Hello again, dear reader. Today we’re reading Chapter 5 of Romans. It’s hard to improve on the note in my Life Application Study Bible (NIV) when thinking about this passage: “It helps to keep in mind the two-sided reality of the Christian life. On the one hand, we are complete in Christ (our acceptance with him is secure). On the other hand, we are growing in Christ (we are becoming more and more like him). At one and the same time we have the status of kings and the duties of slaves. We feel both the presence of Christ and the pressure of sin. We enjoy the peace that comes from being made right with God, but we still face daily problems that often help us grow. If we remember these two sides of the Christian life, we will not grow discouraged as we face temptations and problems. Instead, we will learn to depend on the power available to us from Christ, who lives in us by the Holy Spirit.” Thanks to the authors of this note! Now to the text:

Romans 5 (NIV) 

5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. 12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come. 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! 18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. 20 The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In addition to making plain the “two-sided reality of Christian life,” Paul says more about the enduring trio—faith, hope, and love—which is the underpinning of the stunning passage in 1 Corinthians, and the three defining theological virtues we might be able to boil everything down to in our relationship with the Divine. And yet, achieving those three simple but profound virtues, ideals, attitudes, existential postures, whatever you’d like to term them, are the ongoing work of a lifetime. I love how Paul demonstrates the progress toward hope, acknowledging how hard-won it can be: “…because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope.” For me it’s a clear-eyed treatment of suffering and the path one must take through it, of course made credible by Paul’s own story of suffering, which he always minimizes, indeed glorifies, in the name of Christ. 

I’m also struck by verse 8: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Here’s the Life Application note: “Whenever you feel uncertain about God’s love for you, remember that he loved you even before you turned to him. If God loved you when you were a rebel, he can surely strengthen you, now that you love him in return.” I understand this in terms of the Prodigal Son we often are in our own lives. When we are very wayward the Lord is still holding us up. He has faith, hope, and love that we will return. Isn’t this an encouragement, that the God who made us wants us to return to Him, indeed is waiting with open arms? 

And yet we know ourselves as very prone to wander. One of my favorite hymns is “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” especially these lines: “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it/ Prone to leave the God I love/ Here’s my heart, oh take and seal it/ Seal it for thy courts above.” If you have a few minutes, listen to this version by Sufjan Stevens. I would’ve never thought to pair this old hymn with these images of animals in the wild, but together they bear the integrity and power of a mysterious, fearsome, and glorious creation. How can we wander far?