Introduction
If
you haven’t seen it yet, that scene is from the first Hunger Games movie. I’m
sorry but I’m going to spoil the movie for you so if you’re afraid of finding
out, put your hands over your eyes and read this through your fingers. Anyway,
the movie is set in a dystopian future ruled by a totalitarian government. The
nation of “Panem” is divided into twelve districts and the capital. 74 years
earlier, there was a civil uprising that was officially labeled “the
rebellion.” The rebellion was eventually crushed by the government and from
that time forward each year, to commemorate the rebellion, the government
randomly selects a young man and young woman from each of the twelve districts as
“tribute.” The 24 tributes are sent to the capital were they receive limited
combat training and then they are all placed in a computer controlled bio-dome
were they are required to kill one another until only one remains while the citizens
from the districts watch on television monitors. It is officially known as the
annual Hunger Games and the survivor and their family is showered with abundant
wealth and riches for the rest of their lives. The government’s official
position about the games is that it is a reminder of the brutality of the
rebellion with the lone survivor’s wealth and fame symbolizing the government’s
graciousness. In reality, the games are veiled threat intended to remind the citizens
that the government rules their lives. However, the main character, Katniss
Everdeen, exposes a fatal flaw in the government’s evil oppression—from the
moment she volunteers to be the tribute in place of her younger sister who was
originally selected from her district, to the way she conducts herself during
the games by trying to protect some of the weaker participants, and the fact
that she isn’t a blood-thirsty killer, she became someone the people could root
for; someone the people could rally around. See that Katniss’ popularity was
growing throughout the districts and not wanting to turn her into a martyr, the
game designers manipulated the rules so that Katniss and the young man from her
district, Peeta, had the opportunity to survive as a pair which they eventually
did. However, with a final twist, the game designers withdrew the rule change
that allowed two tributes to win if they were both from the same district and
reinstated the rule that only one of them could survive. At the end, standing face
to face, Katniss and Peeta agreed that they would end their own lives thereby
leaving the 74th Annual Hunger Games without a winner. The pact
forced the hand of the game designer and they were both deemed winners after
all. Her actions of kindness, compassion, and self-sacrifice were a spark—a
spark that started a flame in the other districts. The citizens from the other
districts saw that the government could control their money; they could control
their jobs; they could control their food; they could control their housing;
they could even control whether they lived or died. But they couldn’t control
how they treated one another. The citizens of the various districts began to
realize that there are more important things to die for than riches—freedom and
people. Katniss gave them something the government desperately tried to
control; Katniss gave them A Reason To
Hope.
Aside
from love, hope is the next most powerful thing I can think of. Hope and faith
are so closely related that it’s hard sometimes to keep them separate and maybe
we shouldn’t. I know that for some of you, hope is a hard place to be. When you
can’t practice your faith without the constant danger of persecution; hope can
be hard. When you don’t even have the strength to throw-up from the cancer
treatments; hope can be hard. When another person close to you dies; hope can
be hard. When another relationship fails; hope can be hard. When you’re
struggling in school or at work or in life; hope can be hard. Sometimes it
would just be easier to quit! I get it. I’ve been there. But we can’t quit; we
can’t give in to the negative, screaming voices in our heads; we can’t give in
to the evil that is luring us to take the easy path—abusive power, riches, sex,
drugs, alcohol, or anything that will relieve the pain that makes hope so hard.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. In the midst of all the pain and suffering
that is inevitable in all of our lives to one degree or another, we have a way
out—Jesus Christ who called himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And it is
because of Jesus that we have A Reason
To Hope.
Subject Text
Romans 5:1-5
1Therefore, since we have been
justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, 2through 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. 3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering
produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and
character, hope. 5And hope does not
disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our
hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Context
Since our Subject Text starts with
the word “therefore,” we must understand what comes before in order to properly
understand the consequences of what follows. In the chapters leading up to
chapter 5, Paul carefully demonstrates that all humanity is sinful and
unrighteous and even though God made his invisible qualities visible through
His creation, humanity chose to worship creation instead of the Creator. God
stepped out of the way and allowed humanity to continue its death spiral toward
ever deeper levels of depravity—murder, envy, greed, deceit, malice, homosexuality,
gossip, and slander—even inventing new ways to sin and to encourage and celebrate
sin. Paul described sinful humanity as God-haters, senseless, faithless,
heartless, and ruthless. The pit of humanity’s depravity appeared to be
bottomless. Sin created a divide between God and humanity that could only be
bridge by doing what is “right;” by becoming “righteous.” The Jews sought that
righteousness through the meticulous keeping of the Law yet they all brought
sacrifices every year to God’s Temple to atone for their sins because they were
unable to keep the Law perfectly at all times. Paul explains that purpose of
the Law was to do what was right but that it wasn’t exclusive to the Jewish
community. When Gentiles did what was right according to the Law, it
demonstrated that the spirit of the Law is written on the hearts of humanity. Nevertheless,
humanity continues to sin even though the spirit of the Law is within each us
as creatures created in the image of God. The divide created by sin appears
impassable and the Law simply serves to demonstrate just how impassable it
really is because we are powerless to keep that Law perfectly—nothing we do can
overcome the sin in our lives. Paul then explains the key to
righteousness—faith in God! Abraham was deemed righteous because he believed
God when God told him he would be the father of a nation. Mind you, Abraham was
deemed righteous prior to the giving of the Law. God’s promise proved true as
Abraham’s offspring would give birth to the nation of Israel in the centuries
that followed. Paul then describes the path to righteousness for all us today
as well. The divide created by sin must be bridged; the offense against God
must be atoned for. But what could possibly be sufficient to atone for the sins
of all humanity once and for all? Only God himself could accomplish something
no amount of human effort could possibly accomplish. As a result, God offered
Himself in the person of Jesus Christ for that sacrifice and atonement for
sins. And we are deemed righteous when we believe that; when we trust that. We
are deemed righteous when we have faith that Jesus did for us what we could not
do for ourselves. Because there was nothing we could do, give, or sacrifice to
atone for our sins, we could only standby helpless and hopeless as our
destinies hurled toward eternal condemnation. However, Jesus Christ and his
death and resurrection provided the opportunity for a course correction of our
eternal destinies. We now have a chance to be reconciled to God with a chance
to be in a personal relationship Him who wants nothing more than to love us. We
no longer have to despair in our sinful state. We now have A Reason To Hope.
Text Analysis
Soteriology uses various terms that
often become vague and interchangeable. Does it matter? Probably not in the
grand scheme of things but understanding the terms properly adds texture and
details to our relationship with God. As with any relationship that is
important to us, we would like to get below external appearances and really get
to know a person at a deeper level. This principle is no different in our
relationship with God. That’s why I define theological terms for you in the
section of the website title “Significant Theological Terms.” It is also one of
the reason that I continually emphasize the importance of knowing why you believe what you believe. In v. 1a, Paul explains that we have been
“justified” because of our faith. But what, exactly, does this mean? Although
we read this in a theological context, “justified” is actually a legal verdict
of vindication. Grammatically, dikaiOthentes
[Gk “being justified”] is an Aorist participle in a Passive voice. The Aorist
points to a completed action while the Passive voice indicates an action done
to us. In short, we are fully vindicated from all guilt by something done for us not by us. “Justification is the process whereby the sinner comes to be
accepted by God. Paul sees the Christian understanding of justification as
distinctive in that it rests on what God has done, not on any human
achievement. It is appropriated by faith, not relying on human merit.”[1]
I don’t know what the judicial
system is like in your country but here in the United States judges are
required to be impartial. If there is a possibility of a conflict of interest,
judges are required to recuse themselves from a judicial proceeding. Let me try
and paint you a picture of what Paul is saying here: You’ve committed a crime;
in chains you are led into the courtroom; you look up to find that the victim
of your crime is also the judge; the only judge! You have a choice—plead your
case to the judge on your own or step aside and let your advocate plead your
case for you. Your advocate knows the judge quite well; your advocate knows
exactly what the judge wants; your advocate is Jesus Christ. Your advocate has
told you that he can appease the judge; he knows what the judge wants and you
believe and trust him. Your advocate approaches the judge and agrees to accept
the verdict and punishment intended for you. The judge then asks you to
approach the bench and stand next to your advocate where he pronounces his judgment
over you: ‘In light of what your advocate has done for you, your crime has been
forgiven; your penalty has been satisfied and you are free to go. Nothing more
is due.’ We didn’t earn it or deserve it but we received it because the judge
graciously accepted the advocate’s sacrifice in our place. With God as the
Judge and Jesus as your Advocate, we can understand what Paul is trying to tell
us in v. 1b when he says that it is because of Jesus Christ; through Jesus
Christ we are at “peace” with God. When Paul says we are at peace with God,
that must mean that we were at war with Him at some point; enemies. Peace means
many things—The absence of war; the cessation of conflict; freedom from
disturbance; or a state of tranquility and quiet. However, peace doesn’t just
mean the absence of hostility. Biblical peace is not passive. Biblical peace
goes one step farther and seeks reconciliation. And this is the sense of
“peace” that Paul is expressing in v. 1b. “It is clear here the
‘reconciliation’ refers to people being restored through Christ’s death from a
state of hostility into a peaceful relationship with God. The implicit idea is
that Christ experienced God’s hostility and wrath at the cross so that those
who believe in Christ and become identified with his death are considered to
have also experienced God’s eschatological wrath, so that they can now come
into a peaceful relationship with him.”[2]
Remember that before Paul became a
follower of Christ, he was a strict Pharisee; a religious leader and teacher of
the Law. When you get to v. 2, he sees in the Old Testament a foreshadowing of
what had come to pass in the New Testament. It’s not immediately obvious so let
me try and uncover it for you. There are a few key words and phrases in v. 2 to
watch that will help us connect the Old and the New—“access,” “by faith,” “stand,”
and “the glory of God.”
Access—The designated high priest of Israel was the only person who
had “access” to the inner most part of the Temple known as the Holy of Holies.
It contained the Ark of the Covenant and was separated from the rest of the
temple by a thick linen curtain.
By Faith—The high priest accessed the Holy of Holies only after
performing the prescribed purifying ritual and by first making all the
appropriate sacrifices. In other words, access was granted by right and by
ritual not “by faith.”
Stand—The high priest accessed the Holy of Holies once each year
where he would “stand” before the Ark of the Covenant and offer incense and
blood sacrifices. God was approached with fear and always with the possibility
of being struck dead if the proper procedures were not followed.
The glory of God—The Temple was intended to be the place where God would
reside with His people. The Old Testament spoke of the times when “the glory of
God” entered the Temple and how overwhelming it was. In fact, God’s presence
was so overwhelming at times that not even the priests were able enter the
Temple (2 Chron 5:14).
But with Jesus Christ, something has
changed right? Remember what happened on that day more than 2,000 years ago when
Jesus died on the cross? The curtain of the Temple was torn in two and the
writer of Hebrews says that because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, we now
have access to the Most Holy Place as he writes, “Therefore, brothers, since we
have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by the new
and living great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a
sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to
cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure
water (Heb 10:19-22).” Instead of God’s enemies, Jesus calls us friends as He
draws near to us and allows us to draw near to Him. Because of our sin, we all
have fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). But now, through Christ there
is hope; hope that one day the glory of God that is within each of us created
in His image will be restored. “Every human being was created to be a walking
billboard, a living display of the glory of God. Like a neon sign bereft of
glowing gas, the human frame apart from God stands lifeless and unanimated,
displaying nothing except the closed-for-business look of an abandoned
storefront. Pieces of evidence can be found to indicate a former glory, but not
enough to see it today. Therefore, Paul says, having been ‘justified,’
resulting in peace with God, the hope that we have in manifesting the glory of
God brings us joy!”[3]
Paul’s message really is uplifting;
that is until we get to vv. 3-4 where he tells us that we can rejoice in our
sufferings. In the end, it always seems to come down to the same thing;
traveling the same path as did Christ; the path of pain and suffering; the path
that leads to the cross. No one would happily choose the path of suffering but
God uses it to produce something in us that no other experience can produce. It
is hard to explain and even harder to accept that the end to suffering is hope.
Paul tells us that one day we will once again become the reflection of the glory of God but until then, we must overcome the suffering that is
inevitable in this life. When we develop the strength to overcome pain,
suffering and disappointment, we continually develop a stronger sense of hope
for the glory that awaits us. “There is in this passage the theme of suffering
and disappointment. Those two realities, singly or together, are all too
familiar in the life of the Christian…To whom do we turn in times of
perplexity, in times when personal examination leads us to the edge of despair?
Our text…with [its] message of peace, grace, hope, and confidence, helps us to
move through that problem and to find the answer in a hope born of the
assurance of the divine love shown in Christ. The deliverance from death Christ
received in his resurrection is the assurance of our certain deliverance by the
same God, who will defeat our sin and death as well.”[4] You see, our life of faith doesn’t reach its pinnacle when
we become Christians. Our faith reaches its pinnacle in the next life when the
glory we were created to display is restored and perfected. Our life of faith
only begins at our conversion, from
that point onward, God uses pain, suffering and disappointment to build up our
perseverance against future struggles and in doing so, we develop Godly
character. However, hope of future glory is easy when life is smooth but when
life becomes difficult hope seems to dissipate quickly. Nevertheless, over a
lifetime of overcoming struggle, hope is not so easily diminished. “Hope, like
a muscle, will not be strong if it goes unused. It is in suffering that we must
exercise with deliberation and fortitude our hope, and the constant
reaffirmation of hope in the mist of apparently ‘hopeless’ circumstances will
bring ever-deeper conviction of the reality and certainty of that for which we
hope (see Rom 4:18-19).”[5]
Have
you ever thought about the word “hope?” I feel like it’s one of those words
that gets bandied about in our everyday conversations so much that it has lost
some of its intended impact when it is used in places like v. 5 of our Subject Text. We say things like, “I hope I’m not late to work;” “I hope
mom packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my lunch;” “I hope a diet made
up exclusively of coffee, cookies, donuts and chocolate cake will someday be
good for me.” We use the word “hope” in so many banal circumstances that in
order to fully understand the power of hope in the context of our lesson, we
need to stop for a moment and think about what hope means. Maybe we could
understand hope a little better if we saw what a picture of hope-less looks like. Hopelessness looks
like a religion where God’s love and acceptance is uncertain leaving adherents
no choice but to take radical measures to prove their devotion and commitment;
even radical measures that include flying airliners filled with innocent people
into buildings filled with innocent people. Hopelessness looks like a needle in
the arm or powder up the nose. Hopelessness looks like the bottom of another
empty bottle of pills or booze. Hopelessness looks like rage in the face of the
perceived unfairness of life. On the other hand, hope looks like the cancer
patient who takes the time to visit another patient in the hospital in order to
cheer them up. Hope looks like the single mother who works two jobs in order to
provide for her children. Hope looks like the father and husband who sticks
with his dirty, back-breaking job because the bills have to be paid. Hope looks
like the student who works harder and harder even though her grades don’t
reflect her hard work yet. Hope looks like the nurse who silently prays for her
patients even as they are passing away. Hope looks like the prisoner who
ministers to other prisoners knowing all the while that none of them are
leaving the prison alive. Hope looks like all the Christians all over the world
who love and worship Jesus even though they are driven from their homes and
country and who know it could mean prison, death, or both. Nevertheless, we are
not betrayed by our hope. Instead, our hope grows stronger and more certain as
time passes and we continue to overcome obstacles. In fact, hope even borders
on certainty as God’s love is poured into each believer and the Spirit is
constantly at work convincing them of that love. We can become so convinced of
God’s love for us that at times only a faint line can be distinguished between
hope and certainty. “The hope which is thus strengthened and confirmed does not
put those who cherish it to shame by proving illusory…There is therefore
nothing strange in Paul’s speaking of God’s love as having been poured out…the
meaning is that God’s love has been lavished upon us, and actually brought home
to our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us…The proof that our
hope will not disappoint us in the end is the fact of the amazing generosity of
God’s love for us—a fact which we have been enabled to know and understand by
the gift of the Holy Spirit in us.”[6]
Application
There
really is nothing worse than losing hope if you think about it. We have all
experienced times when our hope becomes faint. Even as believers, hope can be
fleeting in the midst of life’s struggles. We pray for direction; we pray for
better days; we pray for the pain to stop; we pray for help, but God doesn’t
seem to answer so the flame of hope that glows within us begins to grow dim as we
go through day after day just surviving. Then suddenly, a friend says a kind
word or we receive an encouraging note from a teacher or we’re recognized at
work for doing an exceptional job and the flicker of hope roars back to a giant
flame. Hope is restored when someone recognizes that you’re valuable; that
you’re special; that you’re loveable. We often fail to recognize the power each
of us has to fan the flame of hope in other peoples’ lives. When we take the
time to care for those around us, even in the smallest ways, we might be the
person God uses to restore a person’s fading hope. Will you take the time this
week to restore someone’s hope? Will you remind a student who has failed a test
that they are not a failure? Will you remind an athlete who lost a match that
they are not a loser? Will you remind that elderly person that they are still
valuable? Will you visit a neighbor you’ve never met just to say hi? There are
people all around you every day who are losing hope and you don’t even know it.
They don’t say anything and you don’t recognize that anything is wrong but they
are so very close to giving up. Some of those people are Christians and what
they desperately need is encouragement. Please don’t take for granted that
Christians don’t need encouragement because they have God in their lives.
Christians, maybe more than non-Christians, need regular encouragement as they
struggle to live out their faith in a sinful, self-prioritizing world. But the
people who are in the greatest danger of losing hope are those who do not have
a relationship with Jesus Christ. For those people, this life is all they have
and when this life isn’t going well, they have nowhere to turn for strength.
Some of you may still remember your life before you became a Christian. Was
hope something that defined your life? What did you have to hope for? If you’re
like me, you’ve been a Christian so long you don’t even remember your life
before becoming a Christian. I have, however, gone through a very painful
period of nearly two years where God felt completely absent to me—a dark night
of the soul. It was one of the most hopeless feelings I have ever experienced.
This is the existence of those who do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ
whether they choose to admit it or not. This week, in addition to encouraging a
Christian, share Jesus Christ with a non-Christian. This week I want to
challenge you to let God use you help someone; let God use you to give someone A Reason To Hope.
[1]
Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G. Reid, eds., Dictionary of Paul and his Letters,
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), p. 286.
[2] G.
K. Beale, A New Testament Biblical
Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New, (Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Academic, 2011), p 541.
[3]
Kenneth Boa and William Kruidenier, Romans—Holman
New Testament Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Co., 2000), p.
160.
[4]
Paul J. Achtemeier, Romans—Interpretation:
A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, (Louisville, KY: Westminster
John Knox Press, 2010), pp. 92-93.
[5]
Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans—The
New International Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: William
B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), pp. 303-304.
[6] C.
E. B. Cranfield, Romans—The International
Critical Commentary, Vol. 1, (New York, NY: T&T Clark, 1975), pp. 262-263.
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