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.
(Rom 5.1-5)
Who would true valour see, let him come hither;
One here will constant be, come wind, come weather;
There’s no discouragement shall make him once relent his first avowed intent, to be a pilgrim.
Whoso beset him round with dismal stories,
Do but themselves confound; his strength the more is.
No lion can him fright, he’ll with a giant fight, but he will have a right to be a pilgrim.
Hobgoblin nor foul fiend can daunt his spirit;
He knows he at the end shall life inherit.
Then fancies fly away; he’ll fear not what men say; he’ll labour night and day to be a pilgrim.
(John Bunyan. 1628-88)
I mentioned recently that I am studying the book of Romans with a local group, this week reaching chapter 5.. and I am feeling a little apologetic for enthusing so strongly and telling you all to go and read it for yourselves, as I have found myself floundering in the complexity of Paul’s arguments, increasingly bewildered and slightly panicked!
The verses which I quote here were read at my father’s funeral, and I recall at the time wondering why that text had been chosen, but having spent a good deal of time recently trying to unpack them, I am beginning to see a reason. The chapter opens, as with an open door before the believer, revealing the glorious prospect which is life with Christ as a believer, one whom God has declared righteous in His sight. And I believe that these words encapsulate my father’s life as a believer – he came to faith as a student, and spent the rest of his life living in loving loyalty to the Lord who had transformed him.
My father was a man of peace, and of rejoicing – twin fruits that come from the fact of being made right with God through faith in the redeeming work of Jesus. He was a man who persevered through difficulties, strengthened and sustained by faith and hope, and whose character was purified, tested and verified by those experiences. When the cancer which clouded his last years returned with a terminal diagnosis, it was crystal clear just how that character had been transformed into a pure dependence upon God’s faithfulness. My father’s hope was stronger in his last days than it had ever been, and his acceptance of God’s providence in ordaining his death in that way and at that time was complete. That acceptance was a rock for our family as we prepared to say farewell to him.
It is my father’s example which I desire to follow as I enter my later years – growing in perseverance, increasingly purified and refined by it so that my character becomes more Christ-like and glorifying to God; and also humbly recognising my own human limitations in terms of both physical and also mental scope and strength. I believe that the centre of our faith is actually a great mystery, and that while some of the finest minds have wrestled to unpick and systematise what happened, and how it all works, yet still no human mind can fully penetrate the depth of the mystery, nor encompass the breadth of its work. And I pray for the grace to accept those limitations, and to hold fast to what I can understand and know – since as well as being deeply mysterious, the gospel is actually very simple and readily apprehended! I want to be more preoccupied by the lived business of trusting my Heavenly Father day-by-day, than with the theological niceties of the multiple facets of God’s work in Christ in redemption. The latter are not unimportant, it is from the accomplished facts of justification and adoption as God’s child that my new life springs and by them is maintained, but if I find myself so deeply enmeshed in complicated explorations that I neglect kindness, love, peace-making, service, patience and all God’s calling on my life, then I am wasting my time. It is not for nothing that the writers of the epistles to the churches regularly warned them against getting bogged down in complicated discussions of doctrine, instead of getting on with loving their neighbours and witnessing to Christ!
Our bible study group agreed wholeheartedly that we desire a simplicity in our lives of faith – a plain dependence upon plain facts, so that we may rest in God and not fret over exactly how it all works! After all, most of us drive around quite happily without trying to understand how our cars work… May the Lord have mercy upon us, and keep us focussed on living close to him, sitting lightly to intellectual entanglements which may render us inactive in his service.
There’s a wideness in your mercy Lord, as wide as the boundless ocean; there’s a kindness in your justice which is richer than liberty.
There is nowhere like heaven for a full appreciation of our earthly sorrows, and it is there that our failings are most kindly judged.
Your love, our God, is so much broader than our narrow minds; and your eternal heart of love is most wonderfully kind.
The blood shed in redemption will suffice for all who will accept it, and we rejoice as members of Christ’s body, because his sorrows have delivered us into your grace.
O Lord, let our love be simple; let us take you at your word, then our lives will be increasingly filled with the glory which is yours, overflowing abundantly from you to us in Christ. Amen
(paraphrase of a hymn by FW Faber, 1814-63 – “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy)
