And this idea of cheap grace is one in where I receive the goodness of God so that I can continue to live however I want . However I want and maybe I might even incorporate God in my life to live my best life . Now , welcome back to the move where we are vibing in and with the book , 10 minutes at a time .
I've noticed this transition from vibing with the book , you're also now saying vibing in the book . What's the , what's the , the theory behind that ? Because that's not something we . We gamed out like oh yeah , let's do that .
I don't know , it just feels like feels good , it feels good maybe , maybe light will come to us later and we'll figure out why that's the deal . It feels good , it just feels good . Nothing wrong with feeling good . Today we're looking at Romans , chapter five , versus one through five question is have you read it ?
go ahead and take some time we'll wait for you right here all right , as always , 10 minutes going on the clock in three , two , one so Justin here's a question what is the therefore , therefore ? yeah . So this the text is talking about , we've been justified by faith .
That's what that's there for , since we have been justified by faith , since , since our righteousness is not what constitutes our standing with God , but instead the example of Jesus , that which is accounted to us because of that reality , when we're justified by faith , there's this really cool byproduct of that .
There's a really cool result of it you actually hinted towards it in our last episode and it's this idea of peace . Uh , that the , the what's it called ? The the Jews had this idea of shalom , this idea of of peace , this completeness , this well-being .
Peace isn't just like , oh , I don't have stress anymore , which is how we in , you know , in the states , look at peace , like , oh , peace means my job is easy , I'm making money , relationships are good , having a good time . But that's not really what peace means to the people that paul is talking about . It's about wholeness , it's about harmony , prosperity .
It's . It's about , by by by , knowing that everything's going to be all right , even if everything's not all right and that's the gift that we get from God .
That is the gift that we get . So , therefore , since we have been justified by faith , we have peace , we have shalom , we have there is an absence of controversy between god and us and there is a presence of reconciliation , that we are knitted back together so that we participate in a divine family that , interestingly , we were created for yeah , and real quick .
The distinction isn't that we just have peace in life because the the , the new testament , talks about how we'll have troubles , we'll have tribulations , we'll have persecutions , etc . Etc . Etc . That's all like still part of the story .
Like , right , you know , just like not not long ago , uh , one of my close friends from bible college like he ended up passing away like that's just , and he's a young dude had a heart problem . Like that's still reality . The thing that we experience , the peace that we experience , isn't peace in this world , but peace between us and the divine .
We no longer have to be plagued with this sense of guilt and this burden that's just weighing us down and beating us down , because we have peace with god so one of the things that really strikes me about this verse two , that through him , this is jesus christ , because we got to understand again .
Paul is making this argument that our standing with god is secure precisely because of what god has done in and through jesus , and the good news is that the standing is secure for both jew and gentile , through faith , yes , right through expecting his goodness , against the expectation of what our sins deserve , which is the curse of death , condemnation but because he
he received that curse in his person , that he was delivered up for our trespasses , that we can now have confidence because he's resurrected for our justification , that we have this standing before god .
So it brings me back to what we concluded with in the last 10 minutes , which was this idea of believing in the goodness of the cop who's going to come and bring you that hundred dollars when you're stopped doing a hundred and a seventy , and that we finished with this idea of well , might that be cheap grace yes right , and this idea of cheap grace is one
in where I receive the goodness of god so that I can continue to live However I want . However I want and maybe I might even incorporate God in my life to live my best life now , right .
So I take the $100 and I invest it in a smart , you know financial play because , hey , thanks God , I was doing a hundred , but you gave me a hundred and now I can live this best life .
Yeah .
Right and so cheap . Grace then becomes this sort of tagline that we assign to the idea that God is favorable to us and that we then can live in the same patterns before we received his favor , meaning I can still drive a hundred in the 70 .
Yeah , because if I just flip , the thumbs up . In fact , there's an advantage to doing it more , because then I get more money , and this is the thing that Paul we've gone through already . Should we continue sinning ? So grace abounds .
Well , we haven't gone in the . We've gone through it . We haven't gone through it .
Sorry I've been spending so much time in the text . I assume that we've already talked through that . I mean we'll get there soon , hang on .
But here's the thing and this is what's so offensive about gospel is that God does not visit us with his punishment it's not punitive in order to correct us . It's the goodness of God that leads to repentance . God continues to visit us with his goodness , but what is his goodness ?
His goodness is this peace that we do not have our acts and what we deserve , our sins , counted on our ledger . That there , he does not look at us through that lens . He actually looks at us through this lens of being favorable to us . And in him actually being favorable towards us , he gives us something that is transformative if we believe in his goodness .
And this is what Romans one through five really gets me jazzed up about , because what he gives us is his spirit , and his spirit is the agreement with his goodness , and that when we receive his spirit , we now have this thing within us .
It unlocks the key to all reality and all truth , which is this that in all things , in all things that I go through , nothing can overcome this peace . So Paul moves we have access by faith into this grace which we stand . This is the favor . And we rejoice in the hope of glory , right . Which is what ?
Not only am I expecting the goodness in the moment , but I'm expecting- .
There's something even better . There's something even better .
Like , the expectation of my life is death , but I'm expecting something even better . This glory , right . This is what Paul's going on , right ? Not only that , but not only that , but we rejoice in our suffering .
There it is , which is crazy . I was looking this up . This is the same word that he talks about in Romans two . It's translated boasting . So here he is , not only just like oh yeah , we're suffering , but he is boasting about his suffering .
Because I know now how to suffer in this world , because I'm expecting against the expectation of what you think this suffering ought to produce , because as I suffer , it is establishing even more and more and growing , maturing that faith of the previous chapter within me and that then becomes the evidence or in other versions it's the experience , or in this version
it's the endurance of what I actually have . So suffering , and because I suffer , I suffer according to the grace I've received , according to this peace . So I know how to suffer well , I know how to not live at the expense of somebody else , because God never lived at the expense of me and because I receive that , I know now how to endure .
And as I'm enduring , it begins to develop and grow me , and this growth we call it character , and now I'm growing into the fullness of the way Christ lived in this world , so that my life is through him , by faith .
Applying this to regular life , right Like we go through suffering and without this assurance , without this faith , we think that things need to change in order for us to obtain peace , because the only way that we define realities by what we see around us , and because that's all that we can see , we don't have hope , we don't have peace within us and therefore ,
when we suffer , we can't even rejoice . But under this paradigm , when we have the suffering , it's a reminder of this , isn't it ? This isn't it . This is just act one of the story . There's something better to come down the line .
Because what frames the suffering is the suffering that Christ suffered for us right Before we suffer . He suffered first and he suffered well so that we might live and as we suffer we can know that at the core of all life and reality is that his love and his resurrection power in us can't be overcome . So that's why we can suffer well .
So this is where I would actually make a practical appeal . Go for it . I would make a practical appeal to whoever's watching .
Is that the gospel actually proclaims the goodness of God over your life in such a way that he was willing to give Jesus and surrender him up two and four hour trespasses so that he could give you a peace that surpasses all understanding ? The question is maybe twofold One , have you seen and believed that God is that good ?
And two , have you seen and believed that he views you through that lens of goodness ?
Well then , three , because that leads like okay , you could say yes to both those two , but the third part is the most important part .
Have you received that ?
Have you accepted that ? Do you choose to believe that statement over your life or do you choose to believe the lies that are being whispered in your ears in the moment , that say no , no , no , you actually aren't that good , you actually don't have peace with God because you've done X Y , z , because you screwed up in one , two , three .
Therefore , there's no way that this could actually be true for you . This might be the text on the page , but it isn't reality to you . So the question is what do you put your faith in ?
And in that moment , when you put your faith in his goodness and you thumbs up that's when you have the gift , which is the promise right here , poured out into our hearts . It's the Holy Spirit .
And you have peace , peace . Yeah , let me leave you with one line that I get from my guy .
This was real man .
This was good , the guy named Dan Molar who , dan , if you ever see this , I hope to meet you one day . You have spoken so much truth into my life and it's this grace without transformation is perversion , and the transforming element is his spirit within us , because we have peace with him .
And that's not to be used as a club to bang you over the head where you say oh grace without transformation . Therefore , I must work transformation in my life . No , that's not what we're saying . Grace without transformation is a perversion in the sense that if you think you have grace as a license to go in speed again , that's not actually grace .
That's not actually grace . Yeah yeah , let's leave it there , cool man .
All right , guys . We'll see you in tomorrow's episode as we continue vibing in With and with , Along and through .
By , under or any preposition you want Long story short .
we'll see you tomorrow for our next 10 minutes .