Worth the wait

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. (Romans 12:12)

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:18 ESV)


Picture the scene: It is late and dark, and cold. I'm out in a carpark miles away from home with my three-and-a-half year old son... He's not happy.

He pleads with me to take him home, but I refuse.

Taken in issolation, if you did not know me, you might think this made me a bad father. Why keep your young boy up so late? Why keep him out in the cold and dark? Why shut your ears to his pleadings?

... but then the fireworks start ...

All discomfort, tiredness and cold is forgotten. His face lights up with delight. Cries of "Wow!" and "I like that one!" replace the pleas to return home. He was glad we had stayed.

A vital part of staying patient through trials, testings, or tribulations is to recall that God is our Father. Human fathers may fail and let us down, but God never will. Although not all things are good, all things are worked for our good if we are called according to his purpose. If he takes us through, or allows us to go through, tough times, we can be sure he has a purpose behind it. One for our good and prosperity and not to bring us to harm. We may need to wait. It might seem like it takes forever. It might seem like God has shut his ears to our entreaty. But he knows what he is doing.

One day we will see the results of our patience... if we do not give up. And on that day we will cry: "Wow! It was worth the wait!"

Essentials

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6 ESV)

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:8 ESV)


The Scriptures say that nothing without faith, or in the flesh, can in any way please God. The obvious inference is that the essentials to please God are faith and being in the Holy Spirit.

In fact the two are really one. For if I am not relying on the Holy Spirit, if I am relying on the flesh - my own natural gifts and abilities - then I have removed the need for faith. I don't need faith to do what I know I can do. It is only when I move beyond my own limits and step out in the Spirit that I need to exercise faith.
The road of faith and the road the Holy Spirit guides us down are one and the same. Nothing we do that veers off this road has any merit before God.

And Justification For All

If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. (Ro 5:17-18)

I was reading Romans 5 yesterday. I was reading it out loud actually. I love the reading of the Scriptures, even if I am just reading them out loud to myself. When I do it, I wonder why I don't do it more often! Something I have done before, when I really want to get into a book of Scripture is to record myself reading it out loud (a PC and a microphone is all you need) and then burn it to CD to listen to on the way into work. After all faith comes by hearing. I did this with the book of Daniel before I did my series of teachings on it, and I'm doing it now with the book of Romans (not because I'm teaching it, but because we are studying it as part of a course on Evangelism).

The first thing that struck me about chapter 5, is just how difficult it is to read in the ESV! (Try it if you want a challenge.) Part of the ESV's accuracy means all Paul's clauses and sub-clauses are preserved in all their complexity. There are some sentences that you really need to know where they are going before you start off.

Part of the difficulty is the phrase "much more". For someone like me, who has read the NIV for seventeen years, the urge to say "How much more" was overwhelming. Just "much more" didn't quite sound right. It was hard to construct the sentence around this and still make it sound right.

But it does highlight something. Paul was not asking a question; not even a rhetorical one! The work of Christ is much greater than the work of Adam. If it is true that all receive sin and death because of Adam, then it is even more true that all are offered justification and life because of Jesus. This is Paul's main argument in this chapter.

I believe absolutely in the total sovereignty of God. Even the slightest hint of dualism is an anathema to me. But this chapter is the reason I can never consider myself a Calvinist. There was nothing limited about Christ's atonement. There is no economy in his blood. It is of infinite worth, and cleanses not just all who turn to him, but the Cosmos itself!

Although all those who turn to him have their names recorded from the beginning of time, God does not predestine anyone to hell. It's not his will that anyone should perish. Christ did not just die for the elect, or for his church - his blood was more than sufficient for every need of the whole world even if they were multiplied a million times over.

God's power of salvation and justification is offered to all who would believe. I'm catching again why evangelists love this book! I love it too.