Romans 5:1-5

There has to be a way. Some answer. Some trick. Some solution. Some way of thinking that gets us through. Some silver bullet that, if we could just figure out what that is, we could be happier, more obedient, more trusting, more holy. If we could just find this answer, our lives would be better. We wouldn’t worry so much. We wouldn’t sin so much. Our thoughts would be clearer, more full of hope. We would understand how God works better. We would understand His timetable a little more, why He decides to do what He will do, WHEN He does it. If we could just figure out that trick, that answer, that way of thinking.

So we try out different solutions. We try looking on the bright side of things, finding the silver lining to every cloud, putting a smile on our face, not letting ourselves feel down, even when the world is coming crashing down around us. But that only works for a little while, because it’s just too hard.

And when that hasn’t worked, we just can’t look on the bright side anymore, then we prepare ourselves for the worst. We won’t get caught unaware again. If we expect the worst, then we’re prepared for anything. Not the most joyful life, but it seems the safest way to go. But when we’ve surrounded ourselves with the walls of fear, we keep the good stuff out, too. We miss the surprises of joy, while we’ve waited for the tragedy to hit. And we find that this doesn’t work either.

We try to figure things out for ourselves, to use the good brains that God gave us to find the answers. And we may find the answers, but they’re never the right answers.

And we go looking and searching for that answer, the way to have peace and strength and hope. We look for it, until we arrive at Romans 5. And we find that the answer was never in our brains, in our figuring, our positive attitudes, our posture of defense. No, the answer, the way to hope is grace, the grace of God. And standing on that grace, we find that our shaky, uncertain lives all of a sudden stop shaking. Our questions that seemed so big, so unanswerable, all of a sudden seem to melt away. When we’re standing on grace.

Paul has just been writing to the Christians in Rome about how we are made righteous. About how it’s not our own efforts, our own minds that get us to do the right things. That it’s God’s grace, given to us by way of faith, that makes us righteous. If our righteousness came by our good intentions, us trying to do good, we’d never make it. We’d fail. But thankfully, we become righteous because God creates righteousness inside of us. Because Jesus gave His life on the cross, and because He gave His eternal life to us, we are now considered righteous, perfect, pure. And as He pours righteousness into us, it comes pouring out of us in our words and actions and thoughts.

Therefore, Paul says in verse 1:

I wonder if we really know that, because of Jesus, we are at peace with God. It seems that a lot of the time, we’re still trying to figure out how to make God happy, when this whole time, God HAS been happy already. It seems like we’re nervous about relaxing about this, like we don’t dare to take a big sigh of relief and enjoy this peace we have with God through our Lord Jesus. Like if we accept His grace too much, we might cheapen His grace, we might take advantage of His grace.

The thing is, we WILL take advantage of His grace if we DON’T accept His grace fully. If we don’t jump in feet first into the middle of His grace, if His grace is not the first word and the last word for our lives, then His grace, His love becomes less important than it really is. And if it’s not that important, then we can ignore it. We can take advantage of it. We can use it as an excuse to get away with our sin, because we don’t think that much of His love anyway.

But when His grace is the air that we breathe and the food that gives us strength, when we literally understand that we have oxygen in our lungs only by His grace, that we had breakfast this morning and dinner this noon only because God allows us to, in His grace, then there is no way we will take advantage of it. The more fully we accept that it’s all God and none us, that’s when we become more righteous, that’s when we see the future as more hopeful, that’s when life becomes more certain. That thing that we’ve been looking for, that answer that will make everything okay? It’s the grace of God. It’s the grace of God that sent Jesus, verse 2:

This grace in which we now stand. This grace that we never, ever leave. And if we do leave, we start to feel it pretty quick. This grace that puts our lives back in order, that makes everything make sense again. Or if it doesn’t make sense, we at least know Who does understand. This grace, this love that is higher than the heavens are above the earth. This grace that causes God’s face to beam on us, His eyes locked on us with care and compassion.

That’s the grace on which we stand. It’s the only thing that will give us confidence and comfort regardless of the circumstances. It’s God’s grace that makes us sing and pray prayers of thanksgiving in the good times. Verse 2:

We see His glory in the birth of children and grandchildren. We see His glory in healing of illnesses, and reports where nothing is found. We see His glory when justice is served, when relationships are restored, when churches are strong. And we know that each of things happens because of His grace, the grace on which we stand. We are thrilled, standing there on His grace.

But we don’t just see His grace in the good times. Verse 3:

And this is the part that we’re really wondering about. This is what we just haven’t been able to figure out. How to rejoice in suffering. How to have hope in the middle of despair. How to trust in the middle of doubts. How do we do this?

And we know that there has to be a way. After all, verse 3:

But here’s where we hit a snag. Suffering produces perseverance, we hear. And I wonder how many of us feel a little nervous, a little tense, maybe a little overwhelmed when we hear these words. We’re suffering right now, in whatever form that suffering takes. Maybe it’s grief that is years old, and maybe it’s fresh grief that we’re just starting. Maybe it’s an illness. Maybe it’s uncertainty about the future, the future of your family, the future of your job. Maybe it’s a dream that has been shattered. Whatever form, the suffering hurts.

And now, that suffering is supposed to produce something. We’re supposed to learn perseverance, and that perseverance is supposed to produce character in us, make us stronger. And then, when our character is strong enough, well, then we’ll hope.

And what we’re hearing is that not only do we have to go through the suffering, not only are we weeping and worrying and doing everything we can just to hang on, now we’re supposed to learn something from this. We’re supposed to grow. And the sorrow and grief just gets 100 times heavier.

Unless we remember where we’re standing. Standing on grace. If we take one step off, one step away, if we forget for a second the love that God has for us, His beaming, shining face, His eyes watching us with a burning love, if we move just an inch away from there, then the persevering and the character building all comes over onto our shoulders. We become responsible.

But when we stand on God’s grace, and we stay put on God’s grace, something happens. The suffering comes. The hurts are going to happen. There’s no way to avoid this until Jesus returns to end all the evil that causes the pain. So, we have the tears and the disappointments and the wounds. But if, when that pain comes, if we go back to the love and grace of God, and we stand there, that’s when beautiful things start to happen.

When we are standing on His grace, God takes the suffering and changes it into perseverance. He takes our frustration and He turns it into patience. You’ll find that, even when things don’t happen the way you expected, that you’ll have this sense that God knows what He’s doing, and He’s doing it according to a perfect schedule. He takes our fears and He turns them into faith. The fears actually seem to melt away, and at first it seems a little strange that you don’t have that tightness in your stomach, or the tension in your forehead. Instead, there’s a light in your eyes and a lightness in your step. He takes the thoughts that whirl around and around and around in our minds, and He turns them into prayers of trust and surrender to Him. We tell Him the thoughts, and let Him bring order. We admit we can’t control the thoughts, and we expect Him to control them

Now, I’m not telling you that you have to have patient and you have to have faith and you have to pray and you have to have a light in your eyes and pretend that your holy and happy. That’s God’s work to do. You can’t do it. There’s no way you will make yourself into a better person through the suffering. There’s no way you will figure out how to be holy. You’ll only become bitter and resentful, just the opposite of hope.

Verse 5:

Hope does not disappoint, hope is constant, not because we’ve tried really hard, but because God has poured His love into our hearts. God did the pouring. God did the changing. We rejoice in the sufferings if, and only if, we are standing on His grace. The minute we take it on ourselves to persevere under suffering, to teach ourselves character, to build our own hope, we’re finished. The minute we step away from God’s grace, the minute we take our eyes off His love, the fears and confusion will start to come back.

So here’s what we do. When anything happens, anything that we didn’t expect, anything that we’re not sure about, anything that we are sure about, we’re sure that we don’t like it, any fears, any threats, any tears, any loss, any struggle, anything, we get ourselves back to grace, the grace of God. We don’t try to figure it out ourselves, we trust that God, in His grace will do all the figuring and trust that He’ll give us the answer we need when we need it. We don’t try to put the best face we can on it, because that face will look fake anyway. We relax in the awareness and wonder of just how strongly God loves us. We stand. That’s our job, to stand.

If we’re used to do something else, just standing is going to seem strange. If we’ve been trying so hard to figure things out for ourselves, to get ourselves to build character, then letting God do that work is going to seem irresponsible, like we’re missing something we’re supposed to be doing.

Here’s some things you can do so that you are staying put, standing on His grace. Go back to the cross. Jesus’ body, hanging there instead of your body hanging there, is enough to convince us of His love and grace. That if He would die for you, then He’ll certainly fix the hurts and solve the dilemmas. That if He would burst out of that grave and hand over eternal life to you as a gift, then He’s certainly going to handle your life now.

Go to your Bible and soak in the verses that tell you about His grace. Repeat His blessing again and again, making it your own. The Lord blesses me and keeps me and shines His face on me and is gracious to me and keeps His eyes locked on me and gives me peace. Go to Psalm 103, and hear the benefits, that He forgives sins and heals diseases and loves us more than the sky is above the earth and does not treat us like our sins deserve.

Doing this will seem a little strange at first, but you’ll get used to it. And when you do, be ready. You’re going to hope like there’s no tomorrow. Actually, you’ll hope like there IS a tomorrow. Because you gave up everything else and stood on His grace. You quit trying so hard, and you just stood there, trusting in His love, confident in His grace, His grace by which we stand.