“ONE
Hope”
Romans
5:1-11
We have access by faith into this grace in which we
stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory…This hope doesn’t
put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts
through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
–Romans
5:2,5
Paul’s
words to the Romans in chapter 5 announce something new. The beginning of
chapter 5 - “Therefore” - tells us that something new has happened because of
Jesus’ death and resurrection (Romans 4:24-25). We have been brought into a new
life, a life marked by righteousness. (The word for “justified” can also mean
“righteous”). Because we have been made righteous, we have hope that we will
share in the glory of God (v. 2). But what happens in the time between? Paul
talks about what has happened already, and he talks about the salvation that
will come in the future, but what do we do now? This hope that we have, the
hope of sharing the Glory of God, is active. As Christians, we are called to
proclaim the Kingdom of God, and that Kingdom has already been established in
Jesus. Yet we still live in the hope of that Kingdom to come in its fullness.
Therefore, doing justice and loving mercy (Micah 6:8) now in our lives bears
witness to the hope we have of the future coming Kingdom.
This week
in Roanoke Rapids, we have an opportunity to proclaim the hope we have by
showing the love that God has poured into our hearths through the Holy Spirit.
As we work this week, we work as citizens of God’s Kingdom established in Jesus
Christ. When we are discouraged by the amount of work or the overwhelming
amount of need we see in our lives, we can remember that, even though we were
weak and sinful, Christ died for us to make us righteous. It is the death and
resurrection of Christ that has established God’s Kingdom, and it is the power
of the Holy Spirit that works in us to live out our hope.
Jonathan
Tuttle
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