Sunday 29th March
Read Romans 5:1-5
“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.” (NIVUK)
Although we are already justified by faith and have gained access to the grace revealed n Jesus this does not mean that we have entered not the promised hope. Paul knows that we are between the secured promise and the future reality. As Luther so succinctly summarised this truth we are ‘simul justus et peccator’ or‘simultaneously righteous and sinner’.
The legacy of sin in the world and in our lives results in suffering. Yes, Paul is also referring to suffering because we have put our faith in Jesus, but the everyday ordinary grief of life is not erased because we have been justified. It is transformed.
This transformation flows from the second ‘gift’ we have been given (v5). God has stepped down in Jesus, bore the punishment for our sins and then poured His love not our hearts by and through His Spirit. We no longer approach suffering with despair and shame, even if it is the consequence of our sin, we repent and are transformed by His Spirit.
Righteous, hopeful, sinners.
