David Bahn – Reflections

Romans 5:1-11

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

There we were in the seminary chapel: Sitting. Waiting.The organist was playing pre-service music, but it was after the time for the service to start. Finally Dr. Henry Eggold walked in. Tall and lanky, with a deep voice and a wrinkled face, he strode to the chancel, and announced the hymn. When the hymn was finished, he read this passage from Romans 5 and offered a very powerful message about dealing with trials and suffering. But the power wasn’t in the rhetoric, but in the substance of what he said.

Suffering is a part of life in this world. You cannot escape it. You cannot opt out of it. It is sure to come. But because we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God and joy in suffering. This is not a call for denial, nor a false bravado in the face of hard times. This is a call to look beyond any momentary affliction we may experience in anticipation of how God uses even hard times and difficult experiences to shape our character and build up true hope in our hearts.

We have the gift of the Holy Spirit, who has poured God’s love into our hearts. That love sustains us in difficult times, and shapes our hope for the future. And just so we get it, Paul reminds us that God’s love has been shown to us by Christ’s death in our place while we were still sinners.

I recently had the opportunity to share the significance of Christ’s love and death for us with two different people. Both of these people were facing difficult family situations. Children and grandchildren were on a path of wrong choices and rebellion against God’s ways. Both of these people said that they could not let it get to them, because if they did, they would be completely undone. I believe that is exactly what Jesus did for us: He let it all get to him and was completely undone. He didn’t keep his heart safe. He let it be completely broken. He took our sin into his being – all of it, and all of its consequences: death itself.

That’s love. And that love, poured into our hearts enables us to face difficulty, suffering and trials with confidence, strength, and hope. On that day in the seminary chapel, Dr. Eggold shared that message, and I remember it to this day – 38 years later. I later learned that the assigned preacher for the day’s chapel had not shown up, and he “shook one out of his sleeve” for us. I suspect that he may have recently preached on that text in another setting. But I do know that God shapes us, makes us stronger, and purifies our joy through times of suffering. That’s because he loves us. And that love was not just shaken out of his sleeve, it came from his heart and saved us.