「キリスト・イエスのお陰で得た多くの恵み」三月第五主日礼拝 宣教 2025年3月30日
ローマの信徒への手紙 Romans 5章1〜11節 牧師 河野信一郎
Good morning, and welcome to the last Sunday morning of March. This is also the last Lord’s Day of the fiscal year 2024. This morning, by God’s grace, we thank Him for the blessing of being gathered together in this chapel for praise, prayer, and worship. We also welcome those of you who worship online. I am sorry that many of you are sick this morning due to the recent cold weather, or are staying with family members, or are unable to join us due to work, or are absent for other reasons. But this morning, we feel truly blessed because we have been kept alive by God’s love and countless blessings have been given to us by God.
Today, after this service, the general meeting of the church will be held. We will review the past year’s progress and discuss plans for the new year. Please pray for blessings. We have walked through the year 2024 under the motto, “Walking Trusting in the Lord in All Circumstances. I was led to this motto not only because I was anxious to change from multiple pastorates over the years to a single pastorate, but also because of the decline in membership, worship attendance, and offerings, as well as my intuition that this year would be a test of my faith and the faith of the church members from various perspectives. As I greeted the last Sunday of this fiscal year this morning, I believe that my intuition was mostly correct. I am not happy about this intuition, but I know that there have been many personal difficulties, and I am sure there have been many things that you have had to deal with, and many things that have troubled you.
However, more than the hardships, we feel that we have received blessings from God that far exceed them. It is not the multitude of people or money that we need to rely on, but only God who gives faith to each of us. We can trust God alone because He has given us and continues to give us faith through Jesus Christ. A Christian named Nick Vujicic said, “The fuel for our souls is faith.”
No matter how hard our daily work or child-rearing may be, no matter how sick we may be, no matter how bad our relationships may seem, no matter how much everything we do seems to be spinning out of control, God has given us Jesus, He has given us a sure promise, and He has given us faith. So even though reality is indeed harsh, we are okay because God always gives us the strength to move forward. What we need is to keep trusting in the Lord God and in our Savior Jesus Christ. Living that way and rejoicing in being alive to God’s love makes God smile.
Well, since this is the last service of March, I would like to summarize the messages of the past month. This month, we went on a journey to find the reason why Jesus took the way of the cross for what purpose, and we heard the reason/purpose, twice from the New Testament and twice from the Old Testament. What do you think? Did it help you in your life of faith a little? I tried to speak gently to those who are seeking God’s love, but it may have been difficult for you to understand what I said because I spoke about difficult things. If so, I sincerely apologize.
This morning, through Romans 5:1-11, I will share with you that we have many blessings and privileges because of Christ Jesus. Most of the verses are written in the past tense, so if you are seeking Jesus’ love and salvation, I suggest you read verses 1-4 in the future tense, for example. It goes like this.
We will be justified by faith when we believe in Jesus as our Savior, so that we may have peace with God through Jesus Christ, and because of this Christ, we may be brought by faith into the grace that is to come, and we may boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we can also take pride in our tribulations. By believing in Jesus as our Savior, we will learn the important lesson that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces discipline, and discipline produces hope.” How about reading it this way.
I believe that many of us will be greatly comforted when we read the words of encouragement that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome who were struggling so much, as a promise of salvation from God, and we will seek to receive God’s love. But what is important here is that there is an initiative from God that says, “Because of Christ, we are brought into this grace”. And another important thing is that we believe in Jesus and make a decision to live in response to grace, rejoicing in salvation. That is faith, and it is the fuel and power that keeps our souls aflame, even when hard things happen day in and day out.
However, there may be many parts of Romans 5 that you do not understand, so I would like to share with you the many blessings God has given to us by picking up on some parts. However, some of you may not understand what “grace” means, so I would like to start from there. “Grace” is a word that expresses God’s love and mercy given unilaterally and equally to all people, thanks to Jesus. For example, rain poured down yesterday. If we accept rain as a natural phenomenon, it is just rain. However, if we rejoice in the fact that the rain was poured from heaven, it will be a rain of blessings. In other words, if we believe that God has given us rain, and if we rejoice and are thankful, everything will become a blessing.
What does verse 1 mean when it says, “We have been justified by faith”? It means, “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This “peace” does not mean peace of mind or the absence of war, but rather a right relationship with God. This right relationship is given to us through faith in Jesus as our Savior, which is also a gift given to us by God. Our relationship with God has been severed because we have turned our backs on God the Creator and chosen to live selfishly, but it is Jesus Christ who came to earth to restore that relationship, to give reconciliation.
In order to pay the price for all our sins in one lump sum, Jesus was nailed to the cross as the atoning offering and lamb for our sins, and through His shed blood, our sins were washed away, and by His life, Jesus Christ reconnected and restored our relationship with God. It is Jesus Christ who reconnects and restores our relationship with God through His life. Therefore, Paul writes, it is all “because of this Christ”. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, we are saved, brought to faith, rejoicing and thanking God for the blessings we have, and given the peace God gives us.
Not only that, but in verse 2, the apostle Paul says, “For in this Christ we have been brought by faith into this present grace, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God”. What does he mean by “boasting in the hope of the glory of God”? To “enter into the glory of God” means to be invited by God’s mercy to come to Him and live eternal life in His Kingdom. It means to rejoice and be thankful that we have been given that hope and that God loves us, and that is what it means to “boast. We are connected to God through Jesus, and we can honestly rejoice in the fact that we are part of God’s family. Even if we have nothing to be proud of and suffer from a sense of inferiority, Jesus gives us God’s love.
Verse 3 says, “Not only that, but we also boast of our afflictions”. This tribulation/affliction does not mean tribulation/affliction in the general sense, but rather the lack of understanding, misunderstanding, resistance, and persecution that those who believe in and follow Christ receive from the world. Christians at that time were suffering under oppression. But Paul does not succumb to such external suffering. Because in his heart is the love and promise of God and the peace of Christ.
In the following verses 3 and 4, Paul says, “For we know that tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance produces discipline, and discipline produces hope,” and by “perseverance” he means not being shaken in faith. Paul says that when we focus our eyes of faith on Jesus of the cross and Jesus of the resurrection, and not on the hardships before us, we are given patience, and “discipline” is born. Training” means that we are given growth and that we value God’s will more than our own. By putting God first, God gives us hope, and as a result, as verse 5 says, we can have the unshakable assurance that “hope does not deceive us”.
In the latter half of verse 5, Paul says, “The love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us.” Paul says that it is God the Holy Spirit who pours love into our hearts, sustains our hearts, and encourages us. We have received all kinds of love from God, and it is all “because of Christ Jesus”.
Let’s read verses 6-8. “For indeed Christ died for the ungodly at the appointed time, while we were yet weak. Few die for the righteous, for they are not willing to die for the righteous, but for the ungodly. But God showed His love for us by dying for us while we were still sinners.”
“When we were yet weak” means “When we were yet sinners.” To strengthen us, to give us faith, to make us pure and righteous before God, to free us from sin and make us alive to eternal life, Jesus Christ died on the cross to give His life freely. In this cross, God’s love for each of us, His eternal and unchanging love, is shown.
In verses 9 and 10, the Apostle Paul declares, “Now we are justified by the blood of Christ”. He also encourages, “Through Christ Jesus we have been saved from the wrath of God, we have been reconciled to God, we have been made alive in His love, and we are now partakers of that grace. We owe it all to Jesus. Keep on receiving this grace”. Those who have not yet received it are invited to do so now.
Verse 11 is a further encouragement from the Apostle Paul. He says, “Not only so, but we boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ our Lord. For we have now been reconciled through Him.” And so it is with the words, “Because of Jesus Christ, we have been reconciled to God. Because of Jesus Christ, we know that God loves us and has given us the grace to believe. To be thankful for this grace and to cherish it forever is to “boast in God”. With pride in God and trusting in the Lord, let us step forward together into this new year, the 60th anniversary of the church’s establishment. Let us aim together to be a church that responds vividly to the Lord’s grace in the abundant mercy of the Lord.