June 6, 2004 Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. 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.
When President Bush recently came to town for the Brown vs. Board 50th Anniversary, I thought it would be kind of interesting to actually see him in person. But then I thought about what a hassle it would be to go. I’d have to get a ticket, drive to the event, and then wait in line and sit around for hours just to see him speak for a half an hour or so. It would be just as easy just to watch the highlights on the ten o’clock news. So I personally decided to opt out of the event.
Not everyone is like me, however. Some people will go to all lengths necessary to just to get an up close look at their favorite stars. My brother once climbed through an exhaust system to get right above a rock group called “R.E.M.” in the middle of their concert. Some will write letters and stand outside hotels screaming for hours just to get their superstar to look outside. Others will pay exorbitant amounts of money to go to a fund raiser and spend more personal time with someone they admire. I don’t know about you, but as for me, either I’m getting cheaper, lazier, or less enamored with people, but there’s not too many people in this world I would pay fifty dollars to listen to or even watch on TV.
There are Three Persons that are worth going to see. The Sons of Korah once wrote in Psalm 42, As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (Ps 42:1-2) The most important Being they wanted to meet was the One at the Top - the Triune God Almighty. God is almighty, all knowing, and all seeing. God’s Word says, “nothing is impossible with God.” Why wouldn’t we want to seek Him first - have access to God? Today we’ll see how that is possible as Paul shows you that -
You Have Total Access to God’s Grace
I. By the justification of Christ through faith
How do you access God? Let’s look at the world’s approach. A popular catch phrase in today’s Christianity talks about “experiencing God.” The way they attempt to do access God revolves around the mood. When Dr. James Dobson recently attended an event in Colorado Springs he said, “The Spirit was definitely present.” How did he know? The music was real upbeat. There were a lot of people there. The speakers were very moving. This is the popular way of trying to get access to God in mainline Christianity. If all of these conditions are met, if it sounds powerful, if it speaks to their heart, if it leads them to do things they’ve never done before, then they conclude that the Spirit was “present.” In their eyes - they can get God to approach them by setting the right mood and bringing the right people.
On the other side of the spectrum of Christianity, in the Catholic camp - people are afraid to even try to approach God or get Him to approach them. They are told to pray to the saints - who can then pray for them. Even when they die they do not feel ready to access God - but feel assigned to go to a place called purgatory where they can be properly prepared to meet him.
Outside of Christianity, you’ll see people doing really crazy things to try and access God. Remember when that Heaven’s Gate cult all ate poisoned Jell-O in the hopes they would catch God who was coming through town on the Hale-Bopp comet? Or think about the whole motivation of the suicidal Muslims - who think that by committing a suicide with a bomb and killing Westerners they will earn a place in heaven with black-eyed virgins. Their version of access to God means killing themselves - because they have the wrong God.
Others just try and ignore the whole concept of getting access to God. They tell themselves that when they die they’ll just become plant food or be recycled into a butterfly. They try and make this life so pleasurable that they won’t even think about what will happen in the future. What they ignore is the fact they will have to meet God.
When Jacob had to return to the Promised Land, he knew that he had to face Esau - his angry brother whom he had cheated of the birthright. So he tried to appease his brother with riches and flattery. When Esther tried to approach the evil but powerful king Xerxes, she did her best to make herself look as good as possible so he would allow her to come into His presence. The holy God cannot be approached this way. You can’t give God anything - because He already owns it all. You can’t do anything to impress God so that He’ll allow you to come near Him. Imagine seeing an eagle flying overhead and screaming to it, “come down! Come down! It doesn’t work that way. The eagle speaks a different language - is not attracted to someone waving his arms and screaming. He’s holy - and only holiness will attract Him. You can’t coerce God into coming to you by trying to provide the right atmosphere or by bringing in Tony Robbins or any other seemingly impressive speaker. Prayer doesn’t convince Him to come into your heart. That’s not how it works. This is a God who demands perfection. (Matthew 5:48) Let’s be honest about it. This is a God who will send millions of sinful and rebellious people to hell. (Matthew 7:13) This is a God who cannot be mocked or impressed or tricked into letting anyone into heaven who doesn’t belong there. Heaven and holiness is too high a wall for any mere mortal to climb.
So how DO we approach Him? Our holy God has provided a completely different way to access Him. Paul told the Romans - since we have been justified through faith, . . . we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. (Ro 5:1-2) In order to approach God, our God first approached us by becoming the man Jesus Christ. Out of love for us - His creatures - He decided to destroy that barrier of sinfulness that divided us. Jesus lived the life that God demanded of us. He died the death that we deserved to die. He went through the hell that God pronounced on us. When Jesus rose from the dead, God declared the world “not guilty” - He justified us. This is a done deal. Paul told the Romans WE HAVE BEEN justified. The first thing God did was to remove His anger problem over our sins.
The next thing God had to do was to give us the courage to approach Him. But how? When we see how holy and righteous God is - like Adam and Eve all we want to do is run! How do we who are born as rebellious sinners - blind to this invisible and holy God - get this faith? That’s where the Holy Spirit comes in. In order to approach God, He has to approach us and enter us. God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Through the Word of God calls out to us as we hide from God - “My Son has paid for your sins! You’re holy! You’re forgiven. I now love you unconditionally because of what my Son has done for you!” With these words of the Gospel - the Holy Spirit comes pouring into our hearts to give us the faith and courage to approach a holy God - and believe that we are holy in Christ. It kind of reminds me of two kids in high school. Let’s say the boy is really enamored with the girl, but he thinks that the girl would never date him. So what does he do? He’s too afraid to just go up to her and ask her out, so he gets his friends to ask her friends how she feels about him. Sometimes he doesn’t even do that. Sometimes he just sits there and stares at her and never says a thing - too afraid of rejection. Nothing happens until SHE takes the initiative and gives him the courage to ask her out - or even ask him out herself. That’s the way God deals with us. We know God is holy. We also know we’re ugly. So the Holy Spirit has to convince us to believe that God loves us and has made us holy in Christ - and that God wants to marry us.
That’s why we say we’re saved by grace. It’s a complete gift of God. Instead of worrying about how we’re going to approach the holy God - the holy God approaches us - becomes us - dies for us - rises from the dead for us - and sends His Holy Spirit into us - through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul gave the Romans direct access with God by giving them the Gospel of Christ - and the Holy Spirit did the rest of the work. God uses the same method with all Christians of all times. He puts us into direct access with Himself - the most powerful and mighty Being in the Universe - by grace alone, faith alone, and the Word of God alone.
II. It brings peace and a joyous hope
Standing in the grace of God does some wonderful things for us. First of all, we have peace with God. Peace with God comes from knowing that He loves us in Christ. You’ll never have that peace if you don’t stand in grace. If you try to stand in the presence of God based on works - you’ll always be nervous. Imagine, for instance, if a man and a woman - we’ll call them Jake and Trish - got married based on how they looked. Jake married Trish for her beautiful eyes, and Trish married Jake for his bright smile. What if old age brought wrinkles to Trish’s eyes, and tooth decay eroded Jake’s smile. Immediately they would wonder whether they were loved by the other anymore. They would be afraid of divorce at the first sign of old age. That’s the way many people try to marry God. They know He’s holy. They know He’s beautiful. But nonetheless they try and establish a relationship with Him based on how they reform their lives. “God will love me,” they say, “if I just stop drinking.” Some think, “God will love me if I can just get rid of this pornography.” With these reforms they try and convince themselves that God must love them. But even when other people are pleased with them, and even if they are able to give up these gross sins and they turn out to be “good people”, these people never really can feel at peace with God. Why not? Because their relationship is partially based on how they look and behave before God. And a part of them knows - they’re still not perfect - in their heart they still occasionally lust for the forbidden fruit.
True peace with God comes to us when God says to us, “you are one ugly person. I can’t stand to look at you. Your breath stinks, you’re out of shape, and you aren’t worthy of me. Here, take this outfit of righteousness - put it on. Keep it on. Take these works of my Son. Take this holiness of Christ. Take this faith from the Holy Spirit. Take this love. Let me love you.” When we realize that God loves us as a gift of mercy and accepts us based on Christ, it gives us true peace. It’s kind of like when you get married to a fellow Christian. You both vow to stick together with one another for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, til death do you part. If you both take your vows seriously, there’s some permanence there. It means you can kind of let your hair down around one another - relax. There’s something comforting about being able to be grumpy around my wife, let my breath stink around my wife, or maybe even letting some gas fly now and then. We’re committed to each other, and we don’t sweat the small stuff. Standing in the grace of God - in a similar way - is a completely liberating experience. It’s as if all the pressure to be here in church - to die - to live - is lifted from us - when we’re saved by grace. If God married me by grace, then He’ll keep me by grace. Even though I’m still am a sinner, I don’t have to fear that God is going to reject me for one slip of the tongue or one evil thought that crosses my mind. He won’t reject me if I’m overweight, if I’m grumpy, or if I have an anger problem. By faith He still accepts me even if I’ve been divorced, committed adultery, or even parked in a handicapped spot. I don’t have to understand women like James Dobson does. I don’t have to be as confident as Tony Robbins. I don’t have to be as happy as Richard Simmons. If He married me because of Christ, He’ll keep me because of Christ. That’s what grace and forgiveness are for. That’s what peace is all about. Our God is a perfectionist - but He’s a gracious and forgiving perfectionist.
The second gift of standing in the grace of God is being able to rejoice in hope. Paul says, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. Abraham was the epitome of what Paul is talking about here. As an old man at 75 years old, God promised Abraham that he would make him into a great nation and bless all peoples through him through a Savior to come. But before God ever game Abraham this gift, He told him to move to a new country - one that he’d never been to. For the rest of his life, Abraham had to live in a tent. Throughout this time his nephew chose the best land and was taken captive. Abram then had to endure the sin of having a child with Hagar - and then suffer the ridicule of changing his name at the age of 99. He couldn’t hope in his flesh - he and Sara were old. He couldn’t trust in his righteousness - he’d committed adultery with Hagar and had an illegitimate child with her. No, Abraham could only hold onto God’s promise of a Savior through his offspring. He continued to hope through faith in God’s grace! This developed Abraham into a man of perseverance and character as well. Character means that Abraham left things in God’s hands and trusted in what God promised him - doing it even though it didn’t make sense - because he believed that God was gracious enough to do it.
Years ago the S-4 submarine was rammed by another ship and quickly sank. The entire crew was trapped in its prison house of death. Ships rushed to the scene of disaster off the coast of Massachusetts. A diver placed his helmeted ear to the side of the vessel and listened. He heard a tapping noise. Someone, he learned, was tapping out a question in the dots and dashes of the Morse Code. The question came slowly: “Is … there … any … hope?” This seems to be the cry of humanity: “Is there any hope?” The story is told of Pope Pius And - who when dying cried out despairingly: “When I was in a low condition I had some hopes of salvation; when I was advanced to be a cardinal I greatly doubted it; but since I came to the popedom I have no hope at all.” That is the natural result of standing on human works. You can never have hope - no matter how many rewards you earn, how many gowns you wear - or how many people praise you - or how much money you earn - because it doesn’t matter what you think of you or man thinks of you - but only what God thinks of you. All of these works will do you absolutely no good when standing before a holy God.
But when we stand in the grace of God - based on His mercy - we can stand with hope. God promises us that all things work out for the good of those who love Him. He promises us that because of Jesus death and resurrection - those of us who trust in Jesus will end up in heaven. If someone bad mouths us, God will work it out. If we are unfairly fired from our jobs, we’ll still end up in heaven. Even if we still have many weaknesses and sins, we still hope that when we die we’ll be in heaven - because we stand in grace. We don’t look at every failure or pain as a punishment from God - but a development of character in us. It’s this hope that keeps us going. It’s this hope that gives us perseverance. It’s this approval from God that gives us the character to do what’s right no matter what people say about us. That’s what happens when we stand in God’s grace.
When Moses approached God at the burning bush, God said to him, “Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (Ex 3:5) He told Moses to leave his sandals behind. I believe that many of us are trying to walk into God’s presence with our sandals still on. The only problem is that we’ve been walking through manure, and our feet stink. As you enter into the presence of the Triune God, the LORD says to you - leave your sandals at the door. As a matter of fact, take all your clothes off - and wear this brand new clothing - the clothing of Christ. What He means is, if you want to stand in the presence of God - you have to stand in God’s grace. That means leaving your sins at the cross - leaving your righteousness at the door - and totally entering under the righteousness of Christ. When we do this, it makes all of us look equal and holy. It leaves all of our stenches behind. So if you find yourself being uneasy and pessimistic about life - worried about what will happen - remember to put your worries at the door. Enter into the grace of God - through faith in Christ - and enjoy the presence of God - gazing at his holiness from now until eternity. Amen.
