Trinity Sunday

The Wide Open Spaces of God’s Grace
Romans 5:1-5
Have you ever felt like the world was closing in on you? Have you ever felt like there was too much pressure on you, and you wanted to run and hide? That can happen sometimes. We feel like we are trapped and have few, if any, options.

That was the way many of the people in the church in Rome felt when the Apostle Paul was writing this letter to them. They had to make sacrifices because of their faith. They were discouraged and felt like their problems were overwhelming. So Paul writes to them about the freedom and hope that come with God’s grace. He wrote to encourage the people in the church in Rome. His words can also encourage us.

One of the main themes of the whole Bible is that God is the one who acts first. Paul writes that God has thrown open the doors to us. God put His love on the line and offered His Son for us when there was nothing that we could do for God. Even before God sent Jesus to the world, God was acting and calling people to turn to Him. God chose people like Abraham, Moses, and David to try to get people’s attention. From the very beginning of time, and throughout all of human history, God has been the one who acted first.

Whatever we do is a reaction of faith or unfaith to the acts of God. Just as God has thrown open the doors to us and calls us to turn to Him, so our best response is to open the door to our lives so that God can be in us. Whenever God calls us, our best response is to say, “Here I am, Lord.” We always have an option, a choice: to ignore God’s actions, or to embrace them.

When we respond in faith to God, then we can have peace with God. There is a sense in which each of us has some unfinished business with God. From the beginning of our lives, we have an ebb and flow of faith. We might think of it as a tug of war with God. There are times that we are faithful and we draw near to God. There are other times that we an unfaithful and turn away from God. We like the benefits that God can give us, but we also like to do things our way. Faith means realizing that we are not in control of our own lives. Faith means opening ourselves to the possibilities that God has for us – some that we would choose for ourselves, and others that we would not. Unless we respond in faith to God, then we cannot experience all the good things that God has for us.

When we respond in faith to God, it gives us a new perspective on our situations. Faith can help us to see things from a different perspective. It can help us to see the wide open spaces of God’s grace. Paul wrote these words to the people in the church in Rome: “We gladly suffer, because we know that suffering produces patience, patience produces character, and character produces hope that does not disappoint us.” In other words, God calls us to see our problems through eyes of faith, so that our problems become opportunities for us to grow in character and faith. Faith allows us to focus on how we can grow through our problems, rather than just seeing our problems as situations that only cause us pain. Problems can have a positive effect upon us. They can lead to patience, character, and hope.

The good news in all of this is that God is always with us and keeps on giving. God’s Spirit is always near to give us more than we need. God’s well never runs dry and God never gives up on us. There is always more than enough of God’s grace. As we turn our hearts toward God, we can see and experience the wide open spaces of God’s grace.