Rabbi Schneider - Faith, Hope, and Justification
We're going to pick up today, beloved ones, where I left off last week. Last week, I was at the end of chapter 4, and I talked about that Yeshua was delivered over because of our transgressions, He was raised for our justification. And then we went on, that because of what Yeshua did, both died for our sin... I want you to get that. Because we have such accusation that we need to warfare against because the devil is constantly trying to put shame and accusation on us. He's constantly trying to beat us up, he's constantly wanting to make us feel bad about ourselves, because he knows that if he can push us down into a pit of shame, it's going to block our relationship with Hashem, and that's exactly what he wants.
Remember what happened to Adam and Eve. As soon as they sinned, what happened? They felt shame. That's why they tried to cover themselves with the fig leaves we read about in the book of Genesis. And then they ran from God and were literally afraid of His presence. So this is what happens when we feel accused because of sin. We isolate, we go into the darkness. But God is giving us His strong trumpet word today, that Jesus died and took away our sin and then He rose, to prove that we are now justified before the Lord and we are peace before Him. So that's where we left off last time. Let me just read those two verses where I left off.
The last verse in chapter 4, "He" speaking of Yeshua, "who was delivered over because of our transgression, and was raised because of our justification". In other words, everything that Jesus did, beloved, He did for you. He did it for you. He took away your sin, He took away your transgression. And He was raised for your justification. "Therefore", chapter 5, first verse, "having been justified". I want you to hear that. You and I, we've been justified. I want you to say that with me. I've been justified. Let's just say it together again out loud before the Lord in to our own soul. I am justified in you, God. I'm justified before you, God. I mean, that feels good. And every day we have to remind ourselves of that because every day the devil is trying to put guilt and shame and accusation on us. This is why the Bible calls him the accuser, speaking of the devil, of the brethren.
And so we stand against that accusation of the devil by having confidence in what Yeshua did once and for all. He shed His blood to break the power of accusation over our life. And we need to declare right in Satan's face, "I am justified before God". Why? Not because of who you are. You don't have to wonder if you're justified because you're good or bad yesterday or in the last hour. No, your justification is permanent because of your identification with Yeshua, with Jesus. "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God".
I want to encourage you, warfare into that. These words can be words to just roll off our back and we agree with them intellectually. Or we can come into a conscious awareness of the battle that we're in, and we can step forward in truth and crush Satan's head under our feet by confessing, believing, declaring, taking the hold of that we stand before the Lord without accusation, holy and blameless before Him. Because Yeshua broke the curse, he broke the accusation, he took away our sin, He justified us before the Lord, now we have peace with Him, with the Lord, and we're holy and blameless before Him. It goes on to say, "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained our introduction". And I want you to think about that word "introduction". "Through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God".
Let's take it apart a little bit slower. We're in verse 2, "through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith". What does this mean? It means this is just the introduction. This is just the beginning. The introduction, beloved one, in the beginning of what? Of entering into the fullness of experiencing God's grace. Listen, we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace. What is grace? It's God's unmerited loving kindness, and favor, and goodness continuously, being poured out on our lives. The Bible says that God chose us in Him, this is in the book of Ephesians, so that He could show the lavishness of His loving kindness towards us for the rest of eternity. This is just the introduction right now that Jesus took away our sin, brought us into faith to believe that we now stand holy and blameless before God. This is the introduction. There is so much more. God is going to continue to show His goodness and kindness towards you and I through Jesus for the rest of eternity, through His grace.
And so once again, verse 2, chapter 5, "through whom in Jesus also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we exult in the hope of the glory of God". What is Paul saying? We should be of all people, the most optimistic people in life. We should be full of joy, full of hope, because of our confidence in the future of what God's going to be doing for us, because of our optimistic sense of our destiny, because of our optimistic sense of where we're going, that for the rest of eternity, God is going to be pouring forth good things, His goodness in our life.
I want to read it and say it again. And I know it sounds redundant. But we are living in such an evil age and we're surrounded by so much hostility, so much danger, there are such a thick way to the spirit of darkness in our culture, in our society today, that it's easy for us to be overwhelmed by the spirit of the age, by the spirit of the enemy, by what the Bible calls the god of this world, referring to Satan. It's easy to just be hit by times of waves, of emptiness or depression, or hopelessness, or dread, or just this feeling, we don't know what it is, we just know it feels terrible because we're living in this world where Satan's throne is, Jesus said. Jesus said, "I know you live where Satan's throne is". Not that Jesus isn't sovereign overall, He is, but Satan has a measure of influence in the world today. And because we're in the world, we feel that at times.
So we have to be able to resist a feeling of hopelessness and dread and depression, this toxic atmosphere that we're surrounded by spiritually by recognizing that we're not of this world and that we're going somewhere. That for the rest of eternity, the God of goodness, the God of light, the God of joy, the God of happiness, He is and will be continually pouring out Himself into our lives. And so once again, Paul says, "In Jesus, we have obtained our introduction", just the beginning of where we're going, "by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in the hope of the glory of God". We have hope. We're exalting in the glory of God because we're looking up, believing good things are in store for us. That every day is going to be a good day. Every day might not feel like a great day emotionally, but God's always doing something good in our lives. He's changing us.
In verse 3, "And not only this, but we also", and this gets to what I just said, "exult in our tribulations". So every day is a great day. God's glory is being poured out on our life. It might not feel great every day because we face hard times, and we have to overcome the enemy. Even in the realm of spiritual warfare, even when Satan is trying to pour out His invisible presence upon our soul, trying to make us feel hopeless or whatever it may feel like that negative feeling, Paul says this, "Not only this, but we exult in our tribulations". Whether it's in your visible circumstances, beloved one, or whether it's in a spiritual battle in the invisible world. It may feel tough, but we're "exulting in our tribulation knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope, and this hope that we're exalting in does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us".
And God's Spirit has overcome the world. So let's think about this for a second. What does this mean for us? How are we truly assimilate it? How should we be receiving it? How can this be making a difference? How can you get off your couch or your chair after watching this broadcast right now of Discovering the Jewish Jesus? How can you walk away and be changed, be empowered, be transforming? By truly knowing and taking a hold of this. God's love has been poured out on your life. Because of that, you will not be disappointed. What you're hoping for and what you're believing in will materialize, it will come to pass. You can exult in your tribulation. Whether you're going through a hard time circumstantially, something's going on in your life, whether it's with your family, your children, your health, your finance... whatever it may be, mental health even. Or it's something just in the invisible world-you have this feeling that feels terrible, you don't even know what it is, you're just in a war. God says, "Yes, you're in a war".
Everyone that desires to live godly in Christ Jesus is going to experience tribulation, because going through the tribulation and clinging to God through it, affirming His promises through it strengthens us in our faith. It's like resistance training. Just like an athlete, how do they get stronger? They practice resistance. In other words, they develop stamina by pushing through hard times. So if it's a runner, for example, if it's an Olympic athlete that's preparing for a marathon in the Olympics, what do they do? They train every day. By making themselves run longer or faster, pushing their body to the limits, their body is feeling terrible. While they're going through the tribulation, they could hardly breathe, their muscles field are about to give out. But after they press through, their body is so much stronger than it was if they wouldn't have gone through the resistance.
Again, just like a weight training, just like a person that wants to develop muscles. They want? They subject their muscles to the force of gravity so that they lift a weight off the ground. The weight is pulling their muscle down, but they're pulling their muscle up-resistance. And through that training, their muscles grow. Well, the same thing happens with you and I. We exult in our tribulation. We don't give up on God. We don't fall into depression. We don't surrender to anxiety. But it said we do what Abraham did. We praise God in the midst of contradictory evidence. And through that, we get strong. And when we get strong, beloved ones, we'll have breakthrough and understand what it really means to be happy by the power of the Ruach Hakodesh.
And so once again, this hope that we have as we press in, not wasting our tribulation by giving up, but by using our tribulations so that we can go from one degree of glory to the next degree of glory. Listen, our hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Let's go to the next verse, verse 6. "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly". So I want you to think about this. Jesus didn't die for you and I when we are doing our best to be good. Rather, He died for you and I, beloved, while we were still helpless and ungodly. This should give us confidence to know God loves us, and neither you or I have to do anything to earn or deserve His love. All we have to do is believe that and be thankful for it and look to walk in it.
So listen again. Verse 6, chapter 5, "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even die". But listen, "But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us". So right now right where you're sitting, I want you to just realize God loves you right where you're at. It doesn't mean that He's happy or approves about everything that we do or think, but His love is deeper and wider than that. He loves you and He understands you. And to prove that, He sent His Son to die for you while you were helpless and living in ungodliness. And that love for you will never change. You and I didn't do anything to deserve His love or bring His love to us. Nor can we do anything ever to cause Him to withdraw from us off than rejecting His love.
So you are safe in Him as you look to Him and thank Him, and seek, beloved, to continue to just walk in the grace that He's given you. He continues on in verse 9. "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation".
So what he's saying is if God demonstrated His kindness towards us while we were living in ungodliness, and didn't even have a consciousness of wanting to live obediently to Him, or knowing the way to Him in Yeshua, if God died for us when we were in that helpless state, how much more will He pour forth His love upon us now that we've received Him, Church, and are seeking to please Him through our relationship in Messiah Jesus? What happens next in the text is Paul begins to shift his concept a bit. And he begins to help us understand that if it was through Adam's sin, who sinned all the way back in the garden at the beginning of the book of Genesis, if it was through that one man, Adam, sin that sin and death was then transferred to the whole world. Because the Bible says the whole world died, it became guilty before God because of Adam's sin. That the human race, once Adam sinned, because Adam was the human race's divine representative.
And when our divine representative sinned, it separated the whole human race from God. So now the Bible says, Through Jesus, who's become the second Adam, through Jesus' one act of righteousness, dying on the cross for the sin of mankind, as the perfectly Righteous One, through that one act of Jesus, all that put their faith in Him would be reconciled to God and justified. You see, it's all so simple. We have one humanity and we have one head of humanity, Adam.
When Adam sinned, the whole world became guilty and came under the power of sin. But when the second Adam came, Yeshua HaMashiach of Nazareth, and lived as a perfect God-man, a perfect human being, and then went to the cross, not for Himself, but for you and I, and took our own sin, He took our sin in His own body on the tree, and then died in our place, and then to prove that God accepted that atonement, Father raised Him from the dead, through that one act, you and I have now become just before God and we have peace with God. Through Adam, all died, but through Christ Jesus, everyone that puts their faith in Him is now justified and has been given the gift of eternal and everlasting life. And if you love Jesus today, beloved one, that's you. So I say to you today, grace and peace to you, shalom Uvrachah, God's peace and blessing over your life. You are safe and secure in your relationship with God, give thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ.