But then the question was: ‘How does one become righteous?’ Not by way of the popular answer: popular in Luther’s day and still popular in our day – namely, by doing good. But, rather, by being pronounced, declared “good”, righteous, ‘right with God’, only because of what Christ has done for us and in our stead and then gave to us the ability – faith – to trust Him and His all-sufficiency.

How that all came about Paul carefully and lovingly spells out in the opening 4 chapters by shouting: “(Christ) was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” And then Paul jumps right into the 5th chapter, the great “so what” of our being made righteous. Or as Luther would say: “What does this mean?” And that, dear friends, is what the remaining 11 chapters of Romans is all about! Since “the righteous will live by faith” and since we have been made righteous by and through Christ, “what does this mean for us”? I prefer to refer to it as:

Our text is the opening 8 verses of that 5th, that God’s Grand “Therefore”…
“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 rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given 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 man, though for a good man 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.”

There’s God’s grand “therefore” at the very beginning of our text! But you did hear what followed right on the heels of His grand “therefore”, did you not? “Therefore…we have peace with God.”

“Peace” is a much-discussed and, even more-so, ill-defined word in our day and in our world. Peace is not the absence of war; but our Christian military have peace right now in Bagdad and in Afghanistan. Peace is not a state of calm; but Christians had peace when the wildfires roared in California and the Twin Towers crashed on 9/11. Peace is not the absence of tribulation or hardship; because Christians have peace in the midst of the attacks of disease and at the death of a loved one. And peace, most definitely, is neither a ‘wish’ nor is ‘subjective.’ Listen to the ending of any trustworthy, Biblical sermon and you will always hear: “The peace of God that passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto live everlasting.” And we thank God and the Liturgies of His Church that the final word from Him, His Benediction, concludes on the objective pronouncement…”and give thee peace!”

“Therefore…we have peace…thus saith the Lord!” But just how does His peace help…in Iraq…on 9/11…when recovering from a stroke…when standing at the gravesite of a loved one? There are some so-called “Christian preachers” who totally misread the 2nd verse of our text: “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” These pulpit-phonies pass out their “theology of Glory.” You can hear them just about any Sunday morning: locally and on TV and, yes, we have a flood of them in the Ozarks, too! Just listen to them – but not too long or too seriously – they will tell you that God wants you to be wealthy or disease-free or problem-less and on and on. Norman Vincent Peale has had to re-think his so-called “Power of Positive Thinking” and I wonder when Robert “something-good-is-going-to-happen-to-you” Schuller, will realize that some days that just isn’t the case.

Re-read that portion of our text: “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings.” It’s not ‘the road of glory’ or ‘the road of suffering’; there is only one road for the believer. It is the road that leads through suffering ending in hope that makes us beneficiaries of peace. You heard God’s Word: “Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us.” When he wrote to the parish in Colossae, Paul again spoke of that non-disappointing hope of the believer and What, really Who, is the Source of that hope: “To (you) God has chosen to make known…the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Now, have you been watching the progress and the line of march of all of this within our text? We are justified, righteous, right with God because of what Christ has done for us…then God’s grand “therefore”…therefore we have peace, peace even and especially in the midst of suffering because suffering does lead to hope and…and…and “hope does not disappoint us,” not the hope that God gives.

Human hope, man-based hope disappoints and more often than not. How many hopes were disappointed under the Christmas tree a few months ago? Two weeks ago, a goodly number of Super Bowl fans had their hopes dashed! Former Senator Fred Thompson hoped to be the Republican nominee for President! And, I am sure, you could name a litany of personal hopes that have been dashed and sad disappointments in your own life, right? But the hope that God gives to you and me never, NEVER disappoints…for one simple but solid truth: “Thus saith the Lord.”

And you want to know how this hope doesn’t disappoint us, right? You’re asking the wrong question…at least for right now and at this point in the sermon. The more important question to ask of God is why this hope does not disappoint us. And God through the blessed Apostle, gives us His infallible answer: “Hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” Why doesn’t God’s hope disappoint? Because it is God who does it all! You and I do nothing! “Hope does not disappoint…because God has poured out His love into our hearts.” Hmm? “Poured?” Water is poured! Was Paul pointing us to the Baptismal Font and reminding us of our own Baptism? Bingo! You know how much you had to do with your own Baptism, don’t you? God did it all. He poured out “His love into (your) heart” the day of your Baptism and has been doing such every day since your Baptism.

See why it is so important that you never refer to your Baptism in the past tense: like, ‘I was baptized’; but always and daily in the present tense: ‘I am baptized.’ But not just your Baptism for, through the ministry of The Holy Spirit, that love of God is poured out…daily and richly…through His other Means of Grace: The Word, preached, read, studied, shared; and The Holy Supper, bringing to us the very Body and Blood that was used, offered, to make us right with God. Do I have to dwell on the vital importance of daily and personal Bible reading…daily family devotions (whether you are a family of 1 or 10)…participating presence in Sunday School, Weekday School, Teen and Adult Bible Classes…regularly joining with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven at this most holy banquet? Indeed, through the Means of Grace, God’s hope “does not disappoint us”…please, don’t disappoint yourself by being delinquent from His means of Grace, from His outpouring of love into your hearts.

Now you can ask that ‘other’ question: How is it that His love does not disappoint us?” I could give you a theological treatise and answer to the “How” question, or not! Rather, how about a personal application from which you do draw your own conclusions and directions.

Years ago, I served your sister parish in one of the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of the ladies in that parish, who had become a dear and valued friend of my wife, gave her a new Bible on one occasion. For the rest of her life, Susan used that particular Bible: private Bible reading, in the numerous Bible classes she attended and/or led; in our family devotions. And she was fond of making notes in that copy of her Bible. After retirement, down at our condo in Branson, we still had family devotions with our morning coffee. She would read the appointed Bible reading and I would read the attending devotional based on that passage.

After she went home to heaven last October and after I returned to our home in Branson, I continued our family devotions and chose to read from her Bible. There is no cover on that Bible. She wore if off years ago. I have enjoyed and truly profited from the fringe benefit of reading some of her notes written in the margins of her Bible.

When I began working on this sermon, naturally, I studied it from the original Greek and from my personal English translation. But I decided to see how the text read in her version, which is a different translation from the one I usually use. When I turned to Chapter 5 in Susan’s Bible and read God’s grand “therefore” in her Bible, she had written this in on the margin: “Hang in there!”

She did…for the “almost” 50 years that I’ve known her…for the 46 years that I was blessed to have her at my side…for the last year of her life. How? Quite simply…because of God’s grand “therefore.”

“Therefore”…we have been justified.
“Therefore”…we have peace with God.
“Therefore”…we have hope that never disappoints.
“Therefore”…hang in there!
“Therefore”…”Thus saith the Lord!”

Amen.