Abraham’s faith was about what? That he would be the father of many? That his wife would have a child despite the facts of her age? That he would follow the only God rather than pagan gods? All—was it a package? He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. He believed God in all three, perhaps? “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace.” My husband learned this morning that Abraham did not walk through the cut animals; only God did. That is the grace.
So what is the point for me? Well, any vestige I had of my being and my actions and “works” as being meritorious should be gone by now.
I should give my husband some grace. My Lord gave us so much. I should just listen patiently. What I don’t like is when he “pounces” on something I say in good faith and criticizes it, and when he call everything “evil” that he doesn’t like. I will relay his need to see the beauty and good, not the evil, immediately or by default, which is a symptom of his mental illness.
And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance (endurance); 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Because we have access to grace through faith, there are many, many results. Romans 5:3-4 are some of them. We see suffering a different way. This may strike us moderns as “reveling in suffering,” but the ancients were realists about suffering: it is, and was, and isn’t going to go away; it will just morph into a different form or immediate cause. We have controlled it somewhat in the last 200 years, but we need only look beyond our personal borders to see how much there is. The question of suffering has not abated.
If we go through tribulations, we grow in endurance, which leads to character, and that increases hope. The formula? No, not so easy. It is a long obedience in the same direction; it will take years and is not guaranteed. It should “work” that way but there are other factors. Our choices, for one.
I cannot say I am going through any tribulations, just annoyances! Not the same, and I wouldn’t conflate them.
Romans 5:6 For when we were still without strength, in due time (at the appointed time) Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
These are some of my favorite verses, and I have them mostly memorized. God does not demonstrate only his judgment, wrath, and condemnation of sin; he demonstrates his love through the death of Christ when the human race didn’t care. When we were enemies. The resurrection completes it—we shall be saved by His life (also perhaps His perfection in living, but I think the parallelism refers to the resurrection.” And we are reconciled.
Too often Christians stop at the easy, Jesus died for our sins (what does that mean, anyway?) without any depth or context, and we are supposed to “get it” and find that enough. The writings of Paul, John, Luke, Peter, Matthew, and the Hebrewsian (I just am not ready to say that’s Paul; he didn’t write to Jews alone, and he would have said his name) all belie this—there is a world of depth in the life, cross, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today I will pursue that I am reconciled, not I alone, but all of us. That means I was at odds with God for many years, ignorantly but with great potential for rebellion. And He “fixed” that eternally.
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