I had the opportunity to preach on January 1, 2017: click here to see the video or listen to the audio, scroll to the bottom of this page to choose.
I chose Romans 5:1-12 as my text, since New Year’s Day is an opportunity to reflect on the past twelve months and consider “what kind of a year it has been.” For 2016, most people are saying it was a terrible year, and it has been for world events, and for people in this church. We naturally look forward to a new year with hope it is going to get better. Chances are it will be just as bad, putting our hope for happiness in the lives of celebrities (old celebrities die and they will once again in 2017) or politicians to work out solutions for war and the economy (politicians lie and they will again in 2016).
Paul describes the real reason we can have hope in Romans 5:1-11. Since we have been made right with God, we have peace with God and we have a hope for the future in which we can rejoice.
We have been justified by faith, therefore we have access to God (5:1-5). Since we have been justified by faith (like Abraham), we experience peace with God rather than wrath (5:1). The wrath of God has been satisfied in the death of Jesus so that those who are in Christ by faith experience peace, not wrath. Paul uses an aorist passive participle (Δικαιωθέντες) to indicate we did not justify ourselves, but also that this justification is an accomplished fact (Kruse, Romans, 225). Our experience of peace, however, is a present tense verb (ἔχομεν), having been justified in the past, we are now in a state of peace with God.
The peace Paul has in mind is not inner peace (although the Gospel can lead to real personal peace). But in the context of Romans, Paul has in mind peace which results from the cessation of the enmity humans have with God. In chapters 1-3, all humans were enemies of God now we have peace with God because he has done something in Christ to create a situation of peace. In Ephesians 2:11-22, for example, after he describes Gentile alienation from God, he declares it is the work of Jesus on the cross that “brings close” Jews and Gentiles.
Since we have peace with God, we have access to the Father (5:2a). In order to have access to a king, one must have appropriate status. The word translated access (προσαγωγή) is used by Xenophon, for example, to describe those who have access to the Persian king Cyrus (Cyr. 7, 5, 45). The same word appears in Ephesians 2:18 to describe Jews and Gentiles having access to God the Father through the same Spirit.
The one who is in Christ has the appropriate status to enter into the presence of God through the Holy Spirit, later Paul will expand this metaphor by describing us as adopted into the family of God, so that we can call God abba, father.
We have this access by means of the grace “in which we stand.” Both “have” and “stand” are perfect tense verbs, indicating a complete action in the past (accepting God’s grace through faith, being justified), but also an action with continuing relevance at the present time. We currently stand in the grace God has given, and we currently have access to the Father because of what he has already done.
This is in contrast to anyone who tries to obtain salvation through works. Since they are not justified by faith (and adopted into the family of God), they never really do have access to God. In Second Temple period Judaism, one did not directly approach God. Only the high priest could enter the presence of God in the Holy of Holies, others can only approach so far (court of men, women, gentiles, etc.) In the worship of Greco-Roman gods, one did not approach them directly nor were humans granted access to a god. This access to the Father is a remarkable claim in the ancient world!
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.