By: The Rev. Ron McKeon
Every time I read this passage in Romans 5 the words, “…While we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” always take my breath away. I serve the Lord Jesus Christ alongside my wife of 42 years in a country, on a continent, thousands of miles and, depending on airline connections, almost a full day’s travel from our five children and seven grandchildren in the United States. We serve in João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil.
Brazil like so many countries today is a country of many diverse people groups, an economy that depending on the region can be robust, while still holding large pockets of abject poverty that makes the foreign observer gasp at the disparity between the haves and the have nots, where all too often children are sold for sexual favors to put food on the family table. This disparity is often evident within the same neighborhoods or sections of the some of the largest cities in Brazil.
The apostle Paul in this scripture, Romans 5:1-11, talks about the Peace and Hope that we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. My congregation is a testimony to the economic disparity in Brazil. And the mere self-sacrificing presence of my wife and myself in the midst of these people is a testimony to God’s unconditional love and the Peace of Christ and the Hope we have in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Our daily challenge, and I suspect yours as well, is to hold in tension, by the life we live, the two-sided reality of the Christian life that Paul describes in verses 1-5. We are complete in Christ and at the same time we are growing and becoming more like Christ. We feel both the presence of Christ and the pressure of sin. Can I be content in my circumstances and with what I have or lack? We enjoy the peace that comes from being made right with God through the blood of Jesus, but we still face daily problems that hopefully help us to grow.