If you have a Bible to hand or if you would take one of the church Bibles, turn with me please to Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. If you’re using a church Bible, that’s on page 942.
Our teaching theme this year across our ministries is “Grace and Glory – The Power and Prospect of the Christian Life.” “Grace and Glory – The Power and the Prospect of the Christian Life.” We have a challenging year ahead of us and we need to be clear about where the resources are to be found to help fuel our lives of obedience and service and so we need to think carefully about grace – grace’s fuel for service and obedience in difficult days. But we need to be just as clear about our final destiny so that we can live now in the light of the world to come. So grace, but also glory – the power and the prospect of the Christian life.
To help us think about those two themes and how they relate together, I want to direct your attention particularly to Romans 5 verse 2. “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” You see there immediately, I hope, the two parts of our theme. “We have access into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” So those are the two points that I want us to think about this morning for a few minutes. We need to live in the grip of grace and we need to live in hope of glory. Live in the grip of grace and live in hope of glory.
Before we think about both of those, let’s pray together and then we’ll read the context in Romans chapter 5 and then we’ll consider those two themes. Let’s pray.
Our Father, we come to You and we come confessing how urgently, desperately we need You. We need forgiveness for our sin. We need grace for our weakness. We need grace for fellowship with You. We need grace to direct all our steps, to strengthen all our endeavors, to empower all our service and ministry. And as we bow before You then feeling bankrupt, we can be professionals for sure, we have gifts, we can rely upon our experience and our know-how, and in the end be exhausted and filled with either regret for how short we’ve fallen from our goals or pride at what our hands have done and how great a job we did. We don’t want either of those extremes. Instead, as we bow before You, we pray that You would come and take new hold of us. Take a fresh grip upon us and fill us with Your grace so that we can truly live for Your glory. For we ask it all in Jesus’ name, amen.
Let’s read Romans 5:1-8. This is God’s Word:
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Amen.
Live in the Grip of Grace
Let’s think first of all about living in the grip of grace. Live in the grip of grace. Look at verse 2 again. “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” Think about that. Paul speaks about grace there almost like it’s a place, like a room or a country even. We have obtained access into this realm called “grace.” Previously we were on the outside, but now we have access into this grace.
My family and I recently flew across the Atlantic to visit our families in the United Kingdom. And if you have had to fly at all recently you will know that it is becoming an increasingly miserable experience. And so this time we decided to pay – significantly more, I might say – and make sure we had access to the airport lounges. The Virgin Atlantic lounge in London-Heathrow Airport is particularly lovely and made all the more lovely by the delays and the cancellations and the jetlag we had to endure. It made the whole ordeal a lot less burdensome, certainly. While we were in line waiting to get into the lounge, I overheard someone being told, “Sorry, sir, you’re not allowed in here. You don’t have the right kind of ticket,” or maybe they did not possess the correct membership and they were turned away and they looked stricken, and we felt rather smug as we walked past into the lounge.
But Paul is saying, “You need the right ticket to gain access to a world of grace.” And what is the ticket he says that opens the door into grace for us? He says it is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. “Through Him we have obtained access by faithinto this grace in which we stand.” Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course that’s the only way it could be if you think about it or else grace wouldn’t be grace any more. Right? We don’t work for grace. We do not merit grace. Grace is not payment for services rendered. Grace, by definition, is free; you receive it and you receive it by faith in Jesus. Faith is the empty hand that takes hold of the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
Now let’s be honest enough to confess how much we struggle to believe that and live it out every day – that grace is really free. We want to deserve things, don’t we? We want to earn it, truth be told. Sometimes, maybe deep down, we even feel secretly entitled. It’s part of why we struggle with suffering so much when it comes. We believe, even though we know better in our heads, deep down we believe we still feel like we deserve better than this. We have prayed, after all. We’ve served. We’ve been faithful Christians. We’ve kept our part of the bargain, so now God has to keep His. That’s often how we operate, I think, but that is not how the Christian life really works. You do not serve God in order to compel from Him your share of earned blessing. You trust Christ who gives you access to grace for free. And grace is what then in turn fuels obedience and service and a life devoted to God.
Here, I think, is part of the great tragedy for many of us in our Christian lives. Paul says – you’ll notice in the text – he says we stand in this grace. If we are really Christians at all, he’s saying, we live in a land called “Grace.” That’s our real home. We stand there. It is our permanent residence. And yet somehow, we often seem to forget it and live as if we are still outside in the airport terminal trying to make the best of things in our own strength. Part of what we’re going to need this year – what you’re going to need, teachers, today; staff at First Pres, what you’re going to need for the rest of today; staff at Twin Lakes, forget conference season and parents and children coming here. You need it already. You need it right now! Part of what we are going to need this year for all the ministry to which God is calling us in church and school and camp, what we’re going to need is to realize where we really stand, where we really live, the oxygen we are really breathing in, where we’re really planted – not out in the world left to our own inadequate strength. We live today, as we trust in Jesus, in the land, in the world of “Grace.” We have access through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ into this grace in which we stand. Grace is our home, our new natural habitat; grace is the air we breathe.
What is grace? Well, we talk about it. What are we talking about? Grace – here’s a definition – Grace is the goodness and kindness of God that marshals all the resources of divine, omnipotence for our eternal welfare, lavished upon us in union with Jesus Christ and received by faith alone. That’s what grace is. And I dare say, many of us have stopped wondering at grace. But it is wonderful, isn’t it? Think about that. The goodness and kindness of God that marshals all the resources of divine, omnipotent strength and power, lavished upon us for our eternal welfare in union with Jesus Christ and received by you for free, with the empty hand of real faith. That is wonderful!
Everything you need, everything you need to fulfill your calling is available for you here in the Lord Jesus Christ. You’re not going to make it this year if all you’ve got is professionalism and a winning smile. You need grace. You won’t be able to stand firm against the attacks of the evil one if all you’ve got are your own strategies and best techniques. You need grace. You will not grow in likeness to Jesus if all you come to the year ahead with is mere religion wedded to Southern charm. You need grace. And grace, grace Paul says, is what you have been given. “Through Jesus we have obtained access into this grace in which we stand.” You have access to the lounge. What are you doing poking around in the terminal when you could be resting in the comfort of His grace? You have access to grace. Make use of the grace you have been given. You don’t need to tough it out. You certainly must not rely upon yourself. Look to Him. Trust in Him. Depend on Him. He will give you the grace that you need.
Oh, and by the way, don’t expect there to be some sort of “zap” moment when that grace is downloaded and you suddenly feel all tingly. That’s not how grace works. Grace works in the moment that you need it. And you often don’t recognize it’s been given until you pass through the challenge and look back and say, “How ever did I make it? That was extraordinary. I never thought I would be able to do that, say that, stand firm in that crisis, endure that burden, serve through all of those pressures, and yet grace sustained and carried me through.” That’s how grace works. Live in the grip of grace. You really can trust the Lord Jesus to hold you and keep you and use you for His great glory.
Live in Hope of Glory
Which brings me to the second point – we need to live in the hope of glory. Look again at verse 2. “Through Him we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Two things to get in place before we go any further. First of all, hope. “We rejoice in hope.” Hope there is not a mere wish; it’s not a possibility. “I hope the first day back at school goes well, but I’m not sure.” “I hope the start of our new ministry calendar here at the church will meet with enthusiasm in the congregation, but you never know.” “I hope the conference season at Twin Lakes this year will be better than the COVID years, but anything’s possible.” That’s how we use the word “hope.” It’s an aspiration, but it’s not something we have any real confidence in.
But that is not at all how the Christian hope is spoken about in the New Testament. When the Bible speaks about the Christian’s hope, it is referring to the settled assurance of a guaranteed destiny. It is the settled assurance of a guaranteed destiny. There is no ambiguity, no uncertainty, no possibility of a different outcome. Though we may not always feel sure, the hope of the Christian is utterly sure.
The second thing to say is that our hope isn’t really just the hope of glory. What is it? Look at the text. It is “the hope of the glory of God.” Our hope isn’t just that we, one day, will be glorious when we get to heaven. Our hope is not that we will be transformed and we will be finally at rest and we will be free of sin and we will be so much better. Those things are true, as far as they go, but that’s not the Christian hope. The Christian hope does not terminate on self. Our hope is that we will see the full blazing wonder of the glory of God, shining in all the radiance of His majesty in the face of Jesus Christ, exalted and reigning over all. That’s our hope. And it’s as we see His majesty on that great final day that we will be transformed at last into the perfect mirror image of our glorious Redeemer. The center of gravity, the focal point of all our attention, the one thing upon which every eye is fixed in heaven – every angel, every redeemed believer, everyone in heaven is fixed on this one focal point not on themselves; they’re not holding up a mirror, you know, strutting and preening and basking in how glorious they appear. Their eyes are fixed on the majesty of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
You remember Samuel Rutherford’s lines in “The Sands of Time Are Sinking” – “The bride eyes not her garment, but on her dear bridegroom’s face. I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of grace. Not at the crown He giveth, but on His pierced hands. The Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel’s land!” Our hope is to see Him, to be near Him, to be with Him, and to shine with the reflection of His majesty. That’s what Paul says we are hoping for. And that prospect, he says, when it really gets ahold of your heart, he says it makes Christians rejoice. “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Joy, bubbling up as you meditate and long for the wonder that is promised to us. “Oh, but I don’t rejoice. I’m stressed out. I’m weary. I’m frustrated. I’m scared. I’m tired. I’m sad. I’m distracted. Where do I get this joy from, Paul, this rejoicing? You tell me that we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, but I look at my heart and I don’t see it. Where do I get this rejoicing from?”
Well he tells us in verses 3 to 5 if you look there real quick. Not only that, he says, but we rejoice in our sufferings. If that’s all Paul had said, we would be forced to dismiss him as twisted and perverse, wouldn’t we? People who rejoice in suffering need to get back on their medication. They need help. That’s not right! We’re not meant to be happy about pain! But that’s actually not what he says. He doesn’t say, “We’re happy that we’re suffering.” Look at what he says. “We rejoice in our sufferings knowing something. We rejoice in our sufferings knowing something.” It’s not suffering, per se. It’s knowing something about suffering that makes all the difference, that causes suffering ultimately to be productive of joy. And so what is the knowledge, what is it that Christians can see about suffering that nobody else can see that changes our whole attitude toward it? Look at the text. “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” This hope that Paul has been saying generates such joy.
You see the difference a Christian perspective makes? First of all, Paul says Christians know suffering as productive. That’s what he says in the text, isn’t it? “We rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces…” Suffering is productive. So when suffering comes this year, and it will, it will, so buckle up and get ready – somehow, some way, some kind of suffering will come your way – and when it does, you need to remember in God’s economy it has been sent to you to be productive. Not empty, not aimless, not pointless, not random, not purposeless. Your sufferings are designed to be productive in your life and through you in the lives of others.
Secondly, Paul says Christians know that suffering that is productive is productive of hope, ultimately. That’s the opposite of what we tend to think and what the world teaches us to think about suffering, isn’t it? Suffering is the enemy of hope. Suffering eclipses hope. Suffering snuffs hope out. But God intends the suffering of a Christian to make our hope stronger and brighter than ever. How does that work? Look at the text. “Suffering produces endurance, endurance character, and character hope.” Hope, stronger than ever, brighter than ever, more tenacious, clinging to Christ than ever – that’s God’s goal in your life. He wants you to have such a grip on your final destiny that it fills your heart with joy knowing that that is where you are bound.
You know, when we made our plans and booked our tickets to fly home, knowing that’s where we were going, even though it was months and months away, filled me with excitement and longing and joy and expectation. “I get to go home!” That’s what Paul says that’s where joy comes from for the Christian – knowing that one day you get to go home and longing to be there and knowing that you will certainly soon arrive there. And he says, Paul says God is going to deploy suffering to help that hope become stronger and brighter than ever by developing the muscle of endurance which will produce deep character within you, that learns to value less the world and the comforts of this world and long more for a world to come. Suffering is God systematically cutting the strings that hold you here and prepares you for the world that is yet ahead of you. Suffering is designed to make you say, “Everything you see is fleeting. Stop loving it quite so much.” This is not ultimate. Do not make it ultimate in your dreams and aspirations, in your longings and in your priorities. Long for the world to come and live here in such a way that you are as ready as you can be for the great day when you arrive over there.
And third, Paul says that the hope suffering produces, we can be sure that’s not an empty pipe dream. It is a certainty and we can be sure of it because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. So you see what he’s saying? “If you are a Christian, I am going to work on you – I will send suffering, working on you like a sculptor with a big lump of clay and he starts chopping away at it, big hunks of clay, slowly so it’s scraping away until it becomes this beautiful thing. Suffering is the sculptor’s blade, shaping you into the likeness of Christ. He’s working on you, but He’s also work in you while He’s doing that. He sends the Holy Spirit to pour out the love of God into your heart so that you know, even as the hard blows of providence fall upon your head, these are only the loving rebukes of a Father who is disciplining you. They’re never the harsh, condemnatory blows of an enemy. Never. They’re always your Father’s loving discipline, training you for eternity. And the Holy Spirit, he says, will be at work in your heart to help you know more and more the wonder of His love. That verb, by the way, means more than just a trickle. The Holy Spirit, He “sheds abroad” is the Old English version. It is a torrent, a flood, an outpouring of love toward you that is, no matter how deep our experience only ever a fraction of the fullness of the love that beats in the breast of our great God toward us.
And so as you go on looking to the Lord Jesus, trusting Him, clinging on His grace, asking Him to strengthen you and enable you and fuel your obedience and your service and your ministry and your labors, yes, certainly suffering will come this year, it will, but remember, Paul says, what God is really up to when it does. God is at work making you like Christ and preparing you for heaven, for glory. He wants to awaken in you a longing to be there and a determination to get as ready as you can for your arrival in that final destination. You know, when you make a trip like I made across the Atlantic, perhaps not so much me but certainly my wife, spends a long time planning to pack and then packing, and then checking the packing and then repacking. Right? There’s preparation! This life is preparation, and what God is doing is getting us ready. That’s what He’ll be doing in you this year. He’ll be getting you ready.
As you think about the coming year I want you to be encouraged, I do, but I want you to root your confidence, your encouragement not in your own gifts. I really don’t want you toughing it out and being a professional. I don’t want you resting in your ability to anticipate needs and solve problems and nothing else. Paul wants you to be encouraged by two great truths. First, no matter what this year throws at you, you live and minister, you work and serve with constant access to grace. The door is not closed; the door is wide open. Come on in. You have access to this grace in which you now stand. The resources of omnipotent mercy and love available to you. Make use of them as you trust in Christ.
And secondly, as you face the coming year of ministry and work, if you look to find your deepest joy in your professional life or in the affirmation of your peers for a job well done, or in some outward indicator of measurable achievement, you will live for die by your every success or your every failure. Right? If you look to find your deepest joy in your professional life or the affirmation of your peers for a job well done or in some other outward indicator of measurable achievement, you will live or die by your every success or your every failure. But if you will remember that God is working on you this year, through suffering to produce endurance and character so that full of lasting hope in the glory of God you will begin to rejoice, if you will remember He is at work in you this year by His Holy Spirit pouring out God’s love into your heart, if you will do that, you will discover a deep well of joy. That’s what Paul is saying – a deep well of joy that will not be affected by successes or failures, by achievement or by missing the mark. A source of rejoicing that success or sorrow or suffering will not affect, rooted in His work in you and His work on you and His work for you and not rooted in your work for Him.
In many ways, I think that is the secret of a happy Christian life – rooting your joy in His work for you, in you, and onyou, and not in your work for Him. That’s the challenge as we think about this year ahead that I want you to be thinking about for yourself and praying for grace that God would help you constantly rest in His work for you, in you, and on you, to find your joy there.
Let’s pray.
Father, thank You for these brothers and sisters, for Your call on their lives, for the work You’ve entrusted them to do, for the many challenges that lie ahead and the many opportunities for the Gospel that You’ve given them. We think about the young lives that will be here in a day or two. We think about their families. Many of them may profess to follow Jesus and yet not know Him at all. Some make no real profession of any kind. All of them, every one of them without exception, desperately needs Your mercy and love. We think about all the many people that walk through our doors here as a church on the Lord’s Day and throughout the week. Every one of them broken and guilty and in need of cleansing and renewal by Your grace. We think about the 1800 or so children who come to our camp every summer and the many others that come throughout the year – adults, churches, leaders, businesses – all of them get to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And as we think about their need and then we think about our resources, it’s easy to be overwhelmed. Thank You, O God, that grace is the goodness and kindness of God that marshals divine omnipotence for our eternal welfare in union with Jesus Christ and received by faith alone. Divine omnipotence, put as it were, at our disposal in Jesus. We pray that You would help us then this year to serve You in the strength that Your grace supplies – not our own strength, but Your strength. And help us to do it with joy. We know You are going to send suffering in us to work on us this coming year in some way. Please, O God, may it produce in us that harvest of righteousness and peace, that joy that You designed for it. Instead of making us sour and hard and cold, may it soften our hearts and make us long more and more for heaven and awaken in us an excitement, a thrill at knowing that our tickets are booked and our destination is sure. Hear our cries. How badly we need You. Come to us. Bless us and use us. We pray that at the end of this year there might be many men and women, boys and girls converted by Your mighty power to saving faith in Jesus because of the way You have worked through this group of people. For we ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.