TEXT: Romans 5:1-11
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.
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.
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Superhero movies have a real knack for this. A character, normally a character you love by this point in the movie, finds themselves caught in a bad situation. Their back is pushed up against a wall with nowhere to go. Or maybe they are clinging onto the ledge of a window for dear life and the villain is about to stomp on their fingers. You’re at the edge of your seat, you don’t know if they’ll make it or not. It seems as if all is lost for that character you love so much. But then, at just the right time, the superhero intervenes. The superhero sweeps down from the roof of the building and catches the person who is plummeting from the window. Or the character is in the middle of all their enemies and the superhero comes at just the right time and takes all the enemies down. You can probably think of other examples in your head. I think that is one of the reasons we are so willing to spend a few hours on Netflix or spend a few dollars at the theatre. Because we know that at just the right time the superhero is going to come in and save the day. It’s all going to work out perfectly in the end. But that’s just the movies, right? Or maybe it’s not. You see, that is your reality, too. At Just the right time God demonstrated his unconditional love. And because of that we can now live with amazing confidence.
In church we talk about grace or God’s unconditional love quite often (the two terms can be used interchangeably). Perhaps it has just become sort of a “church cliché.” It can be confusing to understand exactly what it is that we are talking about or what that means for our lives. In the reading we just read for today, Paul gives a clear illustration of what unconditional love looks like. I’m going to read verses 6-8 again and I want you to listen for the clear example of unconditional love or grace that Paul gives: “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.”
Every once and awhile in the news there is a story of someone who showed incredible sacrifice – a human-interest story if you will. It goes like this. A mother donates one of her kidneys to her son so he can live a healthy life. Or a soldier in the heat of battle jumps on a grenade, saving his band of brothers, but giving up his own life. Or a teacher shields her kids from a school shooting, literally taking a bullet for them. These stories all show great sacrifice. They make our hearts warm; tears fall from our faces. They “restore our hope in humanity.” But the unconditional love of Jesus even surpasses all these stories of sacrifice.
You see, we opposed Jesus, because of our sins we were hostile against him. We were his enemy. But even though we were all those things, he came, and he died for us. That kind of love is illogical. You see, those human-interest stories above, they all have something in common. There is a relationship between those people. But we had abandoned our relationship with God. True enough, someone might give up their life for their friend or someone they don’t know, but it’s very rare. It’s even more rare that someone would give up their life for an enemy. That is what Christ did for you. He died for you when you were completely lost. He gave up everything, even his life for you. We need this kind of love. Jesus’ death was the only thing that could rescue us from our path to hell. At just the right time, Christ came and rescued us. And Jesus willingly did it for us. It changed our status 180 degrees. It turned us from death to life. And yet don’t we often take this kind of love for granted? We struggle to even speak nicely about our neighbor who we disagree with, or a family member. We clearly see and recognize that we need this illogical love, and yet we fail to show it to those around us. God’s love for us was unconditional…it’s illogical to our brains.
This unconditional, illogical love which Christ demonstrated for is the love that Christ showed us during his life.
That Christ come into the world and die for all people was the purpose God had from the beginning of the world. It’s interesting: in Galatians 4:4 Paul says that when the time had fully come God sent his son to redeem those under the law. And then in this reading we read that at just the right time, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God’s plan from eternity was to save you. That God, the same God from the very beginning, became man to die for you. To save you. This was his plan from the start of time…that’s how precious you are to him.
One way of talking about this saving is called justification. Paul talks about it in our text in verse one when he writes: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Justification, or being made right with God, can be illustrated using a courtroom scene. Picture this. You are in a courtroom and the case against you is made. In your heart you realize that you are guilty on every account. Your heart sinks as they read the evidence. You think, guilty of that one, guilty of that one, guilty of that one. But the judge (who is God in this illustration), when he slams down the gavel, he does not say guilty. He says you’re acquitted; you are forgiven. He says as far as the east is from the west, so far have I removed your guilt from you. This is your reality -- at just the right time God sent his son and demonstrated unconditional love to you. Your sins are gone and forgotten! He sent his Son that you can have life. Your life has been changed. You are no longer dead, but alive because of his unconditional love.
In the rest of our text Paul says that now you can live at peace because of the reality that you’re a redeemed child of God. Because of that you have confidence beyond what you can possibly believe. But, if you’re anything like me, it doesn’t always feel like that does it?
There is a question that sometimes shakes our foundation that we are God’s children, though. It’s a three-letter question, maybe you’ve already thought of it. The question is, “why?” Why do I have hardly enough money to make it through the week? Why was there a pandemic that robbed me of my plans? God, why is there suffering? The list could go on and on.
So, how are you going to answer the question of suffering? How are you going to answer the question of why? How are you going to explain to your neighbor why his mom has cancer? If I try to do this by my own human reason and by my own human logic, I must admit that I do not always have an answer. Sure, there are times when I can look back at a particular situation and a few years later understand exactly why that suffering took place in my life. But other times, it doesn’t make sense. That is because my mental capacity is not on the same level as God’s. In fact, he’s the author of time – the author of my life. I can’t think the same way that God does. And so, sometimes the answer to suffering is, “I don’t know why.” But how then can Paul say that we can boast in our sufferings? How can he say that suffering produces patient endurance and patient endurance produces character and character produces hope? How can he say that? Especially if I don’t know why these things happen.
He can say that because of what we heard earlier in the sermon. He can say that because you are justified by faith. Because you are a child of God. You have a different logic than the rest of the world. You have been declared righteous. So, what then is the answer to the why? Truthfully, our answer is that we don’t always know, but what we do know we know by faith. We know that we have a Savior who died for us at just the right time. A Savior that took away our sins and because of that we have confidence even in times of suffering. We may never know why we suffered for a period of time. God may never grant us that knowledge here on earth. But we do know what awaits us: eternal life in heaven! It doesn’t make sense to us…it may never make sense to us. But the faith that God has worked in your heart gives us confidence, incomparable confidence to walk by faith and not by sight.
Timing is everything in life. The movies have picked up on that. Sometimes it’s even laughable that we think the main character isn’t going to make it out alive. It just works out a little too perfectly. In your life, when struggles come your way remember that you have a God with perfect timing…at just the right time Christ came and died for you…remember who you are. Stand in that unconditional love. You are his child. Amen.