A Different Kind of Boasting (A Sermon on Romans 5:1-5)

Preface: I used to write and deliver sermons regularly in a previous phase of life. Like many who have been pastors, I spoke hundreds of times during my career. In the rush and stress of it all, I frequently felt I was producing content to produce content. Now that I don't have to deliver weekly sermons and several other lessons each week, there is more time to savor the ideas and images, to take joy in producing an exhortation. No congregation will hear this sermon, but I certainly enjoyed writing it. In essence, I am preaching to myself. As for the text, Romans 5:1-5, for many years I thought it odd that Paul deviated from theology about salvation and decided to introduce the idea of boasting in afflictions and how afflictions leads to endurance, character, and hope. This moral and spiritual material at first seems unrelated to the more theological talk. But reading Douglas Campbell's Deliverance of God helped me understand what Romans 1-4 is really about. And now Romans 5:1-5 makes perfect sense and I see how every word fits with Campbell's assertions. This will be longer than my usual posts on Reimagining Paul. You may need two cups of coffee to finish it.

A young man boasted to Jesus, "I have kept all the commandments since childhood." Knowing the boast was empty, Jesus cleverly challenged him, "One thing you lack: sell all your possessions and give to the poor."

Maybe this young man was more deluded than most religious people, but not by much. Using religion to feel superior to others is, unfortunately, quite common. Conversations and sermons all too often revolve around how bad those people outside the church are and how praiseworthy it is to be saved by Jesus.

Contrast the young man who boasted about his religious law-keeping with Jesus. When the puffed up young man call him, "Good teacher," Jesus replied in an odd manner. "Why do you call me good? Only one is good and that is God." And this was from the one person who actually could claim to be a good person!

But when Jesus boasts, what does he boast in? "Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13 NASB). Consider the contrast: a young man who feels he has achieved perfection and is looking for recognition speaking to a man who will be vilified and unjustly executed to save his friends.

Jesus knew the young man was deluded. The one who created human beings knows human beings! We are morally disabled. Good intentions fail to produce consistent virtue. Simple selfishness, comfort-seeking, avoidance of responsibility, dishonesty, primal desires, jealousy, and many other attitudes and inner realities incapacitate us in a moral sense. Though part of us wants to be loving and honorable, we find that we do what we don't want to do and fail to live up to what we wish we could be.

The young man's boast was empty. He was not loving his neighbor as himself. He was not loving God with all his heart. He was not freed from covetousness and pride. Jesus proved it with one difficult command: "Sell all your possessions and give to the poor." The young man knew he was beaten. He went away dismayed and grieving, since he had no intention of selling all his possessions.

Boasting in Rome . . .

There was some boasting going on in Rome at the time Paul wrote his letter to the congregation he had never been to. A teacher or group of teachers was stirring up trouble.

Most of the Jesus-followers at Rome were non-Jews. Paul had a detailed and brilliant understanding of God's plans for non-Jews in the last days. Paul read the Torah and Psalms and Prophets. He knew that Gentiles would be saved as Gentiles, without becoming Jews. This was what Israel's teachers had said long before Paul was born.

But a teacher (or group of influencers) said Paul had it all wrong. Non-Jews needed to live like Jews. The men needed circumcision. Everyone needed to practice the dietary laws of Leviticus. The Sabbath was a must. And the teacher(s) were quite judgmental about non-Jews.

They were boasting and teaching others to boast in law-keeping.

Paul is the perfect person to demolish their weak ideas for a very simple reason: Paul was an elite law-keeper and a student of great rabbis, more learned in the Torah than almost anyone in his time. And Paul did not believe for a second that non-Jews needed to live like Jews.

Keep this background in mind as we go through the words and meaning of Romans 5:1-5.

Romans 5:1-2, The Theological Foundation . . .

Therefore,

since we have been justified by faith,

we have peace with God

through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have also obtained access

through him

by faith

into this grace

in which we stand,

and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

—Romans 5:1-2 CSB

Paul opens with two conjunctions: therefore and since.

What does the "therefore" refer to? It refers back to what has just been said in Romans 4. Paul has just spent chapter 4 explaining that Abraham did not earn God's favor, but God graciously credited it to Abraham. Though Abraham was no perfect saint, God blessed him and considered him righteous without requiring perfection.

Why does Paul make that point? Because the teacher(s) acted as though God is a niggling Judge who will only reward those who live up to a perfectionist standard. Like the young man I mentioned at the beginning of this sermon, the teacher(s) seems to believe flawless law-keeping is possible.

Since Abraham experienced a reasonable judge who granted him the benefit of the doubt and since we have already been justified—a better word is "delivered"—by faith, we have peace with God.

But what does Paul mean when he says we have been delivered by faith. Many readers, misled by modern translations and a long history of reading Paul incorrectly, think he means "because of our faith in Jesus we have peace with God." But I have argued elsewhere that this is not at all what he means.

It is Jesus' faith that has delivered us. Jesus' complete devotion to and unwavering trust in God led him to lay down his life for his friends. Jesus' faith in God held him up when abuse and violence were hurled at him. Jesus' faithfulness kept him there until everything was accomplished for our good.

Because we know God credits righteousness rather than demanding impossible perfection, and since Jesus' faith has saved us at the cross and resurrection, we have peace with God.

Peace. Why was it important for Paul to say this at this juncture of his letter to Rome? The answer is simple: the teacher(s) has been using fear to gain converts. "You're not good enough for God unless you do these things I am going to teach you."

Nonsense, says Paul. Jesus died for all and we died with him. Jesus rose as the first of many to come and we have been raised with him. We are already delivered from death. Past tense. Done. Accomplished.

We have peace.

More than that, we have obtained access. We exist now in a state of grace. God's favor is with us. Paul says we stand in this truth. Our standing is based on God's giving generosity, not our merit in law-keeping or even our merit in believing. We have no merit. Only God is good.

So, if all that is true, what can we boast about? The teacher(s) wants people boasting about Sabbath and food laws and holy days and observance of positive and negative commands. Never mind that this is not good Judaism—boasting is frowned on in Judaism as much as in Christianity. Even worse, it is antithetical to the actual nature of God and Jesus.

Our boast is simply in God's glory and the hope it brings us. But Paul is not done with boasting.

Romans 5:3-5, The Practical Result . . .

And not only that,

but we also boast in our afflictions,

because we know that affliction produces endurance,

endurance produces proven character,

and proven character produces hope.

This hope will not disappoint us,

because God’s love has been poured out

in our hearts

through the Holy Spirit

who was given to us.

—Romans 5:3-5 CSB

Paul is strange. In some of his letters, we find that he was not some brilliant orator. He worked a menial job with leather even though he was a Roman citizen. He didn't complain about brutal beatings and being left for dead. He cared nothing about ambition and competition.

So his second boast fits his personality: we can boast in our suffering, our afflictions. Not many people would suggest boasting in misfortunes. Paul certainly had setbacks and trials.

Meanwhile the teacher(s) is boasting self-righteously and encouraging others to do the same. Paul mocks and subverts the teacher(s): "You brag about your saintliness. We will brag about how despised we are and the abuse we suffer."

It might seem as if Paul is cutting off the limb he is sitting on. If Paul suffers abuse, this could be God's punishment. In the minds of many, success and ease of life are signs of God's blessing. Poverty, derision, abuse, these are signs of punishment, aren't they?

Not so, says Paul. We boast in the hard experiences of life that we undergo because God uses it for a very practical result. Paul says affliction produces endurance which leads to character and results in a hope that will not disappoint.

I will say more in a moment about this, but the chain of causation goes like this:

• We suffer lack and abuse and discouragement.

• These experiences toughen us.

• We develop endurance, the ability to continue under struggle.

• Endurance improves our character since we need less comfort and find virtue to be easier now than before.

• Our ability to persevere and increase in virtue brings us hope.

• Endurance and virtue change our focus from complaining to anticipation and excitement.

• Our eyes are now less on our trials and more on good things to come.

  
  

If it seems strange to say we boast in our suffering, Paul would probably give us two reasons why such boasting is reasonable.

First, we have nothing in ourselves to boast about. Second, we are more like Christ when we accept suffering for a greater good. The desire to boast in ourselves is not healthy and misses the point of God's loving actions through Jesus.

Boasting and the Teacher(s) . . .

Now the teacher(s) does not share Paul's aversion to boasting. He comes from a position of superiority, largely based on the idea that religious law-keeping somehow makes a person worthier than others.

The words found in Romans 1:18-32 are Paul's imitation of the teaching points of the teacher. It is a diatribe looking down on non-Jews as foolish and dishonorable. It is much like church members disparaging people outside the church. And disdaining and criticizing others is a form of boasting—it brings them down to bring the despiser up.

Paul accuses the teacher(s) of boasting in the law in Romans 2:13. He brings up the boasting issue as well in Romans 2:17 and 3:27. He argues that Abraham had nothing to boast about in Romans 4:2.

Clearly Paul sees the teacher(s) as boastful and teaching others to be the same way. "God wants winners, not losers. You'd better measure up."

Not so, says Paul. Probably my favorite saying of Paul about boasting is from a different letter, the one to the Ephesians:

For you are saved by grace

through faith,

and this is not from yourselves;

it is God’s gift ​— ​

not from works,

so that no one can boast.

—Ephesians 2:8-9

We have nothing to boast about because our position is "not of ourselves." It is grace, which means it is freely given. Salvation is a gift, not something earned. Even the faith that saves us did not come from us, but was a gift. God gave us faith. God saved us and we did nothing but receive the gift.

Instead of boasting in our greatness, Paul shows us a better way.

Endurance, Character, Hope . . .

There are two things in this passage Paul says we can boast about: God and our struggles.

Why boast about our struggles? The answer is that it is our struggles, not our comfort, that increases virtue and hope.

A spoiled person who has a life of ease and luxury will be weak in tribulation. The process of growth in virtue is much like the processes of education and fitness.

A person who undertakes an education, using every opportunity to cheat and obtain the answers unfairly, is not going to become a scholar. Likewise, a person who tries to become fit by relaxing on soft couches and indulging in excess, will fail.

Hardship and perseverance produce learning. Struggle, muscle breakdown, and rest produce fitness.

Life is full of affliction. But for some, affliction is a stepping stone to something better. Their hope is not in riches or comfort, but in love, deeds of kindness, and the grace of God who has stored up for us a certain hope.

Think about how to apply this in your own life. Trials will come. We will not always respond well. But we could decide to work on a different attitude toward the struggle of life.

We can see the good in the bad. A weightlifter can curl the bar over and over again in spite of muscle pain due to practice, familiarity with the pain. A cancer survivor can handle just about anything. A scholar can spend hours reading books that would bore us in five minutes.

Endurance is a great virtue to have. It lessens pain and reduces struggle. People with endurance work longer and harder and complain less. Life is better when smaller pains and struggles begin not to bother us.

It shifts our view to more important things. And we can grow in virtue more easily because a major part of virtue is being willing to work.

And when we can focus more on virtue and less on our pain, we will have hope. Paul says "God’s love has been poured out in our hearts" in vs. 5. God's love here means Jesus on the cross. It means God loving us while we were sinners. It means, we have received God's love for us and it has filled our hearts and changed us.

Not only that, but this love is poured out in our hearts "through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

"Was given" is passive. That means we had nothing to do with receiving the Holy Spirit. God gave the Spirit to us. This is Paul's way of saying that we received faith as a gift from God and with it salvation. We did not choose to believe. We did not persuade ourselves to believe. Faith was given to us.

Conclusion . . .

We have security with God because of Jesus Christ. Our hope is certain and will not disappoint. We stand in grace. Love has already been poured out in our hearts. The Spirit has been given to us.

Now, if we want to live the best life we can, we can embrace struggles. We can rejoice in the endurance we build up to pain and hard work. It leads to virtue or character, because character is hard work and now we have endurance.

And when we take our minds off of complaining and seeking comfort, we see the positive side of life in Christ. We have a hope laid up for us that matters now and changes the way we see things.

We have a different kind of boasting.