Romans 4:23 to 5:11 "The Benefits of Justification" For NSCCCS 2006-01-29
William Ng
Passage outline
4:23-25
Abraham as an example for faith in God
Our faith in Jesus counts as righteousness in God’s sight. Our gospel faith has 2 parts:
Because of our sins Jesus was crucified
In order to justify us Jesus was resurrected
5:1-11
5:1-2
We have peace/reconciliation with God through Jesus
free access to God’s grace and,
hope in God’s glory that leads to rejoicing
5:3-5
We (i.e. Romans) can even rejoice in our sufferings
Because suffering eventually leads us to hope and our hope relies on God’s love
And God’s love has been shown to us, by His Spirit. That is:
Christ’s death and resurrection for God’s enemies
5:6-10
This is how we see God’s love
Christ died for sinners
“If… then” argument [a fortiori]:
if by Christ’s death we are justified,
then how much more we will saved by Christ’s life.
That is God’s love
5:11
“More than that” we rejoice in God through what Jesus has done (above)
Therefore our reconciliation with God leads us to rejoicing
Talk Outline
We are right with God through faith in Jesus
[Grace, Our faith, “Since we have been justified by faith, therefore we have peace with God,” Romans 5:1]
We have peace with God
[Peace, Received, Enemies, sinners, Jesus’s death]
We have grace, glory and hope
Grace as a state
Glory in future, of God, also in us
Hope in suffering, based on God’s love
We know God’s love in Jesus’ death
Costly
What we were
How God was and who He is
Proof
We have salvation in the future
From God’s anger
New life with Jesus
Being a joyful christian in God
“We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” Romans 5:11b.
Rejoicing in God
Peace: no fear (respond to people who have no peace through Jesus)
Glory: the best (like good things)
Future Hope: courage in present (laughed at, different); joy (real, present)
Love: security (alone)
To have or not to have
If not…
If yes, “we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
Prayer
Talk: To Have or not to Have?
“We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1b
We are right with God through faith in Jesus (remember Abraham!)
I’m sure you remember how Chris showed you from Romans 4 that Abraham is our model of faith. Abraham trusted in God’s promise, and God credited Him with righteousness. Abraham was credited this freely, he didn’t work for it, he didn’t deserve it, but God credited to him because He was kind. But look at verse 23 and 24 of chapter 4: “but the words ‘[righteousness] was credited to him’ were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also”. It is saying that the same gracious God credits us with righteousness in the same way. When anyone, even the most hardened criminal, realises that Jesus was killed on the cross for his rebellion against God and he relies on this Jesus, then he is credited with a right standing with God. If you or me trust in Jesus’ death, and that He has risen from death having fully paid for our rebellion, we are credited with righteousness. This is called “justification by faith”.
[Example: wait there’s more]
I vaguely remember my first taste of chocolate when I was a kid in Hong Kong. It was probably a some birthday party and mum opened a pack of maltezers for me and other relos to have. Being small, I could only manage to hold one maltezer and barely get my teeth around what seemed like huge chocolate ball. I tasted it and thought in my childish thoughts, “Wow! This is the best chocolate I’ll ever taste!” That of course wasn’t true, when I got older, and was able to walk to the supermarket downstairs with my mum, I would be introduced into a world of other chocolates, there’d be dairy milk, ones with nuts, ones without, black ones, white ones, chocolate biscuits, thin ones, long ones, chocolate ice-cream, chocolate buns. And I would think, “This is it, this supermarket stores the best and most delicious chocolates!” But we then moved to Australia, and we would visit Gordon or St Ives Woollies (I was still little then), and my eyes would again be opened to greater horizons, another world of chocolates which I’d never heard of, Turkish delight, tim-tams, Ice-cream Mars-bars, Freddo frogs, mmm. But my experience of chocolate did not just stop there, even in these days, I am always surprised to find out more and more types, flavours, combinations and tastes of chocolates as I visit Japanese food stores, candy stores in Leura in the blue mountains, and dream of Reeses, Lindt, Belgian truffles. There was much more to chocolate than that first maltezer (which is still very yummy).
In the same way, there is even more to our Christian life once we have been justified by faith. Romans 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been justified, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Point 2.
We have peace with God because of Jesus
Peace is not a common way people describe their relationship with God.
Imagine that I ask Jonathan, “How are you going with God?”, and He answers “Will, God and I, we’re at peace, man. You know, there’s real peace between me and God.” You’ll probably say “Huh? What’s he on?”. But the Bible says in 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” In the Bible’s eyes, Righteousness goes hand-in-hand with Peace. You can’t have one without the other. It’s like Lamb and Mint Sauce, Ren & Stimpy, Merric & Russo and Meat Pie and Tomato Sauce. Since you’ve been justified by faith, therefore you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
[Example: making-up]
Remember in Romans 1, the picture the Bible paints of us and God. We were God haters, idol worshippers, inventors of evil, we said “Stuff you” to our Creator and Maker and chased after other things. And God, He is good, powerful and holy, He sees all the things we do, and they make Him sad, even worse, they start this huge blaze of anger in His just, clean and godly heart. God is furious at everyone of us human creatures as we have all rebelled against Him. We were enemies, and God was going into war against us in the judgement He has prepared.
But “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” What does it take for such hard enemies to become friends? It takes the Life of our Lord Jesus Christ. His death on our behalf, turns away the angry, punishing hand of God against us. God spends all His just anger at the Lord Jesus Christ as He sacrifices His life on the cross for us the enemies of God. So “Through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace with God.”
The rest of the passage then lists out all the benefits of what it’s like to be God’s friends, to have peace with God.
a. Firstly, we have grace, glory and hope.
When we enter into eternal friendship with God, the standing we have with Him is grace. The Bible uses the term “standing” because grace here is the relationship we have with God. God will only ever from now on lavish His love, energy and goodness onto us in this grace. And this grace “stands” because our relationship is secure. I cannot think of anything else that we possess in this lifetime to have the same security. My medical registration status becomes null if I break the medical board’s rules, my video store membership becomes null if I don’t visit the store enough, my credit card award program becomes null if I don’t spend its points. But my relationship with God is always one of grace because “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”.
And our gracious God gives us the hope of glory. Glory is brilliance that deserves admiration. God is glorious, when we get to meet God on His return, we will feel His glory, we will fall in love with His brilliant personality, admire His great power, praise His brilliant plans, love His beauty. Our God shares His glory with us1, so that we can hope for that day when we too are brilliant, when my appearance will be brilliant instead of a dying and ageing body, my character, thoughts and desires will be brilliant enough to be put on show to the whole world, instead of being sinful, shameful and dishonourable. He gives us this Hope because “we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” So we have peace with God, we have grace and the hope of glory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(This Hope allows us to rejoice even in suffering. Below)
b. What’s more, we know God’s love for us in Jesus’ death
[Example: Danielle]
It is not uncommon that my wife asks me this question, “do you love me?”. And I always answer “yes” without hesitation. This then sometimes leads her to another question, “do you really love me?” At that point I would list out various proofs of how I do love her.
This is the same question the Bible raises in 5:5b “God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit”. The Spirit carves out our hearts the proof of God’s love to us. God proves His love in HOW He made peace with us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Read 5:8 with me. “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Look at what we were when God makes peace with us. We were sinners. God took that first step when we were still sworn enemies. We were ungodly, different to God, haters of God, people who grieved Him and make Him angry. [Example? Iraqi war] We were powerless to do anything to make peace, verse 6 because the cost was the death of sinners, it was our very lives, we’re powerless because we simply can’t afford it. But Christ died for us in order to make peace between us and God. Then look at what cost this peace meant to God: it cost His only Son, it cost the King of the world, it cost Jesus His very life, His precious, godly and unique life to make peace between God and His enemies. That’s how “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. And so we have grace and hope of glory, and we know God’s love for us, because God’s Spirit proves it to us.
c. Even more than, we’re given a future salvation. “Hang on”, I hear you say, “a future salvation? What’s this heresy Will is preaching on? I always thought the bible said a person is saved (past tense) once they trust in Jesus!” Good question. Yes, there is the sense that God saves comletely anyone with trusts in Jesus because they cannot lose their relationship with God, their peace is eternal, they stand in grace, their hope of glory is definite. But look at verse 9. “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.” It is saying that we have been justified, we are right in God’s eyes, God is no longer angry because “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. But God’s judgement day will still come, and on that day, we will really be saved from God’s wrath. When God punishes sinners with eternal destruction, we will be really protected from that because of Jesus and what He has done. Our salvation is realised fully in the future.
We are encouraged to remember that if we have been justified by Christ, if as sinners we are reconciled by His death, then how much more of God’s blessing, His life and His kindness we will receive in the future. If that’s how God treated us when we were still His enemies, how do you think He will treat you when you’re His friend in eternity? [Example: PS1 & PS2 or wedding day] So we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have grace and the hope of glory, we know God’s love and we have a future salvation.
All this, leads us to rejoice in God. Point 3. “We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” Romans 5:11b.
Our lives actually appear different when we rejoice in this God, with whom we now have peace, or reconciliation, through the Lord Jesus Christ.
We who have peace, have no fear of death. I was taking a medical history from an anxious, Italian lady in emergency, who had a panic attack at 2am on Wednesday. I asked her, “What makes you so worried?” And she answered, “Oh, so many things, I worry about my husbands, relatives, I’m anxious for the relatives who’ve died. And you know, I also worry about death.” This lady is most honest. She really is stressed out about her future. Despite wearing a crucifix on her necklace, despite having been a Catholic for all her life, she fears death. How can you respond to people who fear death? Give them a Panadol? Buy them a nice toy? Take them on a holiday? We who have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, not only do we have the privilege of freedom from that fear, we can also answer people’s fear. We can give them a sure way in Jesus, that sets them at peace with God. If the good news of Jesus were given to our friends, then how many of them would sleep at night, lose a wrinkle or two and have real peace. And so we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
And what if we have the promise of glory given to us? A glorious new body that doesn’t age? A glorious position in God’s company or His kingdom? A glorious personality that is like Jesus’ own? I think we would be people who rejoice in what is best and excellent. I tell you, it is almost impossible for people who do not know God’s glory to like what is good. John’s gospel tells us that Jesus showed everyone God’s glory, but His people didn’t even recognise it, worse than that, they hated God’s glory. For us sitting in this room, do we really believe that being the top of our class, becoming the dux of our school, getting a perfect UAI in our state, getting the medal in our university course, earning the most money out of the children of our extended family, living in the biggest house in our suburb or on the topmost level of our apartments, do we believe that these things are real glory? I’m afraid we might have been tricked like a fool who has never seen gold in his life and who has only ever laid his eyes on gravel, that when he stumbles on a 50kg gold nugget, he thinks it’s a piece of trash and throws it down a river. But as Christians, we have peace with God, and have been given the promise of glory that far outweighs anything else we can have on this earth, a gold that outweighs all the gravel that we can ever collect. So seek for what’s best, a kinder personality, a helpful attitude to friends, a purer heart, a love of good. Aim for the best, aim for God’s glory. Because we have this promise of glory, we rejoice in God through the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation.
Remember also that God has given us his friends hope: a hope that does not disappoint because it’s built on the love He’s proven to us. What can this hope do for us? Well, we understand why we go through suffering in this life. The Bible is realistic. There is no simple way in making someone hope in God’s promises other than through the hard training of suffering. Verse 3 to 4 says our suffering leads to perseverance, which slowly develops our character, which in turn makes us hope more and more for God’s promises. When we are tested in our life, our hope in God and His promises are made stronger. It’s as simple as that. Hope gives us a different attitude to our friends in terms of suffering. We can find something to rejoice in even when the whole world seems to be falling apart. If our relationships don’t work out, we know God is teaching us to trust in Him and in His love, if we fail in some subject, we know that God is planning for us to be tough and trust in Him, if we don’t get into the course or career we want to, we know that God is telling us that He has a better future installed for us and that He will make us godly as a result of our testing. Hope here is related to the promise of Glory, God’s trying His very best, through our suffering, to make us Hope in what is best, what He’s saved for us in the future. God wants gold for us because we foolishly desire gravel. That’s WHY we rejoice in suffering in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation.
Lastly, we are secure in God’s love. Most people find it hard to be alone. Because being alone mean being lonely. Would any of us like to be Nigels or Nigellas? (I hope no one here is called that because this is not referring to you in particular) A Nigel at school? At church? At work? But the real difference between those who have God’s love and those who haven’t is security: they are secure even if they’re alone. God proved His love to us by making peace with us, and this frees us from insecurities like, “What would my friends, cousins and work friends think of me? Why should I go meet that new friend when all my friends are cliquey and having fun? Why should I be odd and not drink like all my uni-friends? Man, I need someone to hang around cos I don’t want to be a Nigel!” Instead, God’s love frees us to be different and godly in our school, uni and work place. We can say no to drunkenness and immorality because we don’t need to feel the pressure from friends. We can leave our cliquey groups to make friends with the other Nigels and Nigellas, We can be satisfied to be single and dateless and use our time to help others. That’s HOW we rejoice in God’s love through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation.
If you don’t have peace with God and if you are not yet God’s friend because you haven’t trusted in Jesus, please do it. Just do it. Rely on this Jesus who paid the price for peace, ask Him and you will have received peace with God, grace, hope of glory and know the love of God. If you have already received this peace, then rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation.
1 Romans 8:21
