Last week I had a delightful conversation with a dear pastor friend: together we were giving thought to Paul’s “concluding” words of Romans 5:1-11. From that passage, my friend had us give pause to the word “access”: “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom we have also had access by faith unto this grace in which we have stood”. He then enthused: “That’s like an ATM card. All we have to do is use it.”
Given who I am, my response was not exactly his, although I readily agreed with him; rather, I noted that the word translated “access,” προσαγωγή, consists of two words, πρός,[1] meaning “to” or “toward,” and ἀγωγή,[2] meaning “way of life” or “conduct.” “Access” is therefore an approach to or towards something or someone, which is characterized by a particular behavior, conduct, or in a broader sense, a way of living. In the context of Romans 5, this way of life is characterized by faith, as observed in the actions of Abraham: he believed that in their old age he and Sarah would bear a son (Romans 4:19), and they did. Abraham was justified by faith, believing the promise of God, even as we are justified by faith, believing in Jesus’ sacrificial death and glorious resurrection (Romans 4:24). For Paul, however, this justification was a cause for boasting and/or rejoicing.
Paul rejoiced/boasted in the justifying grace of God, but such grace was/is very much this worldly, so that he rejoiced in suffering, “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” (Romans 5:3b-5). From my perspective, I marvel, able only to reiterate Paul’s words: he was confident that hope, via suffering, endurance, and character led not to shame but to God’s love as sealed by His Spirit.
As I have thought about Paul’s confidence, and as I have thought about his life, I am sure that he knew this access, this way of living, whereby he regularly drew upon the gracious love of God whatever his circumstances: he had the card and used it.
In this season of Lent, we can do no better than to use the access.
Hopefully,
Stan
[1] A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000), pp. 873-875.
[2] Ibid., p. 17.