Sermon: “Saved by His Life”

Text: Romans 5:1-11

3^rd Sunday in Lent (A)

February 24, 2008

Scripture introduction.  The passage we are about to read is from the apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, a church that was founded not by him, but probably by missionaries that were sent out originally from Jerusalem.  Paul wrote this letter about 27 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, probably while Paul was spending the winter in Corinth.  While much of our culture as 21^st century Americans is an outgrowth of the ancient Greek and Roman culture of Paul’s time, as we interpret scripture we need to remember that there still are significant differences between our culture and Paul’s.

For example, in our text this morning, Paul speaks several times of how we as Christians should “boast.”  In our culture, boasting is almost always considered to be undesirable.  Movie stars and athletes may boast, but we don’t really like it when they do; and if our friends or family boast, it can be very off-putting.  In Paul’s culture, however, it was acceptable—at least in moderation.  Paul’s Greek word that we translate “boast” means something that we can and do take pride in.  That’s a little more acceptable in our culture.  It can even mean something that causes us to rejoice, which is even more acceptable.  And Paul avoids using other Greek words that would imply excessive boasting, so even Paul seems to be talking about a measured and appropriate sense of joy and pride in something—an enthusiasm that makes us want to talk about our joy and pride to others.

Sermon.  Once a month Alan Harder and I serving as volunteer chaplains at Union Hospital, spending an hour or two visiting the patients who have indicated to the hospital staff that they would like a visit from a minister.  My day is the 16^th of every month, and so it was that a little over a week ago I was making my rounds.  As I finished visiting one patient, a nurse saw that I was a chaplain and asked me to visit a woman who was not on the list.  According to the nurse, the woman was very anxious and needed someone to talk to.  She showed me to the room, and I began to talk to the woman in question.  She had no connection to our church—I don’t even remember her name—but the nurse had been right about her state of mind.  She was anxious, worried, and perhaps even afraid.  I asked what her problem was, and she replied that she was exhausted, that she had not slept all night.  As she gradually grew more comfortable with me, she related that it had been her anxiety that had kept her up.  I asked her what she was worried about.

She told me that although she had been a fairly faithful churchgoer for most of her life, and although she was a person of Christian faith, she was afraid she had not been good enough to go to heaven when the time came for her to die.  She had a life-threatening illness, and the prospect of death under these circumstances was bearing down upon her spirit.  She told me what her faith tradition was, and based on what I knew about that tradition I did my best to explain the points that the apostle Paul made in his letter to the church at Rome.  I told her that whether she would go to heaven or not had nothing to do with how good she had been.  In Paul’s words, “While we still were weak . . ., while we still were sinners, Christ died for us.”  Moreover, if we have been justified by the death of Christ, even more can we be sure that by Christ we are reconciled to God and will be saved at the final judgment.  I tried to explain that our attempts to live a good life, however flawed they may be, are a thankful response to what God already has done for us in Christ, rather than a way to earn our ticket to heaven. 

Paul could not be any clearer about this as he lays out the argument in Romans.  He begins chapter five with the statement that we are justified by faith.  I assume that he is speaking not only of our faith in Christ, but even more of Christ’s own faith and faithfulness and obedience.  It is the faith of Christ that is imparted to believers, however strong or weak their own faith may be.  I think this becomes clearer in verse five and the verses that follow—basically the second part of our reading today.  Again, because of the cultural differences, we may need a little help in understanding what Paul writes.  In verse six, Paul maintains that “while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”  I prefer a slightly different translation.  I would say, rather, that “while we were still weak, at that very time Christ died for the ungodly.”  Paul is emphasizing how little we have to do with the matter.  It was precisely when we were weak and ungodly that Christ died for us.  And from Paul’s Greek verb tenses, we know that he considers our weakness and ungodliness to be a continuing condition, not something that we ever graduate from in this life.  He means that Christ’s death continues to benefit us, even while we continue to be weak.

The next verse, verse seven, is very confusing precisely because of cultural differences.  Paul affirms that Christ died for us, even though people rarely will voluntarily die even for a righteous person.  I think we can understand this part of his argument.  If only rarely would a person die for someone who is righteous, how much more remarkable is it that Christ would die for us when we are weak, ungodly, and unrighteous.  But then Paul seems to undercut his own argument, appearing to admit that sometimes a person might die for someone who is good.  The most convincing explanation I have read on this point[1] is that the word we translate “good” in the culture of the ancient world often referred to a person who was in a position to confer a benefit upon another.  Thus, through the convention of patronage,[2] which was central to the Roman world, those persons dependent on the generosity of the patron were expected to be loyal to the patron, even to the point of sacrifice.  If that is the sense in which Paul writes, then his point would become more like this:  “A person rarely will die for even a righteous person, and while someone might die for a benefactor to whom one owes one’s support, Christ died for us while we were still sinners, when he owed us nothing.” 

As Paul describes the work of Christ in our lives, he breaks the process down into steps.  First comes our justification, which was won through the blood of Christ on the Cross.  But Paul is concerned with more than our legal justification: he wants to speak also of what will happen to us.  He wants to address anxieties like those of the woman I met in the hospital.  Thus, he moves next to the subject of salvation, which has to do with rescue from danger.  Paul argues that since God has justified us and reconciled us to God’s own self through the sacrifice of Christ, it is inconceivable that God would not also save us from the perils of final judgment.  It is here that Paul refers to the life of Jesus, saying that we are saved by that life.  As Paul writes in verse 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.”  Paul is arguing that because Jesus was resurrected from death, so we who have been united to him and justified by his death, will also be resurrected into new life.  Salvation follows inexorably from justification and reconciliation.  We often collapse the steps that Paul so carefully lays out separately.  Thus, we speak of persons having been saved, as if it already has occurred.  Paul would say that we have been justified and reconciled and that our salvation will come at the final judgment, when we really need it.

During this season of Lent, we are all focusing on how we can live more faithful and godly lives.  As one of my law partners used to say very simply, we are all trying to “do better.”  But our redoubled efforts have nothing to do with our justification, reconciliation, and salvation—all of which have been achieved already through the loving and faithful sacrifice of Christ.  Our efforts to “do better” are a response to what God already has done for us in Christ.  To use the patronage analogy again, we have received the most amazing benefits from God, and now we respond with loyal service.

When we remember that Christ died for us at the very time when we were weak and ungodly and unrighteous, we know that Christ loves us just as we are.  Of course we can be better, but we don’t have to do better to be loved.  We begin from the point of knowing that God in Christ accepts us and loves us, and from that unshakable floor, we attempt more and more to shape our lives and character on the model of Christ.  There are important lessons for us as the church.  The first of these is that we should cut each other a lot of slack.  If Christ can accept us for who we are and allow us to build from there, then we all should accept one another as we are and encourage each other as we try to “do better.”  Someone in our congregation may have hurt you or failed you in some way.  The hurt or failure may feel even worse because, we think, “that sort of thing just shouldn’t happen in the church.”  But the truth is, it happens all the time.  What defines us as the church is not our righteousness, for we all are unrighteous, but rather our forgiveness and mercy when we should experience unrighteousness at the hands of another.

Another important implication is that everyone in the church is valued.  If Christ valued each of us enough to die for us, then we have value.  Again, not because of who we are, or what we can do, or what we can contribute, but just because Christ valued us.  As the people of God, we should strive not only to endure one another, but in fact to value each other, to hold each other up, and to defend one another.

I don’t know if the lady in the hospital understood what I was saying, but as I began to explain how I understood the gospel message, I found myself beginning to bubble over.  Maybe, even, I was boasting—not about myself, but about what Christ has done for me and for the whole world.  I began to exult that my salvation was not up to me but was in the hands of Christ, the one who is completely faithful and who can be depended upon.  Friends, this kind of feeling—boasting in Christ—is not bad.  In fact, it’s kind of fun.  We should do more of it.