The right sermon will connect our present suffering with Christ’s historic suffering as the perfect entree for delivering His work on our behalf.
This week we will be exactly halfway through Lent, and the Romans reading sticks out as the odd duck among the lessons. Exodus 17 (the waters of Meribah) is echoed by Psalm 95 (the last verses of which recall the Exodus 17 content with the warning, “Today if you hear his voice, do not be like them!” – a point Hebrews 3-4 dilates on) and the John 4 narrative of Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well. Water, water everywhere! But not in Romans 5; one of these things is not like the other. So, you get to preach Romans 5:1-8 without the watery distraction of those other readings. In a penitential season that encourages Christians ever and always to repent and believe, Romans 5 gives the hearer something to believe in: The work of Christ on their behalf. It is summarized in the final verse of the pericope which every believer should know by heart. “God demonstrated His love for us in this, that while were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Romans 5:6-8 is, in my view, the heart and soul, the chewy nougat center of the whole chapter. Bounded on one side by sufferings producing perseverance (all the way to hope) at the beginning (Romans 5:1-5) and the Christ and Adam comparison at the end (Romans 5:12-19). Those few verses at Romans 5:6-8 should form the foundation of your direct proclamation of the Christ and His cross as well, the sun around which your sermon should orbit.
But I cannot help but play a bit with the beginning part, Romans 5:1-5, if only because the rhetorical device sticks in my head and makes me want to observe the structure a little more closely. Hear it again, preacher: “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, and not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character, hope – and hope does not disappoint us, put us to shame, because God has poured His love into our hearts through His Holy Spirit.”
This is ready-made, turn-key stuff for the expository preacher, no? A good Baptist can get at least 50 minutes out of just those couple of verses.
Ok, ok, ok, I am not making fun of Baptists. I could learn (and have learned!) a lot from my brothers and sisters from the Southern Baptist Conference (in fact some actual blood-related family members included)! I just happen not to do a great deal of expository preaching myself. It is not my style, because it is not what lends itself to the kind of worship experience that is focused, above all, on the delivery of God’s gifts in Christ (witnessed in the traditional western liturgies my church body follows, with the climactic moments of the word of absolution being delivered to penitent sinners, the word of the cross being proclaimed for the salvation of the world, the word in, with, and under the actual bread and wine and body and blood of Christ being delivered, to be eaten and drunk for the forgiveness of sins). Expository preaching, on the other hand, is more about teaching, explanation, explication, application (the kind of stuff I do daily in my college classroom) and the didactic side of this leads naturally to didactic ends (above all morality; after all, all education is at root moral education). This is a laudable end, but not one I happen to share as a preacher of the Gospel, since I believe the Gospel (and not good works) should predominate in the preaching of anyone charged with properly handling the Word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). This is a matter of properly distinguishing Law and Gospel.
More to the point for what I am calling out in this portion of the epistle pericope this week, the device Paul uses at Romans 5:3-5 is seductively apropos for a lesson, an explication, because it functions rhetorically as a verbal ladder; one stair, another rung, a penultimate step, and then the climax (the Greek vocabulary for “staircase” or “ladder”). Suffering to perseverance to proven character to hope, one building on top of the other, all the steps necessary to get to a goal. The rhetorical device is called climax, in fact (gradatio is the Latin word for it), and the ordering of things implies that the first bit is necessary for the second, the second for the third, and so forth. Sounds like steps to follow. Sounds like a method to imitate. Sounds like a way to take control and do some things to produce an effect. It is a ladder all the way up, a procedure, a technique, a formula for hope, a blueprint for your best life now.
I am exaggerating, of course, but maybe not that much. Theology handled by human hands quickly and comfortably turns into a theology of law, a theology of glory, a theology of accomplishing things by my own reason and strength. From the Ladder of Divine Ascent of early Christian monasticism to modern preachers who point up and prioritize progress in Christian living, holiness, sanctification, we are bent naturally towards the Law. There is something about it in our DNA, the works of the Law written on our hearts (Romans 2:15). We are more comfortable with the do, do, do of doing things than the trust, receive, believe that the Gospel demands, uncomfortable in the Gospel’s alienness.
We are more comfortable with the do, do, do of doing things than the trust, receive, believe that the Gospel demands, uncomfortable in the Gospel’s alienness.
The pitfall for the expository preacher (or any preacher!) faced with these verses, is to read the ladder superficially and construct a weak structure out of them as a sermon outline, in such a way as to convince your hearer that suffering is the necessary first part of their salvation until they mature in their faith sufficiently to get to perseverance (with plenty of biblical examples along the way, usually Old Testament folks, like Job, right?). Then, they have more responsibility, to work on perseverance producing proven character (again, with plenty of biblical examples along the way, like Joseph who had to put up with his murderous brothers but still maintained integrity in the face of Potiphar’s wife and prison). Finally, one can show how perseverance will translate into hope (Abraham would be the likely example here, because he hoped against hope in the last chapter, Romans 4:18, after persevering for a century). So, lots of biblical examples, following a formula, a nice explanatory lesson on building a ladder to hope. It has the patina of biblical preaching with a moral at the end. I can totally imagine this sermon. I think I may have even heard it, or something like it, from a preacher with good intentions.
The problem with the sermon I have described, of course, is it is a Christless sermon. And as far preaching goes, a Christless sermon is a waste of time. However polished the prose, however professional the PowerPoint, if it does not deliver Christ dead as a substitute for a sinner, it is not saving souls. And saving souls is the point of a sermon.
The cure for a Christless sermon is to preach Christ, and not as a plus-one, value-add, gospel-reductionist failsafe for a pass, but rather as the centerpiece that reorients the entire task and the entire message. Rather than thinking about a text as an ordering of verses from holy writ that you are tasked somehow to develop and explicate, and maybe update in order to make relevant to your hearer, I would encourage you to cultivate the habit of reading a text for preaching by asking primarily, “Where is the Christ in this text that needs most to be preached?” Then follow up by asking, “What gets in the way of my hearer being able to encounter that Christ?” A good reader, a careful reader, a nimble reader will seek to find a hook or two in the text itself that will get you to Christ. Bits of readings with other goals in mind may steer your sermon off in unfruitful directions. But with a Christ-first orientation, instead, you can better explicate and expose the Savior.
A great example in the present pericope is “suffering.” Yes, the believer at peace with God, given access to His grace by faith in Jesus, boasts in hope, glories in it, rejoices in the hope of the glory of God. It is a “not-yet” reality the believer owns in the now, in confident assurance of God’s promise. And the “now” reality of that believer is also suffering. The believer along with her fellow believers, and Paul himself too, all rejoice in, boast in, glory in the present sufferings they experience, not in some kind of focused discipline plan, but as a description of the sanctified life. This is not a prescription, but a description, which unfolds to better things that only wisdom can see, such as perseverance, character, and hope, once again. There is a boast for the not yet and a boast for the now (hope all the time) because of something that happened in history. This is where the hook is. The thing that happened in history which hooks your hearer is the same word: Suffering. This, preacher, is where to go. And this is, in fact, what Paul has in the back of his mind as well, the suffering of Christ.
The right sermon will connect our present suffering with Christ’s historic suffering as the perfect entree for delivering His work on our behalf.
Or do you not see how Romans 5:6 follows so hot on the heels of Romans 5:5? It is as if Paul is saying, “Speaking of suffering, do you recall that at just the right time your Savior suffered for you? While you were in the midst of your own tentatio, caught between God and the Devil, in the world, blind, dead, an enemy of God, at just the right time, Christ came to take your place? That is a blue moon, man, that is hen’s teeth, a four-leaf clover. It is just not done, anyone dying for a righteous man, a good man... but God demonstrates His love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!”
The right sermon will connect our present suffering with Christ’s historic suffering as the perfect entree for delivering His work on our behalf. We got there by remembering the centerpiece: Christ’s vicarious satisfaction for sinners (Romans 5:6-8). Therefore, we can treat the now and not-yet hope of believers in light of what Christ suffered. Further applications are possible, of course, particularly if you serve hearers whose suffering is anything but secret (tragedies and trauma, sickness and death). To hear “chin up, rejoice in your suffering,” to hear that such suffering is something to rejoice in, is oxymoronic at best (and offensive at worst). But to hear how Christ suffered, suffered for me (and while I was still a sinner, no less!), is an invitation to hide my suffering in Him. It is to find my wounds in His, to know a savior who suffers in solidarity, whose suffering means my victory, to stand in Him, with access to grace, because of relying on His declaration of my righteousness before God while I was yet a sinner! Then, I can truly boast in weakness, glory in suffering, and rejoice in the now as I look to the not-yet.
Finally, notice that this path to a sermon does not just tack Jesus’ saving work on the end as some necessary sine qua non. It strategically moves from the goal at the center, to proclaim Christ’s saving work, to the text itself. It reads Romans 5:1-5 in light of Romans 5:6-8. It does not discount the real-time, in the now, experience of suffering. But it matter-of-factly describes it as part of the sanctified life, understanding that it is sanctified because of another matter of (historic) fact: The real, historic suffering of the Christ. This is not a buddy Christ who makes the suffering go away. This is the Christ who, as friend of sinners, suffers ahead of them to give them hope in the now while they suffer, a hope that does not put us to shame.
Whatever you do with your own sermon this week, preacher, deliver the goods. Do not preach a Christless sermon. Always and ever give your hearers what they need to be saved: The actual demonstration of God’s love for them in Christ (Romans 5:8). Blessings in your sermon craft this week!
Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on Romans 5:1–8.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you preaching Romans 5:1–8.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
