Christ Episcopal Church, Valdosta
“This Grace in Which We Stand” (Romans 5:1-11)
March 21, 2020
Dave Johnson

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

What a wild couple weeks…the coronavirus has quickly and radically altered the current way we do things, even corporate worship.  For obvious reasons the collect for this Third Sunday of Lent hits home this year in a deeper way:

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen (The Book of Common Prayer 218).

Trust me, I would much rather preach this sermon in the midst of a public worship service with you, but be that as it may…While we are all praying and taking precautions “that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body” today’s lectionary reading from the Letter of Paul to the Romans overflows with the good news of the gospel, the good news of what God has already done, does, and will continue to do that we may be defended from “all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul.”  Along these lines in times like these many questions tend to ricochet around in our minds and hearts.  Where can I find peace?  How can I stay strong when things fall apart around me?  What is the point of all this suffering?  How do I know God actually loves me and actually cares?  Yes, questions like these can open the door to “all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul” but they can also be doorways through which the actual gospel of the unconditional love of God connects with our actual lives.

Paul wrote this letter to the Christians in Rome who were suffering persecution, often deadly persecution, for their faith in Jesus Christ.  Today’s passage is high octane gospel, replete with the “innumerable benefits procured unto us” (The Book of Common Prayer 335) by the unconditional love of God for all of us in Jesus Christ, by “this grace in which we stand”:

Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.  And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.  For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die.  But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.  Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God.  For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.  But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation (Romans 5:1-11).

There is so much gospel here we will walk through this passage one section at a time.  Like a gem whose many aspects of beauty emerge with every turn in the light, this passage shows many beautiful aspects of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, this grace in which we stand.

Paul writes, “Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2).  To be justified means to be in the right, to be innocent, to be free to move about the cabin.  Through Jesus Christ we “are justified”—present tense, right now—in our relationship with God, which means—also present tense, right now—“we have peace with God.”  You may not have peace with your family, or peace with your neighbors, or peace with your coworkers, or peace with pandemics, or even peace with yourself, but you do have peace with God, the most important kind of peace of all.  Why?  Because in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ God has freely given you “access to this grace in which we stand.”  There are times when we cannot stand on our own, and it is then we need to be reassured that it is only by and in the grace of God that we stand, even when things around us fall apart.

This grace in which we stand when things fall apart around us gives us hope, the “hope of sharing the glory of God”—hope especially when we ask, “What is the point of all this suffering?”  Paul continues:

We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (Romans 5:3-5).

In the same way negative circumstances, like pandemics, can generate a negative chain reaction, this grace in which we stand generates a positive chain reaction even in the midst of suffering, especially in the midst of suffering—a positive chain reaction from suffering to endurance to character to hope to a fresh experience of the reality of the love of God courtesy of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts, the Holy Spirit who like our salvation itself “has been given to us.”  It is that sense in your heart, in your soul, in your gut, even in the worst of times that somehow you know that God still loves you, that God still holds you in the palms of his scarred hands, and that God’s love will see you through, no matter what.

One of my favorite current bands is Needtobreathe, a band from South Carolina whose songs are soaked with gospel.  The title track of their 2018 album Forever on Your Side speaks right into our current challenges and reminds us of the unchanging and unending love of God that will see us through:

I won’t pretend that we can control the night
Or what kind of road we’re on, or where we will see the light
But right now I’m talking to you, I’m looking into your eyes
Right now I’m trying to show you that we’re gonna be alright

Oh I don’t know what’s around the bend
Oh all I know is that my love, it knows no end

All these pieces, they fall in line because I’m forever on your side
Take my hand when you can’t see the light because I’m forever on your side
I will carry you every time because I’m forever on your side

Paul then shines a spotlight directly on the overwhelming, definitive, historic proof of this love of the God who is forever on our side:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die.  But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8).

On Good Friday Christ did not die for the strong and godly—for those who feel like they have everything figured out and under control thank-you-very-much, but  for the weak and ungodly—those who could not and cannot help themselves, those who dismiss the existence and love of God as silly myths.  Christ died for the weak—the rejected, the marginalized, the least and last and lost, those who have run out of options, those who have never been invited to the party, those who as we prayed in the collect for today have no power in themselves to help themselves.  Christ died for the ungodly—sinners and cynics past and present, notorious sinners with “that kind” of reputation, blasphemers and thieves, murderers and adulterers, the haughty and hypocritical, the corrupt and complacent.  Christ died for the weak and ungodly, which includes all of us.  On Good Friday Christ died for the weak and ungodly who made fun of him, and spit at him, and pressed a crown of thorns onto his sacred head, and slapped him again and again, and nailed him to a cross, and continued to make fun of him until he died.  Christ’s only response was love…and a simple prayer on their (and your) behalf: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).  Even now we still don’t know what we are doing, and even now God the Father answers that prayer.

God did all that to prove his love for you and me and all the other weak and ungodly people of the world, not when we decided “to get our act together” (whatever that means) but “while we still were sinners”: “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”  The gospel always goes back to the love of God and the love of God always goes back to the cross, always.

Then Paul takes this all one step further:

Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God.  For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.  But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation (Romans 5:9-11).

The blood of Jesus Christ, the “Lamb of God who takes away (present tense, right now) the sin of the world” (John 1:29) is enough, more than enough, to justify you in God’s sight—a gift you receive by faith or trust in God.  It is only this blood of Jesus Christ that saves you from the wrath of God because on Good Friday Jesus the Son of God took that wrath of God upon himself.

Moreover, Jesus shed his precious blood on Good Friday for weak and ungodly sinners who were also his enemies.  When Jesus preached in his Sermon on the Mount, “Love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44) he meant it, and later did it himself, and still does.  And this means that you have been reconciled, brought into a peaceful relationship, with God.  We cannot reconcile ourselves to God, but God can reconcile us to himself, and did just that on Good Friday—which gives us hope in the midst of suffering because “much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.”  This reconciliation, like the other “innumerable benefits procured unto us” by God’s love is a gift we receive through faith, a gift we receive by receiving the Giver.

And the many aspects of this grace in which we stand are exactly in line with what Paul later wrote in this same Letter to the Romans, a passage often read at funerals.

I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

Where can you find peace?  How can you stay strong when things fall apart around you?  What is the point of all this suffering?  How do you know God actually loves me and actually cares?  All these and many other questions that can make us vulnerable to “all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul” also open our hearts to the many beautiful aspects of the love of God in Jesus Christ, love that is stronger than everything in your life, even pandemics.  The actual gospel of the actual unconditional love of God in Jesus Christ is good news for your actual life, good news for those who have no power in themselves to help themselves.

And this unshakeable love of God for all of us is “this grace in which we stand.”

Amen.