“Rejoicing in our Sufferings”
Romans 5:1-11
3/11/09
In tonight’s epistle text we have another case
where the Scriptures seem to go too far. We like what the Apostle
Paul writes in the first couple of verses about our being justified by
faith and being at peace with God through Jesus Christ, through whom we
have access by faith into God’s grace, which gives us cause to
rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. If only he had just
stopped there. But then he starts talking about rejoicing in our
sufferings. What kind of sadistic person is he? For that
matter, even Christ Himself promises suffering and the cross to His
disciples. It’s enough to make anyone chafe at the idea of
becoming a Christian.
And yet, from the Scriptures we are told that
it’s not we who chose this life for ourselves. Who would
chose such a life - a life that promises eternal life, while at the
same time delivering death?? No, we did not choose this
vocation. Instead, it was given to us at our Baptism, where we
were given new birth. Birth is not something that you choose, but
is a gift, something with which you had nothing to do. And it was
at that new birth that you were not only given new life in Christ, but
you were also nailed with Him to the cross. Thus, St. Paul writes
in this same letter to the Roman Christians that “all of us who
have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His
death.” While most of us rejoice in the new life that God
gives us when we are baptized, few of us rejoice that God lays the
cross upon us and that for the rest of our lives the Holy Spirit is
working through our Baptism to put us to death.
To help illustrate this for you more clearly, in
your baptized state you are like the thief on the cross, who asked
Jesus to remember him when He entered into His kingdom. Jesus
promised him that that very day he would be with Him in paradise.
At that very moment the thief was born again. But Jesus did not
then free him from the cross. Instead, the thief hung there and
died with Jesus. And that’s you since your Baptism.
Like the thief, you’ve been given Jesus’ promise that you
will be with Him in paradise, you’ve been born again, and yet for
now you must suffer with Jesus. He doesn’t take the cross
away from you. Instead, he lets you hang there and die.
Now, who wants to rejoice in that? It seems
that God can be a little sadistic at times. Not only that, but
people who go around rejoicing in suffering and death are usually
labeled insane. To non-Christians we’re going to look like
fools who’ve lost their minds. It’s hard enough for
us to understand these things. We can only accept them by the
power of the Holy Spirit. And it is He through His Word here who
explains why we can rejoice in our sufferings. We can rejoice in
them, because God is working through them for our good. In this
same letter Paul writes that “God causes all things to work
together for good for those who love Him, for those who are called
according to His purpose.” And here he writes down what
those good things are which God is working through our
sufferings. They are endurance, character, and hope.
Endurance pertains to perseverance or steadfastness
in the faith. A person endures in the faith, when in spite of the
suffering that he experiences he keeps his eyes on Jesus and His
Word. This the thief on the cross did as he hung there with
Jesus. In spite of the fact that he was dying, he held onto
Christ’s promise of eternal life with Him in paradise until the
end. You would think that suffering might cause us to get our
eyes off of Jesus and His Word. And this is what the devil would
try to bring about. But God is working something different
through your sufferings. He wants to rob you of the comfort you
find in the things of this life, so that you will cling only to
Him. Through suffering and the cross God takes your false gods
and idols away from you, making you spiritually poor and dependent upon
Him, so that you cling to Him alone for your life and salvation.
On the cross the thief himself was robbed of everything he had, even
his own life. And yet with Christ’s promise he had
everything. His cross caused him to cling to Christ and His Word
alone in his suffering.
This produces character. Character pertains to
the way we live as God’s baptized children. While endurance
pertains to the faith and how we live towards God, character pertains
to love and how we live in this world towards others. Again, with
the sufferings that God gives us in this life, He causes us not to live
for ourselves and our possessions but for one another. Sufferings
and death remind us just how fleeting and temporary the stuff of this
world is and how powerless it all is to save us. We’re not
going to take any of it with us when we die. So, instead of
storing up treasure for ourselves in this world, through Christian
character we store up treasure in heaven - that treasure is the good
works that we do for our neighbors. Elsewhere St. Paul describes
this character as the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
In order to produce this godly character in His Christians, the Holy
Spirit uses our sufferings to crucify us, so that we might die to
ourselves and live for others, serving them through our various
vocations, as well as proclaiming the Gospel to them, when given the
opportunity. Even the believing thief became a preacher to the
unbelieving thief, when he rebuked him and said, “Do you not fear
God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And
we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but
this Man has done nothing wrong.”
Finally, there’s hope. As we persevere
in the faith, this produces Christian character towards our
neighbor. And as the Holy Spirit produces both of these through
the sufferings He brings into our lives, He is also produces
hope. Our hope as Christians is the end of both our faith towards
God and our love towards one another. It’s what keeps us
standing steadfast in the faith and living out our Christian character
towards our neighbors. But this hope of ours is no uncertain
hope, as if I were to say, “I hope I have eternal
life.” No, this hope is a sure hope. Unlike our hope
that the economy will get better, the Christian hope is a hope that is
anchored in the promise of Jesus, stamped with His blood. It is
the promise that we who have been justified through faith in Jesus
Christ and have been sprinkled with His blood have the sure hope of the
glory of God to come. He who reconciled us with His blood will
come to save us from God’s wrath (which will be poured out on the
Last Day) and then will take us to our heavenly home to be with Him in
paradise forever. In this rejoice, even though we must suffer for
a little while in this life. The thief, too, rejoiced in this
very hope and held onto it even while he was dying, even after Jesus
had died, which to the eye would seem to have suggested that Jesus
couldn’t keep His promise. But His Word was confirmed with
His resurrection from the dead, proof that Jesus had overcome sin,
death, and the power of the devil and that He is able to save
completely all who hope in Him.
So for us, too, even when Jesus doesn’t seem
to be around, when all hope seems to be lost, when the sufferings in
our life seem to take all the perseverance in the faith out of us and
we fail to live out our Christian character towards one another, we can
still rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that nothing can separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord and that God
causes all things to work together for our good. You have been
justified, declared righteous, through faith in Jesus Christ. You
who were once an enemy of God have been reconciled to Him with the
blood of Jesus and are now at peace with God in Him. Through
faith in Him you have obtained access into God’s grace, where He
grants you His riches at Christ’s expense. You have
God’s love poured into your heart through the Holy Spirit, who
was given you at your Baptism and who is the deposit guaranteeing the
hope of the glory of God to come. So, rejoice with the Apostle
Paul and all the saints, even in your sufferings. They cannot
harm you; they are given to you for your good. And once you have
borne them for a little while, you too will go to be with the Lord
forever in paradise. Amen.