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One thing I can say about my mom is that she taught me the Bible in a way that made me remember it. For example, and this is true, she jokingly named her right hand Ebenezer.
We sing about our Ebenezers when we sing “Come Thou Font of Every Blessing” and say, “Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by that help I’ve come.” When my mom threatened to raise her Ebenezer it meant that I was going to get a swat if I kept doing what I was doing.
I personally think it was a misuse of the hymnal. But I did learn the Bible.
What is it that we actually say we are raising when we sing about our Ebenezers in “Come Thou Font?” Well I Samuel 7 tells how the Israelites defeat the Philistines in battle and Samuel raises a stone memorial to God’s deliverance that he names Eben-ezer after the name of the place. So an Ebenezer is a memorial stone. When we say we are raising our Ebenezer we actually mean that we are erecting a memorial to God’s faithfulness in our own lives – which is a great thing to do.
Now I don’t normally like it when people change the words of hymns. But in the case of “Come Thou Font” a change seems called for. It’s hard to sing a hymn with explanatory footnotes like the one in our hymnal. And since an Ebenezer is a memorial to God’s faithfulness,something like “This my glad commemoration, that to now I’ve safely come” makes a whole lot more sense today.
It doesn’t change the meaning. It actually makes the meaning clear.
However, there are other times when changing the words destroys the real message. Amazing Grace is an example.
I heard a woman sing Amazing Grace, at a conference. It was absolutely beautiful until she got to the tenth word: “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a soul like me." She sang those words in place of “that saved a wretch like me.”
And I know why she did it. Nobody wants to call themselves a wretch. And when you call someone else a wretch, even in song, they tend to get stuck there. So she removed the word wretch and replaced it with the much more benign, neutral and non-offensive word “soul.”
But can you imagine what John Newton, the composer and former slave trader, might have said about her editing job? Newton wrote it the way he wrote it because he recognized himself as a wretch. And he knew it was his very wretchedness that made God's grace so flat-out "amazing."
God’s grace only amazes us if we know we really need it. And if we cut wretch out of Amazing Grace; if we take the reality of our sin out of the equation, then we reduce the gospel to something more sensible and much less surprising than it really is.
The good news of God should surprise us. It should startle us. Paul wants us to be amazed. So he writes in Romans 5:7-8: "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us"
Paul reminds us that Jesus didn’t die to save people who deserved to be saved. He died for sinners. It was not God's friends Jesus died to rescue. It was people who were at enmity with God. And that is very good news because that fact should make us confident about the peace with God we now enjoy.
The point of Romans 5:1-10 is to assure us of our salvation in Jesus Christ. Here’s a quick summary of what Paul tells us is verses 1-10:
First, we can be assured of salvation because God has made peace with us through the atoning work of Jesus Christ.
Second, we can be assured of salvation because, through that same work of Christ, we have been brought into a new relationship with God in which we continue to stand.
Third, we can be assured of salvation because of the sure and certain hope that we shall see God.
Fourth, we can be assured of salvation because of the way we are able to react to the sufferings of life. We can see God's hand in them and therefore rejoice in them in a way that unbelievers cannot do.
And fifth, the verses we are looking at today, we can be assured of salvation because God sent Jesus Christ to die for us, not when we were God’s beloved children as we are now, but when we were actually hostile toward God and His will – while we were wretches and therefore acted wretchedly.
We’re going to get into some heavy duty theology here today. So let me start with a question.
Have you ever had someone come up to you and ask, "Are you saved?"
If you ever are, here a clear, very biblical answer: "I have been saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved." Your questioner will either think you are nuts or will recognize that you have studied this letter to the Romans.
"I have been saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved." Verses 9-10 of Romans 5 speak of these different stages of salvation. Listen carefully to what they say: "Much more then having now been justified by his blood we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."
Note how these verses speak of salvation in two tenses -- having been justified -- past tense -- we shall be saved -- future tense. Having been reconciled -- past tense -we shall be saved -- future tense. And, at the same time, salvation is also referred to as an ongoing process in verses like Philippians 2:12 where we are instructed to work out our salvation in fear and trembling."
In other words, salvation is an accomplished fact. But it is also an ongoing process and a future expectation.
The past experience of salvation is reflected in the first stage of Christian maturity that is portrayed in these verses -- we exult in hope of the glory of God because we have been saved from the penalty for sin through Jesus Christ.
The second aspect of our salvation -- salvation as an ongoing process -- is the second stage of Christian maturity. Paul says that now that we have been set free for the penalty for sin we are in the process of being saved from the effects of sin, the power of sin in our lives. The technical word for this process is "sanctification" which is the ongoing process of our lives being conformed to the character of Jesus Christ.
Now I think it’s real helpful at this point to draw a distinction between what we might call the status and the state of the believer.
The official status of every Christian believer, from the moment that Jesus enters his or her heart is that he or she is pure and free from sin – 100% able to approach God in complete confidence. That is the believer's official standing before God based on God's sovereign declaration.
But our state or our condition tends to be very different. In the words of the Heidelberg Catechism we are still "ever prone to all that is sinful" -- even as believers. So there is a huge gap between our official status before God and the actual state of our lives.
I can see this in my own life. In a few Sundays, in our Lenten series, we are going to begin a series on what are called the Seven Deadly Sins – the things that are the mother ships for all sorts of other sins. As I’ve read in preparation for this series I’ve had to look at myself and say, “Yep, I’ve got that one. And I’ve got that one too.”
So while my status before God is that I am declared holy and pure, my actual state or condition is very different. You see this in your life too. In the words of the Heidelberg Catechism, "your conscience accuses you that you have grievously sinned against all of the commandments of God and have not kept any one of them." My conscience does that too. So we need the good news in the Catechism that "nevertheless, God, without any merit of our own, out of pure grace, grants us the benefits of the perfect expiation or forgiveness in Christ."
God gives us a new name and then He helps us to grow up into the name we have been given. That is what Jesus did with the Apostle Peter. He called Peter "the rock" before he was at all rock-like. And Peter grew to match his new name.
God isn’t finished with us yet. That’s the point of the sermons I’ve been preaching on the Fruit of the Spirit on communion Sunday --- how God works in us through His Holy Spirit to make us like Himself.
And one day we will be like Him. In the words of 1 John 3:2, “It has not yet appeared what we shall be but we know that when Jesus appears we shall be like Him for we shall see Him just as He is,”
For the eventual result of our Christian life is that we shall someday live free from even the presence of sin for we shall be in the presence of God. This is the future aspect of our salvation -- having been saved from the penalty for sin and increasingly set free from the effects of sin, we shall someday fulfill our purpose for living which is to exult in God Himself in His own presence. We shall be saved even from the presence of sin. God has promised us that.
And so, if someone corners you in the supermarket frozen food aisle with the questions: "are you saved?" you can answer: "Yes I have been saved, yes I am being saved, and yes I will be saved." That will confuse them long enough for you to either gather your thoughts to talk or make your exit -- whichever you prefer.
One other vital fact about our Christian faith is brought out in this passage. Our faith is not based on wishful thinking. This is so important. It is based on what God has already shown us about Himself and His intentions for us.
Look closely at what Paul says "Since we have now been justified by Jesus blood, how much more shall we be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if, while we still enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Paul is using what the rabbis called a "qol w'chomer" argument. He is arguing from the heavy to the light. If this very heavy thing is true, then this lighter thing that grows out of the heavy thing must also be true. For example, a rich uncle who buys you a new BMW convertible isn't going the leave off one of the hubcaps to save money.
Heavy to light. The BMW in heavy. The hubcaps are light.
Here's the heavy thing in Romans 5: "God has already done great work on our behalf. He justified us in Christ while we were ungodly and reconciled us to himself while we were His enemies. Therefore, Paul says, God will obviously continue His work in the lesser task of seeing us through life and the final judgment. Because compared to what God has already done in giving us His Son, the finish work of our salvation is small potatoes
Paul argues from the greater to the lesser. If God could love us when it was so evident that we did not deserve it, how much more must we count on His love now that we know that we are dear to him and loved by Him.
The fact that Jesus Christ died for us is the absolute, unshakeable proof of God's love. Paul says that it would be difficult enough to get someone to die for "the just person." People will die for a great and good principle or a bad one. A mother might have the greater love that might lead her to lay down her life for her children. We see that. But the wonder of Jesus Christ is that He died for us when we were still spitting in God’s face – while we were wretches. Paul says that that shows us what God is like. And that shows us that we can completely trust Him now.
John Ortberg is now the pastor at the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. But years ago, when he was a pastor in Simi Valley, his wife Nancy (who actually spoke at our Women’s Retreat some years ago) gave John a balloon ride right over our Tierra Rejada Valley – back in the old days of the 1980s when balloons used to float over Moorpark.
John wrote in an article, "Several years ago, my wife got an unusual birthday present for me. She gave me a ride in a hot air balloon. I had never been in a hot air balloon before. We went to the appointed location and met one other couple that got into the basket with us. We chatted about our jobs and families, and then we began to rise 1,000 feet into the air. It was beautiful. It was majestic. But I experienced one other emotion that I had not really anticipated.
"Terror! Sheer terror! The basket only went up about shin high. I had always thought they went up to one's shoulders. One good lurch and you would be out of there! So I was holding onto the ropes as tightly as I could, terrified, the most scared person in the basket until I looked at my wife and I saw she was even more frightened than I was.
“I could tell because I said, 'Nancy, look behind you at that horse ranch.' and she said, moving nothing but her eyes. ‘O, yeah, beautiful,’
“At this point I decided I would like to get to know a little bit more about the pilot who was flying the balloon. So I asked him. 'What is your name? What do you do for a living?' because I wanted to try to get myself all psyched up that everything was going to be fine, that we were going to land safely. But the truth was we had entrusted our lives to the competence and character of the guy who was flying the balloon.
"So I asked him, 'what do you do for a living?' and 'how did you get started flying balloons?” 'I was hoping he would say something like he was a brain surgeon, and he had started flying balloons because he used to be an astronaut, and he missed going into outer space. I knew we were in trouble when his answer began, ‘Well, it's like this, dude... '
“He did not actually have a job. Mostly he surfed. He said, 'It's kind of interesting how I got started flying these hot air balloons.' He told me that he had too much to drink one day and he crashed his pickup truck. 'You know how that goes.' he said to me. Sure!
"His brother was in the truck and was badly injured -couldn't get around too well anymore. So he started flying hot air balloons to give his brother something to watch on Saturday mornings.
"And by the way, he said, 'I've never flown this particular balloon before so if it descends in kind of a strange way, if it gets bumpy, don't worry about it. I've just never flown it before and I don't quite know how it will handle on the way down.'
"My wife looked over at me. ‘You mean to tell me that we're 1,000 feet up in the air with an unemployed surfer who started flying hot air balloons because he got drunk, and crashed a pickup truck, crippled his brother, and he's never been in this balloon before and he doesn't know how to bring it down?’
"At this point the wife of the other couple spoke for the first and only time during the whole trip. She looked over at me and said, 'You're a pastor, do something religious!' So I took an offering.
Ortberg writes, "The great question is can you trust the pilot? Is there somebody flying this thing? What's his character? What's his competence?
"Trust is a by-product of knowing. Authentic trust comes only when I get to know the pilot. If the pilot's character is trustworthy, then the more I know, the more I'll trust him. Faith is a byproduct of knowing. The only way to grow in faith is to get to know God, because God is faithful."
If you want to get to know the pilot better, one way to do it is to make sure you are in one of our small groups that will be taking part in our Lenten small group and sermon series on “Gilligan’s Island and the Seven Deadly Sins.” The studies aren’t just about the sins. That would just be depressing. The studies are about experiencing the liberation God gives. If you aren’t in a group sign up today.
Paul is quite clear in these verses from Romans 5 that the whole saving process -- the coming of Christ, the death of Christ -- is the proof of God's love. It all happened to show how much God loves us – how badly He wants to set us free. And because we have the full proof of the past, we can completely trust God with flying our balloon in our present and our future. |
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