What Does A Good Church Look Like 5a
What Does a Good Church Look Like • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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6 Aug 23
What Does A Good Church Look Like 5a
Turn to Romans 5. We’re asking the question, what does a good church look like. We’ll move onto something else when we get an answer. Finish this statement - patience is a _____ (virtue). When was the last time you heard anything about virtues? We don’t hear a lot about virtues anymore. Almost a forgotten ….
Well, what is a virtue anyway? Or how does something qualify as a virtue? Should we be concerned about virtues? What do virtues have to do with being a good church? I think it will become clear in a moment that virtues are an integral part of being a good church.
Beginning with 4:24, let’s read this and pay attention to all that God has done for us, then we’ll come back to this idea of virtues.
but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,
who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
In the margin of my Bible I wrote – God did it all! We’ve been justified, forgiven, loved, our guilt and moral failures removed, given access to God, reconciled, saved, no longer enemies and on it goes! And who did all that for us? Jesus! If we think in terms of investment, how much has God invested in loving and saving humanity? He put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this relationship – into this thing we call salvation.
Is God’s investment primarily about one day we get to go to Heaven? Is that the only purpose of the cross? Partly. See, the full biblical concept of salvation is never about a future place only. Biblically, salvation is something we experience here and now, it begins when we trust in Jesus Christ and continues into eternity.
So, there’s more to salvation than just Heaven, but what is it? What’s the experience now in this life? Look at vs 3-4 again.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
In other words, Paul is saying
Jesus secured forgiveness and eternal life for us, but until we get there, we’re on a journey of character development.
Salvation is not only about eternal life - it’s also about a virtuous life.
What do I mean by character development and virtuous life?
Character (Gk. dokimē) refers to a person who has been examined, tested, shaped by trial, or of proven quality.
Let that sink in. Yes, Jesus will accept us just as we are, but He has no desire to leave us how He found us. God is in the business of character development – molding and shaping so that we become people of character. What kind of character? That’s where virtues come in.
Virtue refers to moral excellence.
God wants to develop our character, so we become people of caliber – people of moral excellence - people of virtue.
So often in the church we talk about doing and producing and “resulting.” The church needs to do more of this and do more of that. A lot of do-do talk. There’s some truth to that, but we can’t neglect the call to a virtuous life.
The world constantly calls us to lower our standards – to compromise God’s Word and Truths. But God always calls us to raise our standards, to improve our character, to walk a virtuous life. Christianity is so much more than going to Heaven and trying to be a better person. It’s about becoming an excellent person. You know what this process of becoming an excellent or virtuous person is called? Sanctification.
Paul wrote,
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;
Peter wrote,
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives
as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.
So
Sanctification (becoming holy or separated unto God) is synonymous with virtuous character development.
If character development and sanctification are synonymous, then it’s God’s will that we live virtuous lives.
We’ll talk more about this next week – what are virtues and how are they developed etc. I think we made the case that God is concerned not only about our salvation, but our character. So, a couple of questions before Communion.
If my character (i.e. developing virtues) is a priority to God, how much of a priority should it be to me?
So, what does a good church look like?
A good church not only expects its people to live virtuous lives, but will help them get there.