Sunday Morning Musings “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1 ESV) As I have already shared with many of you I have been spending some very serious time recently trying to really understand Pauls epistle to the Romans. Im convinced that this is the MOST IMPORTANT letter ever written in the history of mankind. As far as the Bible goes, Romans is the most theologically rich, complex and complete declaration of exactly what the gospel is. It is, in fact, the theological heart of the New Testament. I could start anywhere really, but I choose this particular verse because of one very important word - “therefore”. As you have probably heard said before, when you find the word “therefore” in the Bible you need to ask what is it there for. Cute, I know, but actually a pretty good statement. The word “therefore” or “ouv” in Greek is a transitional word which implies the completion of a thought or sequence of thought and a transition to an application based on what has just been stated. Kind of like, “because all of this is true . . . then this is the result”. So, in order to appreciate what is being said here, we need to look at what has just proceeded. And that really takes us back to the entire section Pauls argument beginning with Romans 3:21 - “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law . .. the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” Really the key phrase in this section are the two words “BUT NOW”. As I used to be fond of saying (now with Kim K. and friends it takes on a different connotation) what a “BIG BUT”! For other “big but” verses see Romans 5:8 and Ephesians 2:9 to get the idea. So what is the “therefore” and the “but now” referring to? Everything that has gone on before from Romans 3:21 to the end of chapter 4 deals with the doctrine of justification – how God makes a sinner right with Himself completely apart from “the works of the law” or our own spiritual, religious or moral performance. Just look at the repetition of this one key phrase in the first half of chapter 4: (quoted in the NLT) “We are made right with God (justified) by placing our faith in Jesus Christ” (vs. 22) “People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood” (vs. 25)? “He declares sinners to be right in His sight when they believe in Jesus” (vs. 26) “So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.” (vs. 28) “He makes people right with Himself only by faith” (vs. 29) Do you see a pattern here? Do you think Paul was trying to make a point? Being an excellent teacher, Paul understood the importance of repetition. This is a truth God was wanting to pound into the heads of these performance based Jewish Christians. The ONLY way to be made right with God, the only way to have any relationship with Him whatsoever was the new way He provided by offering His son, Jesus, to take our place in punishment and death and to pay the price we could never pay in order that we who come to Him in simple childlike trust may receive not only complete forgiveness and pardon for all of our sins, but in addition, we may then receive from Him the gift of His righteousness. This is an AMAZING MIND BLOWING TRUTH! In exchange for our sin, guilt and shame God gives us the very righteousness of His perfect son. Jesus dies the death He never deserved to die in order to pay for sins He never committed so that we now may receive the righteousness we could never attain and thus enter into perfect fellowship with His Father AS IF WE HAD NEVER EVEN SINNED. 2 Corinthians probably says this as well as anywhere in the Bible: “He became sin for us in order that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21) This is indeed GOOD NEWS! This is the gospel, the truth that sets the captive free. Hallelujah! Well, I can see and hear myself preaching right now, really. I would probably say to you, “Thats the introduction to my message” because, honestly, thats not even what I was planning to write about. Thats just explaining what the “therefore” is about. Funny, how that still happens to me even when I am just writing about grace. It just overflows and spills out. I think thats the nature of grace – it really cant be contained. Not in a sermon, not in an online blog post like this and, most importantly, its not supposed to be contained in our lives. Once we have really tasted of the mercy and grace of the goodness of the unconditional love of Abba God, we cannot help but “gush” with grace. I like that – we become “Grace Gushers”. New phrase, thank you, Lord. Back to the text. “Since we have been justified” or as some versions have it, “having been justified”. This is really quite significant here. The Greek verb for “justified” is in what is called the aorist tense, a verb tense unique to the Greek language which conveys the meaning of a once and for all time event or action which continues to have ongoing consequences or results. It happened once in the past and yet it continues to have an ongoing effect. A good translation of the word would be something like, Having been once and for all time justified (made right with God) you are now continuing to be made right with God. “We have peace with God” There is a fascinating controversy amongst Bible translators regarding the correct rendering here. Most all modern translations say something like “we have peace with God” or “having peace with God” or something akin to that, while, in fact, the most ancient and reliable early manuscripts actually have this in a different tense which, when properly translated says. “let us now have peace with God.” If you look in the footnotes of some of your better Bibles you will see this notated. So what do we make of this? How do we resolve this controversy? Is Paul making a theological statement, “We have peace with God” or is he giving an exhortation, “Let us have peace with God”? As I said the most reliable manuscripts clearly argue for the latter. But why would Paul exhort the saints to have or to get something that he just spent 35 verses (the “therefore”) telling them was already theirs by faith? Arent you glad I asked? I think Weymouths translation comes closest to resolving this. “Let us enjoy peace with God”. In other words, “Let us enter into experientially and enjoy the reality of that peace we now already have on the basis of what God has done for us once and for all in Christ!” Or to put it a little differently, “Since we now already have peace with God positionally and legally, let us fully enjoy and experience and let us enter into the reality of that which is already positionally true for us.” As one translator, Elliot, puts it, “Let us enter into and possess” the peace we now have with God. This ties in perfectly with something I share a week ago about the role and ministry of the Holy Spirit in making real to us those things which are in Christ. I wrote: “One of my very favorite passages about the ministry of the Holy Spirit is found in John 16:12-15: I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. The word translated here guide is the same word used to describe the activity of what we would consider today to be a travel guide. Someone who will go with you somewhere you have never been before and show you things you had never before seen. It is literally to take you by the hand and lead you into unknown territory, all the while explaining to you along the way the meaning of that which you are now experiencing. What an awesome picture of the ministry of the Holy Spirit as He takes us deeper and deeper into the Person of Jesus and reveals to our hearts things we had never known before. I believe this is what Paul is praying for in Ephesians 1:17-23 when He asks the Father to give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. He prays that the eyes of your heart may be flooded with light, i. e., the light of revelation knowledge. Back in John 16, Jesus says about the role of the Holy Spirit, He will bring glory to me by taking from WHAT IS MINE AND MAKING IT KNOWN TO YOU. The Holy Spirits primary ministry is to take the things of Jesus and make them known to us. As A. W. Tozer says in his classic devotional, The Pursuit of God, the Holy Spirits role is to take the things of the Bible and make them real to us in personal spiritual experience. To make that which is scripturally true now experientially real. He never adds anything new to the Biblical revelation of God - He just transfers it to us in spiritual reality and experience. He is the Holy Translator.” In beginning to close (smiley face here), let me talk for a moment about that “PEACE with God” In the context of Romans 5:1 the peace Paul speaks of is “that state of reconciliatioin with God with all that blissful sense of composure and harmony which flows from such a condition”. As one commentator put it, it is “the spiritual legacy bequethed by Jesus to His disciples” “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.” (John 14:27) “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.” (John 16:33) This is the same word used by Jesus “with deep significance after His miracles of healing attended with forgiveness.” Listen to what He says to the woman with the issue of blood who pressed through the crowd to touch the hem of His garment. “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in PEACE, and be healed of your disease.” (Mark 5:34) And to the “sinful” woman who wept at Jesus feet while annointing him with precious spikenard oil He said, “Your faith has saved you: go in PEACE.” (Luke 7:50) A final word here: this peace of which we speak is not simply an emotional feeling, or the situational peace we experience when all our circumstances are working out in our favor. This is “peace with God”. Essentially, what this is saying is that we are no longer at war with God and He is not at war with us. We have been “RECONCILED” to God through the death and blood shedding of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no longer enmity between us and God. Folks, what this means is GOD IS NOT PISSED OFF AT YOU, OK? He loves us. We are His friends, His children, His Bride, His beloved. He longs to show us how deeply He cherishes us and wants to bless us. Oh, that the Holy Spirit would tear away the cataracts of our minds that we might truly see and behold the magnitude of His love for us. In Jesus powerful name. AMEN ! ************************************************************************* I think that was the message for this our first official gathering of the tribe of Misfit Ragamuffins. I am very glad you are here with me in this new exciting journey of discovering, or for some of us, rediscovering the amazing wonder of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. So . . . lets talk about it. What do you think of Gods grace and mercy to you?
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:54:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015