To what lengths would you go to gain access to someone famous? As a kid, I often went to baseball games a couple of hours early to get autographs from the players. That’s nothing compared to a friend of mine whose brother climbed up and through a heating duct so he could be directly above the stage at a rock concert. In spite of these efforts, access was limited in both cases. For me, the baseball players were always on the other side of the fence. But at least I could hold a conversation with them. How do you do that when you’re stuck in a heating duct, as was my friend’s brother?
To what extent do we need to go to have access to God? That’s a question people have been trying to answer since the fall into sin. There are many answers out there in the form of various religions but only one has it right. Christianity teaches, as the Bible tells us, that there is nothing we can do to gain access to God. Our sin has severed ties that once existed. Having said that, our text teaches that we do have access to God - and not just any kind of access. We have full access to the Triune God by grace through faith, and for peace and hope.
People tend to expend more energy trying to gain access to God than doing things like climbing through heating ducts. Some make pilgrimages to places or building considered sacred, traveling miles on foot with nothing more than the clothes on their back. Others look for the right chicken to sacrifice, or even the right kind of weed to smoke. Some have even offered human sacrifices like the Aztecs who slaughtered up to 20,000 people a year! By nature we know that we owe God something if we want access to him. But here’s the thing, we don’t have what it takes to gain access to God. God doesn’t want us to walk miles to some lonely monastery. Nor does he want us to sacrifice chickens or humans. What he wants from us, what he demands of us is perfection. He wants people who always put the needs and wants of others first. He wants seasoned-citizens, for example, who use their wisdom and experience to encourage, not criticize. He wants husbands who cheerfully wash dishes, mow the lawn, and change diapers. He wants wives who are always happy to pick up the kids, and who aren’t bitter that the monthly grocery bill doesn’t allow for luxuries like spa treatments. He wants young people to serve their boss, customers, and Mom and Dad as if serving Jesus himself – always with a smile and looking to do more than just the bare minimum. Have you fallen short in any of these areas? If so, your access to God has been cut off. It’s not just that God ought now to ignore you, like an ATM machine ignoring your request for cash because there is none in your account. God ought to come after you, like the Crown prosecuting a doctor because he was negligent in upholding his oath to diligently care for his patients.
But God will not come after you. Why not? Listen to what Paul writes in the verses after our text: “6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly…9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” (Romans 5:6, 9) God will not come after us because he went after his own Son for our sins. At the cross, God the Father poured out his wrath for the world’s sin on Jesus the way you and I might take out our frustrations on a punching bag after a tough day. Would you ever consider doing such a thing as God did? Would you give up your son, would you turn him away from your house so that the drunk driver who killed your daughter can live in his room and eat his food? Not in a million years! And yet this was the length that God went to so that our sins would be forgiven and that we would have full access to him! Why did God do it? He did it because he felt like it. That’s grace.
Only by grace do we have access to the Triune God, and only through faith in Jesus, not faith in anything we have done, will we enjoy the blessings of this grace. Paul made that clear when he wrote: “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” (Romans 5:1, 2a). Just as only the right password will give you access to your online bank account, so it’s only through Jesus that we have access to God, and full access at that! Having full access to God means that you will never get a computerized menu of options, or an angel who puts you on hold when you want to talk to God. Through faith in Jesus you have direct access in prayer to the CEO of everything. Having full access to God means that you weren’t given a spectator’s ticket to the concert of God’s grace; you have a backstage pass that allows you to get close and personal with God – as demonstrated in Holy Communion where we receive Jesus’ body and blood (adapted from Preach the Word January/February 2007, p. 2).
Peace with God is another benefit of God’s grace (Romans 5:1b). Peace means that we no longer need to be ashamed or feel guilty for our past because Jesus has forgiven it. Nor do we have to worry that we’ll go to hell if we die before we can confess some sin, for through faith in Jesus we stand in God’s grace! We’re surrounded by it like millions of droplets washing over us in a rain shower. Of course this doesn’t mean that we will live blatantly sinful lives. For to do so is to step out of the shower of God’s grace. But make no mistake; grace is not like your boss’s opinion of you – dependant on what you’ve done lately. Grace is your status with God and that status is dependant on what Jesus has done (adapted from Preach the Word January/February 2007, p. 2).
God’s grace not only grants peace; it gives hope. Paul writes: “And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:2b-4). Here’s how hope brings joy to your soul. Because God will turn things out for our good for Jesus’ sake and right the wrongs we now may suffer, we don’t need to overreact to the problems we face or to the injustices we suffer. Nor will we live in the past with bitterness and regrets. We won’t do that because we have an incredible future. No matter how rough life may be right now, someday soon you’re going to be pain-free and celebrating in everlasting glory. Hope is how you face surgery or tough it out in a difficult work situation. In short, hope is where your heart is when you body is limping along (Preach the Word January/February 2007, p. 2).
Hope even gives us the reason to rejoice in (not just “put up with”) pain and trial because these “pressures,” as Paul literally calls them, build character. Just as an athlete puts his muscles under the pressure of dumbbells and barbells so that they will develop, God puts us under the pressures of life so that we grow stronger in him, and enjoy more fully the peace and hope he gives us through faith in Jesus.
We can be certain of these things because Paul said in our final verse: “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:5). The Holy Spirit is God’s deposit on us. It’s his way of assuring us that he has claimed us as his own for eternity. If you’ve been baptized, then you have received the Holy Spirit. And he’s coming to you again right now through God’s Word.
So go ahead, camp out at the stadium to get an autograph of your favorite professional athlete. Climb through a heating duct to get close to a famous rock star. But don’t waste your time trying to get close to God. He’s already come close to you. The death and resurrection of God’s Son gives us full access to God the Father. And now God the Holy Spirit gives us faith so that we will enjoy these blessings of peace and hope. Remain confident of these blessings because you’re standing in God’s grace! Amen.
