I find it very striking that the New Testament reading set for today from Romans 5 is exactly the same reading I preached on three months ago at our final service before the lockdown. It speaks of peace with God, hope in the midst of suffering and God's grace in our weakness – themes which address our current situation very powerfully. So I am preaching again from this passage this morning. I want us to keep in mind the experience we have had over the last 3 months, but also to come with open mind and heart to listen afresh to God's words of grace to us.
'Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.' These are the opening words of Romans chapter 5. We have peace with God and we stand in grace because of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is in fact the central message of Paul's letter to the Romans.
In the next few weeks we will hear a sequence of readings from this letter and will be reflecting further on its message. Paul writes to the Christians in Rome as he prepares to visit them for the first time. The church was composed of both Jewish and Gentile Christians and it seems there was much tension between the two groups. As in all his letters, Paul responds to the situation on the ground, but he is also keen to give a full account of the gospel. Indeed, his letter to the Romans is his most sustained and coherent statement of the gospel and has been called by some a 'Christian manifesto'.
The letter to the Romans has had a profound effect on many great thinkers and theologians over the centuries: Augustine (in the 4th century), Luther (in the 16th), Wesley (in the 18th) and the Swiss theologian Karl Barth (in the 20th) were all particularly influenced by Romans. For all of them, reading and digesting it was a significant spiritual turning point, as they discovered the radical message of God's undeserved grace and the new freedom that brought. Many ordinary people have also made a similar joyful discovery and I hope over these next few weeks God's grace will speak to us afresh through Paul's words.
The message of Romans speaks of freedom 'from the dark little dungeon of our own little ego' to use a phrase of the writer and broadcaster Malcolm Muggeridge. In the opening three chapters of Romans Paul paints a bleak picture of the human condition, marked by pride, self-centredness and ingrained habits of egotistical and destructive behaviour. He comes to the conclusion 'that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God'; not just some people but everyone, even those who thought they were leading good lives as one of God's chosen people.
We may perhaps find such talk of sin rather too negative and depressing. Aren't we created as human beings in the image of God and is there not therefore some goodness in us? Paul is not denying we are created in the image of God, but he is saying that we are nevertheless deeply flawed and this is true even of the best of us. Rather than depressing, I find Paul's conclusion completely realistic. When we look at the world we see the damage human beings inflict on one another, both intentionally and unintentionally. And in fact I don't have to look any further than my own heart to know that. I know I am deeply flawed and I cannot mend myself.
The message of Romans is that God's grace in Christ breaks into our dark little dungeons, into the mess human beings make of themselves and the world around them. God's grace is a gift. But unlike many of the gifts we may give to one another it is not given because we have done something to deserve it. It's not the case that because we've done something good, pious or generous therefore God rewards us. The logic of grace is different: it's not because and therefore but rather despite and nevertheless. Despite our failures, nevertheless God has acted in Christ and poured out his love upon us.
We now have peace with God through Christ and access to his grace, in which we now stand. Grace means God's completely undeserved and freely given love. Grace is not just offered to some but to all. Paul's message is that we cannot think of some people as worthy of God's favour and others not. Jews, Gentiles, the respectable, the unrespectable, those who seek to do the right thing and those who don't – God's grace is available for them all. We don't first have to make ourselves worthy for God to love us.
God's grace is seen in the gift of Christ; his death and resurrection. Paul says: 'For while we were still weak...Christ died for the ungodly.' It's rare for someone to die for another, but we might perhaps imagine someone dying for a good person, he says, but God's grace works differently. Christ dies for us while we are still sinners, and even while we are his 'enemies', as Paul goes on to say in the verses after today's reading. Remember Jesus praying for his enemies on the cross: 'Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing.'
The message of Romans is that we cannot mend ourselves; we cannot make ourselves right with God and other people; it is God who acts to change things. Through God's action in Christ, we now have peace with God and we stand in grace. This truth colours everything – the whole of our lives, even times of suffering and difficulty.
Peace with God does not mean we always feel peaceful and content and that we never face trouble, anxiety, weakness or suffering. But we are held in the peace and grace of God even in the midst of our weakness, suffering and fear. When I preached on this passage a few months ago, I spoke about Paul's strange words that we 'boast [or rejoice] in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.' I said that although suffering is not a good thing, we can in fact learn and grow through suffering and our trust in God can be deepened and strengthened through such times. Much of what we know of love, patience, compassion, strength, courage and hope in our own lives and in the lives of others has been learned through suffering. Perhaps we may have seen that afresh over these past few months; indeed it might be good and helpful to share with one another what we have learned through this time.
But there is perhaps a danger that we begin to think of the endurance, character and hope which may arise out of suffering as something produced by ourselves, something which is our own achievement. We do that when we look at others too; 'she's a strong person' we say when we see someone who has coped well with a painful situation. But the endurance and hope which Paul speaks of does not originate within ourselves. 'Hope does not disappoint us because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.'
We are again back to grace: the abundant, undeserved love poured out into our hearts. This is the basis of our hope; this is the hope of faith. As Karl Barth puts it: 'This hope does not rise and fall as ours does. Its nerve-centre lies not in human capacity but in the capacity and purpose of God.' We can have hope in God because of his abundant love, even when we feel ourselves weak, anxious and even hopeless in human terms. I was surprised to hear in a talk recently that Mother Teresa, who worked tirelessly with the poor and destitute on the streets of Calcutta, struggled with feelings of darkness and hopelessness over many years. At the same time her life was founded on a deep trust and hope in God's love in Christ. The hope she had was beyond herself and others could see that.
We are not called to always be strong; to make ourselves strong; to appear strong to others. We are called to trust God, to put ourselves in God's hands, to stand in his grace. I have found this such a message of hope and freedom over these last few weeks. I have been only too aware of my own weakness and anxiety; the lack of strength and hope within myself. But in the midst of our anxiety, stress, awareness of our own weakness, and frayed tempers, the love of God is poured out upon us. It is not about making ourselves strong, hopeful and peaceful; it is not about ourselves but about God. That is the good news of joy and freedom. Whatever uncertainty, weakness and suffering we face, we stand in grace.
Knowing the undeserved love, the unconditional grace which God pours out upon us means we begin to see ourselves and others differently. We do not need to prove our own worthiness to ourselves or others; we do not need to make distinctions between those we think deserve love and respect and those we think do not. God, in his grace, makes no such distinctions, so why should we? God loves us all, not because of our goodness and our moral and other achievements, but despite our weaknesses, mistakes and failures.
However, just because God's grace is freely offered and we don't have to prove ourselves worthy in order to receive it, that doesn't mean that his grace demands nothing from us in return. If we have truly received the abundant grace God gives us, then this grace will begin to change us. God's grace evokes our gratitude, a gratitude which prompts us to offer the whole of ourselves, our hearts, our minds, our attitudes, our work, our time, our relationships in response to God. Paul goes on later in Romans to outline what this gratitude and self-offering might look like in practice.
Later in our service we will say The General Thanksgiving, which used to be said daily at Morning Prayer. In this wonderful expression of gratitude, we give thanks for all the blessings of our lives, especially for God's 'immeasurable love...for the means of grace and for the hope of glory'. And, in response, we pray that we will 'with truly thankful hearts...give up ourselves to (God's) service' and walk before him in 'holiness and righteousness all our days.'
We 'stand in grace'; the undeserved love of God is poured out into our hearts; may that love bear fruit in our lives, to God's glory.
Revd Helen Marshall