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Romans 19: Humanity 2.0 (5:12-21)

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Text

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:12-21

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Romans 18: The Reconciliation (5:9-11)

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Text

“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” Romans 5:9-11

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Romans 17: Peace With God (5:1-8)

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Introduction

Recall that the first three chapters of Romans address the universal problem, the problem of sin. Sin afflicts the Gentiles, as we saw in chapter 1. It afflicts the Jews, as St. Paul shows in chapter 2. Sin has both Jew and Gentile in its grip—that is the argument of chapter 3. In the fourth chapter, Paul begins his discussion of the glorious solution—a solution promised repeatedly in the first book of the Bible. That solution was the establishment of a new humanity through Abraham. And now Paul comes to the paradoxial truth—the seed of Abraham, the one through whom this new way of being human will be brought about, is a new Adam. This means that this second Adam has a father, Abraham.

The Text

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ . . .” (Rom. 5:1-8).

Summary of the Text

We have believed in the God who quickens the dead, who raised Jesus from the dead. On this basis, we have been justified (“righteoused”) by faith (v. 1). As a result, we have (as a present possession) peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (v. 1). In addition to this, we also have access by faith into the status of grace (v. 2). Consequently, we rejoice in hope, hope that looks forward to the glory of God (v. 2). On top of that, we glory in our tribulations now because we know that tribulations are part of a process (v. 3). Tribulation works out to patience(v. 3). Patience, the next link in the chain, leads to experience and this experience leads to hope (v. 4). This hope does not let us down, and why? Because the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirt who has been given to us (v. 5). In our experience, when did this grace start? We had no strength to do anything, and while we were in that condition, Christ died for the ungodly (v. 6). For us it is a big thing to die for a righteous man, and sometimes some of us attain to that level (v. 7). But God’s love is quite different—Christ died for us while we were all messed up (v. 8).

What We Have Now By Faith

This passage focuses on the present and on the future both. Because we have believed (the same way that Abraham did), what do we have now? In the first place, Paul says, we have justification (v. 1). As a result, we have peace with God (v. 1). We have the privilege of standing in grace (v. 2). We also have the joy that hope brings (v. 2). We also have tribulation coupled with a right perspective on those tribulations (v. 3), which is to glory in them.

What We Look Forward to By Faith

Now the joyful hope that we currently have looks forward to the coming glory of God (v. 2). Remember from a chapter or so ago what sin causes us to fall short of? Right, the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). And Abraham, justified by faith, did what? He gave glory to God (Rom. 4:20). What was at the center of the Gentiles’ idolatry? It was that they exchanged the glory of God for the image of mere creatures (Rom. 1:23).

In between now and the glory to come, what can we look forward to? The answer is three-fold—patience, experience, and more mature hope (v. 4).

Glory Now and Glory Then

The word glory is fascinating, and helps us to understand its relationship to tribulation. Though they are different words in the Greek, notice that we glory in tribulation now as we look forward to the coming glory. What do tribulation and glory have in common? Well, they are both heavy, and Paul is very clearly using the image of training for something. This is not just training—it is weight training. We boast in the privilege of carrying the weight of tribulation now because we know that we are being prepared to carry the weight of glory later. Tribulation is a set of training weights.

A Christian approach to tribulation therefore strains toward a goal. It is not the response of one who just hunkers down to “take it.” Our trials are teleological—which means they all have a point. And this means we must interact with our tribulations with both faith and intelligence. Faith is first, and intelligence follows the argument through patience, experience, and hope.

No Real Point Without Personal Trust

But if tribulation is a set of training weights, who is the trainer? Well, of course, the answer in our text is the Holy Spirit. But as many who have had this experience can tell you, there will often come a temptation to think that your personal trainer is a maniac and a sadist. That’s what training does.

And that is why Paul turns to a discussion of the nature of the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts. What has He shed abroad in our hearts? The answer is love, not aimless, mindless torture. Notice that God has not sent a sense of love from a distance. He has not sent love, He has brought it. The Holy Spirit is given to us, and the love He sheds abroad in our hearts came with Him.

God gives us things because He gives Himself, and brings the stuff with Him. He does not give as a substitute for giving Himself, but rather as part and parcel of giving Himself. The Holy Spirit is given unto us (v. 5). Christ was given to die for the ungodly (v. 6), that is, for us (v. 8).

A Strong Hope

When we are tempted to falter in the course of tribulations, what should we tell ourselves? We should tell ourselves the very same thing that the Spirit in this text tells us, and which the Spirit in our hearts tells us. Here is the argument, and it is very simple.

What were you like when God undertook you as His project? What condition were you in? And while you were in that condition, what did God do for you? The answer is that we were “without strength” (v. 6), and “ungodly” (v. 6). We were sinners (v. 8). Now, while we were in that condition, Christ died for us, and this was intended as a commendation of God’s love for us (v. 8). The argument looks ahead a few verses (vv. 9-10). If God did all this for His enemies, what will He do for those of us who are now His friends? Remember, we have peace with God (v. 1). We are justfied (v. 1). After what God did for His enemies, what do you think He might do for His friends?

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Romans 16: Fully Persuaded (4:17-25)

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Introduction

We continue following the apostle’s discussion of Abraham’s faith. We finished our treatment of Romans 4:16, knowing that Abraham was the father of believing Jew and believing Gentile alike. But what do we mean by that word believing? Abraham sets the pattern, and in this passage we learn what his faith was actually like. It is not enough for Abraham to have real faith and for us to have something called faith.

The Text

“As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be . . .” (Rom. 4:17-25).

Summary of the Text

We have noted that Abraham believed, but we have taken special note of what he believed. In this place, Paul notes that he believed the promise of Gen. 17:5, that he would be the father of many nations (v. 17). Now Abraham is the father of all (v. 16) before Him whom he believed (v. 17). The one he believed was God, and is He a worthy object of our faith? He is the one who raises the dead, and who speaks to nothing as though it were something—and then it is (v. 17). The promise cited in the next verse that Abraham believed was the promise from Gen. 15, “so shall your seed be.” Against hope he believed this particular word in hope (v. 18). He was not weak in faith (v. 19), and he looked to the promise and not to the circumstance. The circumstance was his own body, virtually dead, and Sarah’s aged and barren womb (v. 19). Not a lot to go on. He did not stagger at the promise in unbelief (v. 20), but was strong in faith. What did that look like? He gave glory to God (v. 20). Abraham was fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had said He would do (v. 21). And this is why is was imputed to him as righteousness (v. 22). Abraham was a man of faith, and he was an “all-in” man of faith. But this word is not recorded as an historical curiosity—look what happened to Abraham!—it was not written for his sake alone (v. 23). It was also written for us as well, who will have this righteousness imputed, if we believe in Him who raised Jesus from the dead (v. 24). This Jesus was delivered over for our sins (v. 25), and He was raised to life for our justification (v. 25).

Who God Is, And What He Does

Notice the parallel between what Abraham did and what we are to do. Abraham gave glory to God (v. 20). He believed in God (v. 17), not in certain random occurences. Abraham did not just believe the dead were quickened, and that certain inexplicable things happen. He believed in God, the one who brought these things about. He believed what was spoken (v. 18) precisely because he believed the Speaker. In the same way, in an identical way, we must do more than believe that Jesus came back from the dead. We must believe on Him who raised Jesus from the dead. We believe in a Person who says and does things; we do not proceed straight to those things which are said and done. But we may not detach them from the other direction either. Just as we cannot be justified by the predicate apart from the subject, neither can we be saved by the subject apart from the predicate

The Same Promise

We must also see that, at bottom, Abraham believed the same promise that we do. Abraham believed in the God who quickens the dead (v. 17), and we believe in the God who quickens the dead (v. 24). Abraham believed in the God who gave him the nations of men (4:13, 17, 18), and we believe in the God who raised Jesus for “our” justification (v. 25). Who does that pronoun refer to? Remember that we have just learned that Abraham is the father of believing Jews and Gentiles both, and that he understood this as meaning that God was giving the world to him (4:13). Our justification is therefore, over time, the world’s justification.

Is This Too Big To Swallow?

The world will be Christian. The nations will come to Christ. The swords will be beaten into plowshares. The earth will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the name of the Lord will be praised. The ensign will be raised and the ends of the earth will stream to the Lord Jesus. Take the breath away? Too glad to be true?

After all, scores of wars are continuing around the planet as we speak. Millions live in grinding and unbelievable poverty. Our new president has nothing but contempt for the right of the unborn to live. Sexual immorality continues to spiral out of control. We insist that our public square be kept stripped of all reference to the true and living God, and blithely expect Him to bless us anything. A glance at the newspapers would not lead you to the conclusions outlined in the paragraph.

“I see your point, certainly,” Abraham said. “I am an old man. How could I possibly beget a son? And look at Sarah . . . she was barren when she was young, and she is old now.” Is that what you want to be remembered for—pointing at our newspapers and persuading Abraham that he ought not believe the promises of God?

Fully Persuaded

But of course Abraham wouldn’t have listened to this kind of unbelieving chatter. God had promised him the world, remember, and he believed God, giving glory to Him (v. 20). What did Abraham do with all the information that was contrary to the promise? He ignored it. He had nothing whatever to do with it. He looked instead to the promise, made by the God who does what? God is not hog-tied by our circumstances. We believe in the God who quickens the dead, proving that He does this through His raising of Jesus from the grave. We believe in the God who calls those things which are not as though they were. And so what are Abraham’s children to do? They do the same, calling non-existent realities into reality. We are to do this by faith, never by sight.

Crippled Aeneas

According to Virgil, Aeneas was the legendary Trojan who laid the foundations of the great Rome. “And Peter said unto him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise, and make thy bed. And he arose immediately” (Acts 9:34). Note that Peter doesn’t flatter him; he heals him. America is not a picture of health; we are laid up with the palsy. Arise, then and walk. America is not vibrant with life. We are like Israel in the valley of dry bones. Rise, then and live. So then, you believe that America can be restored this way, by words from a pulpit? Well, yes, I do.

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Easter: The End of the World Is History

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Introduction

We too often hold to the great truths of the resurrection of Jesus in a piecemeal fashion. We gather a bit here and a bit there, and the assemblage is generally orthodox. But this approach has resulted in some unfortunate gaps. The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed. But what does this mean here and now?

The Text

“But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you . . . And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8: 11, 23).

Summary of the Text

We will be dealing with the argument of Romans 8 in a few months, as we continue to work through the book. For the present, we simply want to place these comments from Paul into the broader context. First, we see that Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit (v. 11). This Spirit, the one who raised Jesus, is the same one who indwells Christians (v. 11). Being the same Spirit, He will certainly accomplish the same work. The one who raised Jesus was the Father, and He accomplished His work by means of the Spirit—the Spirit who dwells in us. The one who quickened Christ’s body is the one who will quicken our body. Not only will we be raised by the Spirit who lives in us, we long for that day of resurrection because of the Spirit who lives in us (v. 23). We are going to be raised because the principle of resurrection life has already been embedded in us, and that principle causes us to lean toward the day of resurrection. We groan, waiting for our final adoption, the redemption of the body, the final resurrection (v. 23). We do this in the same way that a pregnant woman groans, longing for the day of her delivery. Something within us is inexorably coming to fruition.

The Last Day Now

The Jews rightly expected the general resurrection of the dead to occur at the Last Day. “Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (Jn. 11:24). Martha knew, and knew rightly, that her brother was goinng to be raised at the culmination of human history. What she and the others did not know is that God intended to start that resurrection early, in the raising of Jesus. When the Bible describes Jesus as the firstfruits of the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20), or as the first born from among the dead (Col. 1:18), we are intended to see that His resurrection and ours are all part of the same event. God has intruded the events of the end of history into the middle of history. He did this because history, as it was going, was all messed up. God planted the glory of the end right in the middle. This means that, in the resurrection of the Christ, the end of the world is history.

If the history the world before Christ was a long, grim and terrible novel, God has wonderfully flipped ahead to the last chapter, while we were stuck in the middle of the book, and has written the denouement into the middle of the book, transforming the book entirely. Instead of endless ache and tragedy, we now have, in Pastor Leithart’s words, deep comedy.

All Glorified

One very important implication of this identification of Christ’s resurrection in the middle of history with ours at the end of it is that it banishes a very common, and very heterodox assumption among evangelical Christians. We believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and know that those who don’t are liberals. They have denied the faith. If Christ is not raised, we are still in our sins. But what happened to Jesus is the same thing that will happen to us. And yet many Christians believe that their existence in the afterlife will be as some kind of ethereal, ghostly, floaty thing. No—your body will be raised. You will have hands and feet, glorified. You will have a torso, glorified. You will havelungs, heart, face and ribs, all restored, perfected, and glorified. We do not believe in the immortality of ghosts or mental essences, but rather in the resurrection of the body.

“And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them” (Luke 24:42-43). “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Phil. 3:20-21)

The Groaning of God

Now we must place all this in the context of Paul’s larger argument in Romans 8. The whole creation groans (v. 22). We, because we have the Spirit, groan also as we long for the day of resurrection (v. 23). And the Spirit helps us in our weakness—since we do not know yet what it will be like (as He does)—and He does this with groans too deep for words (v. 26). Now there are many lessons to be drawn from this, but for the time being, let us content ourselves with just one. The day of resurrection will include the world around you as much as it will include you. The created order is longing for the day of resurrection just as you are. Now note—it is not the case that you are longing for resurrection and the created order is longing for the oblivion of Nirvana. You are straining toward the same thing that the Sawtooth range, the Pacific Ocean, the Great Plains, the Crab Nebula, all the animals, and the grove of trees on that back acre of yours are longing for—the transformation and restoration of all things. This world will die, just as you will. But the world will also be raised, every bit as much as you will be. God is not saving you while writing off the world around you as a bad investment. He is in the process of saving it all.

God is not going to raise you to life again, and not giv e you somewhere to stand. He is not going to whisk you away to some alien place. Because of the blood of Jesus, in the resurrection of all things, a reconciliation between heaven and earth will be accomplished (Col. 1:20). This means that this world will be very much a part of what we now call Heaven. Nothing of value will ever be finally lost. When everything is gathered in, it will all be gathered in.

The Sky Above and Earth Below

The Lord has risen—He is risen indeed. But this is not just to be believed as an isolated datum. It is also to be preached, and the relevance of it to every living creature is to be pressed. In this glorious truth, we therefore see the salvation of history. We see the salvation of our mortal bodies, which will all be transformed in order to be conformed to the image of the First Man. And we see the restoration of the sky above and the earth below. When meditating on the future of our world, never make the mistake of thinking that our God will stint in His work.

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