Romans 5:6-11
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today in our readings, we are back in the book of Romans. Now, if you think, a long time back, we went through the book of Romans for a little bit, had a sort of a mini series on it. And now that Easter and all of the holidays are over, we're back in it again, which means we need to look at what Paul has been up to talking in Romans to get to where we are.
So a reminder about what Romans is. Romans is kind of an introductory letter from the Apostle Paul to the church in Rome, he had not really been there, they didn't really know him all that much. And so he is, we think, getting ready to make a base out of Rome. So you can do more missionary journeys built out of there. And this is why Romans is sort of like a doctrinal letter. It's his introduction to the church to say, This is who I am, and this is what I teach.
Over the course of Romans, we get to see a number of things he builds slowly. In the first three chapters, St. Paul points out that everyone's a sinner. He starts out and says, those Gentiles, those Roman pagans, they're sinners. And you can tell because they do some crazy stuff.
But Jews in the church, you guys are sinners, too, because you had the law and you failed to do it.
And then finally, he gets to a place where he says, Guess what that makes everyone a thinner.
In fact, it's worse than that. We're not just people who make mistakes.
Maybe there's even nothing good in us at all. But nothing we can do lives up to God's standard of perfection. And he closes out that section by saying, but there's something amazing, a gift that God has revealed to us through Jesus Christ, that we are saved not by our actions, but by grace, the righteousness of faith given to the church.
In Romans four, and he points out that this is how God has always worked. The God saved Abraham by faith. When he said, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, a quote from Genesis.
Later on in Romans, chapter five, he points out this famous passage, that because we are saved, we can rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that these things do something for us. He says, Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that our suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, character produces 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.
And so now we continue with a passage about being reconciled to God.
St. Paul writes things like this, For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
Later on, God shows His love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
He also says, More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus through whom we have now received reconciliation.
And so what St. Paul does now is he points out that for all of us who are sinners, we now have reconciliation to God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus's death and resurrection means that God offers the whole world reconciliation. We were sinners, and now we're part of the family of God. We used to be ungodly, and now we are God.
We have reconciliation.
Jesus Christ brings us in all of us who have failed to live up to the standard of our father and makes us one with Him.
This is a powerful message in a world that is filled with guilt. And our world is filled with guilt.
There is so much guilt out in our culture. We don't even know what to do with it.
People feel guilty about everything.
There's parent guilt, isn't there? If you've ever been a parent, you know what it's like, right?
Was I too harsh? Was I not strict enough? Did I not do the right thing here? Did I sign them up for the right activity? Are they ready for the right school? Did I do everything wrong?
No parents ever felt that way? Right?
There's environmental guilt. Right? We have that, don't we?
Am I putting out too much carbon in the world?
Am I recycling enough?
Have I done enough to save the world from the impending problem?
We live in a world that wants us to feel racial guilt.
That tells us that there are problems with everything that we do, and everything is problematic.
There's interpersonal guilt.
The more day to day stuff. You just when you screw up, and you hurt the people around you. And you go, wow, I didn't think that was that kind of a jerk.
There's guilt everywhere. And we know that because famous people are always apologizing for something that they didn't know was wrong until they did it. Right.
Every single day, it seems like someone is standing up and reading a an apology prepared by a PR consultant that reads something like mistakes were made. Right?
We live in a world that is so filled with guilt, because
the rules are not clear.
We're told
to follow our dreams, the rules and institutions that used to be there are no longer there. Which means that the rules are secretly scattered across our lives, like landmines hidden underground. And you only know when you need to be guilty when you step.
Sounds pretty terrible, right? That's because it is. And there is so much guilt out there.
And in here, right.
Which is why it is so wonderful, that God has sent someone to get rid of
Jesus Christ, who died on a cross to take all of your guilt on himself,
who paid the penalty for every sin, so that you can be reconciled to God.
And because of that, all of your guilt can go away.
Very simply, when you hear the words, I forgive your sin, in the name of the Father, and the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
It's easy, right?
God sends His messengers, like me to take away that guilt by forgiving.
And you might say to yourself, Wait a second Pastor, I can't be that easy. I have all of these things that I feel guilty for. They pile up and they're they're just building up in my life until they reach the top of my head. And all you have to do is say I forgive you.
Isn't that a little cheap? Shouldn't I have to go out and fix the problem? Shouldn't I have to strive or do something?
Nope.
Because the forgiveness that the church delivered, the reconciliation that we have for you is not cheap. In fact, it cost something very, very precious.
The holy precious blood of Jesus Christ and His innocent suffering and
the your sin is not a light thing.
Your guilt is there for a reason. You're a terrible person.
Right? And so am I.
All of that guilt that piles up in you is there because you deserve it? You are guilty
and the only way to get rid of it is to have something even greater. Come to you
and eliminate.
And that's Jesus.
He paid the ultimate penalty for you. The infinite God died, to give you forgiveness and reconcile you with our Father in heaven. So that guilt need not hang on you anymore.
The funny thing about me saying that though is that actually can be something that you feel guilty about, right?
That's because when I go online, and I search, how do I forgive myself, you get articles like 10 steps to forgive yourself.
Right?
And that means all you have to do is get really good at forgiving yourself.
Which doesn't work, right? Because you can say, Oh, I forgive me.
And then 30 seconds later, you feel guilty again?
Right?
Isn't that how it works?
In fact, we hold on to some things that we know are ridiculous.
When I was in high school, yeah, you're getting a high school story. When I was in high school, I was an umpire at a baseball game, I was the home plate umpire. And I made a mistake. And I got so upset at myself. When I made a mistake. I turned around and berated myself while someone was sliding into home and they were making a play.
Good umpire, right? Yep, I'm going to place here, I'm here and I go, I don't know safe.
Very mad at me, you can imagine right?
I still think about that. About once a week.
Really?
I still think about that. And how can you believe I have no idea why.
I have no idea why I still feel guilty about that.
And it's ridiculous, isn't it?
Stupid. And I know it, and I can't get rid of it.
Because self forgiveness is no forgiveness at all.
What you need is not your own forgiveness. But God.
You need someone to come to you and say, I forgive your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Why do you need that? Because something that comes from outside of you is different from hearing a voice in your own head.
Someone who stands in front of you and says, Jesus died for you. He rose for you. And you are forgiven.
If is
and you can say it out loud. Say your sins me. Right? You can speak it and think, Well, Pastor would never leave. Let me be in the church. If I told him that one. Nope, that's not true.
So your shame and your guilt wants you to think that you're the only sinner who's really bad.
And when you come to me,
you sit in front of me to say this is what I did. And I just say very simply, I forgive your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. You'll be amazed and how it works.
You can get rid of your guilt.
Because that's the gift that God gives to His church.
That any sin, no matter how big, or whether it's screwing up a baseball call,
is forgiven by the same death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, washed away by the waters of baptism, and forgiven with the forgiveness that God gives His Church to deliver to you.
This is a powerful message.
And I think this is really the key for us not just here in the church, but as a gift to the world.
We are all feel guilty here because everybody out there feels guilty too because we're all Americans in this crazy culture. That is all about guilt.
They need that freedom to
see the reason everything is so crazy and people are shouting so much and so hostile and angry is they are trying to prove to themselves that they're actually good that their guilt is not there and that the louder they shout the less they think about their own pain.
We can actually solve it.
We can take away that guilt and that pain.
All we have to
do is bring it to them.
Not shouts, not react in anger, but just say, there is a way to get rid of your gift.
There is a way to be reconciled to God
and it's through Jesus Christ.
This is a great gift that we have as an author,
not just for ourselves, but the reconciliation between humanity and God that we can speak to a world who needs it just as much as you do
is the most powerful thing we have in a world filled with guilt and pain,
that Jesus Christ came to die for sinners,
for the ungodly,
as he says,
But God shows His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died.
In Jesus name, Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai