Christ Died For Us

Christ Died for Us

Romans 5:1-8

The Book of Romans has been held in the highest regard by Christian theologians over the centuries. Countless people have become Christians by reading its verses. Among these were Augustine, Luther and John Wesley. So the influence of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is unquestioned. If there is any controversy, it is what passages in the book are the most influential. Some of the candidates are Romans 1:16-17, Romans 5 and Romans 8. These are indeed high points in the book. But the high points of the book are set up by Paul’s detailed arguments in the other chapters. This morning we will look at Romans 5:1-8.

Romans 5 is set up by the example of Abraham in the 4th chapter of Romans as the example of one who was justified by faith and not works. Paul had in the first three chapters showed the impossibility of being made right before God on the basis of one’s own works. One was not justified by placing one’s good works on one side of the scale and one’s bad works on the other. If the good outweighed the bad, all would be well. This was Egyptian thinking. And it is the thinking of many who feel that they are basically good, so as long as we acknowledge our imperfection and do good works, we shall be saved. Paul absolutely shatters that idea and quotes scripture after scripture against that thought. But in chapter 4, Paul shows us that there is help. This is demonstrated by the life of Abraham who is considered to be a spiritual giant and forefather.

The Jews revered Abraham and felt that the covenant promises given to Abraham irrevocably applied to them as well. They were the elect. They were his physical descendants, after all. But Paul refutes this argument totally. Abraham was saved by faith. He believed God and it was counted for him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). Abraham was a man of many sins, just like us. The book of Joshua tells us that he had worshiped other gods before God called him. Even in his walk with Yahweh, he lied on several occasions and even let his wife be taken into a harem twice. But since Abraham’s position with God was based on faith, his salvation was built upon sure footing. Physical descent means nothing. Was not Ishmael and six others, physical descendants as well? What about Esau? In fact, it we trace our ancestry back to 1900 BC, virtually all of us are descendants of Abraham, and that many times over. But this does not make one a child of the promise given to Abraham. We, like him are saved by faith without reference to the works we have done, good or evil. Works are important, or course, but they spring from faith. They are not the cause of it.

Chapter 5 now applies the implications of what justification by faith entails. The first fruit is that we have peace with God. This is made possible through our Lord Jesus Christ. This peace is based upon what God has done for us, and not what we have done for God. Notice that it does not say “we should have peace.” This is not a hortatory subjunctive which tells us to appropriate something we don’t already have. It is the realization that you actually are at peace. The call is then to live the reality. The newborn is equipped with everything it needs to develop. The child is already born with the means of walking and talking. It isn’t visibly demonstrated at birth, but it is actually there. It will happen. Likewise, since peace is the gift of God’s grace, it will become increasingly demonstrated as we grow in Christ. We have access to this peace by our faith in Christ in which we stand. The Greek word for “stand” is a perfect indicative. The perfect tense in Greek emphasizes a current ongoing reality based upon a past act. Christ’s death is the act, and the implication is that we now have standing with God because of our faith and will continue to have this standing without end. It is not a Greek imperfect which would tell us that we once had or currently have standing, for now, as though it could be cancelled. The indicative is the mood of factual reality. It is not a hypothetical ideal.

Because we have standing, we can boast in this standing. Our hopeful boasting glorifies God and not ourselves. Boasting in ourselves always results in disaster. It also causes disharmony in the body of Christ. But if our common boast is in God, then we are unified in our faith. We should also realize in this sentence that hope is not wishful thinking. Our understanding of hope is wishy-washy. We might make a statement: “I hope to win the lottery.” This reality is very unlikely to happen and would usually resuly in a false hope. We might foolishly buy tickets in the hope of being an exception. But this hope is highly likely to be disappointed and has led to the ruin of men and women, not to say their children as well. The Christian hope is a real hope based upon the promise of a God who cannot lie. We yearn for the ultimate fulfillment of the reality, but our faith is not a leap into the dark as some theologians of the existential school postulate. It would better be seen as a leap into the light.