Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 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. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. 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.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 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! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

We’ve probably all heard at one point—or said ourselves—the saying, “God hates sin, but loves the sinner.” I want to frame our meditation on this passage in Romans around the consideration of whether that is a true or false statement. (And don’t worry, I’m not going to do that thing where I ask you to raise your hands if you think it’s true, and then if it’s false, only to reveal, “Haha! Trick question! The answer is actually Cleveland!” I hate when speakers do that.)

At the end of the day, it is kind of a trick question. As we’re going to see in this passage, there’s a sense in which it is both true and false—false in a way that can give people false hope and cheapen the holiness of God—but also more true than people realize, in way that profoundly reveals the depth of the love of God.

God’s wrath against the ungodly

So let’s take the low-hanging fruit first. As to the first part, “God hates sin,” there’s no ambiguity there. As we’ve walked through especially the first 3 chapters, we’ve gotten plenty of reminders of God’s opinion on rebellion and disobedience, on sin. That’s pretty much the theme of those early chapters. As a reminder, one of the high points (low points?) is the proclamation in chapter 1 that “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people.” God is perfectly holy, and that holiness demands that he despises sin. So yes, God hates sin.

But what about loving the sinner? Very often when that is said in our culture, what people mean is that—even though God disapproves of someone’s sin, His love is His dominant characteristic, and that love will win out over His sense of justice or holiness in the end. He’s like a parent whose child has stolen a cookie out of the cookie jar when they were told not to. Yeah, he’s disappointed, and wishes that his child would choose honestly, but—”Ah, shucks” and “Gee, Wally”—that’s his child so he loves him anyway.

I’m sorry—and I know that this offends many in our culture today—but that is simply not the truth that Scripture reveals about God. To look at but one example in Psalm 5:5–6:

The arrogant cannot stand in your presence. You hate all who do wrong; you destroy those who tell lies. The bloodthirsty and deceitful you, Lord, detest.

God’s wrath is directed not just abstractly at sin, but specifically at us, at sinners, at people.

Similarly, look at our passage this morning, in verse one: “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God…” Note what it says there. It does not say that we have “the peace of God,” that is, a calmness and a restful spirit. That, of course, also would be a true statement—”peace” is one of the fruits of the Spirit after all, but that’s not the point of this passage. The point here is that through Jesus Christ we have peace with God. A truce, as it were, has been negotiated. Before Jesus, we did not have that peace. In fact verse 10 says that we were reconciled to God while we were his enemies. Verse 9 says that we have been saved from God’s wrath.

So from this angle, “God hates sin, but loves the sinner” is a false statement. Scripture impresses upon us that God’s wrath abides on the wicked, and as we saw in chapter 3 of Romans, that’s all of us. “There is no one righteous, not even one.”

God’s love demonstrated in Christ

But, like I said earlier, there’s nuance that’s required. Because God’s wrath isn’t the end of the story, is it? And that’s the glorious truth that is the focus of this passage. Yes, we were in conflict with God. Yes, we were his enemies. Yes, his wrath was justly upon us. But right there, that’s when God—in his love—intervened.

I was captivated by that little phrase in verse 6 “at just the right time,” because what follows in this passage—from a worldly point of view—is exactly the wrong time. At least according to the way I usually live out my life. When am I going to help somebody? To make it more personal, what’s the right time for me to help you?

When we’re closer—then I’ll help you—not when we’re estranged.
When I believe this is going to be a mutually-rewarding relationship—then I’ll help you—not when I believe you have nothing to offer me.
When you respect me—then I’ll help you—not when you hold me in contempt.

But God, looking at us, decided that the right time was while we were weak (powerless, v.6). There was nothing we could do or offer to God. While we were ungodly. Right in the middle of us choosing to reject God’s commands and make him a priority in our lives. While we were (verse 8) sinners. That was the right time. That’s when Christ died for us.

You sometimes hear things … well intentioned sayings like, “When you look at Jesus dying on the cross, that just shows you how valuable you are. That he would die on the cross for you.” And I get what people mean by that. We’re all created in the image of God, so there’s intrinsic value there. But in another sense, like this passage is saying, do you see how that’s completely backwards? The whole point of grace is that I wasn’t worth it. I’m not worth of the death of Christ. That happened for me—and for each of you—when we were weak, powerless, enemies, sinners. That’s how God’s love was demonstrated.

So, one final time: does God love the sinner? YES! Not by overlooking sin but by taking the initiative–by paying the penalty through Christ on our behalf.

It’s a classic for a reason, but John 3:16 states it well:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Future Hope

And it’s that love of God–not because of who we are but in spite of it–that is the anchor for our future hope. Verses 9 and 10 give two examples of a “from the lesser to the greater” argument. That is, “If X is true, then how much more will Y be true!” And these both take the form of things that are true in the past and present being the proof that our future is secure.

Since we have now [present tense] been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him [future]! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son [past], how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life [future]!

This is the great problem that consumes much of the book of Romans. What do we do with the wrath of God? We’ve already seen that God is perfectly holy, and cannot simply ignore sin. We’ve already seen that we all fall short. We are all marching day-after-day, towards death, and after that comes the judgment. Do we then have to live in anxiety each and every day of our lives, hoping that at the end we’ll be good enough to avoid God’s wrath, or that maybe he’ll just overlook it?

No! Because of what God has already done in our past and present, we can have confident hope to be saved from God’s wrath on that future day.

Hope developed through suffering

Oh, and now I wish that it only required us to sit and think upon those truths, and that would form the deepest convictions of that hope. It’s good to do that, of course, but that’s not where the deepest convictions are formed…

But I skipped a part of this passage, didn’t I? Probably the most well-known part of this chapter. And this part of the passage provides a more sobering but realistic assessment. Deep-seated hope is often most effectively formed through the crucible of our suffering. Verses 3 and 4:

We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

You know, we’re at the start of a new year, when many of us take the opportunity to set goals or resolutions for the year to come. And I think for most of us, the things at the end of this list might be goals we would shoot for. To be persons of perseverance, to be persons of character, to be full of hope. But what, according to this passage, is the door that opens us up to reaching those goals? Suffering. And I think that’s where we start to get into trouble.

A little digression on suffering, but I think it’s necessary to fully appreciate what this passage is getting at…. Broadly speaking, we can categorize suffering into three buckets.

First is the suffering that we inflict upon ourselves because of our foolishness. The proverbs especially are full of these warnings. Laziness leads to poverty. Fooling around with another man’s wife leads to all kinds of pain and reproach. Certainly we can learn from our mistakes, but that’s not the kind of suffering in view in this passage, the kind that leads to perseverance, character, and hope.

Another form of suffering is that which comes upon us because of the brokenness of the world in general, because all of creation groans under the weight of sin. Sickness. The death of a loved one. The proverbs note that laziness leads to poverty, but that’s not the only cause of poverty, is it? Poverty and hardship can be caused by corrupt systems, being taken advantage of, or simply economic realities…the untimely closing of a factory, etc. This type of suffering is closer to what Paul has in mind. Certainly they can build in us perseverance and character. And build in us a hope in the sense of a longing for our reunion with God.

And in any group larger than 4 people, statistically-speaking, someone is going through such a bitter time. And if you find yourself there this morning, that is perhaps your point of application today.

But without taking anything away from that, if we’re following the thought of Paul across the entire letter, I think the suffering most directly in view here is the type of suffering called out in chapter 8:

Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (Romans 8:17–18)

This form of suffering is a direct result of our association with, and allegiance to, Christ. And this is where the application of our passage in Romans 5 can get very complicated.

You see—thinking back to setting goals—if we went around the room and all answered the question, “What is your greatest ambition? Who do you want to be?” What would you say? Now since we’re in church, we know the right answer, correct? We want to be godly. We want to be obedient to Christ. If you are particularly theological, you might even recite the answer from the Westminster Shorter Catechism: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” Those are our goals, right?

And those are all great and appropriate answers. That’s exactly how I believe most of us would respond here, in this place, if asked directly. But if I’m honest, as I exit this building and live out the other 160 plus hours of my week, too often my actions and words betray different priorities. If others were asked, after watching me for a week, “What’s his primary goal in life?”, what would they say? If my every thought were made public, what would that reveal in terms of what I’m really aiming for?

And I think very often, the goal would be revealed to be something like:

I want to be comfortable.
I want to be free of drama and difficulty.
I want to be in control.
I want to be noticed and respected.

And do you see how those goals can short-circuit the process outlined in verses 3 and 4?

You see, there’s nothing I can really do to prevent suffering from the brokenness of the world. No matter how much kale I eat or sit ups I do, I can still get that call from the doctor. But there are definitely things I can do to avoid the suffering that comes from allegiance to Christ. And I will choose those shortcuts if my actual highest priorities are to be comfortable and respected.

We need passages like the one before us this morning to recalibrate our minds. And I’m not a prophet nor a son of a prophet, but I think it’s highly likely we’ll be called to make this choice more often as the years go on, and with potentially higher stakes. We’ve moved in our culture from a place where Christian morality was dominant (and yes, there were abuses of power there that rightly should be criticized), to where it was respected, to where it was tolerated, to the place now where increasingly you and I are seen as obstacles to progress. We’re getting in the way of the cultural agenda.

And so we’ll be called to make the same types of decisions that these early Christians had to make and, quite frankly, that most of the Christians in the world have had to make for some time. To consider the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures of America.

And that unlocks the development in this passage. While we were enemies, God reconciled us to himself in Christ. How do we know if we have received that reconciliation? Here’s one way. When we choose to suffer while steadfastly maintaining our allegiance to Christ, this develops in us perseverance. As we hold on to that perseverance, this forms our character, our core identity: “I am someone who belongs to God.” And that, in turn, fuels our hope. “Wow, I really am someone who belongs to God! My future is secure!” May we all have the empowerment of the Spirit to live that out, to the degree that God calls us to it, in our lives this year.