Roman’s 5:1-11. Isaiah 53: 3-9
Promises and Perspectives

Any Charlie Brown fans here? Charlie would share his problems with Schroeder? Schroeder tried to encourage his friend and said: “Don’t be discouraged, these early defeats help to build character for later in life.” So, Charlie responded, “For what defeats later in life?” Schroeder answered, “For all you will get wrong later in life!” Thanks, that’s really encouraging!! In our Romans reading Paul declares, “We can rejoice, when we run into problems and trials, for they help us develop endurance and endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation”. V 3.

God regularly made promises. He promised Noah that He would never destroy the world by flood again. He promised Abraham & Sarah that they would have children, even when 100 years old. Then through Isaiah: “My righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins”. 53.11. This links to our Lords conversation with Nicodemus in John 3.16, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life”.  But most importantly God faithfully keeps his promises.

Many people would read Rom 5 v3 and think, is this guy nuts? How many of us rejoice when we run into problems? But Paul is really trying to encourage us, as we face our daily challenges! Perspective makes a world of difference. When Goliath came against the Israelites, the soldiers thought, “He’s so big we can never kill him.” But David looked at him and thought, “he’s so big I can’t miss him.” Paul’s perspective changed too, as he endured much, he said, “endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.”

Paul was explaining that ‘Christian hope’ is not instantaneous, but it comes from Christ’s work, His promises, and from struggles as we face our challenges. Our basic assurance is in our first verse. “Since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.” ‘Made right with God’often called ‘justified’. It’s when God looks at us and says, “Not guilty, because of the blood of Jesus”. As a teenager I was taught to remember it as “Just as if I’d never sinned.”

Perspective is so important to us as we face our struggles. I read this story recently – a farmer owned an old mule, who fell into his well. He heard the mule ’braying’, or whatever mules do when they fall into wells. After considering the situation, the farmer sympathised with him but decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth saving. So, he called his neighbours together, explained the situation and asked help to shovel dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery. He didn’t think it would take long! Initially, the mule became hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbours continued shovelling and the dirt hit his back, a thought struck him. Every time a load of dirt landed on his back – he would shake it off and step up!

He kept doing this. “Shake it off and step up . . . shake it off and step up!” No matter how painful the blows, the old mule endured his suffering and just kept right on shaking it off and stepping up! It wasn’t long before, battered and exhausted he stepped right out of the well! What was intended to bury him had actually been the means to his survival! — all because of the way he looked at his problem. That’s character, when we face our problems responding positively. Because our challenges can easily bury us, or – they can be a blessing! As the Mule began his journey up the well, he probably had no hope. But I’m sure that as he got closer to the top, his hope grew. As followers of Christ, hope is central to our faith. Hope is based on the assurance that our Lord will not leave us alone in our sufferings. Paul said, “I can do all things in Christ, who strengthens me.”

How optimistic are you about your future on a scale of 1-10? how much hope do you have? I thought you would appreciate this: “Value this time in your life, because now you still have choices, and it goes by so quickly. When you’re a teenager, you think you can do anything, and you do. Your twenties are a blur. In your thirties, you raise your family, you make a little money and you think to yourself, “What happened to my twenties?” in your forties, your body shape changes and you feel you are getting older. Music starts to get too loud and one of your old school friends becomes a grandparent. In your fifties you have minor surgery. You call it a procedure, but it’s surgery. In your sixties you have major surgery, the music is still loud, but it doesn’t matter because you can’t hear it anyway. Then seventies, you and your wife downsize; you start eating dinner at lunch time. And you spend most of your time wandering around Garden centres looking for just something interesting and drinking tea or coffee and cake! – Then you mutter “how come we don’t see the kids so often these days?” By your eighties…and nineties, Oh let’s not go there!!!!     How much hope do you have? ‘An attitude of hope’ is so critical, it’s referred to four times in our scripture. Firstly, Paul says “we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.” We know that God is faithful in His promises and our future is secure. In v4, we find “endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.”  Hope grows as we experience more of Gods provision for us in different challenging situations. Hence the context of v3 “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance”.  This doesn’t mean we look for problems, but recognise that our challenges aren’t meaningless, it’s just part of God’s process, we can’t see it from our viewpoint today, but God does from His. Finally, in v5 “this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”

The core of Paul’s message is: “our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.” That’s the fulfilment of the promise God made in our Isaiah 53 reading. We didn’t deserve it. We didn’t earn it. But God, as an act of love and grace, through Jesus, kept His promise and saved us. As sinners, we don’t deserve anything, says Paul. No one should have promised us it would be easy when we became Christians. But God, out of His great love, gives us what we need when we need it. He promised that and that’s a promise we can rely on. So, remember His promises, and try and see things from a different perspective. Amen                                                                                                               

Revd Paul Pritchard