Week 4 - Romans 5:1-11
Romans 5:1-11 (NIV)
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 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. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And 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. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
The Peace of Reconciliation
Have you ever considered that on your very worst day and in your very worst moment, you are still at peace with God through faith in Jesus? No circumstance can remove you from being at peace with the creator of the universe. This is Paul’s message as we move to Romans chapter 5. Peace with God is at the center of our faith, it is our foundation upon which we build our lives. We stand in His grace free to be wholly ourselves, free to image God to the fullest. So why would Paul turn from the subject of peace to the subject of suffering? Don’t those ideas seem contradictory in our lives? Paul teaches us in this section that peace and suffering are not opposing words in the life of a believer. Note that Paul doesn’t say that we have to celebrate our sufferings but glory “in” our sufferings. In other words, during our suffering, we can have perspective to see its value and rest in the fact that our peace with God is never shaken. It’s not denying the fact that suffering is hard. Rather, it’s having a quiet confidence that God is in its midst. God uses suffering in our lives to bring about perseverance, character and hope. He uses it to transform us into the person He’s made us to be; to take us from Christian infancy to a more mature faith. And who is our model for suffering? Our model for resting in God’s peace in the midst of suffering? Jesus Himself, who died for us while we were still sinners. He suffered emotionally, physically and spiritually as He went to the cross for His enemies, as he went to the cross for us! These eleven verses offer so much hope and perspective. We have lasting access to God, we are never removed from being at peace with Him and nothing in this life can shake our security.
Questions
How is having peace with God superior to any circumstance you may face?
How do the ups and downs of life cause you to forget your security in Christ?
How has God used your suffering to produce perseverance, character and hope?