Living by the Spirit: a talk from Romans 8

Romans 8 “Living by the Spirit” For NSCCCS 2006-02-26

William Ng

Preamble

Romans 7:4-6

• died to law (under law our sin bore fruit for death)

• belonging to God in life of the Spirit (in the Spirit we fruit for God)

7:12-25

• Sin used the law to produce sin

• Law condemned sin as sinful leading to death

• Man in sin under law cannot do what is right, even though he agrees with the Law’s teaching (7:22-24)

• But Jesus rescues man in this situation

Main Talk

Romans 8:1-17

1-4 Free from Condemnation

• (The Spirit in) Jesus frees man from sin and death

• Therefore there is no condemnation for those in Jesus

• Because the Law’s requirements were all met in Jesus:

  • Law condemned sin in man, Jesus became man to be condemned for that sin

  • This was God’s work

• We now live by the Spirit

  • So that we might fulfil the righteous standards of God’s Laws, see Jeremiah (31:33) and Ezekiel (36:26) prophecies of the coming of the Spirit.

5-8 Free from the Old Life

• flesh/sin/old life vs. Spirit/new life, v.5

• “flesh”, vv.6-8:

  • Death, v.6a

  • Hostile to God

  • Rebellious against God

  • Displeases God

• Continue in the “flesh”, leading to death, 8:13a

9-13 Free for a New Life

• Living (led) by the Spirit, vv.6, 9-13:

  • Mind

    • Life & Peace, v.6b

    • Pleasing and Submisive to God

  • Indwelling

    • Spirit of God/Christ in us, v.9

    • Belonging to Christ, v.9

    • Resurrection Life to mortal bodies, v.11

    • Not debtors (?slaves) to “flesh”

• Discontinue with the “flesh” (put to death), leading to life, 8:13b

14-17 Free Status as Children of God

• We who live by the Spirit = Sons of God

  • Adoption as Sons

  • Freed from Slavery

  • Heirs with Christ

• Suffer with Christ on the way to Glory

Question

• 8:10, “body is dead because of sin” & “life because of righteousness”, what does it mean?

  • Compare 5:15-18, 21. We live because of Jesus’ righteousness.

  • NIV puts it: “your body is dead because of sin, but your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

Outline for “Living by the Spirit”

1. Freedom in the Spirit

   1. Free from Condemnation

   2. Free from the Old Life

   3. Free for a New Life

2. Sons & Daughters

Actual Talk on Romans 8:1-17

Before I start the talk, I need to ask all of you here, how do you receive the Spirit of God? What does the Spirit do? Hopefully you can answer these 2 questions at the end of the talk.

1. We’re reading about a very special person of the Trinity today, the Spirit. We don’t hear about Him often, but if you are a Christian, or if you ever intend on becoming one, you will encounter Spirit. If you look at the outline, there are four points. The first 3 points go together, because in Jesus the Christian is freed from condemnation, and the Spirit then frees the christian from their old life and frees them into a new life. “Through Christ Jesus the law of Spirit of life sets us free from the law of sin & death.” (verse 2)

Firstly, we can revisit our previous understanding of condemnation. Verse 1: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” From the earlier books in Romans, we know that everyone, from the best to the worst, are under sin. And the result of sin is always death. We’re stuck, it’s like being born into a family. No matter how hard you try, you can make yourself into something you’re not, if you’ve got short parents, guess what, you’ll be short. If your parents have glasses, well, you’re gonna be a four-eye. Same with sin, if anyone is a human, a descendant of Adam & Eve, they are under sin, and they will suffer death. This is the condemnation, this is the “law of sin and death.” Those of you who remember Ben’s talk will remember that God’s laws, though they were good, could not free us from sinning or dying. Because we couldn’t follow them. Instead, they showed us how badly we do sin and so brought us condemnation. But look at verse one, how Paul is so confident that everyone in Jesus will not suffer condemnation? Because the condemnation they face, which you and me face, has already being borne by Jesus himself, when He became just like us in order to be condemned instead of us. This is the great news of the gospel, and it’s what you’ve been hearing in Romans. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” just like “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”¹

2. But Paul is also talking about another sort of condemnation, that is the dead end of our old way of life², the dead end of our old way of life. Now we’re onto point 2. Paul calls it “living according to the sinful nature” or “the law of sin & death”. At this point, let me use a diagram which simplifies (but doesn’t get all the details 100% correct) the situation.

Old Life: Everyone is ruled by a Sinful nature,

We  Sin  Death  Condemnation.

Problem 1: Sin  Death  Condemnation.

Answer: Christ pays for our sin by His death, therefore now Condemnation.

Problem 2: We  Sin  Death [Condemnation]

Answer: The Spirit frees us from Sin & Death, therefore in the future SIN & DEATH.

Let’s now look at why living according to the sinful nature is such a problem.

Verse 5: our minds desire sin and as a result, in verse 6: our minds lead us to death. The Bible is not soft on criticising our natures. It says that our dreams, goals, desires are hooked to sin. And when our desires are acted out, we commit acts that lead us to death. It is very hard to agree with this criticism. It says that everyone in general, when we are without the Spirit, want and desire things which are evil, and we can’t help it. We can’t even pretend we do. I can only comment on my own experience before becoming a Christian. Though I would often desire things which are good in themselves, excellent marks, success in sports, approval of friends, often the reason why I truly wanted them were self-centred. Even the good and noble desires of me helping the poor, making peace in this world, they had self-righteous elements in them, in that I wanted to feel good about myself.

Furthermore, in verse 7: our minds are hostile to God. We actually want and actively go against God’s desires. Not only do we desire what’s evil, we hate what’s godly. I think Australians, myself included, are particularly at fault. We hate those “do-gooders”, the “goody-twoshoes”, “wowsers”, those who are the “teacher’s pet”, you get what I mean. Generally we have this negative response to people who are actually better than ourselves, when people actually appreciate and enjoy good things that we don’t.

The criticism of our old life continues in verse 8: we cannot please God. We don’t have a choice, we just can’t do what’s good. We can’t help it, even if it’s modelled to us. It’s like asking someone who’s 5-foot tall to jump over a 2m bar. He just can’t do it. Similarly, we in our old way of life, just have no ability, no strength, no imagination and no desire to please God.

So that’s why we desperately need freedom from our old life, our life of sin & death, our life in the sinful nature.

3. That’s why we’ve got to thank God for His Spirit. Because the “through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life sets us free from the law of sin & death.” God has given us His Spirit to deal with the very root of the problem, the beginning of the chain of reaction of us  sinning  death  condemnation. His Spirit, helps us, by freeing us from the old and giving us a new way of life, His Spirit gives us a new nature, His Spirit leads our new lives. “The law of the Spirit of life sets us free from the law of sin & death.”

Before I show you from the Bible why the Spirit is so wonderful, we must all know how & when we receive the Spirit. Let me give you three choices. We know we have received the Spirit

A) when we have supernatural experiences after our conversion, like the Christians in Acts who spoke in tongues or performed miracles.

B) when we start to experience change in our lives, like lying less and being kinder to parents,

C) when we are baptised in the name of Jesus after we believe in Him

D) None of the above.

[…]

In verse 9, anyone who belongs to Jesus, has the Spirit. And from the book of Romans, those who place their trust in the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection are those who belong to Christ, They’re the ones who are credited with Jesus’ righteousness by trusting in Him (chapter 3 & 4), who are rescued from judgement through Jesus (chapter 5), who have peace through Jesus (chapter 5), who receive grace that brings life through Jesus (chapter 5), who are united to Jesus by their reliance on Him (chapter 6). When Jesus saves you, when you trust that He saves you, you belong to Him, and all the things we have heard in Romans, including now the Spirit of God, come to you. Anyone who belongs to Jesus, has the Spirit.

And the Spirit frees us for a new life. In verses 5-13, we see so many great works of the Spirit in our new lives. Firstly He gives us a new mind (verse 5). We are now able to set our minds on the things the Spirit desires, what God desires. This new mind no longer hates what’s good and godly, but enjoys it. It can now even obey God’s laws (verse 7). Remember how God’s laws used to be such burdens on us, how instead of doing what it says, we would do the exact opposite? Think of the time you were an infant (some of you may still be very childish, but one day you’ll grow up), and your parents would tell you things like “don’t touch that iron or you’ll burn yourself”, but you’d go ahead and do it? They would say “don’t pull the TV power plug”, and you’d rush over and disconnect every electrical item? Our curiosity caused every sort of disobedience imaginable. Well, in the same way, our sinful nature would use all of God’s good commands as opportunities for sins. But with the new life led by the Spirit, we can now obey God’s laws. Ben also spoke last week about being a slave to righteousness, how to the Christian God’s righteousness laws are helpful guides. Now we know why, because it’s the Spirit who makes this possible. God never planned for His good moral laws to come to pass, Jesus Himself fulfilled them, now to us believers, we have been given a new mind which can delight in God’s ways. God never meant His laws to disappear, He meant to write them on our hearts by His Spirit³, so that the “righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us” who live according to the Spirit. (verse 4)

Illustration: Perhaps those like myself who became a Christian later in life would have felt such a change. I used to be one of those who hated those “dogooders”, I enjoyed those bits of rebellion and thought them to be good, old Aussie fun. I think if I had grown up without Christ to be just Australian, life would be filled with the normal drunkenness, the laxity of sexual relationships and disrespect for anyone who told me what to do. But thank God for His Spirit, who gave me a new heart & mind. I have now become un-Australian in the sense that I respect what is good authority, I love being committed to my wife and I enjoy having a sober body and mind.

Application point: But we must be as realistic as the Bible about this new life. Look at verse 13 “For if you live acccording to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” The new life is a battle against the old. This is the first big response we make after receiving the Spirit. The old life is not, I repeat, not fully dead. You have to smash it on the head, you have to say no to it, and you have to do this over, and over and over, until the Lord Jesus returns. But remember who is there with you, who is at work in you, the Spirit. So work at every strand of our sinful nature, cut them all out! Look at our private lives, think hard on what displeases God, is it our illegal downloading and copying? Is it an addiction to pornography? Is it a ruthless tongue? Is it our selfishness, that always puts my good before everyone else’s, that refuses to help others improve on their assignments and essays, that has to get the best seat on the bus, best bed in the cabin? Is it a tendency to skimp over the truth when it’s embarrasing to us or makes us look dumb? But “through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set us free the law of sin & death” So let’s keep putting away the old life and living the new. We won’t get there tomorrow, we’ll have slips and falls and slide backwards like climbing up a snowy mountain on skis; but by the Spirit, we will and can get to the top.

[I can’t talk in detail about how the Spirit also lives in us who believe in Jesus (yes every moment of the rest of our lives until eternity the Spirit is stuck in us!) … and how He will give our dying bodies a new life at the resssurection because of righteousness in verses 9-11. I’ll let you study them at home.]

New Life: Everyone is led by the Spirit

We (by the Spirit)  Righteousness  Life  Glory

4. But I will finish on the most encouraging work of the Spirit. Point 4, those who have the Spirit are Sons and Daughters of God. The Spirit proves to us that we are God’s children. Verse 15 tells us that we can have no fear in calling God as our Father. No nationality, no other religion dares to claim that God is their father. Our Muslim friends cannot, because God is unreachable, He is far. Our Jewish friends do not call God their Father, because that closeness of relationship is not there and the fear of God’s holiness and wrath is still there. But for us who have God’s Spirit living in us (verse 9), we can call God our Father. The Spirit reassures us that we aren’t in God’s bad books because Jesus has died for us and shown us and given us access to the Father⁴, He says we should talk directly to God as our Father, that’s how He taught us to pray⁵. It is actually the amazing work of the Spirit in a christian that enables them to call God by such an intimate term, Father or Daddy in Hebrew. To be able to do that, you’ve got to want God as your Father, be not afraid of His holiness and glory that can melt us away like the Sun does our eyes. And given what we know of our old lives, we wouldn’t even want to have God in our backyard let alone have Him as Dad and we wouldn’t be able to face Him without fear. But the christian calls God Daddy, everytime he or she prays. And it’s the Spirit of adoption or sonship (verse 16) at work.

Application: This leaves us with the second big response after receiving the Spirit of adoption. Imagine if we were an orphans on the street, imagine that we were orphans in this world. Unloved, unrelated, helpless to help ourselves and refusing help. But then comes along God, through His Son Jesus, gives us the Spirit of Adoption. We are taken into His family, His heavenly home, given a scrub-up because our old life was filthy and dying, He takes off our old scrags of sinful nature and gives us new clothes of righteouness. He writes down in a contract signed in blood that He will never be angry at our previous, present or future sins, but will always be our Father. And He adds, you will receive my inheritance, my riches, you will have all that I have and all that I am. Wow? Wouldn’t that be nice? Well, it’s real. You don’t have to imagine it. If you have trusted in Jesus, you’ve got this all, because you have His Spirit of Adoption. You are today, from now until eternity, a child of God. We’ve got to thank God with joy for this great gift, because we have so much to look forward to.

So as christians we have an answer to depression, anxiety and low self-esteem. We feel down about our looks? Our achievements? Our relationships? We feel down because of who we really are? We feel down because of what others think of us? We don’t need to, we have the love of the Father guaranteed for us by His very Spirit, His Breath and His Life. He’s willing to call us his own children, who else in the world has this privilege? Does every tall, rich, athletic, beautiful, intelligent or successful Joe Bloe have this? But we do!

We also have an answer to the sinful natures of everyone who mistreats us. Just think to yourself when you are mistreated by someone else’s selfishness, the cutting remark, that hurtful sneer and jeer. Think to yourself this: your Daddy is bigger than theirs. This is childish, but true, our Father is the best, He will take care of all our woes. And next week, you’ll hear that we have an answer to suffering.

We’ve heard a lot today, let’s pray in response to our Father.

1 Romans 5:1

2 C.c. 7:6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code [i.e. Law].

3 Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:26.

4 John 14:6

5 Matthew 6:9

Benefits of Justification: a talk from Romans 5

Romans 4:23 to 5:11 "The Benefits of Justification" For NSCCCS 2006-01-29

William Ng

Passage outline

4:23-25

• Abraham as an example for faith in God

• Our faith in Jesus counts as righteousness in God’s sight. Our gospel faith has 2 parts:

  • Because of our sins Jesus was crucified

  • In order to justify us Jesus was resurrected

5:1-11

5:1-2

• We have peace/reconciliation with God through Jesus

  • free access to God’s grace and,

  • hope in God’s glory that leads to rejoicing

5:3-5

• We (i.e. Romans) can even rejoice in our sufferings

• Because suffering eventually leads us to hope and our hope relies on God’s love

• And God’s love has been shown to us, by His Spirit. That is:

  • Christ’s death and resurrection for God’s enemies

5:6-10

• This is how we see God’s love

• Christ died for sinners

• “If… then” argument [a fortiori]:

  • if by Christ’s death we are justified,

  • then how much more we will saved by Christ’s life.

• That is God’s love

5:11

• “More than that” we rejoice in God through what Jesus has done (above)

• Therefore our reconciliation with God leads us to rejoicing

Talk Outline

1. We are right with God through faith in Jesus

[Grace, Our faith, “Since we have been justified by faith, therefore we have peace with God,” Romans 5:1]

2. We have peace with God

[Peace, Received, Enemies, sinners, Jesus’s death]

3. We have grace, glory and hope

   1. Grace as a state

   2. Glory in future, of God, also in us

   3. Hope in suffering, based on God’s love

4. We know God’s love in Jesus’ death

   1. Costly

   2. What we were

   3. How God was and who He is

   4. Proof

5. We have salvation in the future

   1. From God’s anger

   2. New life with Jesus

6. Being a joyful christian in God

“We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” Romans 5:11b.

• Rejoicing in God

  • Peace: no fear (respond to people who have no peace through Jesus)

  • Glory: the best (like good things)

  • Future Hope: courage in present (laughed at, different); joy (real, present)

  • Love: security (alone)

• To have or not to have

  • If not…

  • If yes, “we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

• Prayer

Talk: To Have or not to Have?

“We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1b

1. We are right with God through faith in Jesus (remember Abraham!)

I’m sure you remember how Chris showed you from Romans 4 that Abraham is our model of faith. Abraham trusted in God’s promise, and God credited Him with righteousness. Abraham was credited this freely, he didn’t work for it, he didn’t deserve it, but God credited to him because He was kind. But look at verse 23 and 24 of chapter 4: “but the words ‘[righteousness] was credited to him’ were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also”. It is saying that the same gracious God credits us with righteousness in the same way. When anyone, even the most hardened criminal, realises that Jesus was killed on the cross for his rebellion against God and he relies on this Jesus, then he is credited with a right standing with God. If you or me trust in Jesus’ death, and that He has risen from death having fully paid for our rebellion, we are credited with righteousness. This is called “justification by faith”.

[Example: wait there’s more]

I vaguely remember my first taste of chocolate when I was a kid in Hong Kong. It was probably a some birthday party and mum opened a pack of maltezers for me and other relos to have. Being small, I could only manage to hold one maltezer and barely get my teeth around what seemed like huge chocolate ball. I tasted it and thought in my childish thoughts, “Wow! This is the best chocolate I’ll ever taste!” That of course wasn’t true, when I got older, and was able to walk to the supermarket downstairs with my mum, I would be introduced into a world of other chocolates, there’d be dairy milk, ones with nuts, ones without, black ones, white ones, chocolate biscuits, thin ones, long ones, chocolate ice-cream, chocolate buns. And I would think, “This is it, this supermarket stores the best and most delicious chocolates!” But we then moved to Australia, and we would visit Gordon or St Ives Woollies (I was still little then), and my eyes would again be opened to greater horizons, another world of chocolates which I’d never heard of, Turkish delight, tim-tams, Ice-cream Mars-bars, Freddo frogs, mmm. But my experience of chocolate did not just stop there, even in these days, I am always surprised to find out more and more types, flavours, combinations and tastes of chocolates as I visit Japanese food stores, candy stores in Leura in the blue mountains, and dream of Reeses, Lindt, Belgian truffles. There was much more to chocolate than that first maltezer (which is still very yummy).

In the same way, there is even more to our Christian life once we have been justified by faith. Romans 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been justified, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Point 2.

2. We have peace with God because of Jesus

Peace is not a common way people describe their relationship with God.

Imagine that I ask Jonathan, “How are you going with God?”, and He answers “Will, God and I, we’re at peace, man. You know, there’s real peace between me and God.” You’ll probably say “Huh? What’s he on?”. But the Bible says in 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” In the Bible’s eyes, Righteousness goes hand-in-hand with Peace. You can’t have one without the other. It’s like Lamb and Mint Sauce, Ren & Stimpy, Merric & Russo and Meat Pie and Tomato Sauce. Since you’ve been justified by faith, therefore you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[Example: making-up]

Remember in Romans 1, the picture the Bible paints of us and God. We were God haters, idol worshippers, inventors of evil, we said “Stuff you” to our Creator and Maker and chased after other things. And God, He is good, powerful and holy, He sees all the things we do, and they make Him sad, even worse, they start this huge blaze of anger in His just, clean and godly heart. God is furious at everyone of us human creatures as we have all rebelled against Him. We were enemies, and God was going into war against us in the judgement He has prepared.

But “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” What does it take for such hard enemies to become friends? It takes the Life of our Lord Jesus Christ. His death on our behalf, turns away the angry, punishing hand of God against us. God spends all His just anger at the Lord Jesus Christ as He sacrifices His life on the cross for us the enemies of God. So “Through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace with God.”

The rest of the passage then lists out all the benefits of what it’s like to be God’s friends, to have peace with God.

a. Firstly, we have grace, glory and hope.

When we enter into eternal friendship with God, the standing we have with Him is grace. The Bible uses the term “standing” because grace here is the relationship we have with God. God will only ever from now on lavish His love, energy and goodness onto us in this grace. And this grace “stands” because our relationship is secure. I cannot think of anything else that we possess in this lifetime to have the same security. My medical registration status becomes null if I break the medical board’s rules, my video store membership becomes null if I don’t visit the store enough, my credit card award program becomes null if I don’t spend its points. But my relationship with God is always one of grace because “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”.

And our gracious God gives us the hope of glory. Glory is brilliance that deserves admiration. God is glorious, when we get to meet God on His return, we will feel His glory, we will fall in love with His brilliant personality, admire His great power, praise His brilliant plans, love His beauty. Our God shares His glory with us¹, so that we can hope for that day when we too are brilliant, when my appearance will be brilliant instead of a dying and ageing body, my character, thoughts and desires will be brilliant enough to be put on show to the whole world, instead of being sinful, shameful and dishonourable. He gives us this Hope because “we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” So we have peace with God, we have grace and the hope of glory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

(This Hope allows us to rejoice even in suffering. Below)

b. What’s more, we know God’s love for us in Jesus’ death

[Example: Danielle]

It is not uncommon that my wife asks me this question, “do you love me?”. And I always answer “yes” without hesitation. This then sometimes leads her to another question, “do you really love me?” At that point I would list out various proofs of how I do love her.

This is the same question the Bible raises in 5:5b “God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit”. The Spirit carves out our hearts the proof of God’s love to us. God proves His love in HOW He made peace with us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Read 5:8 with me. “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Look at what we were when God makes peace with us. We were sinners. God took that first step when we were still sworn enemies. We were ungodly, different to God, haters of God, people who grieved Him and make Him angry. [Example? Iraqi war] We were powerless to do anything to make peace, verse 6 because the cost was the death of sinners, it was our very lives, we’re powerless because we simply can’t afford it. But Christ died for us in order to make peace between us and God. Then look at what cost this peace meant to God: it cost His only Son, it cost the King of the world, it cost Jesus His very life, His precious, godly and unique life to make peace between God and His enemies. That’s how “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. And so we have grace and hope of glory, and we know God’s love for us, because God’s Spirit proves it to us.

c. Even more than, we’re given a future salvation. “Hang on”, I hear you say, “a future salvation? What’s this heresy Will is preaching on? I always thought the bible said a person is saved (past tense) once they trust in Jesus!” Good question. Yes, there is the sense that God saves comletely anyone with trusts in Jesus because they cannot lose their relationship with God, their peace is eternal, they stand in grace, their hope of glory is definite. But look at verse 9. “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.” It is saying that we have been justified, we are right in God’s eyes, God is no longer angry because “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. But God’s judgement day will still come, and on that day, we will really be saved from God’s wrath. When God punishes sinners with eternal destruction, we will be really protected from that because of Jesus and what He has done. Our salvation is realised fully in the future.

We are encouraged to remember that if we have been justified by Christ, if as sinners we are reconciled by His death, then how much more of God’s blessing, His life and His kindness we will receive in the future. If that’s how God treated us when we were still His enemies, how do you think He will treat you when you’re His friend in eternity? [Example: PS1 & PS2 or wedding day] So we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have grace and the hope of glory, we know God’s love and we have a future salvation.

3. All this, leads us to rejoice in God. Point 3. “We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” Romans 5:11b.

Our lives actually appear different when we rejoice in this God, with whom we now have peace, or reconciliation, through the Lord Jesus Christ.

We who have peace, have no fear of death. I was taking a medical history from an anxious, Italian lady in emergency, who had a panic attack at 2am on Wednesday. I asked her, “What makes you so worried?” And she answered, “Oh, so many things, I worry about my husbands, relatives, I’m anxious for the relatives who’ve died. And you know, I also worry about death.” This lady is most honest. She really is stressed out about her future. Despite wearing a crucifix on her necklace, despite having been a Catholic for all her life, she fears death. How can you respond to people who fear death? Give them a Panadol? Buy them a nice toy? Take them on a holiday? We who have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, not only do we have the privilege of freedom from that fear, we can also answer people’s fear. We can give them a sure way in Jesus, that sets them at peace with God. If the good news of Jesus were given to our friends, then how many of them would sleep at night, lose a wrinkle or two and have real peace. And so we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

And what if we have the promise of glory given to us? A glorious new body that doesn’t age? A glorious position in God’s company or His kingdom? A glorious personality that is like Jesus’ own? I think we would be people who rejoice in what is best and excellent. I tell you, it is almost impossible for people who do not know God’s glory to like what is good. John’s gospel tells us that Jesus showed everyone God’s glory, but His people didn’t even recognise it, worse than that, they hated God’s glory. For us sitting in this room, do we really believe that being the top of our class, becoming the dux of our school, getting a perfect UAI in our state, getting the medal in our university course, earning the most money out of the children of our extended family, living in the biggest house in our suburb or on the topmost level of our apartments, do we believe that these things are real glory? I’m afraid we might have been tricked like a fool who has never seen gold in his life and who has only ever laid his eyes on gravel, that when he stumbles on a 50kg gold nugget, he thinks it’s a piece of trash and throws it down a river. But as Christians, we have peace with God, and have been given the promise of glory that far outweighs anything else we can have on this earth, a gold that outweighs all the gravel that we can ever collect. So seek for what’s best, a kinder personality, a helpful attitude to friends, a purer heart, a love of good. Aim for the best, aim for God’s glory. Because we have this promise of glory, we rejoice in God through the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation.

Remember also that God has given us his friends hope: a hope that does not disappoint because it’s built on the love He’s proven to us. What can this hope do for us? Well, we understand why we go through suffering in this life. The Bible is realistic. There is no simple way in making someone hope in God’s promises other than through the hard training of suffering. Verse 3 to 4 says our suffering leads to perseverance, which slowly develops our character, which in turn makes us hope more and more for God’s promises. When we are tested in our life, our hope in God and His promises are made stronger. It’s as simple as that. Hope gives us a different attitude to our friends in terms of suffering. We can find something to rejoice in even when the whole world seems to be falling apart. If our relationships don’t work out, we know God is teaching us to trust in Him and in His love, if we fail in some subject, we know that God is planning for us to be tough and trust in Him, if we don’t get into the course or career we want to, we know that God is telling us that He has a better future installed for us and that He will make us godly as a result of our testing. Hope here is related to the promise of Glory, God’s trying His very best, through our suffering, to make us Hope in what is best, what He’s saved for us in the future. God wants gold for us because we foolishly desire gravel. That’s WHY we rejoice in suffering in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation.

Lastly, we are secure in God’s love. Most people find it hard to be alone. Because being alone mean being lonely. Would any of us like to be Nigels or Nigellas? (I hope no one here is called that because this is not referring to you in particular) A Nigel at school? At church? At work? But the real difference between those who have God’s love and those who haven’t is security: they are secure even if they’re alone. God proved His love to us by making peace with us, and this frees us from insecurities like, “What would my friends, cousins and work friends think of me? Why should I go meet that new friend when all my friends are cliquey and having fun? Why should I be odd and not drink like all my uni-friends? Man, I need someone to hang around cos I don’t want to be a Nigel!” Instead, God’s love frees us to be different and godly in our school, uni and work place. We can say no to drunkenness and immorality because we don’t need to feel the pressure from friends. We can leave our cliquey groups to make friends with the other Nigels and Nigellas, We can be satisfied to be single and dateless and use our time to help others. That’s HOW we rejoice in God’s love through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation.

If you don’t have peace with God and if you are not yet God’s friend because you haven’t trusted in Jesus, please do it. Just do it. Rely on this Jesus who paid the price for peace, ask Him and you will have received peace with God, grace, hope of glory and know the love of God. If you have already received this peace, then rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation.

1 Romans 8:21