God's Redemptive Design of United Praise-Romans 15:7-13

There has been a great deal of turmoil that's gone on in our country this past week, from the senseless stabbing of Iryna Zarutska to the assassination of Charlie Kirk; from another school shooting to the 24th anniversary of 9/11. Yet, living in a multifractured world where there is injustice and violence is nothing new. When Paul wrote to the 1st Century Christian church at Rome it was an extremely divided place, where there was nationalistic division, racial division, ethnic division, and religious division. And it was against that backdrop that he called the saints of God to rather than judge and treat different Christians with contempt, "accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God" (Rom 15:7). His Lord and Savior had also affirmed that in this world you will have tribulation, but in Me you will have peace (Jn 16:33). And if ever we need peace, it is this day and this time in church history! Enough of the fighting and dividing! NT scholar, William Barclay, wrote in his Romans commentary about how people naturally want peace but lose it due to inner tensions or disturbing circumstances. "The ancient philosophers sought for what they called 'ataraxia,' the untroubled life. They wanted above all serenity, that serenity which is proof alike against the shattering blows and the petty pinpricks of human existence. One would almost say that today serenity is a lost possession. There are 2 things which make serenity impossible. (a) There is the 'inner tension.' Men live a distracted life, for the word 'distract' literally means 'to pull apart.' So long as a man is a walking civil war, so long as he himself is a battleground, so long as he is a split personality, there can obviously be no such thing as serenity. There is only one way out of this, and that is for self to abdicate to Christ. When Christ controls the tension is gone. (b) There is 'worry about external things.' There are many who are haunted by the chances and the changes of life. H.G. Wells tells how in New York harbor he was once on a liner. It was foggy, and suddenly out of the fog there loomed another liner, and the two ships slid past each other with only yards to spare. He was suddenly face to face with what he called the general large dangerousness of life. It is hard not to worry, for man is characteristically a creature who looks forward to guess and fear. The only end to that worry is the utter conviction that, whatever happens, God's hand will never cause His child a needless tear. Things will happen that we cannot understand, but if we are sure enough of love, we can accept with serenity even those things which wound the heart and baffle the mind." So what, my friend, is Barclay driving at? Speaking theologically, he's talking about faith in the sovereignty of God--that God is in control and that He never lets anything come into the lives of one of His children that He has not ordained for that person for his/her ultimate good. A person who really trusts in God's sovereignty will have a peace that others cannot even comprehend. Join us this coming Lord's Day as the Apostle Paul, through Romans, fills us with hope, joy, and peace through the power of the Holy Spirit. He finishes the subject of the law of liberty and love with this final installment of "God's Redemptive Design of United Praise" (Romans 15:7-13).