Spirit Sustenance

Romans 5:1-5

*Therefore: When we come across a therefore, we must ask ourselves... what is it there for?

“Since we have been justified by faith”: Conclusion based on earlier premises
1. Wretchedness of Humanity
2. Consequences of Humanity's wretchedness
3. God's Righteous Judgment
4. Insufficiency of Human actions to restore relationship to God
5. Sufficiency of God's Grace through Faith--Christ as agent

What? Justification

How? Faith

Why? Peace with God

Peace as Reconciliation, restoring the relationship... a true, personal “Peace” comes from such a restored relationship... the God we ran from can now embrace us as we accept that we are children of our God.

Peace with God yields rejoicing in Hope (v. 2)Peace leads to Hope which gives us Joy... advent themes

But....
what about the difficulties in life, what about the things that make us disappointed, discouraged, or depressed... not joyful or glad?

Peace, Joy, Hope are not just one time experiences, rather they are a new orientation, a new meaning, a transforming way of seeing the world. Peace with God, Joy in God, and Hope from God give us new and powerful meaning when facing life's difficulties. We can see through the lens of HOPE.

v. 3--> “MORE THAN THAT” (what is more! And there is more!--a connotation of happiness! And guess what else??!!!??)

Because we are at Peace with God, restored to God, in intimate fellowship with God, we can have joy even in our sufferings.

Our sufferings have new meanings—they are made meaningful through the Grace of God given to us—why? Because suffering forces us to make important decisions...

It puts us in a position to make choices of endurance, to weather the storm, to find a way to survive the difficulty—such experience makes future sufferings easier to overcome—gives us a sort of strength and readiness

endurance builds up character—the character that affirms God's purpose despite the difficulties that come our way

That character re-produces our original hope—it re-affirms the hope we already had before we encountered our difficulty—it allows us to realize that our hope was superficial or surface-level, but a hope that inspires endurance and builds a God-affirming character

But what is it that sustains us? What gives us the strength to endure, especially when our troubles are overwhelming?

God's Spirit (v. 5)--God's Love has been poured out for us and is constantly with us, it will not allow us to be put to shame, to flounder in meaninglessness- it is a love that sustains us in our troubles, that is ever-present in all we experience. Seeing the world through the lens of Hope is made real to us in the spirit's sustaining presence.

Holy Spirit, as an Agent of Grace, sustains us in many ways, but three ways can be noticed specifically through this verse:

Endurance—Spirit gives us strengthCharacter—Spirit offers resiliency
Hope—Spirit allows us to “feel” our hope
Spirit is the intimate presence of God who, through our sufferings, sustains us God's beloved

Last week, Pentecost:
outpouring of Holy Spirit on diverse crowd establishing a unified Church
Holy Spirit, as agent of God's Grace, gave the infant church endurance, character, and hope
(even through all its troubles...)

There are collective aspects to the Holy Spirit, to Hope, and to suffering
We, as the church, suffer together in many ways, we face trials, obstacles, and difficultiesSome things are personal issues that we share with each other and face together
Other things are issues facing the whole church

Through all of this, there is a collective hope, that we will endure, and establish the character of a church necessary for up-building God's Kingdom.