"Year in Review" - July

Picking my favorite moment in July was a bit of a challenge with Yoda showing up in one of Jonathan’s messages and kicking off Help Build Hope: Clermont (thank you to everyone that helped rehab Mattie’s home, especially John Corrigan for leading the project); but for me, it was volunteering with New Life Furniture on a Saturday morning with the guys from my RESET group. My favorite entry came from July 16th...

REJOICE

This week, we have been listening to Paul explain the idea of justification. Today, he offers a list of blessings that come with being made right in God’s sight. One of them will shock you. It did me.

Romans 5

1 Therefore, 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.

2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.

4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

5 And 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.

6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.

7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.

8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.

10 For since 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.

11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

Rejoice. According to Paul, one of the blessings of justification is the fact that we can “rejoice ... when we run into problems”. When you first read that phrase, you probably think it’s a typo. It certainly sounds like one. Who would ever rejoice about a problem? The beauty of Jesus’ sacrifice (verse 6) is that it solved THE most difficult problem we will ever face (verse 9) and offered us a new perspective on problems. If Jesus can handle our most difficult problem, He can handle any problem. If He can handle any problem, the question isn’t CAN Jesus handle this mountain of a problem I am facing right now; it is HOW is Jesus going to handle it. With this new perspective, problems become more like tutoring sessions that reveal to us more and more about God as they “develop” and “strengthen” us.