In his commentary on Paul’s letter to the Romans, Dr. Francis Schaeffer points out that chapters 1-4 tell us why we must be saved, and tell us how we can be saved. Then chapters 5-8 of Romans assume that we are now Christians, and in them, Paul explains what the Christian life is all about.
So I want to begin by drawing your attention to the tense of the first two phrases of chapter 5, and their significance.
First, see that Paul says, “Therefore, HAVING BEEN justified by faith...”
The King James translation says, “...being justified...”. Now, that is not necessarily wrong, but it is an unfortunate rendering in that it can give the idea of justification being a process, and confuse it with progressive sanctification.
Justification , or our position of right standing with God, is an historical event. What I mean by that is, our justification (or the way to be right with God) was provided for us on the cross of Christ. He shed His blood and died, taking the penalty for sin upon Himself and making our justification possible...available.
Then the moment each one of us believed, historically, at that precise moment in time, we were declared by God to be right with Him through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Our justification was complete at that moment. Believers, each one of you who has believed in the atoning work of Christ on the cross of Calvary and appropriated that work to yourself through faith, ...you were every bit as saved at the moment you believed, as you are now; as you will be in eternity.
Christ’s finished work is just that...finished. It is not something He IS DOING, but something He HAS DONE.
So Paul is saying, HAVING BEEN (past tense) justified by faith, we HAVE (present/progressive tense) peace with God.
Now that peace with God is not to be confused with the peace OF God. We, because we are still in the flesh and by the Spirit war against our sin nature, often have times when we do not have the peace OF God. our own sin interrupts it; our weak prayer life interrupts it; the circumstances of the individual day can interrupt our sense of God’s peace.
But Paul is talking about peace WITH God. That is to say, God, entirely of His own volition, has reached out to rebellious man, and has MADE peace, through the sacrifice of His only Son.
As Paul wrote in Colossians 1:20, “...and through Him (Christ) to reconcile all things to Himself, HAVING MADE PEACE THROUGH THE BLOOD OF HIS CROSS...”
And II Corinthians 5:20-21, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
As I approach the phrase that we will focus most sharply on today, I want to point out this term, “through our Lord Jesus Christ”.
Paul’s emphasis throughout chapters 5-8, is that all that we have from God, all that we are and are becoming in Him, is THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Nothing is of ourselves; nothing gained by our own merit; nothing held back because of our lack of deserving.
In fact, if you look later, you’ll see that the final verse of each of these four chapters (5-8) contains the same expression: “through Jesus Christ our Lord” “in Christ Jesus our Lord”, “Through Jesus Christ our Lord” “In Christ Jesus our Lord”.
It’s important to take note of that, because this next phrase that I want to talk about today begins with the words, “through whom also...”.
In verse 1, “...we have peace with God THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST” and then, “THROUGH WHOM ALSO we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand”.
Down through the ages, God remained a mystery to fallen mankind. Throughout the Old Testament we see men and women of nations outside of the Hebrews, using terms like “The God you serve” and “your God”.
The only gods they knew, were the ones that were spawned by their own imaginations. Even the philosophers of Athens in Paul’s day, having erected shrines and temples to all the pagan gods they had learned about, also raised an altar to “the unknown God” ...admitting by that very act, their ignorance of the one true God.
With the coming of Jesus Christ, God had finally revealed Himself to mankind in a way that the finite mind could grasp.
In the words of Isaiah, later quoted by Paul in Romans 10:20, “I WAS FOUND BY THOSE WHO SOUGHT ME NOT, I BECAME MANIFEST TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ASK FOR ME”.
Again, in Colossians, Paul talks about his preaching of the Word of God, and calls it “...the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints...” and of course we know that the way the Word of God was manifested to His saints was in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Jesus paid for our sin with the shedding of His own blood, and made peace for us with God. Having done this, and by the doing of this, He ‘introduced’ us to grace.
What I want you to notice today, is that the greatest miracle of God toward His creation - that work that we are told is the very ‘power of God for salvation to all who believe” - was accomplished through the office ...not of a king...not of a warrior...not of a diplomat... but of a servant.
You’ve heard me quote the second chapter of Philippians numerous times in the past months, saying that Jesus took the form of a bond-servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.
Isn’t that an interesting contrast? God accomplished His mightiest work, while acting as a servant!
Why are we so slow to learn from that?
Do not the history of mankind, the attitudes displayed around us every day, and even our own actions and reactions prove to us that man is just the opposite of God in his priorities and in his thinking?
We want status. we desire recognition. We know, because the society of every nation is structured to work this way, that only the rich and the politically powerful have much hope for accomplishing large and significant goals, because they are the ones who are given heed, and they are the ones with the means to impose their will on others.
But Christ, acting as a servant, made provision for us to come before the very Throne of Grace, prepared the way so that we might come into God’s presence in peace, not fearing His wrath, and then, still as a Servant, introduced us to the position of grace in which we stand, now and forever.
A long time ago I read a short story. At this moment in time I cannot remember the name of that short story; I can’t even tell you what happened in the story.
I can remember that it was written by Stephen King, which tells me that you probably don’t want to KNOW what happened in the story.
But it was the first few pages that are burned into my memory, because something that was said there struck me as a very powerful illustration of the church and people’s perceptions of it.
The story was about a young lawyer in a very large and wealthy law firm at the turn of the last century.
One of the senior partners, a usually stern and unsmiling man, walked into this young lawyer’s office and invited him to come to a very exclusive men’s club later that afternoon. Having given his invitation, the older man walked from the room without waiting for a reply.
The young man was thrilled, because he knew that historically, when a young attorney was invited to this particular club, it meant that he was being considered for promotion to senior partner. So the invitation had much more than purely social implications.
(This is all from memory, and I haven’t seen the story in years; so if Mr. King ever sees this sermon I hope he’ll forgive me if I’m embellishing a little)
Later, in the early evening, the young man left his office and walked the several blocks to the building that housed this exclusive club.
The sky was darkened by heavy cloud cover, making the afternoon a gloomy one. The rain had begun to fall and was coming down harder by the minute.
As the man approached his destination, he looked up from under his dripping hat brim and studied this tall, brownstone structure. Through the pouring rain he could see that there were several steps bordered by wrought iron railing, leading up to a very large and foreboding oak door with a heavy brass knocker.
His eyes scanned over to one of the windows. The rain and the fog on the glass prevented him from seeing anything clearly. He could make out misshapen silhouettes as men passed back and forth between the window and the lamps burning inside, but it was impossible to tell what they were doing.
The young man climbed the steps and raised the knocker...and froze.
“What if I misunderstood?” he asked himself. “What if the partners have changed their minds? What if, in the course of the afternoon, they have discussed me and begun to have doubts about my worthiness of being a senior partner? I might walk in and receive cold stares and an invitation to leave. That would be mortifying!”
His fears finally got the best of him, and he turned and began to descend the steps. But just as he did, he found himself framed in light, and turned to see the door swinging open.
A servant had apparently been near the door, and hearing someone on the stoop had opened to see who it was. The servant smiled a warm smile that made the young man’s apprehensions diminish significantly. The servant stepped back and motioned for the man to step inside, which he did.
As the servant took his dripping hat and his rain-soaked overcoat, the young man looked into the main room from the foyer where he stood.
There was a large fireplace with a very inviting flame burning in the hearth. Two men stood by it, talking earnestly about something.
Two more men were in a corner of the room brooding over a chess board. Still others examined the wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling book case that covered the far wall.
One man sat in a stuffed chair near a soft lamp, deeply engrossed in his own book.
As the young lawyer took all of this in, the senior who had invited him looked up, caught his eye, and smiled widely. Apparently his sternness was reserved for the office and the courtroom.
He crossed the room in long strides, holding out his hand in welcome, saying that he was glad the young man could make it.
As he ushered this young partner into the sitting room and began introducing him to others, the young attorney thought to himself, “It’s amazing how different a door can feel when you are on the warm side of it”.
Folks, we have a very valid picture here, of how people see the church.
Now I’m not talking here about people standing outside and looking at the structure itself. I’m speaking symbolically, about what folks often perceive the church to be, and their apprehensions concerning what they THINK they know.
In far, far too many cases, we as Christians develop a ‘we vs. they’ attitude, when it comes to our relationships with non-Christians.
The way we respond to the unsaved implies that we want to be like Jesus; but as He will be when He comes AGAIN. We want to be conquering kings. Passing judgment and ruling and reigning. But Jesus wants us to be like Him as He came the first time; as servants. Obedient. Humble. Sacrificial in our approach to lost mankind.
We tend to forget that we are saved by grace. Saved by the Servant of servants, who “while we were yet sinners, died for us”.
Instead of seeing the non-Christian and saying, “there, but for God’s grace, go I”, we tend to adopt (whether we realize it or not), the attitude of the Pharisee, saying, “Lord, thank you that I am not as one of these”.
As a result, we keep the gospel message like some dear national secret, and go our way hoping not to be sullied by contact with the poor, unsaved slobs around us.
The result of this attitude which has been displayed by individual believers and often by the very church establishment, is that we have put up stained glass windows, shut the doors, and closed ourselves into our own exclusive little club.
People pass by Christianity and see silhouettes, but not knowing what is really going on inside (or mistakenly thinking they do know what is going on inside), they draw their coats tight around their necks and pull their hat brims down over their eyes, and walk quickly away.
We are the church, believers. Not the building or the denomination. It’s us. What people think of the church...what they think of Jesus...will most often be based on what they see in us...think of us.
There are people all around us everyday, who are standing on the outside, in the rain, staring at stained glass windows, and either wondering what it’s like inside, or too afraid to ask, or laboring under misunderstandings of what Christianity is, because of their own past bad experiences.
We have a duty, as those who belong to Christ, the Servant of servants, to BE servants. Servants of God, servants of each other, and yes, even servants to those who are still lost and without Christ in our world.
They won’t come in on their own, people. For the most part they think they’re doing fine, and they don’t understand either their own lost condition, or the provision that has been made for them through the cross of Christ.
It is up to you and me to open the door, and welcome them in. We’ve been given it to do, and they’re standing just outside, in the rain, ready to turn away again.
And the best, most effective means of evangelism is STILL, one on one. Learning a person’s history, telling them your history, or telling them HIStory... and introducing them to grace.
Are you ready Christian? Are you willing to be a servant of One who became a servant for you?
Him, through whom we obtained our introduction into this grace in which we stand? The One who has given us light and life and right standing with the Father?
They’re standing outside the door, and time is running out for them, and it is only with the heart of a servant whereby we can greet them with a smile, and usher them in to the warm side of the door, where there is LIGHT, and LIFE!
