We continue our series of the journey through the book of Romans. We will follow through the study with RightNowMedia with Pastor JD Greer. Each session we will watch his teaching and then do our own sharing and exploration together.
Main Idea: Because we have peace with God through Jesus’s sacrifice, we can rejoice in our suffering, knowing that God will use our afflictions to make us more like Jesus.
Head Change: To know that peace with God is not a subjective feeling, but an objective reality accomplished for us by Christ’s death and resurrection.
Heart Change: To feel hopeful that our suffering will make us more like Christ.
Life Change: To rejoice in our suffering because we know that God loves us and has made peace with us through his Son, Jesus Christ.
OPEN
What books or movies have you read/watched that included a character who endured some form of suffering? How did that character respond to their suffering?
Suffering in this life is a certainty. At some point, each of us will be forced to reckon with some measure of hardship. But we sometimes wonder if our suffering is a sign of God’s anger toward us. We might even worry that suffering will overtake us.
In this session, J.D. will address suffering head-on by using the apostle Paul’s words to help us think rightly about our afflictions.
READ – Romans 5:1–11
Show Session 7: Romans 5:1–11 (15 minutes)
DISCUSS
J.D. opened this session with an observation we made in session 2 regarding the word “therefore.” How did J.D. summarize Paul’s use of “therefore” in verse 1? What is Paul’s “therefore” pointing back to?
Paul begins chapter 5 by referencing the peace of God we enjoy as Christians. Why do we have peace with God now? Who secured our peace with God?
Sometimes we may misunderstand what Paul means when he refers to having peace with God, assuming it is a feeling or sensation of calm. But J.D. said having peace with God is not a subjective feeling; it’s an objective reality. To what extent do you struggle to feel at peace with God? Why is it good news that peace with God is something Christians have, whether we feel it or not?
What could it look like for you to trust that you have peace with God, despite how your circumstances are making you feel? What would be different for you if you fully believed you have peace with God?
Because we have peace with God, rejoicing should become a regular pattern of our behavior, both in good times and in “our afflictions.” Why are we able to rejoice in our afflictions? What characteristics does Paul say our afflictions produce in us?
When you’ve been faced with suffering and affliction, how did you respond? What are some of the characteristics that life’s afflictions have produced in you?
We can sometimes assume that suffering and affliction are punishments or proof of God’s anger toward us. How does your view of God change when you suffer? In what ways can Romans 5:3–4 reframe the way we view and receive afflictions in this life?
In verses 6–11, Paul makes a series of stunning statements. First, in verse 6, he says that Christ died for us—the ungodly—while we were “still helpless.” When Paul says we were helpless, what does he mean? Helpless to do what? What does it say about Jesus that he died for those who are helpless?
In verse 8, Paul takes his readers deeper into Jesus’s work on the cross, saying that he died for us while we were “still sinners” and, in doing so, proved his love for us. How does this passage combat the common thought that we must clean ourselves up before coming to Jesus? How does Jesus’s death “while we were still sinners” reveal God’s love for us?
We often let our ongoing sin serve as a barrier that prevents us from coming to Jesus. To what extent have you struggled to come to Jesus with your sin? How does this passage encourage you?
Paul concludes by saying that Jesus died for us not only when we were “still helpless,” and not only while we were “still sinners,” but also “while we were enemies” of God.
What was your life like when Jesus saved you? Did you ever think of yourself as an enemy of God? How different is your life now that you are no longer an enemy of God but a child of God?
Paul describes how otherworldly Jesus’s actions were to save helpless, sinful enemies. J.D. likened it to a person laying down their life for a terrorist. How do you think people would respond if a soldier gave up his or her life to save an enemy? In what ways does J.D.’s illustration deepen your understanding of what Jesus has done for us?
The reality that Jesus died for us while we were far from God brings us back to the idea that J.D. dealt with most in this session: through Christ, we now have peace with God. His love has brought us near to him. If Jesus died for us when we were at our worst, why do we still struggle to believe we have peace with God? Why are we so prone to still believe that suffering is a sign of God’s wrath toward us?
Jesus paid the ultimate cost to rescue us from God’s wrath. Even though we were helpless, sinful, enemies, he loved us. He has even redeemed our suffering, making a way for our pain to produce endurance, character, and unfailing hope. Our suffering should not change our view of God; our God should change our view of suffering. What afflictions are you facing now? How do these verses reshape the way you think about your suffering?
How can you use this passage to stir up your hope in God as you face difficulties?
LAST WORD
Suffering is not a delightful experience. Nevertheless, Paul calls his readers to not only endure suffering and affliction but to rejoice in them. Why?
Because we have been declared righteous, and because we have peace with God through Jesus Christ—the one who died for us while we were helpless sinners and enemies of God. And since we have peace with God, we can rejoice, knowing that our trials are not evidence of God’s anger toward us, but something God is using to produce good in us.
This week let’s choose to see our afflictions as an opportunity to rejoice in God and in the hope that he will use our suffering to make us more like Christ.