Trinity 2013 Romans 5:1-5

This weekend our nation observes Memorial Day. For many Americans it’s a three-day weekend that signals the beginning of summer and firing up the grill to make hotdog &, hamburgers, but there’s a lot more to it than that. It was originally called “Decoration Day” because family, friends, and fellow soldiers would decorate the graves of loved ones and comradeswho had died in the Civil War. Since that time we’ve added two world wars and several others to our Memorial Day observance, and tomorrow many people will gather at cemeteries to remember the price of freedom. And that’s also what makes Memorial Day a celebration. In honor of those who gave their all, we celebrate the freedoms for which they fought and died.

The heart of our Christian faith as a somber note to it, too. Many pages of the Bible focus on the death of God’s Son, and because of that, there will always be something somber about the price Jesus paid for our sins. But you won’t find anyone going out to decorate his grave because Jesus lives!And because he lives, we are free from our sins. That’s something to celebrate! For the rest of our lives and into eternity, we will “CELEBRATE OUR PEACE WITH GOD.”

Peace gives you hope

People celebrate peace it’s because it’s the end to conflict and war. That’s what Paul means when he writes, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” “Therefore” takes us back to what he just said at the end of chapter 4: “[Jesus] was delivered over to death because of our sins and was raised to life because of our justification.” Therefore we are at peace with God. The key word here is justification.To bejustified means to be declared not guilty. In other words, the war between God and man is over.

That war has gone on since the Adam and Eve shook their fist at God and told him to mind his own business, and every child they bore, right on down to you and me, has been drafted into the army of God’s enemies. “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”(Romans 3:23)Although some sins look “bigger and badder” than others, there’s no difference between me and the guy who robs a bank, kidnaps a young child,or gets drunk and kills someone in a car accident. To a holy God every sin is a declaration of war against him.My sins.Your sins.“All have sinned,” and the soul who sins is the one who will die. We feel it and fear it in our conscience.

But that verse goes on to say“and are justified – declared not guilty - freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” The whole world is at war with God, but God has declared the whole world “not guilty” of sin. How?“Through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”Jesus become guilty of our sins,suffered hell for our sins on the cross, and paid the wages of our sin by his death. Then he rose again from the dead to declare that the war was over. We are justified, declared not guilty. Every single one of us. God is at peace with us.

Until we hear the news, we don’t know that the war is over, so God has to let us know. He announces it through the gospel message about Jesus.That “not guilty” verdict becomes our personal possession when we believe in Jesus, and that faith is the gift of the Holy Spirit. God so much wanted us to be a peace with him that each person of the Trinity – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – had a part in making it happen. Whoever believes that message steps into a new life of peace with God, and the results are wonderful.

So how do we celebrate our peace with God? Well, have you ever done something and said, “My parents are going to kill me?” You knew you were wrong and you knew your parents would be disappointed, even angry. You tried to hide it because you knew you’d let them down. You were ashamed of yourself. When we sin against God, we let him down, too. We know that our sins anger him and disappoint him. We try to hide it and put off dealing with it. We stay up nights, toss and turn, avoid worship services, stay away from other Christians, because we know we let God down. But we needlessly burden ourselves and wrestle with our consciences. God already knows all about it. He’s already dealt with it. Jesus already paid for it. So stop hiding, confess to God what he already knows, and celebrate his forgiveness. God will spend the rest of your life telling you – in His Word, in your baptism, as you receive Jesus’ body and blood in the Lord’s Supper – that he is at peace with you. Through Jesus the door is wide open to God’s love. Through Jesus’ blood you are justified, declared not guilty.

The war is over! God is not aiming missiles to fire at you for your sins! You are at peace with God!We know for sure that we are on the way to heaven. Through Jesus we have“a living hope…into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you.”

This is why “we also rejoice (celebrate) inour suffering.” If God’s love could take away our sins, then his love can also turn the problems of sin into positive blessings in our lives. “Suffering produces perseverance” as we learn towait patiently forthe Lord to help us in his time. “Perseverance produces character.”The word for “character” comes from the word that means “testing to see if something is real.”“These trials have come,” Peter wrote, “so that your faith…may be proved genuine.”Turning our troubles over to God and trusting that he is working all things together for our good keeps us from sinful whimpering, complaining, and giving up on God’s grace.“Character leads to hope,”the confidence that Godwill see us through everything to bring us safely to heaven. “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.”By sending his Holy Spirit to live in our hearts, God gives his personal guarantee that none of his promises will crumble under our feet or disappoint us in the end.

Jesus makes you sure

One thing about history is that it cannot be undone. We can’t go back and change a thing or stop things from happening. History is the permanent, unchanging story of God’s love for fallen man, and that’s exactly why you and I can be so certain of our justification, so sure of our peace with God, so confident in the solid hope it gives us. Jesus’ death on the cross is a done deal. It cannot be undone, changed, reversed, prevented. No matter how you feel about yourself or what you’ve done, no matter how badly you have messed up, you have peace with God through Jesus’ cross. You have total access to God. He will not dismiss you or abandon you. He won’t give up on you.

You can be certain because it’s all outside of you and completely in Christ. Before you were born

Jesus died for the ungodly
He died for us while we were still sinners
He died for us when we were (and would always be) powerless
He died for us when we were God’s enemies
God has reconciled us through the death of his Son – historical, unchanging
Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification long, long ago.

This is why Jesus told his disciples of all time, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.”Our Savior did not give usan uneasy peace like we find in the world, where one side beats the other and makesthem surrender. Godwent to war with his Son instead of us.And there was bloodshed. One soldier.One victim.One death.We surrendered nothing. We suffered nothing. We signed nothing. God’s Son surrendered his life as the terms of peace. There’s nothing left for which to go to war. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The best way to observe Memorial Day is to make the most of the precious freedoms for which so many gave their lives and continue to give their lives, and not take those freedoms for granted. The best way to celebrate our peace with God is to trust in him, grow in the knowledge of his Word, and live for him with gratitude and joy. Because Christ has set us free, and we are free indeed.