Living like fugitives when the war is over?
Romans 5:1-11
July 5, 1998

Jesus death has tangible consequences for our relationship with God. Yet many Christians continue to live as if nothing has changed in our relationship with God. During the next four weeks we will examine four important consequences of Jesus death for how we respond to God:
CONSEQUENCE #1 -- Free from the PENALTY of sin.

So what? What effect should this have on my life as a Christian?

a. PEACE vs. hostility (vs. 1)
b. GRACE vs. insecurity (vs. 2)
c. HOPE vs. fear (vs. 3)

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Introduction

Last year a famous Japanese World War II veteran died of a heart attack. Some of you may have heard his story.

The soldier's name was Shoichi Yokoi. He was not distinguished for bravery or for anything he did during his military service. In fact he was a very ordinary soldier. He was drafted in 1941. He fought first in Manchuria, then in 1943 he was transfired to Guam. In 1944 U.S. forces recaptured Guam and it was at this point that he distinguished himself. Rather than suffer the shame of surrender, he went into hiding. In fact he literally went underground. He made himself a tunnel, eight feet deep and ten feet long. He would hide in the tunnel during the day and come out only at night. He survived on nuts & berries -- with the occasional snail or frog for protein. He actually wove cloth out of tree bark fibers and sewed his own clothes. Very resourceful -- a sort of Japanese Robinson Crusoe. And he was not found for 28 years. For 28 years he remained in hiding. It wasn't until 1972 that he was found and sent back to Japan where -- of course -- he became an instant talk-show celebrity.

Now this COULD have been a tale of great heroism -- a man who continued to serve his country for 28 years. A man who refused to surrender. But it is NOT a heroic story. It is a TRAGIC story. For this reason: For 20 of the 28 years Shoichi Yokoi was in hiding he KNEW that the war was over. He knew that Japan had surrendered. He could have gone back home to a normal life. But for twenty years he lived as a fugitive unnecessarily.

Why? What could keep a man living in a cave, near starvation, eating bugs? Very simple -- he did not understand Romans 5.

To make sure we don't make the same mistake, let's look at Romans 5 again:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who he has given us.

Now let me set this passage in context: In the first 4 chapters of Romans Paul establishes certain simple facts:

1. We -- all of us -- are rebels against God -- enemies of God by nature. We are in a state of war and deserve God's judgement.

2. God in his great mercy took our punishment for us through the death of Jesus.

3. God grants a complete pardon to those who in faith accept Jesus sacrifice on their behalf. Those who turn to him in faith God considers righteous.

This is what scripture calls Justification -- which simply means that on the basis of Jesus death God fully and completely pardons anyone who turns to him in faith. He wipes the slate clean. Paul gives a wonderful summary in Romans 3:23, a verse many of you have memorized:

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he left the sins committed beforehand unpunished -- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

All of this is basically to say that there WAS a war -- we were enemies of God, rightly deserving of his wrath, rebellious, treasonous, fugitives from God. BUT for those who have faith in Jesus the war is now over. Through Jesus death a peace treaty has been signed and sealed in Jesus blood, and God has declared a general amnesty -- he has justified us, and we are free from the Penalty of Sin.

Wonderful news, right? So what's the problem?

The problem is that its quite possible for us as Christians to be like our Japanese fugitive. He knew the war was over, but he never grasped the consequences FOR HIM of the war being over. He did not APPROPRIATE the benefits of the war ending. In the same way, we know that the war is over. We know that we are justified before God. But for many of us God's great work of justification has little effect in our lives. Why? Because we fail to APPROPRIATE the benefits of justification. Much of the Christian life is about grasping hold of the blessings of God-- the way you would grasp hold of a life preserver. To Appropriate -- to grasp hold of-- the blessings of God requires two things:

1. It requires that we know what these blessings are
2. That we recognize our need for those blessings.

So what ARE the benefits of justification that we need to take hold of to escape the life of spiritual fugitives?

That is what Romans 5 is about. Look again at the first two verses:
Since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings . . Here Paul lays out three benefits of justification

1. we have PEACE with God
2. we have gained access by faith into this GRACE in which we now stand
3. we rejoice in the HOPE of the glory of God.

PEACE, GRACE & HOPE -- These are things we have as benefits of our justification that we must grasp hold of. We HAVE them -- they are ours. But are we taking advantage of them? Are we grasping onto them?

Let's take these one at a time.

1. We have Peace with God.

Now we need to understand straight off that peace here is NOT simply the absence of open conflict. A ceasefire may end open conflict -- but it is not peace. Peace is something more.

Let me illustrate: My children sometimes get into conflict with one another. I know its hard to believe, but really, they do. Sometimes they even yell at or hit one another. Horrors! Now when I become aware of this sort of conflict, I quickly arrange a ceasefire. I make the combatants sit down beside each other, usually on the stairs, and I order them to negotiate. And very often it works -- sort of -- under threat from their father they negotiate an end to the conflict, and eventually one of them will sullenly call out, "Dad, we worked it out."

But that does not mean that they are about to be friends. No, all it means is that the conflict has been driven underground and become a cold war. Jesus did not die in order to negotiate a cease-fire between us and God. He died to bring about true reconciliation -- to turn us from enemies to friends. And what is the main characteristic of friendship? A desire to be with one another -- to communicate with one another -- to do things together. Friends simply enjoy being together.

I suspect that in our heart of hearts many of us see God not as a friend, but as a parole officer. We have to report in to him regularly -- otherwise bad things might happen. But he is the last person we would think of spending time with on a Friday evening. And the reason is that we have not fully grasped what it means to have peace with God. We act like fugitives rather than friends.

But if we are to live full, joyful Christian lives we need to learn to respond to God as friends. [need somehow to communicate the WONDER of friendship with God]

2. "We have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand."

This verse makes me imagine two contrasting scenes:

1. The first is a courtroom.

I am the defendant. The judge says, "will the defendant please rise." I stand up He begins to read a list of charges: "The defendant, Daniel Brown, is hereby indicted for: cruel neglect of his dog, skipped quiet times, gross lack of compassion, impatience with his wife and children, general laziness, self-indulgence, breaking the speed limit and numerous other unspeakable crimes. How do you plead?"

This is standing in condemnation.

2. The second scene is a throne room.

I am standing next to the throne. I am afraid, and I look at the floor, but a voice from the throne says, "My son, look at me." And so I look up and I see the face of my father, and I see eyes full of love and acceptance and welcome.

This is standing in grace.

When Paul says that Jesus has introduced us into this grace in which we now stand, the image he suggests is this: Jesus taking you by the hand, leading you into the throne room of God where you find ourselves welcomed and surrounded by undeserved and lavish love and acceptance -- by God's umerited favor. And he uses the verb stand to show us that we belong there -- that we are not visitors at the throne of grace, but that we belong there. We do not come and go in and out of God's grace -- we stand in it. So Justification takes us out of the courtroom of condemnation and into the throne room of grace.

What does standing in grace mean for us in practice?

I think that it has implications for how we respond to guilt. The usual effect of guilt or shame in our lives is to put a barrier between us and God -- we fear condemnation when our guilt is exposed. But if There is no reason why any Christian need struggle under a burden of guilt or shame. We are not standing in the courtroom to be condemned, but in the throne room, surrounded by God's grace. So the benefits of the war being over are Peace --meaning friendship with God; Grace -- the enjoyment of full acceptance -- and finally, HOPE.

3. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Now Christian hope is quite different from our ordinary hopes. Ordinary hopes are really just wishful thinking. I hope the weather will be good tomorrow. I hope . . .

But Christian hope is not just wishful thinking -- rather it is a confident expectation based on what we KNOW to be true. So, for example, if you have a rich uncle, and your rich uncle has promised that when you buy a house he will make the downpayment for you, then as long as you trust your uncle you will look forward with confident expectation to receiving that money. That is the nature of Christian hope -- confident expectation based on the character of God and the promises of God.

Much of the Christian life is an ongoing struggle to APPROPRIATE what God has given us.

When we fail to appropriate what we have in Christ we become very much like Shoichi Yokoi -- who hid unnecessarily for 28 years because he did not grasp his true position. He lived in guilt, in shame, in fear when he could have had freedom.