Sermon – Romans 5:1-11 “Adopted as the Children of God”
Pittsgrove Presbyterian Church
March 22, 2020
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Order of Worship for March 22
Today is the fourth Sunday of Lent. Lent is a season of 40 days, excluding Sundays, when we focus on our faith and relationship with God. We reflected on the reality of sin and when we choose to decide for ourselves right from wrong, we set the bar lower and lower thus deluding ourselves into thinking that sin no longer exists. Then we saw the great act of God, who freely forgave our sins and granted eternal life to all who believe in Jesus Christ. Today we will see what it means to be adopted as God’s children. Will you pray with me?
Father in heaven we come to you today as your forgiven children. We thank you for this gift and ask that you allow us to enter into a relationship with you. We ask that through Jesus Christ, who reigns with you in heaven, that your anger and justified wrath against us be pardoned. And we ask that though the Holy Spirit your love be poured down upon us. We ask these things so that as your children we may be shaped into your image as you created us, and be filled with your glory, Amen.
Romans 5:1-11 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person-- though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
God has freely granted to all the faithful the forgiveness of all sin and assurance of everlasting life. This is a wonderful gift from a loving God. Jesus’ death on the cross made all of this possible because his death paid for our sins and made our deaths unnecessary. So even though we are mortal and will one day die we can be assured that one day we will rise from the dead, just as Jesus did, to live forever in the presence of God. But since all of this takes place either far in the future or far away in heaven we can legitimately ask if there are any gifts that God gives us now while we are still alive.
The Israelites following Moses certainly had this question in mind. They had already received the wonderful gift of freedom from slavery in Egypt. They had watched as the waters of the Red Sea had been parted. They had followed a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire at night. They knew that God loved them very much. But when their problems multiplied and they were facing a lack of water they forgot all about all those things God had done for them and focused only on their pressing needs. And God, as a loving parent, blessed them and provided for them with water coming out of a rock.
God invites us to be in a relationship with him as his children. Of course, we have in one sense, always been in a relationship with God. That relationship was characterized by our rebellion. We turned our backs on God and hid. But now God is offering a new kind of relationship, one based on peace and the health and well being of our bodies and our souls. As with any relationship, our relationship with God needs frequent attention.
I have always had a hard time with relationships. That is probably why I did not marry until I was nearly 50. But now, with Grace, I see the importance of meeting people regularly and calling people more often on the telephone. To form a relationship with God we need to meet with God and talk on a regular basis. That is why we need to pray, worship, and read scripture regularly. A daily practice of Bible reading and prayer is essential in developing the kind of relationship that God is offering us. This relationship is made possible because God chose to come to us as the incarnate Jesus Christ to meet us where we are and experience what we experience. So through Jesus Christ, we can have a wholesome relationship with our creator.
We see from this that Christianity is at its root relational. We have a relationship with God and with each other. The American church has often stressed the individual nature of faith and has told us that we can have a personal relationship with Christ. This is true, but we should not forget that our faith is also based on our relationship with each other and with all of God’s people. We worship God not in isolation but as part of a church. And our particular church worships God not alone but with all the other churches on the planet. Our faith is relational; we are all bound together by God’s love.
As we develop a relationship with God through Jesus Christ amazing things begin to happen. We begin to change; we are transformed. This happens gradually. Every time you come to worship, every time you meditate on scripture, every time you pray a stitch is made in the fabric of your life. You mature, over the years, into what you were created to be. You see God created us in his image and likeness. So as we mature as Christians we become more and more like God.
The apostle Paul called this “sharing in the glory of God.” Usually, Paul tells us to be humble. But as we form a relationship with God and become more like God, Paul wants us to boast and to proclaim to the entire world all that God has done for us.
This all sounds really great. God not only forgives us but helps us to become more like God. But we still experience all of the trials and tribulations of life. Our health fails and we wind up in the hospital. Our parents become old and frail and need our care. We find it difficult to pay our mortgages and all the bills that come due each month. Our children live in another part of the world and we can’t see them as often as we would like. We have to adjust to living in a new land, learning a new language and culture.
In a world beset with difficulties, how does a relationship with God help us? By nurturing a relationship with God with prayer and Bible study and worship we are able to endure these hardships and withstand the problems that befall us because we know that God is there with us. And God will use our trials to refine us, improve us and make us into what we were created to be, shining examples of the glory of God.
The way God transforms us into his image is through the Holy Spirit, who enters into our hearts and fills us with God’s empowering love. We experience this love in worship as the Holy Spirit comes upon us, as it did to the apostles on the Day of Pentecost, to fill us with God’s Spirit empowering us for the work God wants us to do. We know, through the Holy Spirit, that our prayers will reach God and that God will answer us in our prayers, worship, and meditation on scripture.
So how do we know that God loves us and cares for us? What other explanation would you have for God having his own son die for us so that our sins are forgiven and we are assured of eternal life? God, most certainly, is motivated by his love for us. We certainly do not deserve this love, but God loves us anyway. And this love is the basis and power for the transformative relationship which we have been offered.
But we also get an even greater gift. Death could not hold Jesus Christ in its grip. Jesus was resurrected from the dead and now sits at the right hand of God interceding for us. Satan still approaches God and accuses us by telling God all we have done, all of our sins, and recommending that God give us what we really deserve. With such a formidable opponent we have little hope of escaping God’s wrath. But with Jesus Christ, our defender before God in heaven, we will not be punished. We escape from God’s wrath, saved by our savior.
But there is even a greater gift from God than even his love and forgiveness. We are given the right to boast, to tell others the glorious things God has done for us. We can declare to the world that Jesus Christ is our Lord and through him, we have been reconciled with our creator and blessed with God’s love. We can boast because our new relationship with God is not of our own doing, but we have a restored relationship with God because of God’s gift of Jesus Christ.
We have been adopted as God’s children. We are invited to have a wholesome relationship with our creator through his son, Jesus Christ. God’s love is poured into us through the Holy Spirit, shaping us into God’s very image and glory. The risen Jesus Christ intercedes on our behalf saving us from the wrath of God. And we can shout to the world about all the great things God has done for us. Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, we thank you for all your gifts: for the gift of the Holy Spirit who brings to us God’s love, for the gift of a restored relationship with the Father, and for your intercession on our behalf before the throne of God saving us from God's wrath. We thank you and bless you and glorify you, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
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