Justified by His Death; We are saved by His Life
Hope for the future, or comfort for the present?
Suffering is all around us. Look anywhere and you can find it. The poor might suffer from hunger or cold. Meanwhile the rich might suffer from anxiety and loneliness.
The Bible calls this the great tribulation, and it will last until Christ’s return. Furthermore, Christians are not exempt. If anything we have more ways to suffer since we can suffer the consequences of our own sins, and because the world hates Christ, we can also suffer persecution on His account.
If the whole world is suffering, and we are just suffering with them, then what good is it to be a Christian?
Christian Hope
The thing that separates the Christian from an unbeliever is not that we don’t suffer instead, we have hope; where they are hopeless. Sure, they might hope for a new car, or even meaningful things like a new baby or a cure for a disease. But sadly, they are void of the greatest hope. They have no hope of deliverance from this world into a glorious resurrection. They don’t even believe it is a thing.
Paul, meanwhile, tells us that not only is suffering something that we are going to experience; it is something that we can embrace. Why? Because it is indirectly where our hope comes from! Our hope comes from our character. Our character comes from perseverance. And against what do we persevere? Suffering!
Thanks be to God for our suffering and perseverance!
Here is the full sermon text from Romans 5:
Peace and Hope
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
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.
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Announcements
Bible Study: Our midweek Bible study is on hiatus during Lent and will resume after Easter.
Lenten Services: We will post a Lenten Vespers service each Wednesday online since we will not meet in person.
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