Blog 5 - The Hope in our Faith

The Hope in our Faith

Read:

  • Romans 5

In the last blog we saw Paul talking about Abraham about how God turned his life around with one promise. Sometimes life can be turned around for the better, other times life can be turned on its head for the worse. When I reached high school I had a hard time, didn’t have any Christian friends in my year (that I knew of at the time) so I tried my best to fit in. In doing so, I lost touch with my relationship with God. The boys I then became friends with weren’t good and I found myself getting bullied worse and worse. From what just started off as just normal banter grew to a really hard point in my life to the point, I realised I needed help. My mental health was at an all-time low to the point I didn’t think anyone around me cared about me. My self-esteem was low, I was anxious, over thinking what people thought of me. But I decided to seek help, and a verse kept appearing and that Psalm 56v3&4 and it says “When I am afraid, I will trust in you, in God I will praise his word, in God I put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me.” Since hearing that verse I realise I needed to put my trust solely on him and since then I grew with my relationship with God and realised that I needed to surround myself with better people.

I now look back on that period of my life as a learning experience that I thought I would share. I could imagine we all have those experiences in life where they may be traumatic and awful to go through but actually, we learn a lot from. Well in this chapter of Romans Paul talks about these moments but shows us the hope we could have when we come to God. See we all learn from past experiences and in verse 3 Paul talks about how our tribulation can strengthen us and better our perseverance and our character. This shows that sometimes God sends trails our way in order that we can grow. Therefore, we shouldn’t blame God for the trails that are set before us but instead we should pray that He will give us strength. 

Paul reminds us that yes, we face hard times but so did Jesus when He came down to be like us. It was in Christ’s weakest moments was when he died for us. So, that even in our weakest moments we can still have hope that Christ died for us. (v6-7) Christ died even though we sin and let him down, Jesus still died for us despite of our sin. (v8) This links very nicely back to chapter 3 that we are all sinners before God. Clearly Paul is showing us again that even though we are all sinners Jesus still died for us. This shows how much God truly loves us that even though we do not deserve salvation, by God’s grace he gifted us the freedom to choose salvation as a gift to us. From this love God has for us, we are now reconciled which means a restored relationship. (v10-11) That means we could have a relationship with God through Jesus when we put our faith in him. Therefore, coming to God in the trails builds our relationship with God and draws us closer to him.

In verse 12 to 21 we see the need for reconciliation and the grace that God gives us through Jesus. Paul talks about Adam’s first sin and how it causes the death of many. (v12) But through God’s grace by Jesus dying on the cross we can have hope when we put are faith in him. (v16-17) While Adam’s sin may have caused the death to many, Paul tells us in verse 15, “much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounding to many.” Showing that through the hope we have in God’s grace gifted to many who ask for it and put our faith in Him. From this we can then be reconciled and saved from sin.

So as Paul says in verse 11 that we should “Rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” Let us rejoice and be thankful that we can have a relationship with God and that through Christ we can be free from sin.

Dear Lord, thank you that you sent your son to die for us on that cross. That we could have a relationship with you, despite our mistakes and our mess ups, you still love and care for us enough to have a personal relationship with us. Help us Lord during the hard times and grant us the strength to get through them. Thank you for the hope we get in those hard times that we can put our faith in you. Amen.

 

Going Deeper Questions

  1. Why is it important that we go through trails as a follower of God? Verse 3 to 4
  2. What’s might surprise you about who Jesus died for in verse 6 to 11? How does this encourage us as we grow in our relationship with God?
  3. From verses 12 to 21 Paul talks about the origin of sin and how we are in need of a saviour. But how are Adam and Jesus similar yet so different in verse 15 to 17?
  4. How can we have hope in the fact that God wants a relationship? How does that make you feel and reflect on God’s love for us? 
  5. When we look at Christ’s death on the cross, what immediately comes to mind? And what do you tend to forget that this passage reminds us of? Is it his love? Grace? Mercy? Forgiveness? Hope? Or reconciliation?


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