a light dive into the word there for poured. And and as you read uh that definition, I was like, oh, this is this is actually quite cool. So it's to pour forth, and then it figuratively to to bestow, it says to gush, right? To pour out, to run greedily out. I love that phraseology, right? To run greedily out. You can imagine it just kind of spewing out in that sense, or even metaphorically to bestow or to distribute largely. So when you think about that idea that God's love has been poured out into our hearts, it's not a trickle, right? It's not, it's not just kind of dripping in, right, like your coffee maker does. It's gushing. It's the fire hose version of God's love, and it comes to us through the Holy Spirit. You know, sometimes I I know that it can be a challenge for us to go like, okay, well, I don't feel that all the time. And sometimes it's true, you're just in a season where where your emotions don't maybe resonate with the truth that is that is present. But I want to encourage you in that, if if we believe that this is true and the Holy Spirit is in us, just keep asking the Lord to soften you up and that you would be receptive to everything that He has for us. Because we never need to be afraid of what God wants to pour into our lives. It will always be something that that changes us and brings about a better relationship with him, which is uh it's the best way to live. I want to reflect just on two sort of you know, if-then ideas, right? So if I have peace with God, then I can be at peace with myself. Does that make sense? If I have peace with God, then I really can be at peace with myself. And I know that some of you out there, you're tough on yourselves. Like you kind of beat yourself up about stuff that's happening in your life, mistakes that you make, but but if you're okay with God, shouldn't that translate into your relationship with yourself, how you view your view yourself? And yeah, you're gonna keep making mistakes, that's part of the deal. But you don't need to uh to condemn yourself. You can sit in that place where because of God you can be okay with yourself as well. And then secondly, if I have peace with God, then I can face today and tomorrow, and whatever those days happen to bring. And if the world just, you know, turns itself on its head and splits apart, we're we're we're gonna be okay in the sense that God's with us and we're at peace with him. So whatever happens, we can live with the certainty of God's presence in our lives. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for all that you do in us and through us. God, I want to pray for all of us who are just wanting a little bit more of that peace that actually changes us. God, pour it all out on us. Pour out your love on us and lead us in uh just having a great day moving forward. Thank you. Amen.