From me to you Part 5: Peace and grace and hope be yours

CONTEXT: Paul knew plenty about suffering for his faith. Before he himself had to face opposition and persecution for being a follower of Jesus, he was directly involved in persecuting Christians. He stood by and watched Stephen be stoned to death. He was on a mission to weed and out and silence these followers of this new radical, subversive way of living out faith in God. He believed as a devout Jew, this was his responsibility. And then everything changed. He became one of these believers. He was beaten and imprisoned and stoned and mocked by those he had previously stood with. He had to live every day with the memory of who he had once been and what he had done. he had to make peace with that. He was now the outsider. He was saying that all he had once stood for and defended so vehemently was not the right way to be in relationship with God.

And he was not the only one. In Rome, the whole Jewish community were singled out for persecution. Believing in one God alone was the problem. Not acceptable in a city where the more gods you worshipped the better, including the emperor. The Jews had been forced out of their homes in Rome to be scattered across the region. That included the Jewish Christians. When they were allowed to return to Rome, the Christians were then targeted by subsequent emperors for persecution. These were not easy times to be a follower of Christ.

One more thing: this was still early days for this brand new faith. For us, Christianity has been around for over two thousand years. There’s a wealth of experience and knowledge to draw on – books and sermons and testimonies to ground us in this faith. The early followers of Jesus had nothing like this. They were learning as they went along. It was still only fifty years since Jesus had lived and died and rose again. This letter from Paul was explaining their faith in a way they maybe had never heard it explained before.

That’s the context in which we should read this passage.

EXCERPT: Romans 5:1-11

FROM ME TO YOU:

Peace. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t ever fall into the trap of believing you’ve done something to deserve this. Far from it. There’s nothing any of us could have done to earn this position of peace with God. It’s all down to Jesus and what he did. Not us. 

We simply have to believe and live in the light of this peace and grace and hope.

I’m sorry if you’re suffering right now. I don’t know what you’re going through, but I feel for you. I’ve had a really tough week. I’ve felt like I’m drowning in anxiety and despair. A couple of days ago, I felt like I couldn’t carry on. I lost sight of this grace and peace and hope.

With God’s grace and peace and hope, we can come through. Sometimes even come through stronger. 

God’s love has been poured into our hearts through His spirit. He will keep pouring His love into our hearts as we open our hearts to receive this love. 

And love wins. 

There’s much in life that we cannot be sure of. So much we cannot control. We don’t know what is in store for us.

The only thing we can be 100% sure of, the only thing we can totally rely on, is God’s love for us. He’s always loved you. He will always love you. Nothing can change that. 

Yours,

Hx