WRITING THE ROMANS

Sermon Summary from Aug 2d , “Writing the Romans” (Romans 5:1-10) 

The more time I spend with Paul, the more amazed I am.  By now he’s been journeying for 8 years and traveled 8000 miles.  But most importantly, all the while he has been faithful.  Today we find him near the end of his third missionary journey spending three months in Corinth.  There he crafts his letter to the Romans, the most expansive and complete explanation of his theology.   If, as we said on July 5th, Galatians was the Christian Declaration of Independence, then Romans is the Christian Constitution. 

After spending four chapters telling his readers that we are all, Jew and Gentile alike, alienated from God without Christ, in Chapter 5 he begins, “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have access to this grace in which we stand.”  Justified.  The Greek verb is past tense.  It has been done for us.  DONE.  Then grace.  My image is of standing in a endless wheat field, this grace in which we stand.  Jesus, the gift of finest wheat.  Through the gift of Jesus we are justified by faith, the theme of Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Paul continues, “and not only that, we boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope..”  Christian faith does not exempt suffering.  We know that.  If for no other reason the Christ on the cross.  But suffering produces a chain of events that result in hope.  (Character here is not the personality trait we normally think of by our incorporation into the framework of God’s ultimate plan.)

“and hope will never disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into us by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”  Again, the image of God’s continuous, unending love being poured into us.  If grace was the gift of finest wheat, then the pouring of God’s love is the gift of finest wine.

Leaving the theme, justification by faith, Paul most often ends his letters with practical rules for Christian living.  In Romans, those begin in Chapter 12 which I leave as an exercise, but “be transformed by the renewing of your mind….”  Amen.