06-27-10 The Glory of God

We are studying the first 11 verses

of Romans chapter 5.

I cannot tell you how much I’ve looked forward

to our studying this passage together.

It is certainly true

that all Scripture is inspired by God Himself

and is profitable for our growth

in our walk with the King.

But there are some passages

that are placed into the structure of God’s Word

in such a way

as to give them added power

and significance for our lives.

That power and significance in those passages

becomes evident

only when we deal with those passages

in the context in which they were written.

These 11 verses are one of those passages.

In the first three chapters of the book of Romans

we have seen Paul first preparing us

for the good news of God

by creating a terrifying portrait

of the human race without Christ.

Then, when we saw that there was no hope for us ever finding our way back to our God

through anything we could ever do on our own,

in the final verses of Romans chapter 3

Paul flooded us with the hope

that comes through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In those verses we heard him telling us

that the righteousness

we could never have achieved on our own

is now being given to us by God

in response to our simple faith

in Jesus Christ and His death

in our place

for our sins.

Let me simplify it.

The first 4 chapters of Romans

reveal to us God’s offer

to reunite us with Himself

solely and completely on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ.

Rom. 3:28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

Then, immediately following

the powerful presentation of that truth,

Paul records the words

that we now know as Romans 5:1-11.

These 11 verses are placed in the Biblical record

in such a way as to serve

as our first personal introduction

to our God.

Having just been told

that we are now reunited with our God

through our faith in Christ

Paul then describes for us

what this God is like.

As I thought about this passage,

and our own personal discovery

of what our God is really like,

I started thinking about my earliest contacts

with my beloved son-in-law, Matt.

Joni met her future life partner

through her good friend and college roommate, Tracy.

Matt is Tracy’s brother

and Matt and Joni began dating during Joni’s 3^rd year in college.

But my first contact with Matt took place months before they started dating,

and more than a year before I knew he would be my son-in-law.

In the fall of 2000

Sandee and I spent the last few days of our vacation

helping Joni get settled in her apartment in Vancouver, Canada

in preparation for her 3rd year in college.

Those few days were absolute chaos for all of us.

The past tenants were moving out

at the same time that Joni and her three roommates were moving in.

There were boxes,

and computers,

and suitcases,

and furniture,

and dishes,

and JUNK all over the place.

The unit was unfurnished,

so we purchased some knock-down furniture

that came in boxes with thousands of screws

and instruction sheets printed in some foreign country,

instructions that only vaguely hinted at some kind of approach to assembly.

And then, on top of it all,

I was once again attempting to cope with the knowledge

that in another day or two

Sandee and I would again be leaving our daughter in that foreign world

as we returned to Alaska alone.

One of my chief roles in that mess

was to assemble all that furniture.

Though I have no distinct memory of it, at some point in that chaotic mess,

with me covered in sweat,

looking for missing screws,

trying to figure out assembly instructions

that were written by someone for whom English

was obviously a second language,

I met the young man who would one day be my son-in-law

and the father of my grandchildren.

And for some strange reason

when he met me that first time

he apparently got the impression

that I was a rather severe,

intense,

up-tight,

distant sort of fellow.

We did not meet again for several months,

but later that fall Sandee and I had a chance to get back down to Seattle.

But this time Joni and Matt had been on several dates

and Joni wanted the four of us to get together.

Of course the past impressions I’d given Matt about myself

made it stressful enough for him to anticipate meeting me “officially”,

but then to make things even more awkward,

he was going to meet us in Seattle at our hotel at noon,

but when he came to the hotel

the desk clerk told him

that there was no one by the name of Huntsperger registered at the hotel.

It took nearly an hour and a half

before we all made contact with one another.

Can you imagine a more awkward situation for a young man -

standing at the door an hour-and-a-half late,

meeting a man you’re not at all sure

you really ever want to meet again

even under the best of circumstances?

When we all finally got together the lunch went great,

but following our lunch

one of the first things Matt said to Joni

as he was driving her back to our hotel is, ‟Your dad’s really nice!”

I share this with you

because I think Matt’s earliest contacts with me

have some striking parallels

with our early contacts with our God following our entrance into His family.

Matt had some understandable but inaccurate assumptions about me before that first lunch,

just as we have some understandable but inaccurate assumptions about our God.

And if we understand correctly

what’s happening in these first 11 verses of Romans chapter 5,

the experience we go through

in our relationship with God

will look a lot like what Matt went through in his relationship with me.

Prior to our introduction to God

through our Lord Jesus Christ,

our perceptions of our Creator

have made all of us wonder

if He is the type of God

we really want to get very close to.

First of all, of course,

there are those COMMANDMENTS He’s given the human race -

‟Thou shalt NOT!...

Thou shalt NOT!...

Thou shalt NOT!...”

We just naturally assume

the same harsh, demanding severity

will come from His mouth

when we meet Him in Christ.

And then there is our conduct

prior to our entrance into His family.

We aren’t just an hour-and-a-half late,

we have been running the other way our whole lives,

hiding from Him,

avoiding Him,

stubbornly rebelling against what we know to be His will.

And then we reach a point

where our God draws us to Himself,

and we respond to His offer

to give us His righteousness

in exchange for our simple faith in Him.

And when we come to Him

we may know we’ve been forgiven,

but we are not at all sure

what kind of God has forgiven us,

and our expectations of Him,

given our past perceptions of Him,

give us no grounds for expecting the best.

Do you know what Romans 5:1-11 is?

It is our first lunch with our God.

And if we understand correctly

what Paul is telling us in these verses,

we will come away from that first lunch

saying to ourselves,

and to anyone else who will listen,

‟He’s NICE! My God is really,

truly,

totally,

eternally NICE!”

The tremendous power

of these first 11 verses in Romans chapter 5

comes from our understanding

that these are designed to be

the first words we hear

from the mouth of our God

following our entrance into His family.

This is our God saying to us,

“I know you’ve heard a lot of things about Me,

and I know you bring with you

all sorts of twisted and distorted perceptions of who I am.

Now let Me tell you the truth.”

And in our study so far

we have looked at the first two introductory truths

about the Christian’s friendship with God.

#1. Rom. 5:1 Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,...

We have peace with God.

The battle is over.

The war is over.

He is now and forevermore on our side,

fighting for us,

with His every action toward us

motivated by His infinite love.

#2. Rom. 5:2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand...

The rules will never change again.

Having entered into an eternal love union with God through the death of Christ

as full payment for our sins,

we now live in His presence each day

on exactly the same basis.

It is this GRACE in which we stand.

Now, let’s move ahead and take a look

at the third unconditional

and irrevocable gift given to us

on the day we enter the family

through faith in Christ.

It is given to us in the last phrase

of that second verse:

... and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

Now, for us to understand what’s being said here

we’re going to need some background.

This is one of those phrases that,

unless we do a little homework,

will simply sound like God-talk,

Bible-words that mean nothing to us.

But once we understand

what the phrase is saying,

we will find within it

God’s answer to one of the most common,

and yet most powerful fears in our lives.

But let’s begin with the homework.

The key phrase in this statement

is the phrase, ‟the glory of God”.

Paul tells us that now, in Christ,

we can ‟exult” in the glory of God.

The word ‟exult” means, of course,

to explode with joy,

to delight in,

to be thrilled by.

The most literal translation

of the Greek word used here

is “to boast”.

There is nothing passive about exulting.

We do not just accept the glory of God.

We do not just endure it.

We do not just make the best of it.

We boast about it -

we exult in it.

We tell anyone who’ll listen

the joy we have in the glory of God.

It’s a little tiny bit like what we see happening

when we occasionally see our youth pastor

stand up at this mic, holding his son in his arms.

Though he doesn’t say it in words,

it is quite obvious that he exults in that child.

When my word processor offered me synonyms for “exult”,

do you know what it brought up?

...be on cloud nine...jump for joy...walk on air...jubilate...rejoice...triumph...

It is that kind of response Paul is talking about.

But then what in the world is this “glory of God”?

To help us get a hold of this

we’ll start by looking at some other passages

where this same phrase is used.

It’s used in Acts 7:55.

The seventh chapter of Acts

records for us the circumstances describing

the death of Stephen, the first person to be killed

for his faith in Christ.

A group of Jews,

furious at Stephen for his bold public affirmations of Jesus as the Messiah

circled around Stephen

and kept throwing rocks at him

until he was dead.

But just before he died

we read this:

Acts 7:55 But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;

He saw the glory of God.

The phrase also appears

in Romans 3:23,

a passage we were studying together just a few weeks ago.

In that passage Paul writes,

Rom. 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...

In context

the term “the glory of God”

is actually a reference to the moral law given to us by God,

the Ten Commandments.

John 1:14 also talks about God’s glory.

In that verse it says,

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

In this passage

the term is used as a direct reference

to Jesus Christ Himself.

The phrase is also found in Rev. 21:23,

a prophetic passage

giving us a glimpse into our future home in the New Jerusalem.

In that verse it says,

Rev. 21:23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

It tells us that our light in the world to come

is the glory of God.

So what in the world is it?

What is this glory of God?

The best definition I can offer you is this:

the glory of God

is all the ways in which God has chosen to reveal Himself to us.

Every place and every way

in which God touches us or our world

is an aspect of the Glory of God.

I’ll give you an analogy

that isn’t great,

but it may be helpful.

In the center of our solar system

we have a massive ball of fire

that we call the sun.

That sun floods our universe

with an endless flow of light rays,

infinite bits of energy

that flow from the sun

and impact everything they touch.

Those light rays are the glory of the sun -

they are the ways in which the sun touches our world.

The Glory of God

is a little bit like that -

it is all the ways in which the Person of God

has chosen to touch our lives

in this physical world.

Now, in the context in which Paul is using this phrase

here in Romans 5:2

what does this all mean?

When Paul tells us

that now, for the first time in our lives,

those of us who are in Christ

can exult in the glory of God,

he is telling us that never again

do we ever have to fear anything God will do in our lives or in our world.

In fact, not only do we not need to fear what He will do,

but we can actually exult in it,

rejoice in it,

embrace it as our friend.

From now on

whatever God chooses to do

in you,

through you,

or in your world

is always going to work for you,

not against you.

Let me put it more simply.

When Paul says that in Christ

we can exult in the glory of God,

it is God’s way of saying to us,

‟Don’t be afraid.

Don’t be afraid.

Don’t be afraid.”

What is it you fear

as you look toward your future?

Do any of those fears concern

something you think God might do to you?

Something you fear He might take away from you

that you are certain you cannot live without?

Something you fear He might give you

that you are not at all sure

you will be able to bear?

Do you know who your are?

Do you understand what has happened between you and your God

because of Jesus Christ?

Do you realize

the relationship that now exists

between you and your Creator?

Let me remind you who you are.

Or better yet, let me allow the Psalmist to remind you.

Ps. 16:3 As for the saints who are in the earth, They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.

That is your God talking to you

about His heart attitude toward you.

When Paul tells us

that we can now exult in the Glory of God,

he is simply opening our eyes

to the heart attitude of our God for us.

Wherever God intervenes in our lives

or our world

we can face it knowing it is our great hope for all that is truly good in our lives.

So, here are our first 3 gifts from our God:

Rom. 5:1 Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Rom. 5:2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.