ROMANS 5: HOPE WON’T DISAPPOINT!
I’m not sure what you thought of Romans Chapter 5 when you read it, but I saw the chapter divided in five ways: between v1-2; v3-5; v6-8; v9-11 and v12-27. So if I could pick out one Breadcrumb today, I think v1-2 stands out for me. This is what I’m calling the Divine Portal into the last and greatest dimension – the place we’ve wondered could exist, but since it’s seemingly impossible to get there, we’ve chosen to write it off as fairy tale…until now…
Scientists at CERN are hard at work as we speak. With the world largest machine, they’re trying to make a man-made portal (gateway) into a dimension believed to contain “the God particle” – the source, the power, the structure behind everything we see. But as far back as the Book of Genesis in the Creator God’s Handbook for LIFE, we’re told that the way back to the source of the created order is sealed off:
“After He drove the man out, He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” [Genesis 3:24]
With that said though – and because of His unquantifiable love for those He made on His own image – the very next book: the Book of Exodus, tells how Father God has given us a Guide.[a] Not only is He designated specifically to show us The Way to the place prepared in advance for us to go, the One assigned to “guard us along the way” holds the Creator God’s own Name within Himself… He’s the portal.[b]
A further 1500+ years further on in the world’s longest running drama, Paul in today’s chapter uses his Jewish academia to explain how this portal is now identified. Through the One who has God’s very Name embedded inside Himself, I now have gained access by faith into this grace in which I now stand.[c] I too can now “boast in this HOPE”, to the Glory of God. [v2]
Most Believers will hope in the Day when God’s Glory is finally revealed – or becomes visible – 
and everything is put to rights. We can sing lovely songs, read about the promises that are still outstanding, and have great “hope”. But this chapter goes beyond that. Mature Believers will also take HOPE even in what they might suffer while they wait for the global redemption that is predicted in our Creator’s Epic Storyline. Now, this may sound all well and good, but who ever heard of anyone rejoicing in their suffering?
If I want to be more than a “fair weather believer”, I need at some point to learn what it is to trust my Father God in confusion and hard times while rejoicing through my suffering because “…Zitzfleisch (enduring tribulation/trials) produces tested character and midos (good traits), and tested character and midos produce tikvah (hope). And tikvah/HOPE does not in the end lead to our being meyayesh (despairing) in disillusionment and bushah (put to shame) because the Ahavas Hashem (God’s love) has been poured out in our levavot (heart) through the Ruach Hakodesh (The Holy Spirit) given to us…” [v4-5]
In real life though, what’s that mean?
When a private tornado ripped through every part of his life, Job – in the first chapter of the Book of Job – 
shaved his head and tore his robes, yet he still managed to worship.[d] We also experienced a similar thing when our lovely son met his Maker in 2009. It seems odd to say it, but in our greatest darkness we encountered another uncanny “portal” inside which we experienced a paradox of grief and praise. I wrote about this in my second book Mysterious? …Expect the Unexpected… In that quiet place at the storms core, we looked up and (even now, in our second decade) we can still say that HOPE has not disappointed us. [v5]
But as another academic year begins in Europe and CERN gears up for even greater experiments, on-looking scientists worry about opening a dimension that we can’t control. What could happen if a dark matter portal is opened and what could come out of it if their experiments succeed? So the rest of today’s chapter is the technical side of how we can withstand coming face-to-face with “the God particle” – the Lord God Almighty Himself – without a sci-fi result: our flesh, eyes, and tongues rotting where we stand.[e]
“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 person, though for a good person 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.” [v6-8]
The way this portal has been opened, provides access home to the One who made us in His own image to LIVE, just like He does. Accurately translated: by Faith and through Faith in Him we have “obtained our introduction” 
to Father God. So having been justified by His sacrifice for us, how much more shall we be saved from our Maker’s wrath through Him! [v9] Having been reconciled to our Father God through the death of His Son, how much more after having been reconciled, shall we now be saved through His risen LIFE! [v10] This is the HOPE that won’t disappoint! But how can I be so sure that the procedure worked and the results are accurate?
A friend in recent months has been keeping me informed of the plight of her new son-in-law. Just days after their wedding, this young groom fell ill. Within weeks it was discovered that to live, he needed a new heart. However, to obtain a new heart, someone somewhere has to die so that he can live. There is no way around it. Either he dies or someone else dies.
In today’s chapter, a 1st Century Hebrew academic is trying to explain the Creator God’s solution 
to an incurable global epidemic called “sin”. Infected from the beginning and now seriously getting worst with our current population boom, the “body of humanity” is infected in such a way that it requires someone to die so that we can live. It’s as if we now need stem cell therapy: one cell injected into the core with the antivenom. Or put another way, by a “divine exchange” it is as if the body of humanity has been offered a complete flush out of all impurities with a full blood transfusion using the blood of Christ: that one perfect sacrifice.
So it stands to reason that, if the many died by the trespass of the one man, Adam (the de-structive virus introduced into the ecosystem in The Beginning), how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ (that con-structive uncorrupted stem cell or antivenom), overflow to the many! [v15] If, by the trespass of the one man, death and corruption has and is reigning undeniably throughout human experience, how much more will those who receive the Creator’s abundant provision of grace and of the “gift of righteousness”, reign now in LIFE through the one man, Jesus Christ! [v17]
As technical as this seems on your September morning in a busy 21st Century life, this Global MasterPlan isn’t just brilliant, it’s perfect! No-one anywhere on earth in any religion has ever come up with the idea of a “divine exchange” EXCEPT in the Creator God’s Global MasterPlan laid out for us 2,800 years ago[f]. Amen to the God who opened The Way back to Himself long before we ever believed we needed it!
CLICK to return to today’s “Daily Breadcrumbs”
[a] Exodus 23:20-21
[b] John 14:2-3
[c] Zechariah 3:7 (Context: full chapter)
[d] Job 1:20-21
[e] Zechariah 14:12
[f] Isaiah c53 (whole chapter but specifically v6&11)