1 The Right Time to Rejoice (Romans 5:6-11) by Rev. Dan McDowell October 21, 2018 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11) The first three chapters of Romans really focus on who we are before we are saved. It is summed up fairly well by Romans 3:10-12. As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.
2 So Paul emphasizes that we have done nothing good and that in fact, we don t even seek God before we are Christians. Romans 4 comes after this and we begin to see a turn in the focus because we are talking about Abraham being justified by faith. We see that Abraham didn t do anything to earn faith, but rather, his faith was credited to him as righteousness. Part One: Just the Right Time That brings us to chapter five, where we heard last week about the hope of the glory of God. Paul is making a transition here to talk a bit more about who God is in and of Himself. He writes this section almost like a sermon in and of itself. He has a short introduction, a body, and a conclusion. He starts off in verse six by telling us that Christ s death came at just the right time. Now, as I considered this, I wondered what this meant. My initial thought was that Christ s death came at just the right time in history. This means that Christ didn t show up early or late, but that everything happened at exactly the right time in history. This certainly is true, because Christ showed up long after Abraham, he showed up right around Paul s time. The life of Jesus was at just the right time and political climate so that every prophecy that had been written about him was able to be fulfilled. His death came at exactly the right time in history, but I don t think that is what Paul was saying because he qualifies, or clarifies his statement immediately after he makes it. He says, At just the right time, while we were still powerless Paul is saying that the right time was the time during which we were powerless. It s kind of funny to read this, because Paul is basically recapping the first three chapters in this. He wants us to understand that there was nothing we could do to save ourselves, and Christ didn t die because of anything we did, but he died when we were still powerless.
3 Now, in verse seven Paul begins to make a contrast. He says, Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. I have been waiting for this passage for months now because anyone who listens to me preach for very long knows that we are about to arrive at my very favorite verse in the whole Bible. I literally have it tattooed on my left arm! It is verse 8 from the passage we just read: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. I love that verse because to me it defines the grace of God. There is something inside us that keeps telling us that we need to earn any love we receive. We need to DO something to make it happen! But Romans 5:6 says at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Jesus died for who? For the ungodly! That s you and me! He goes on to define it further by saying that it s pretty rare to find anyone willing to die for someone else but if someone is good enough If someone is worthy enough If someone has done enough good things for us to warrant our affection and dedication MAYBE someone would dare to sacrifice their life for them. Then he lowers the boom with verse 8 But that wasn t good enough for God! God demonstrates HIS love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us! Isn t that amazing! The Holy, pure, omnipotent creator of the universe demonstrated what pure and holy love is by loving us enough to die for us before we did a single thing to deserve it! Now that he s made his point, he seeks to explain it. In verse 9 he says, Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be
4 saved through him! We are justified by Christ s blood. Justified means that justice has been served. It means that we are all square. Think of a courtroom. If I am guilty of a crime, the court will exact a punishment from me. The court can do whatever it takes to cause me to complete my punishment. Now, once my punishment has been completed, whether by me or someone else, I am justified. If I paid my fine, they won t do anything more to me. They have nothing against me, because I am justified. It is the same way with God. We have all been found guilty of sin, and must pay the penalty for that which is death before we can be justified. If we don t pay the penalty, we face God s wrath, which is hell. This section says that Christ s blood justifies us. Paul then explains that if we are justified, we are saved from God s wrath. Now this is important to understand. Everyone that Jesus died for is potentially saved from hell because they are justified. But this is sometimes misunderstood. Some people understand Christ s death in that he died for everyone. The logical conclusion of this is that everyone is justified, and thus everyone is saved from hell. This is a concept known as universalism, and it is clearly contradicted by the bible, because the bible teaches that there is a real hell with real people in it. So, it makes sense that Jesus only died for those who accept His grace and follow Him by faith! Paul continues this line of thought into verse 10. He says, For if, when we were God s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! We are told that we are God s enemies. As people who have sinned against God, we are his enemies. We also see that while we were his enemies, we were
5 reconciled to him through Jesus. Reconciled refers to bringing two parties who are estranged back together. Christ brings us and God back together into a relationship. We are no longer enemies of God because of Christ s death on the cross. But Paul doesn t stop there. Paul doesn t end with Christ s death, because the story doesn t end with his death. He says, How much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Paul points out that because Christ is alive, we continue to be reconciled. Let s look at Hebrews 7:23-25. It says this: Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus live forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always live to intercede for them. Now before this will make sense, we have to know the context. In the Jewish faith, the Hebrew people had a high priest, who would make intercession for them once a year. Basically he was the middle man between God and the people. The high priest could basically only serve as long as he was alive, new high priests were appointed periodically. Jesus was the great high priest, and also lived to make intercession. The difference with Jesus is that he isn t dead, so he is still able to make intercession for us. He is able to save completely his people. This should be an amazing comfort. We see that if we are Christians, we are saved no matter what! This shouldn t surprise us, because we didn t do anything to earn or even deserve our salvation, so what should make us think we can do something to lose it! No matter how far we have fallen, no matter how bad we mess up, Jesus is still there to bring us back to right standing with God! This is great news for us as Christians! In fact it
6 should cause us to rejoice! And I am going to tell you why in great detail when we get back after our prayer and offering time. Part Two: Cause to Rejoice One of the things that I like about this church is that we don t always do things the way people expect us to. We turn things on their heads. One of the things that many churches do is a congregational response. The pastor will say, and all god s people say (and the people say, amen.) I want you to do something different. When I say, and all god s people say I want you to say, so what?! Not out of disrespect, but because we want to know what this should mean for us! In the African American church, sermons are audience participation events. When the pastor says something the congregation likes they will shout out AMEN! But I noticed something curious Sometimes the Pastor will be talking and he or she will say something interesting and instead of saying amen someone will raise their hand and wave it a little and say well! I attended an African American church in Philadelphia the first year I went to seminary (Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in West Philly Tony Campolo s congregation). And over time I came to an understanding. When someone was saying well! what they were really saying was tell me more explain that a little better. Now in Phoenixville-ese that s pretty much the same thing as saying So what?! So, All God s people say I m glad you asked! Let me tell you. In verse eleven, Paul basically answers the so what question. He says, Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. It is almost as though he is saying, yes, all these other things are true, but they are not the point of the issue. The point is that we are to rejoice! We
7 have been given so much when we follow Jesus we should rejoice. We are saved when we were powerless, God shows tremendous love to us because he died for us when we didn t deserve it, and we are saved from his wrath despite anything we did or do. God s work should make us rejoice! So what? How should this affect our lives? I have a list of four things that I think this should cause us to be. First, we should be obedient. We can honor God by being obedient to him. Children honor their parents by being obedient, and as God s children we should do the same. This means that when we are home alone, what we watch, what we read, what we look at online, everything we do should be affected by rejoicing in God. When we write our checks for the month, we can honor God by tithing. When we are late for an appointment because are so busy, we can honor God by calmly driving the speed limit with courtesy to other drivers. We can rejoice by being obedient. Second, we can be servants. I am in an interesting situation as far as my living arrangements go right now. The roommate I am married to just came home to live with me a few weeks ago. My other roommate ran into some trouble a month or so ago and found himself briefly living in his car. When he told me about that I said, Joe! Don t do that! I have a spare room. Come stay with me until you get back on your feet. That was before Terri got her local job and moved back in full-time. So now there are three of us living in my little apartment. Joe is still looking for a permanent job and saving up for the deposit he needs for a new apartment. He offered to pay us rent while he is here but I told him to save it. (That s my way of saying get out of here as soon as you can! Just kidding Joe) The thing is Joe shows his gratitude in many ways. He is always asking if he can help by doing things like taking out the trash and buying dinner. He keeps telling us what nice people we are. Gratitude lends itself to service! I feel the same way
8 toward Joe by the way I have told you that Joe is a fellow football official in my chapter. When I first moved here he invited me over to his apartment and explained things to me about my officiating duties here and how to get more assignments. He didn t have to do that. He offered out of the kindness of his heart and he really helped me out! So when he was in a bind I didn t feel like it was anything heroic to return the favor. Gratitude lends itself to service. This should be the attitude we have with God. We have been given immeasurably more than just a place to sleep. We have been given eternal gift when we didn t deserve it! We should seek to serve him in any way possible, we should be looking for ways to serve. In the church, maybe we need to serve in the nursery, or teach a class, or volunteer at Good Works, even start a new ministry! Whatever it is, we need to be finding a way to serve God. We can rejoice by being servants. Third, we can rejoice by being humble. The knowledge that we have done nothing to be saved should be humbling. People complaint that the church looks down on everyone. This should not be the case, because we should realize more than anyone that it is only because of God that we have not been utterly consumed by sin. The English theologian John Bradford is well known for his comment when he saw a drunk lying in the gutter one day. As he walked by, he said, there but for the grace of God lies John Bradford. This made him humble, because of what God has done in his life. We can rejoice by being humble. Fourth, we can rejoice with attitudes of Joy. This sounds redundant, but our attitudes should reflect joy because of what we have been given. Too many times, we are focused on everything but God s gifts, and we don t rejoice. We are sour people. Try this when you wake up: Instead of the first words out of your mouths being I have to get up or, it s hot, or it s cold, or I don t want to go to work, or
9 I don t want to go to school, say thank you Jesus for saving me! Thank you for giving me opportunities to serve you today! An unquenchable joy that should be visible around us, because we have been given so much! I hope this text is clear to you. Everything comes back to God, and we should rejoice in that. I want to ask you a couple of very direct questions. First, are you saved? If this has made you uncomfortable or you have a desire to understand this more, God may be calling you to be saved today. If that is the case, then do so. Talk to me or anyone else here about it. If you are saved, then can I ask you, are you rejoicing? Where can you be rejoicing? What is God calling you to do? Don t leave this place the same way you came in, but rejoice in God today. I want to leave you with a song that echoes this passage of scripture. Let these words be your prayer. I m forgiven because you were forsaken. I m accepted. You were condemned. I m alive and well, your spirit lives within me. Because you died and rose again. Amazing Love, how can it be, That you my king would die for me. Amazing love, I know it s true, And it s my joy to honor you. In all I do, I honor you