Sermon Tone Analysis

Advent, 2021

A young boy stood outside the gate of Buckingham Palace in London.

He wanted to talk to the king but was sternly and forcefully turned away by the guards at the gate.

He moved away and stood crying.

He was approached by a well-dressed man who asked him why he was upset.

The boy told him his story and after hearing the reason for the young boy’s tears, the man said, “Take my hand.

I’ll get you in.

You can ignore those soldiers.”

The boy knew no better, so he took the man’s hand, and they approached the gate.

The soldiers saw the pair and snapped to attention, opened the gate for the man and the little boy.

Somewhat confused, the boy was led through the gate, across the courtyard, down carpeted and marble hallways, up a grand staircase, and finally to a set of large doors.

Upon entering the room, the boy realized that he was in the very presence of the king himself.

Standing there amazed, he asked the man, “How did you do that?”

The man knelt beside him and replied, “Young man, you were holding the hand of the right person, for I am the Prince of Wales, the King’s own son.

Welcome to the throne room.”

This simple story illustrates what we are going to see in our passage for today’s sermon.

Today we are in Romans 5:1-5.

How did we get here?

In Romans 1-3, the apostle Paul has declared that all people are sinners by birth and by choice and this is an eternal problem.

Romans 3:10 – 13 says that man is sinful and lives under the wrath of God.

God is holy and we are not; our minds wandered, and this wandering has put us at war with God.

There is nothing we can do about it – religion, works, the law, rituals – won’t bring us into a right relationship with God.

But then the great U-TURN happens in verse 24.

He says “we are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Then we move into chapter four and are shown that a do-over won’t do the trick.

The solution to the problem must come from outside of us.

So, he uses Abraham as the example of justification by faith.

In chapter 4:16, Paul writes – “therefore, the promise (the heir of the world) comes by faith, so that it may be by grace.”

The Old Testament is filled with expectations of redemption, salvation, a Messiah, and victory.

God built this expectation into the story of His people – to look forward to the birth of the Messiah.

Christmas is hope realized.

We have hope because God provided us with the gift of His Son.

Our text today, Romans 5:1-5 shows us how hope is realized by our position in Christ, by our possessions in Christ, and by our privileges in Christ.

Chapter 5, verse one says– “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

There is a change in the way Paul identifies the audience in chapter 5.

In chapter 3, he used the word “all.”

In chapter 4, it’s “Abraham.”

Now, in chapter 5 he says “we.”

The great benefit of justification by faith is of a very personal nature and therefore Paul uses personal pronouns (we, us, our) throughout chapter 5.

The term justification is a legal term referring to one’s standing before God in view of what was done for us.

Consider what was done for the little boy in our introduction today.

In the Advent story, Joseph provides us with an example of how hope and faith meet.

The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in Matthew 1:20 and told him that the child Mary was expecting was from the Holy Spirit.

The child to be born was going to save people from their sins.

This certainly seems to be Joseph’s hope.

Joseph’s justification was eventually provided for him by the death of Jesus.

After Paul makes this statement about our position, he immediately lists the benefits inherent in our justification.

Paul was not with these believers in person, so we can infer that he was attempting to encourage the believers to enjoy these gifts.

Paul makes it clear that our possessions and gifts in Christ give us reason to hope.

The possessions here are precious and should be treated with care and never taken for granted.

But, of course, this means that we must open the gift!

With any gift, it requires an active response from the recipient.

You must take it, open it, and accept it to experience its fullness.

The first gift of justification is peace with our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you were here last week or were listening online, Capt.

Catherine defined peace.

Peace is completeness or wholeness, and it is something all people seek because division is a condition of humanity.

The most fundamental pursuit of peace is peace with God, which we can’t achieve on our own.

In Colossians 1:20 Paul says “all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, are brought to peace through Jesus’ blood, shed on the cross.”

Peace with God is a relational rightness that was abandoned at the fall and made possible by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Again, I say possible because it is a gift that we must be open to and accept.

In 1829, George Wilson was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Philadelphia.

Some of his high-powered friends got his case taken all the way to President Andrew Jackson and Jackson granted Wilson a pardon.

The warden delivered the pardon to Wilson, who refused it.

Wilson said he couldn’t accept the pardon because he knew he had done wrong and therefore, he had to accept the punishment he was given.

Jackson believed this wasn’t possible, so he sent the case to Chief Justice Taney.

Taney said this – “That the court cannot give the prisoner the benefit of the pardon, unless he claims the benefit of it, and relies on it by plea or motion.”

Because God is holy, He demanded a payment for sins.

What God demands, He supplies, even if it comes at a great cost.

And it cost God His first-born son.

Friends, if we refuse the payment Christ offered us by grace, there is no hope!

Is that your plea today?

Do you claim the work of Christ as a gift of grace?

Paul continues his gift-giving content.

Second, we have “gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.”

We live in an access-granted society.

Everywhere we go and every device we have requires special access through something, whether a card or a face.

Where would that little boy that we talked about at the beginning have ended up without access?

Access means “to enter into the presence of.”

Paul’s approach in this gift is upside-down in the 1st century.

Paul is saying that justified believers have unlimited and continuousaccess to the King.

Think of the temple.

Distance and separation were required of everyone who approached the temple.

Gentiles to the outer court, women to the court of women, only the priests could enter the holy place and only the high priest could enter the holy of holies, and even then only once a year and not without the blood of an innocent sacrifice.

The message was clear – KEEP YOUR DISTANCE!

You don’t have access to the King because you have a sin problem!

Hebrews 10:19 – “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus.”

Isn’t it mind-boggling that we as Christians have immediate and continuous access to the King, and we don’t spend more time in prayer?

Finally, Paul says we have been gifted a reason to boast – that is in the hope of the glory of God.

How can we rejoice or boast in something we fall short of (Romans 3:23 – for all have fallen short of the glory of God)?

Colossians 1:27 – “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

The hope of glory is a person, uniquely manifested as the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.

Paul is stretching his readers to think beyond the present and think of the future.

Hope is a certainty that hasn’t happened yet.

Eternity is a reality that hasn’t happened yet, YET Paul is encouraging these readers to think beyond their circumstances.

Not only is Paul encouraging the believers, but he’s also offering them a challenge – to boast in this future hope of glory in God.

Hope was hard to come by in the 1stcentury and it is hard to come by in December of 2021.

Our hope better be in something that transcends the circumstances of this life and offers us absolute assurance.

Paul said in Romans 4:2, “If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about – but not before God.”

Our confident expectation – our hope – rests on the promises of an eternally faithful God, as we see in Abraham and we see this in Joseph’s life as well.