I remember hearing years ago some theologian, no don’t ask me who, who wanted to argue with Paul. Well, frankly that isn’t such an unusual thing, lots of folks - theologians and normal people too - want to argue with Paul. But this one wanted to take issue with one of Paul’s most famous and often quoted verses. The greatest of these, this author posited, is not love, but hope.
I must have read that in seminary, which was - ahem - over thirty years ago. And I still remember it. Maybe it was because someone dared to take on the unassailable saint when he was flying at his highest (there are certainly other Paulisms that are much more vulnerable). But I really think I remember it because I think it is true.
Or sort of true. Truish. Faith, Hope and Love abide, these three. And the greatest of these is ... Yes. Maybe it is a trinity of equals and depending on the need of the moment, depending on the strength of the wielder of this gift, this training, this presence we name faith, hope and love. Faithopelove. Pronounce that! Maybe our mistake was not it deciding which was greater, but in trying to separate them at all. As if we could live a life of faith without love, or that we could love a transforming, healing kind of love without hope, or that we could hope for the Kingdom, for new life and new love without faith in the source of that new reality.
OK, how did I get here? This isn’t what I set out to write about for this weekend. I’m answering one of your questions. Actually a couple of them. This is one of those multiple occurrence questions. One asked “What does it mean to be saved?” And another asked it this way: “what do we mean when we say that Jesus died for my sins?”
At first I was troubled by the question. It is such a central concept to our faith that I was concerned that there are some out there who might not understand this salvation thing. But then, the more I thought about it, the more excited I became. What a great opportunity! To come back and talk about one of those foundational concepts of what it means to be a Christian. I can’t think of anything more fun.
I know that says more about me than about the faith. But still. Early in my ministry I was invited to preach a revival. Believe it or not. And I loved it. Probably wasn’t what the folks were used to, but they responded well and said they enjoyed having me there. So, now I get to do it again. Get ready, Aldersgate folks! It’s revival time. We’re getting saved!
OK, not really. Because we’ve been saved. What we’re going to do is to talk about knowing it and living it. Simple, right? Well, yes, but no. So simple that we have trouble holding on to it. So straightforward that we think we must be missing something, that we haven’t read the fine print, that there’s got to be a catch.
Well, there is a catch. But I’ll get to that in a moment. First, let’s embrace the simplicity, as described by Paul, if that’s not an oxymoron! Take a look:
Romans 5:1-11 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person-- though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Simple, right? Well, yes, is the sense that salvation is a completed act. “Since we are justified by faith...” It has already happened. It is an act completed in Christ, and claimed in faith. Done. Signed, sealed, delivered. The end. Except it isn’t the end. It is the beginning. The beginning of peace and the beginning of hope.
That is the tragedy of the popular conception of salvation, as far as I am concerned. That for many people it is an end. I’m saved, the end. I’ve got my ticket punched, by reservations made. I’m in, too bad for you. But as vital as that eternity, entrance into God’s Kingdom element is, it is hardly the whole story. In fact it could be argued that it is the least dynamic of the changes that occur when salvation takes place. It is the final note, the echo of the shout of joy that takes place when a life is claimed by the hope Paul writes about in these verses. There is so much more on offer, so much more to the promise than a final destination.
“Since we are justified (saved) we have peace.” But not a sit back on your laurels kind of peace, it is instead an active, motivating kind of peace. It is a confidence that allows us to live fully, to love without hesitation. Even when it hurts. Indeed, argues Paul, there is joy in the suffering, not because we enjoy suffering, but we enjoy loving so much that we learn to endure suffering, and we are shaped into a new person able to see beyond the immediate hope into the transformation that is the result of loving.
Because, and this is the wondrous part, it isn’t even our love any more. It is the love of God that has been poured into our hearts. The debate among scholars has been does Paul mean by “God’s love” the love God has for us? Or does he mean the love we have for God? Or, does it mean our ability to love like God? And the answer is yes! All the above, intermingled and sloshed around until we have trouble telling one from another. That’s why Jesus had to answer the question about the greatest law by giving us two. Love God and love neighbor, because we aren’t always able to tell them apart. Or rather that he knew we couldn’t do one without the other. We can’t love God in the abstract without loving our neighbor in the concrete, and we can’t love our neighbor because they are so.. so.. human like us without being energized, inspired and transformed by our love of God all of which only happens because we are first loved by God.
This is where it gets painfully deep. We are first loved by God. First. While we were yet sinners. While we were still dirty and angry and selfish and so ... so ... human, God loved us. And loves us still, when we run screaming back to a life of darkness and destruction. We are loved. With a love that staggers the understanding. That loves us all the way to death ... and beyond. To death. While we were still weak, Christ died for us.
I so wanted to trot out my lessons on Atonement here. To dazzle you with a discussion on Substitutionary vs Ransom vs Satisfaction vs Moral Theory vs Christus Victor vs etc, etc ad infinitum (let’s use up all of Latin in one go!) theories of the atonement. But the truth is, we don’t have a clue how it works. We just believe, we just have faith that it does. And we go to live it out every day. Or at least on the days when we love without reservation, on the days when we live fully engaged, fully aware, full of this love that has been poured into us by a Spirit we hardly know and yet have been intimate with in surprisingly powerful ways.
This is the hope that Paul says does not disappoint. This living hope, this active hope, this transforming hope that is the gift of and sign of our salvation. Which I now declare is not just hope but faithopelove at work in us and through us. And we trust, because our faith and our experience tells us, that hope wins in the now and in the end.
Shalom,
I must have read that in seminary, which was - ahem - over thirty years ago. And I still remember it. Maybe it was because someone dared to take on the unassailable saint when he was flying at his highest (there are certainly other Paulisms that are much more vulnerable). But I really think I remember it because I think it is true.
Or sort of true. Truish. Faith, Hope and Love abide, these three. And the greatest of these is ... Yes. Maybe it is a trinity of equals and depending on the need of the moment, depending on the strength of the wielder of this gift, this training, this presence we name faith, hope and love. Faithopelove. Pronounce that! Maybe our mistake was not it deciding which was greater, but in trying to separate them at all. As if we could live a life of faith without love, or that we could love a transforming, healing kind of love without hope, or that we could hope for the Kingdom, for new life and new love without faith in the source of that new reality.
OK, how did I get here? This isn’t what I set out to write about for this weekend. I’m answering one of your questions. Actually a couple of them. This is one of those multiple occurrence questions. One asked “What does it mean to be saved?” And another asked it this way: “what do we mean when we say that Jesus died for my sins?”
At first I was troubled by the question. It is such a central concept to our faith that I was concerned that there are some out there who might not understand this salvation thing. But then, the more I thought about it, the more excited I became. What a great opportunity! To come back and talk about one of those foundational concepts of what it means to be a Christian. I can’t think of anything more fun.
I know that says more about me than about the faith. But still. Early in my ministry I was invited to preach a revival. Believe it or not. And I loved it. Probably wasn’t what the folks were used to, but they responded well and said they enjoyed having me there. So, now I get to do it again. Get ready, Aldersgate folks! It’s revival time. We’re getting saved!
OK, not really. Because we’ve been saved. What we’re going to do is to talk about knowing it and living it. Simple, right? Well, yes, but no. So simple that we have trouble holding on to it. So straightforward that we think we must be missing something, that we haven’t read the fine print, that there’s got to be a catch.
Well, there is a catch. But I’ll get to that in a moment. First, let’s embrace the simplicity, as described by Paul, if that’s not an oxymoron! Take a look:
Romans 5:1-11 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person-- though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Simple, right? Well, yes, is the sense that salvation is a completed act. “Since we are justified by faith...” It has already happened. It is an act completed in Christ, and claimed in faith. Done. Signed, sealed, delivered. The end. Except it isn’t the end. It is the beginning. The beginning of peace and the beginning of hope.
That is the tragedy of the popular conception of salvation, as far as I am concerned. That for many people it is an end. I’m saved, the end. I’ve got my ticket punched, by reservations made. I’m in, too bad for you. But as vital as that eternity, entrance into God’s Kingdom element is, it is hardly the whole story. In fact it could be argued that it is the least dynamic of the changes that occur when salvation takes place. It is the final note, the echo of the shout of joy that takes place when a life is claimed by the hope Paul writes about in these verses. There is so much more on offer, so much more to the promise than a final destination.
“Since we are justified (saved) we have peace.” But not a sit back on your laurels kind of peace, it is instead an active, motivating kind of peace. It is a confidence that allows us to live fully, to love without hesitation. Even when it hurts. Indeed, argues Paul, there is joy in the suffering, not because we enjoy suffering, but we enjoy loving so much that we learn to endure suffering, and we are shaped into a new person able to see beyond the immediate hope into the transformation that is the result of loving.
Because, and this is the wondrous part, it isn’t even our love any more. It is the love of God that has been poured into our hearts. The debate among scholars has been does Paul mean by “God’s love” the love God has for us? Or does he mean the love we have for God? Or, does it mean our ability to love like God? And the answer is yes! All the above, intermingled and sloshed around until we have trouble telling one from another. That’s why Jesus had to answer the question about the greatest law by giving us two. Love God and love neighbor, because we aren’t always able to tell them apart. Or rather that he knew we couldn’t do one without the other. We can’t love God in the abstract without loving our neighbor in the concrete, and we can’t love our neighbor because they are so.. so.. human like us without being energized, inspired and transformed by our love of God all of which only happens because we are first loved by God.
This is where it gets painfully deep. We are first loved by God. First. While we were yet sinners. While we were still dirty and angry and selfish and so ... so ... human, God loved us. And loves us still, when we run screaming back to a life of darkness and destruction. We are loved. With a love that staggers the understanding. That loves us all the way to death ... and beyond. To death. While we were still weak, Christ died for us.
I so wanted to trot out my lessons on Atonement here. To dazzle you with a discussion on Substitutionary vs Ransom vs Satisfaction vs Moral Theory vs Christus Victor vs etc, etc ad infinitum (let’s use up all of Latin in one go!) theories of the atonement. But the truth is, we don’t have a clue how it works. We just believe, we just have faith that it does. And we go to live it out every day. Or at least on the days when we love without reservation, on the days when we live fully engaged, fully aware, full of this love that has been poured into us by a Spirit we hardly know and yet have been intimate with in surprisingly powerful ways.
This is the hope that Paul says does not disappoint. This living hope, this active hope, this transforming hope that is the gift of and sign of our salvation. Which I now declare is not just hope but faithopelove at work in us and through us. And we trust, because our faith and our experience tells us, that hope wins in the now and in the end.
Shalom,
Derek
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