Jesus Is Still Sovereign
Romans 5:6-11
When We Are Powerless
“I am cooped up. I feel powerless.”
“The restrictions keep changing so quickly. I feel powerless.”
“I have a much higher level of anxiety. I feel powerless.”
Powerless.
That is a feeling we have experience more in these past weeks, isn’t it.
Personally, I don’t like it.
Sitting in my office thinking about the impact this is having on so many people who I love and care for. Watching people struggle, and fear, and worry, and retreat, and isolate, and get angry, or frustrated, or feel hopeless.
Constantly thinking about what-if’s, and maybe’s, and holding pattens, and safety, and needs.
For me it is a time in my life when that sense of feeling powerless has been one of the strongest. Yet for all the powerlessness attached to this current situation, there is a situation in all of our lives where we are even more powerless.
Romans 5:6-8
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.
These verses speak into our lives today as we recognise that Jesus Is Still Sovereign when we are powerless.
These verses also speak to us as we think about the Lord’s Supper and the powerful work of Jesus which coming to the Lord’s Supper possible.
The powerful work of Jesus involves powerful planning. The death of Jesus happened “at just the right time”, (Romans 5:6). His death wasn’t an accident, or the result of Him being the unfortunate victim of human hatred and injustice. Jesus’ death was the culmination of a carefully thought-out plan that He and His Father voluntarily set into motion.
A plan which included sending Jesus from His powerful and glorious position in heaven to become a helpless baby.
A plan which saw Jesus born to a teenage Jewish virgin and raised in a carpenter's home.
A plan which meant Jesus lived a perfect life as He taught God's truth in a way that no-one else had taught it before.
A plan which, at just the right time in history, saw Jesus choose to die.
All pre-ordained. All carefully thought out. All done to a schedule.
Why is such a well-thought out, well-timed, well executed plan necessary?
It is because a powerfully timed plan was needed in response to the deeply hopeless situation of humanity.
“We were still powerless,” (Romans 5:6).
Powerless. That is an over-riding description of humanity. It is not a characteristic we like having applied to us is it.
We would rather be called “worthy” … where we have attributes that are of great value to God.
We would rather be called “necessary” …. where our characteristic are acceptable to God.
We would like to think there is something in us which God identifies … then God sends his Son because God somehow needs us.
But that is not what Scripture says … not at all.
When we were powerless … while we were sill sinners … Christ died for us.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
God the Father prioritises us over his Son … but not because we were somehow worthy of such priority. We are given priority because of God’s love. God’s love … not our value, or worth, or capacity …. God’s love is the reason we have hope in Christ.
We are weak, helpless spiritual wimps, unable to do anything for ourselves. If left to our own devices, none of us is able to do even one small thing to please God or earn our way to heaven. We try. God knows we try.
We want to serve Him in worship.
We want to be people who are willing to live according to the Bible.
We respond to His Word by trying to take it seriously and living it faithfully.
We pray. We read the Scripture. We serve in the kingdom.
And those are all great responses. But that is not why the well-thought out, well-timed, and well executed plan was put in place.
The New Testament tells us that without Christ in our hearts we are …
… unable to understand spiritual things.
… unable to see the kingdom of God or enter it.
… unable to seek God.
Helpless. Hopeless. Powerless.
And loved!
A powerfully timed, powerfully executed plan … to bring salvation to the powerless. How should we respond to such a plan? Listen to this testimony from Paul
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
7 Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
… …
In weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties I am not powerless … when I stand in the strength of Jesus.
That is what the Lord’s Supper enables us to celebrate.
We are not celebrating our fine character and great attribute – no matter how godly they are.
We are not celebrating the calibre of our good works, or the performance of our faith … no matter how much of an impact they have had.
We are not even celebrating the fact that we have been used by God in many ways as we have served Jesus.
What we celebrate is our lack of power. We are acknowledging the truth that only when we by grace have been brought into the family of God do we have any right to gather and partake.
We are powerless. We are sinners. Christ died for us.
In that context Paul also makes this observation.
Romans 5:7
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.
It is easy to get stuck on the difference between a righteous person and a good person … and there are long discussions that take place around this. But the differences is not the main point.
Rarely will some die for a righteous person.
Possibly will someone dare to die for a good person.
The main point is … it takes a lot for one human to die in place of another human.
• You hear about it happening in war – one soldier sacrificing themselves for others.
• Parents who jump in front of their children to protect them.
• Sometimes strangers will give their life for strangers … but rarely.
It is very unusual for someone to die for another unless there is a strong relationship.
But Jesus
… when I was powerless.
… when my status was “ungodly”.
… while I was a sinner.
… in a time when there is no-relationship.
Jesus died for … for us.
At your lowest, at your worst, at your most sinful and most unholy time …
When you were at your most powerless …
Jesus died. Jesus brings you into a relationship where our powerlessness is covered by the blood of Jesus.
Which gives us a whole new outlook on life.
Romans 5:10
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!
If Jesus is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice when we are powerless enemies in the depth of sin not wanting any relationship … how much more will Jesus journey with us and strengthen us after we have confessed with our mouth that Jesus is Lord.
Romans 5:11
11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
When Jesus is journeying with us, we don’t have to let the narrative of “powerless” be the main narrative. Instead the main narrative becomes a continual boasting in God … lifting-up, exulting, praising – boasting … in God.
I’m powerless … but I have been saved by Jesus.
So when I go through times of emotional difficulty I know I am not going forward in my own capacity. I have a Saviour who knows my emotions because He has felt my emotions:-
Grief, anger, frustration, exhaustion … even wanting God to take away the suffering.
Jesus journeys with me through these times, so that I can hold onto Him and lift-up … boast … my God who doesn’t leave me these situations.
I’m powerless … but I have been saved by Jesus.
So when I feel the weight of responsibility to care, to show compassion, to be empathetic, to keep serving. I have a Saviour who will supply the compassion and empathy, and servant heart.
Jesus has gifted me to serve, to fulfill my calling, to shoulder the responsibility. All the while knowing that others may see my good deeds and glorify … and boast about … my Father in heaven.
I am powerless … but I have been saved by Jesus.
So when my health is causing challenges …
And when finances are creating worry …
When relationships in my life are struggling …
In those times when I feel guilty and ashamed …
On those days I wonder about my capacity as a parent …
In the moments when I doubt …
Through sleepless nights when my mind is over-whelmed by everything …
In weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties …
When COVID-19 hits …
In any conceivable moment I will celebrate my powerlessness and boast in that which comes to me through Jesus.
He gives me hope, and peace, and grace, and forgiveness and love.
He is the Light so that I will always have the path to follow.
He gives me security, and purpose, and identity, and eternity.
He is the Shepherd who calls me by name.
He gives me his Spirit, a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.
He is the Author who wrote my name in the book of life.
He endured all the suffering so I can be a co-heir with Him.
When I am powerless … Jesus is still sovereignty … He is my sovereign.
His weakness is stronger than all human strength.
He is all-powerful. His power is limitless.
Jesus who is the “bread of life” so that when I come to him I will never go spiritually hungry or thirsty.
Through the Lord’s Supper we … the powerless … celebrate the powerfully timed, powerfully executed plan of eternal salvation.
Prayer
