Romans 5:1–5Scripture
Turn with me today to Romans chapter 5. I've been tasked with the responsibility of maybe providing for us an intro to chapter 5, and that's hard to do, to be honest with you. It is, but I'll do my best.
I'll do my best, and not to rob from next week's message at all, I don't want to do that. I'm going to tiptoe into verses 1 through 5. Next week we're going to really get into verses 1 through 5. I'm going to tiptoe in there, lay some groundwork, and then cut out. So you can go ahead and turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 5, and I just want to visit with you for a second. In the first four chapters of Romans, we were seeing this movement, the Apostle Paul is setting up for us what is justification by faith alone, not by works, that any man should boast. So he talks quite a bit, and he talked extensively, about God's desire to remove from us, particularly so vehemently, this idea and attitude of boasting. He's trying to remove that completely from us, that when it comes to salvation we have nothing that we can boast about. And so he lays a particular firm foundation on that: we are justified by faith alone. To explain this, he works himself all the way back to Abraham. He gives an example of Abraham, how Abraham was justified by faith alone before he was circumcised and before there was even the law. And he's using Abraham as a means to speak specifically to the Jews who have the law and who have put so much faith and hope in what they possess, not knowing that what they possess does not save them. Faith does.
And so he uses the father of their faith to prove to them that the law does not save. The law really reveals the inadequacy of our own life, that we can no longer boast, and in our lack of boasting in ourself, we then turn to our only hope, which is found in Christ. I don't know how better I can explain it than that. That's my feeble attempt to do that. I am by no means as scholarly, nor do I feel as qualified as the Apostle Paul, but it is my feeble attempt to try to explain what is going on. So we have in chapters 1 through 4 justification by faith. Then now we just completed chapter 4 and
Point 1Chapters 5 through 8 unpack our blessings
We're at the start of chapter 5. We see these blessings now listed here. In chapters 5 through 8, we're going to see blessings that are inherent to us as a result of being justified by faith. So 1 through 4, we're justified by faith alone, that no man can boast.
5 through 8, we're going to see the blessings that we obtain by being justified through faith. Now, those who tried to achieve justification any other way, these blessings do not pertain to them. And let's just stop there for a second, and I want you to understand something: that if you try to find justification any other way in the church other than faith in God, there are blessings you're missing out on. And you can come to church and you can be in church your whole life and think that you're saved, and we know that we get to heaven and there are going to be people who are turned away. And you know why? The blessings that God promised aren't theirs because they tried to be justified another way. What are those ways? Well, it might be serving in the church. You hope that your service will justify you, right? Maybe it's your philanthropy, or your giving, or your generosity. Maybe it's through your preaching.
You hope to find justification by the role, or your sacrifices you've made for God. Listen, you are not the spotless Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Christ was.
And no matter how much you sacrifice, you can never save, not even yourself, much less someone else.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 4:51
And so it's very important that we get the first part right. If we get chapters 1 through 4 wrong, the rest don't even matter, because now he begins to talk about the blessings that come by means of getting chapters 1 through 4 right. And so if you don't have chapters 1 through 4 right, if you ain't got this faith figured out yet, you need to keep working on that, because these blessings don't pertain to you. But if you have faith in Christ and you don't have faith in yourself, if you have faith in Christ and you don't have faith in your service, if you have faith in Christ and you don't have faith in your spouse or your job or your... All of you put your faith in Christ for salvation, then chapter 5 is for you. Listen to the way that Thomas R. Schreiner breaks down chapters 1 through 4 and then chapter 5. He puts it this way in his commentary on the book of Romans. Thomas Schreiner, you will hear many quotes from me from him. He's one of my favorite authors, he's a great theologian, he's a professor at Fuller Seminary, and so I think he does this summary well. I couldn't do it any better. I thought about paraphrasing it and rephrasing it so it would be in my words, but it's just silly, and so I quoted it, blocked it here, and here's what he says in the summary: chapters 1 through 4 emphasize that God has fulfilled his saving promise through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Those who put their faith in him are in the right before God. Now, in chapters 5 through 8, Paul ties together righteousness by faith with future hope.
The Old Testament Scriptures emphasize repeatedly the future hope of Israel and the promise for future salvation. Paul argues in Romans 5 through 8 that those who are right with God are the inheritors of the future promise made to Israel. Since these promises are theirs, in the new people of God have an unshakable hope in that promise. They can look forward, us, we can look, for those who have faith in God can look forward with confidence to a new creation where they will fulfill the role of ruling over the world that Adam squandered when he sinned.
That ruling over the world is eschatological. It's not now, it's future based. It's eternal based. Eternity begins now and it goes forever, and it was before us, but there is something to hope for in the future. Now, listen to this, I'm just going to stop here
Point 2Do not read future promises as present guarantees
For a second. I'm going to say, when we jump into chapter 5 and we go through 5 through 8, this is where we go wrong with theology, because many of us, and I started laying the groundwork for this, when we read the Bible we do a lot of eisegesis. Or another way that I tried to word that for you is that we have a secular mindset when we read his Word versus a biblical one. So we take everything and we turn it in to ourself, or we inject ourselves into the Scripture, and so then we tend to take promises that are meant for future glory and we apply them to present-day situations, and then because we misappropriate the promises that we have that were meant for eternity to come, and we try to apply it in our present situation, we then, when we should have hope in what is to come, we then live hopeless today because we misappropriated the promise. Are you with me today? Does that make sense? So there are some things that are to come, and there are some things that are for now, or there are some things that are for both, but we got to be very specific about how it applies to us now versus how it applies to us in eternity, in the end, whether that be post-death or whether that be at the second coming of Christ. Right, so when we take eschatological, we're saying either Jesus returns, sets up the new earth, or you die and you're in heaven. That's eschatological. Or then there's current, how the promise works currently, today. Now, this is important. So when Thomas Schreiner here says they can look for, we can look forward with confidence to the new creation, what is that?
That's eschatological, where they will fulfill the role of ruling over the world that Adam squandered when he sinned. So we're going to rule in the new earth which Adam squandered and God restored, and now we have authority over here. Specifically, he's not talking about walking with authority and restoring the earth today.
It's what will come. Are you with me today? That's important. Now, I know you may not think that's important, you may not think that's important, but in a world where there's a bunch of NAR stuff going on and everybody's trying to walk with authority and rebuke and command and do all this stuff, and I'm not saying that part of that isn't true and a part of that isn't our responsibility, but everything is, we're going to bring the kingdom to earth through our declaration with authority. Sometimes people are applying promises that were meant then, today, and it's a secular mindset, and it's improper interpretation. Are you with me?
So you got to get it straight. Now, just for you who are about to have a heart attack, I just want to let you know there are some things we should walk, or sometimes in some places we should walk with a newfound authority because we're hidden in Christ today. I'm not saying it's all wrong, I'm saying a lot of it is.
That's why you have people on the earth constantly hopeless, consistently frustrated, and constantly striving and never arriving.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:42
It's frustrating. What causes it? Improper interpretation. So when we jump into chapter 5, listen, you got to be able to do this, and I don't have time to go into all the details, that you need to understand the difference between what promises are for today, this moment, and what promises are eschatological. If you don't know how to spell it, Google it, look it up, do some research. All right, and as you see each promise in chapter 5, it is your responsibility to know whether or not it applies to one or the other, or whether it applies to both, and how it looks here versus how it will look there if it applies to both. Make sense? All right, I'm gonna do my best to break this down with one promise today in the very beginning of chapter 5 when we talk about peace. So God has made promises, and those promises are real. If we are heirs of that promise by faith, we then are connected to those promises that God has made. You and I, not just Jews, this enables us to look forward with anxious anticipation that those promises will be fulfilled. Why? Because if God said it's going to happen. That's good news.
That leads us to the next question: so does that mean that God has forsaken his promises that he made to the nation of Israel? Because he made some specific promises to Israel. Now, this is a very nerve-wracking thing theologically for anybody who has had any amount of Bible college training, or somebody who really has done a lot of research with Israel or Jews or the nation or what God's promises are for them, or an Old Testament scholar. This makes them nervous when we begin to say that we are now grafted in, or we now obtain the promises that God gave for the Jews, now we are a part of that promise through faith. Now notice here that it's specifically talking, so difficulty or salvation-wise or justification-wise, there are promises that were given to that nation that are now ours through faith, but then there are specific promises to that nation of Israel, that are specific to them. And so what are those promises? Do we have access to those too? That's a good question, I'm glad you asked that.
You didn't, but I just pretend like you did. We're actually going to hear about that in chapters 9, 10, and 11. But right now we're just talking about justification through faith. We're talking about being brought in to that through faith. Those chapters, 9, 10, 11, go on to say in case you think that God goes about breaking his promises to Israel, therefore making God someone who cannot be trusted, look here at what God has done and is doing with the promises he made to Israel. That's in chapters 9, 10, and 11. I mean, he just goes on this list of all the things he is doing and will do for the nation of Israel specifically, and honestly, I know that may not be about you, but it should matter to you, because we get to see that this promise that predates us, his, God's faithfulness to deliver, that should encourage you. So even when we hear about the promise to a specific person that is not us, we can be encouraged in knowing that God is faithful and he is true to what he says, and if he does that for them, then how much more will he do it for us? That's good news. That's really good news. But 5 through 8 is a look at the promises that accrue to us because we've come to him by faith. Now, before we go any further, there are promises that are, and I mentioned this, eschatological, and promises which are for today. Knowing the difference is essential for understanding God and what he has promised. Romans 8, 5 through 8 actually is, I would say probably, this is probably the easiest part, Romans 5–8 is the easiest part of Romans to read. It's written a lot like an essay, actually. You tell them what you're going to say, you tell them, and you tell them, and you tell them what you told them. That's what a good essay does. How many of you remember writing essays? Tell them what you're going to tell them, that's what you should do when you preach, but I'm not so good at this. Tell them what you're going to tell them, and then tell them what you told them. That way they know what they need to know. In this portion, 5 through 8, that's what Paul does. Now, Paul's writing is very difficult to, I mean, it's heavy and it's difficult. This is probably the simplest, because if you get out of 5 through 8, and as slow as we're traveling through it, and you don't get it, well, we just need to pray for a miracle, you know what I mean? Just pray for a miracle, because it's going to be as clear as day here. Tell them what you're going to tell them, and then tell them what you've told them. Romans 5 is the tell them what you're going to tell them part. All right, and I love it. So let's read it. Let's read 5:1–5. Now, we're going to do more extensive preaching on this next week, but I just want to talk about the first verse 1, as an example of how we should handle with care the promises that are for us. Just because they're for us, does it mean that it's for now? It might mean it's for now, or it might mean it's for both now and later, but we need to be able to properly put it in its place. Otherwise, when you read God's Word and you've come to him in faith and you're justified through faith, you can still live in frustration as a believer rather than hope. And there are people in our fellowship today, they're saved, they're justified through faith in Jesus Christ, and they're frustrated. Let me tell you why: it's a misappropriation of promise. You hear the promise, you read the promise, you don't see the promise, and it might be that it was for later, and it might be that it is for later, and it is for now, but how it is now will look different than it will later. And properly putting that in the right place removes frustration and lets hope be hope the way that it was intended to be, or peace be peace the way that it was intended to be. Romans 5:1–5. Therefore. Oh shoot, what's that there for? Let me make this very simple. This therefore, and everything that precedes in these 1 through 5, is saying everything that was said in chapters 1 through 4. Now, therefore. Chapter 1, you're sons of wrath, no one can save themselves, only God saves.
Right? We look at Gentiles, then we looked at Jews, and then we looked at being justified by faith alone, like Abraham. Therefore, therefore, since all the things we've been talking about, all of it, all of it, therefore, since we've been justified by faith. That's why I said in the first
Point 3Justified by faith, we have peace with God
Four chapters he's talking about what it is to be justified by faith. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, Romans 1 through 4, chapters 1 through 4, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There's your first promise: you have peace. Those who are justified by faith have peace. How many of you today, I mean, if your day would be like... Yeah, I'm here today, know that you have faith in God and you've been justified by faith through Jesus Christ, that no man should boast, and you stand confident, and you've tested that faith and you know that you have faith in Jesus Christ and he is Lord to you, then you go out on your Monday and you don't have peace, and you go, what of the promise of peace?
What of that promise? You live frustrated. Now, this can do one of two things. It would drive an individual to either evaluate how they see peace, but I would propose to you very few people would do that, or it would make you constantly question whether or not you ever really truly had faith.
Are you with me today? And there are people in our midst and across the world who wrestle with this, and it is my hope today to unburden you from such a struggle. I believe it was the purpose of Paul to unburden people of such a struggle. I'll keep reading. Number two: Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace. There's another promise. In which we stand, and we rejoice in hope, there's another promise, of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, anyway, that's too much for you, I won't say anything about that, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. Notice how you get there to hope, notice how you get access to the promise of hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. The promise of the Spirit. There's a lot of promise in there, and quite honestly, you know, we've broken this down, but I need to be here for eight weeks, but I only have today to do an introduction, next week to finish it up. Okay, but we're going to do our best, and what I'm going to do, today, is I'm going to give you the tools and equip you to know how to go through this on your own, right? That's the best I can do for you.
I can't stay here forever, right? I can do whatever I want, but I'm not going to stay here forever, right? I'm not going to. I believe that
It is the responsibility of the church to equip the people, and the people to go and feed themselves. It is not our job to spoon-feed you everything, all right? It is our job to equip you with the utensils that you might feed yourself through the week.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 23:14
If you don't feed yourself through the week and you starve yourself to death, that is not my fault, that is your fault. All right, and so you have to do some work here, but today we're going to try to equip you with the proper utensils to feed that face. All right, notice here in this section of Scripture, and I think this is really important that we look for this when we read through the Bible, notice here the picture of the Trinity. Now, I want us as a church to begin to grow in our ability that when God is at work, notice that all parts are at work, or, as we would say, probably in a more theological term, all persons of the Godhead are at work. That you don't just see one part operating independent of all the other parts. Jesus said, I don't even speak unless my Father says I should speak.
Right? So every time you see one part moving, you see God moving. The Holy Spirit and Jesus are there in one accord, working together in harmony,
And your inability to see this properly causes you to see God as an angry, old, crotchety man in the Old Testament and Jesus as the nicer version of him in the New.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 24:42
But all of them were at work in the Old and the New, and they were in one accord.
And I've said this over and over again, and I'm going to keep using it because it's a great illustration: when God was sending down a rain of tar, fiery tar, from the heavens to destroy Sodom, Jesus was there and the Holy Spirit was there, in one accord and agreement. All right?
And so not understanding this causes us to compartmentalize the Scripture, that we begin to see the different persons of the Trinity and we begin, almost in a democratic way, to pick which one we want to serve. Listen, this is not an election process.
You don't get to vote which part of the Godhead you like best and worship him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:47
Denominations do this. Denominations, their denominations will go, I worship God the Father, this denomination. I worship the Holy Spirit, this denomination. I worship Jesus. Don't make an idol out of a portion of the Godhead to please your own fancies. When you read the Word, see all of them involved. So we notice here the picture of the Trinity. How do you see that, Shawn? We start with the peace. Everybody say peace. We start with the peace that we have with God the Father. We see God the Father, notice here, I'll say God the Father, not the Father. We see God the Father. We start with peace, the God the Father. Then the access to the peace that we have with God the Father is through the blood that is shed by God the Son. By the way this works itself out in our lives is through the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by God the Holy Spirit. That's what it says. They're all involved, they all have specific assignments, they all have different roles, but God is involved, each person is involved, and all persons are God. So we see the Trinitarian work of God in our lives, not only in saving sinners, but we see the Trinitarian work of God and the benefits that accrue from those for those who are justified by faith. We just want to give God credit for saving people, we don't want to give God credit for sanctifying them, and we have a hard time sometimes understanding that's a part of the promise.
You looking more like Christ is a part of the promise. The first benefit we see is peace. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, notice the dependent clause, to be justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. If we go back in Romans, and I think this is important as we go into chapter 5, because the last thing you want to do in chapter 5 is to dismiss chapters 1 through 4, because in dismissing chapters 1 through 4, 5 loses its meaning.
We have to properly contextualize 5 to understand what promises mean. Romans 1:7, the Apostle Paul starts off the entire book of Romans: To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. Who's he writing this to? To those in Rome who love God.
It isn't that those in Rome who don't love God won't read it, but that's not his audience. He's writing to those who love God, who are justified. Notice, let's go back here. Therefore, since we've been justified by faith, who's he talking to? Those who have faith. So he's talking to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. By the way, Christ is not his last name. Are you with me? Romans 1:18 is this: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. So we see even at the very beginning that peace is what God wants: reconciliation, justification that provides reconciliation, which brings peace, that was once enmity between God and man, now is restored in peace. Rests there through Jesus Christ and our faith in him.
So if we're really gonna be able to understand why it's so important for us to have peace between us and God now, we have to go to 1:18, where it says this is what we had. We had the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. That's what we had to initiate, initially, God wanting to kill us, because we were unrighteous and a people who did not want to believe truth.
But God created space for faith, and God saved, and God, through Jesus Christ, shed his blood that we might be at peace with him again. This is initiated by God. That's good news. Why is it important that we understand that it initiates with God and not with us? It's important that it initiates with God because up to this point, even in the description of Romans, we're unfaithful, unrighteous, and we can't be trusted. And if it initiates with us, we're one thing one day and one thing another day, and we can't be trusted. But if it starts with God, who never leaves us or forsakes us, who is faithful, who always keeps his promise, who is always truthful, whose word can be trusted, that's good. That's something we can count on. That's something we can be at peace with. I can't be at peace with any promise that you might make. I mean, I love you, even if you're a good person. I mean, whatever you say, something, I'm like, maybe we'll see.
With God says it, I believe it, that brings peace to my heart.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:52
He goes on to demonstrate that this unrighteousness to suppress the truth is present in both Jews and in Greeks, the Greek first in chapter 1, and then he goes to the Jews in chapter 2. So now all men and all flesh stand under the wrath and condemnation of God. The Gentile out there without the law is under the wrath and condemnation of God, and then he goes on, the Jew who has the law but does not keep the law is under the wrath and condemnation of God. He's in other words saying, you're in trouble, and God's wrath's coming for you, and not just some of you, all of you, and there is no hope other than through faith in God. Then we see this picture of Abraham, who's justified by faith before he's ever circumcised and before there's ever a law. And that's good news. Why? I'll tell you why. Why is that good news that he uses Abraham? Romans 5:1, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. However, because we are justified by faith, we have something other than the wrath and the condemnation of God waiting for us. What do we have? We have the peace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, I have access to peace with God. Now stop right here, hard pause. This is the important part, this is where I'm going to equip you with some tools. This peace with God is eschatological peace, where we will one day be at peace with God and made one with God, and this is what you're hoping for. That's what you're hoping for. And it is a temporal peace, but to think that they are the same would be a mistake. How many of you know... Just dream or imagine or maybe fathom with me for a moment the peace, the promise of peace that will be real for you, standing in the presence of God, void of sickness, void of sin, void of problems, void of suffering, void of trouble, void of just all that gone. What kind of peace would you have now? Compare that eschatological peace to the peace that we have today. How many of you would say that it's different? Five of you. That's good.
For those who are honest, I'm not saying what you think it should be, I don't really care what you think, I'm saying, what is it? If you're saying, if you would, those who didn't raise your hand, if you would say that peace is no different than this peace, then what are you hoping for?
Why do you need to hope in that? Who needs heaven? Who needs to be brought into the presence of God? Now we don't see clearly, we see but in a mirror, and it is faded, but one day we shall see him face to face. In other words, there is a difference between the way we see him now and the way we will see him then, and the Bible is replete with this kind of language, and it is the responsibility of a Bible scholar or any person who reads this word to know the difference between the peace we have now and the peace that is veiled, the peace that is blurry as in a mirror, versus the peace that will be clearly seen, received. Do you understand what I'm saying? I will just say here, I'll do some work for you and say this: the peace he talks about is both. It is here presently and it is eschatologically, is eternally, it is one day, and they are different. Ladies and gentlemen, they are different. We see in the lives of the disciples, we see them walk in a newfound peace before Christ's death and post his death.
We see them have a different kind of hope before Jesus' death and after his death. We see even after his death they grow in courage and character and in hope and in peace, even in the midst of the greatest hardships. We see growth in this area, but still at the greatest point of peace, even in the midst of controversy and trouble and suffering and persecution and pain and beating, even at the greatest point, at their greatest peace even in the midst of trouble, that does not compare to the hope they will have in Christ one day. But it grows, amen. Their peace is, they gain greater access to peace here on earth. I would break it down this way. Listen to what Everett Harrison says, he's a theologian: The first of the blessings conveyed by justification is peace. Notice, the first of all the blessings that we're going to read about is peace. We've encountered the word in the salutation, Romans 1:7, and in the eschatological setting in Romans 2:10. Here, however, the milieu is the estrangement between God and man because of sin.
Now we see here then two ways that I would break down peace. This is the way I would break down peace for us to gain an understanding, and this maybe I would use these words, much like the secular mindset versus biblical mindset as we interpret Scripture, I would use these two words as we interpret the promises. All right, here there are two types of peace being talked about, same types of peace but worked out differently, here presently
Point 4Objective peace is declared; subjective peace is felt
And one eternally. One is objective peace, write that down, and I want you to go do some research on that. One is objective peace, and the second is subjective peace. Objective peace: we know we have peace because it was declared. We do, right here in Romans,
There was a declaration. There was a peace treaty, and it was signed by God in Jesus' blood.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:26
He was declared.
That declaration is objective. If there is a signature on a treaty, that means you have objective peace. How many of you know that just because someone, at a time of war, two groups get together and they sign a peace treaty, that does not necessarily mean that they have agreed that there would be peace and no more war, but that does not mean that there will be peace in every home. There is simply objective peace, but that has not necessarily worked itself out in every home in the nations. Are you with me? It's objective. There is no more war, the war has come to an end. It is finished, as Jesus said on the cross. But just because he said it is objective, but my house, in my house, you're reading here, Shawn, you're reading that God says if we have faith and we're justified by faith that we'll have peace, but I don't feel it in my house. Subjective peace. Just because you don't feel it doesn't make it real.
The peace is real. God signed it in Jesus' blood, it is real, it is real.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 40:49
The signature signifies that the war is over. How many of you know it is finished, and when Jesus said it, he meant it's over. But then there's subjective peace. They're subjective.
Let me just kind of stop for a second. In heaven it's settled. How many of you see any war movies?
When two groups come together, they sign a peace treaty. How many of you know the war still has taken place although the treaty's been signed? So the peace we see, heavenly, it's finished, but here, that's why we hope, and what he's accomplished anyway.
Subjective peace. The war is over, however, how many of you know that when the war ends by a treaty, everyone does not immediately sit down to dinner in their homes again as if nothing has ever happened. Not for a while. For a while things are still off a bit.
I believe that's what we're experiencing here. I mean, you know that in time it gets better, that the peace that is declared begins to affect the nation in time. That's the problem with time, isn't it? As believers, we have objective peace with God, which means we have heard the declaration of peace.
It is clear in his Word, but there is also the outworking of that objective peace in my life subjectively, and where my relationship with God becomes one of peace in time.
How many of you know there are times when the subjective peace is interrupted? I believe that's why Paul goes straight into talking about trouble, because he's saying here, I've declared at the beginning of chapter 5 that you will have peace, but then what of suffering and problems and persecution, what of those things?
And then he encourages us and says all of those things are working for you a far greater amount of glory, so hope, and what that is accomplishing in you subjectively through time. All right, objective peace, subjective peace. As believers we have objective peace with God, which means we've heard the declaration, but there is an outworking of that objective peace in my life subjectively. How many of you know, and I'll say it again, there are times
Point 5Sin and self-reliance rob our subjective peace
When the subjective peace is interrupted. I just don't feel at peace with God today. Why? Well, there are a couple of reasons. Write these down. There's a couple of reasons why you don't feel at peace today although he's declared peace over our lives. One thing that causes us to not feel at peace with God is when we continue in sin. Why do I need peace with God? Well, because God's wrath was against me. Why was God's wrath against me? Well, because I was in sin.
But Christ died for my sin, so now I have the objective peace with God. But wait a minute, what is that you're walking in?
Well, it's sin. Well, I thought the wrath of God was against you because of that stuff. What are you still doing in it?
In other words, some of you don't feel the peace that he wants you to feel today because you have not come out from among them.
Listen, this is what's hard. You are justified by faith in Jesus Christ and you have peace, it has been declared, there is peace between you, in spite of your sin, with God, and now we have been brought and reconciled with him heavenly. But some of us don't feel the effects of that because we continue to walk in sin today. It does not mean that the peace and the reconciliation that's promised to you by faith is not real. Still, here it's just you won't feel it here. And that's good, that you don't feel good and at peace with God when you continue to sin.
That's how the Holy Spirit nudges you to be more like him, that you might be light and salt to the world.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 45:59
What good is salt that loses its saltiness, and what good is a light that provides no light in the midst of darkness? He needs us and uses us to shine and to salt the earth, and how can we do that if we're like the earth? All right, so some of you are like, well, it says I have peace with God, I've been brought to peace with God, in relationship with God, but I don't feel it. You need to look at your life. Are you continuing in sin? All right.
As believers, we sin, and it interrupts subjective peace. How many of you as believers know that to be true? Amen. It's just the way it is.
It don't even matter if you agree with me or not, that's the way it is. When you as a believer continue in sin, it affects your subjective peace.
There's another issue, though, the second issue that will interrupt subjective peace in your life, and that is when we ignore the last phrase. What's the last phrase?
Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm going to close with this. I've done okay. How do I interpret this peace with God? This is only the first Scripture verse, first verse: peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. What's the second way our subjective peace is affected? When I as a believer begin to strive to obtain peace with God by anything other than the finished work of Christ, my subjective peace is hindered. Oh man, come on, churchy people, listen to me today. How many of us, and I'm not saying religious is bad, religious is bad, right, it's faith and belief in something, but we have become so religious in our activity, and we think that if we serve more, give more, and do more for God, that we will then acquire extra peace.
Don't you put your hope in what you do that gives you means to boast.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 48:12
It interrupts your subjective peace.
I propose to you that some of the most unpeaceful people are churchy people,
Pastor Shawn Gray · 48:26
because it is easy to go from a place, and Paul talks about it, he talks about the struggle, go from a place where you have faith in God and you come to him by faith, and you turn to works. It is easy. Does that mean that we were not created in Christ Jesus for good works? Ephesians tells us, which Paul, same writer, says yes, you are created in Christ Jesus for good works, but you're not justified by those good works. What does it say here? Our subjective peace is interrupted when I as a believer begin to obtain peace with God by any other means than the finished work of Christ. Let me read that Scripture again at the very end: peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, not peace with God through our service.
Let me say this, you're not going to like this, everybody's gonna be mad about this: burnout is someone who doesn't have subjective peace because they put their hope in something other than Jesus Christ. You're like, Shawn, I don't agree with that. That's all right, start a church, go to Bible college and preach.
But I'm here to tell you that burnout is an indicative of you trusting in you more than you trust in God and leaning on your strength more than you lean on his.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 49:59
Why do you say that, Shawn? That's insulting to us, because all of us here are on the edge of burnout, that's insulting to me. COVID was the best thing that could ever happen to you as a church, to us, because it made you stop, and those who didn't actually have a relationship with God but had a relationship with the relationship their pastor had with God had to find a relationship with God themselves. It was the best thing to ever happen to you. Life slowed down enough where you can meet the God you declare you serve. That was good. It was good for all of us, it was good for me. It was good.
But I'll tell you, in this nation we're too busy and we trust in ourselves way too much, and we are the most medicated, burnt-out generation the world has ever known, and it is not because we trust in God, it is because we trust in us.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 50:54
And burnout, there's no way to spiritually spin burnout and make it a good thing. It is not a good thing, because God gives you enough time in the day to accomplish everything he intends for you to accomplish, and by the strength that he has given for you to accomplish it. So if you go over that boundary, burnout happens, but it's because you're disobedient, not because he's not God enough. That's good stuff, that was good, that was really good, seriously. That was really, I couldn't have put it, I could have written that better. That was, thank you, God, for helping with that. It's really, we need to think about this: peace, subjectively, us subjectively not feeling peace, it's not God's fault, it's yours. Are you with me today? I gave you two tools you could check your life by for subjective peace: are you continuing in sin, and do you trust in anything other than Jesus Christ?
Those two things will rob your peace.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 52:14
All right, good. Let me pray.
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