Romans 5:1-2
Preached 2/7/2021 (previous)
[audio]
INTRODUCTION
When I last preached from the book of Romans we finished the first major section of the book which consists of chapters 1 through 4. As we saw, Paul presented the gospel of salvation by grace through faith, purchased by the death of Jesus on the cross to make atonement for our sins. Remember that Paul spent the first two and a half chapters masterfully but simply explaining why the need for salvation is universal to the entire human race. He finally concluded that we are all sinners (or ungodly), we are all without excuse, and we all fall short of the glory of God.
But that only explains our need. Next Paul explained how God made a plan to justify us (the ungodly) without compromising his own sense of justice and holiness. This was (as Paul says) to demonstrate his own righteousness by satisfying his own wrath against our sins, which was done by offering a perfect sacrifice in our place. If we believe in Him and receive his free gift by faith, we are reckoned as having Jesus’ righteousness while our sins are reckoned to Him on the cross. Finally in chapter four Paul showed by the Old Testament examples of Abraham and David that all of the redeemed throughout history have been justified through faith.
As evangelical bible-believing individuals we pride ourselves on learning about the gospel – which is a GOOD thing. We learn the Romans road, or take an evangelism class, so that we can learn how to fulfill the Great Commission to preach it to every person and our heart’s desire is that many people – especially our family members and friends – get “saved”. We sing songs about our salvation and we hold up signs at sporting events with John 3:16 on them. We think about justification and rejoice in the fact that we are now going to heaven. And this is the right thing to do – we must be about the gospel.
BUT…
Many people tend to think that the entire gospel message is about one thing – getting saved. But justification is just the door, and faith is merely the key. The point of going into a house is not to just stand inside the door. Our homes have many rooms. We want to live in them. We can sleep in our beds. We can prepare and eat meals in the kitchen. We can enjoy entertainment of various forms. We can have conversations with loved ones and share what we have with others. We can take a hot shower or a warm bath. We can sit back and read a book. Getting into our home is not an end – it is the means to an end, which is living.
I remember vividly the day of my marriage. I saw the door at the far end of the room open, and Donella walked in with her white wedding dress and a huge smile on her face. That smile shone like the sun for me because I knew that it was actually because of me. That day will always be one of the best days in my life. But imagine that when the ceremony was over, I said “woooo!” and thanked everybody for coming and considered myself as having achieved my final goal in my relationship with her, kissed her goodbye and gone home to my parents’ house to continue my life. “Achievement unlocked: get married! That was great. Now on to another thing on my bucket list”. That would be stupid. The point of the marriage ceremony was to get married, but that was just the start. The real joy has been spending our lives together. We built a home, raised three wonderful sons, and we have (so far) spent 38 ½ years getting to know each other better. The wedding was just the door. Marriage is the house we entered together through that door.
In the same way, if our understanding of salvation is just about justification, we are really completely missing the boat, and it could even be argued that we might have missed the point of salvation and it might even be profitable to evaluate whether we are even saved. Well, in the book of Romans, Paul does not leave us at the door. Chapter five brings us through the door to the other side. Over the next four chapters he now addresses Christians about what it is that they now possess as a result of their justification. And it is wonderful. There is no reason to just sit inside the door. We should enter the house!
In the next two or three sermons that I preach (whenever that turns out to be) we will be looking at verses 1 through 5 in which Paul walks us through three big benefits of our salvation (what is inside the house). As we look at these verses, first note that there are many ways to outline these verses, all of which speak of the benefits of salvation. For instance, we could separate them by Time:
- Past: Peace with God
- Present: Growth in Grace and Godliness
- Future: The Glory of God
Or by the work of the Trinity: (which we will do in a later sermon)
- Reconciled to the Father according to his love
- Reconciled by the work of the Son through his blood
- Filled by the Holy Spirit given to us
Or we could plot our position:
- Brought near to God
- Standing firm and safe in his Grace
- Rejoicing in everything
- Vindicated in our faith
But there are two avenues that I will pursue in these sermons. First, I suggest that all who are taking notes to write down these three blessings: Peace, Hope and Love. This next week at home look through the passage again and meditate on how they fill out the “house” of salvation – where we live in Christ.
But I will separate the thoughts here into three main concepts:
- Our new POSITION
- Our new PERSPECTIVE
- The PERSON filling us with God’s love.
I was planning on covering all three points in one sermon but there is just too much to say, and after I reached the 40 minute mark after preparing the first part I decided to be merciful and break this into multiple messages. So today we will only be covering the first part which is our new position since we have been justified by faith.
I. A New Position in the Universe
So let’s look at the beginning of the first verse in this section:
Romans 5:1a Therefore, since we have been justified by faith…
The word “therefore” means that everything that follows is based on the previous section. How did the previous chapter end? Let’s remember the last four verses:
Romans 4:22-25 22 That is why his faith was "counted to him as righteousness." 23 But the words "it was counted to him" were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
And chapter five begins with “since”. The phrase “we have been justified by faith” indicates this is a past action that is now continuing and will go on forever. Paul assumes that this is true for the members of the church in Rome to whom he is writing. Everything that follows is written to believers - to you if Christ is the one in whom you trust. If you are part of that group, whatever follows is yours. Remember that as we proceed.
But I believe that this is not just written for those who have already made this decision. If you have heard people talk about the gospel and you have thought “okay, so that is how to get ‘saved’ – whatever – but heaven or hell seem very far-off concepts to me. I don’t see why the gospel is so important or how it really relates to me” then perhaps you have never heard the whole gospel. The death of Christ on the cross was not just an abstract eternal insurance policy. It is much more.
I remember my wife telling me of someone that she knew who told her that he had “accepted Jesus” years before but that he gave it up after a short while because he “didn’t get all that stuff you’re supposed to get”. He had evidently been told that a Christian could expect that his entire life would instantly change and that everything in this life be immediately fixed and happy. He did not get what he expected, so he chucked it and went back to his old ways.
This is a tragedy. Our gospel presentation should not just be about the how of salvation but also the why of salvation – in other words, “what is it for?”. Talking vaguely about how “God loves you” without demonstrating what this really means is doing a disservice to the gospel. God is not just saving us from hell. He is bringing us to Himself. We become family. We don’t escape trouble in this life any more than children of loving parents escape the care and discipline that comes with that love. But we stand absolutely secure in God’s loving care – forever – and nothing will ever separate us from that love – ever – as we will see at the end of this magnificent section in chapter 8 (as I preached in a preview a few months ago).
So let’s look at the wonderful opening of the section. It is an amazing testimonial to the glories of salvation – all of that stuff that happens after we say “I do” to Christ, and which lasts forever and ever and ever and can never be taken away from us. As we read these verses I was struck by Paul’s enthusiasm for this subject. He almost sounds like the old “sham-wow” guy on the old infomercial: “Wait! There’s More!”
We need to be just as excited as Paul was! Let’s go!
II. Peace with God (vs 1)
If we look at the chapter, we can see that the first part of chapter five is really eleven verses long. If you look at the text you will see the bookends:
Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.…
Romans 5:11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
The words ‘Peace’ and ‘reconciliation’ are different ways of describing the same thing. Everything within these verses is related to our reconciliation. The word “peace” in this passage should not be confused with feelings of tranquility and lack of problems. There are two kinds of peace described in scripture that are BOTH our birthright as Christians. One is up to us and is described beautifully in places like the fourth chapter of Philippians (also written by Paul). That kind of peace (which Paul also calls “the peace that surpasses all understanding”) is a gift that we must lay hold of. It involves right thinking and right attitudes based on the truths of scripture. Paul commands Christians in that chapter to pursue that kind of peace – to “rejoice always”. That is called in scripture “the peace of God”.
But here in Romans 5:1 a different kind of peace is being talked about. Paul says that (assuming we have come to Christ and have been justified by faith), we have peace with God. This is a totally different thing. Let’s compare these two kinds of peace:
The peace of God is a gift from God’s gracious hand, but actually receiving and experiencing it is a matter of spiritual growth, gratitude, faith, and prayer. Receiving and experiencing it is our responsibility. It can come and go. It is something that we can feel, and it colors our life with beauty and happiness when we experience it. A person can be going to heaven but go through periods where they don’t have it at all. (Though it is always within reach).
Peace with God, on the other hand, is something that happens only once in anyone’s lifetime. It happens in the past (for a Christian) and lasts for all eternity. It is the direct and first result of our justification. It is not a feeling at all (though we can rejoice in it, as Paul is about to point out in the next verse), but is instead a fact. If we are justified, we have peace with God regardless of how we feel about it. And it is not something that we can work for. It is not something we have the power to purchase. Jesus paid for it once and for all. And peace with God is a place in which we live and breathe.
There are only two places a person can be. And justification moves us from one place to the other. Where were we before we had “peace with God”? Look down at verse 10:
Romans 5:10a For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son…
Paul says something similar about our past in the second chapter of Ephesians:
Ephesians 2:1,3b 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ... 3 … and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Jesus was very bold when talking to Nicodemus in chapter 3 of the gospel of John. Right after the famous verse about God’s love and plan to save those who would believe in the famous and ever-popular John 3:16 that we all know, He gave context to the good news by adding:
John 3:18a “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already …”
That was our state. Remember that even the presentation of the gospel in Romans starts with the revelation of the “wrath of God” which was “revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men”. The starting point of the gospel is the realization that we are under God’s just condemnation for our sins and that without some sort of help outside of ourselves we only have “a terrifying expectation of judgment”. As Christians, we know well that just because we didn’t feel any overt hatred toward God that did not mean that we were not his enemies. And when God was our enemy we were in horrible danger. As the writer of the book Hebrews wrote: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” As Jesus pointed out to the people: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)
All of this is to underscore what a blessing Paul has described for us. Listen again to what he wrote: “having been justified by faith,” (Aorist tense - a single and complete action in the past) “we have peace with God” (present tense – what we now possess). In other words, through the work of the Lord Jesus we now are no longer enemies of God (and He is no longer our enemy either!) God is now only concerned with what is best for us. All that happens in our lives is part of his plan to bless us. Romans 8:28 is now our mantra – our assurance: “all things work together for good”. This is the assurance of those who have been justified by faith, and if we are justified by faith, then we have PEACE WITH GOD. The war is over.
Before, God was your prosecution and judge and sentencer. Now all of the resources of God’s love and grace are arrayed to protect and bless you.
III. Standing in Grace (vs 2a)
But Paul does not stop there. Having peace with God is a term that is negative in scope. It says we are no longer under God’s wrath. But we can’t stop with a negative! Salvation is not ultimately about what bad things we lose. It is about the blessings that we now possess, and will always possess. If we only think about being at peace with God, we are very poor Christians, probably poor evangelists, and definitely bad disciplers. Removing the enmity between us was still the door – but we now still need to enter the heavenly city. And that is where Paul takes us in verse 2:
Romans 5:2a Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand…
Have you ever slipped as a rock rolled under your foot and almost sprained your ankle, or fallen through rotten floorboards that you thought you could trust, or climbed around on slippery shingles near the edge of a roof while looking at the ground far below? Have you ever found yourself on a boat that was being tossed so wildly by the sea that you had to hold on to something or be drowned? Remember how you felt when you finally got on solid ground, stomping your feet and feeling the floor solid and immovable under you? Having no safe place to stand leaves us feeling insecure and in danger. That is why it is so reassuring to hear Paul describe grace as something that we stand in. Again, we are used to only thinking of grace as part of the formula of “getting saved”. But grace is so much more. It is not just the door into the house – it is the foundation and floor of the house also. Wherever we go for all eternity in Christ we are standing in grace. So it is important to realize how secure that is.
Our problem is that we like to think of ourselves as “self-sufficient”. That is why the gospel is so offensive to the human race – the idea that we cannot pull ourselves up to heaven by our own bootstraps and have God praise us for our overwhelming goodness (as we see ourselves) is a crushing blow to our pride. And as “born again evangelicals” we realize this inasmuch as it has to do with salvation. But again, if we only think of grace as that unmerited favor that gets us saved we are leaving out 99.9% of what grace is all about. As sinners without the ability to pay for our own sins we need a gift of grace from God to save us from his wrath. But on the other side grace is everything. As John Newton wrote in his famous hymn:
That describes our salvation. But the next verse is also crucial:
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.
Grace is the foundation of our eternal security and assurance. The same grace that gets us saved, keeps us saved. If grace just got us into salvation but then it was up to us to keep ourselves there, we would lose our salvation again in seconds. But the blood of Christ pays for all of our sins – past, present and future – and the love of God gives us assurance that He will not let go of us. We can be assured that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil 1:6) Our salvation was designed as the whole package – God justifies us by grace, He keeps us in Him by grace, He changes us into his own likeness by grace, He will glorify us and bring us into his glorious presence by grace, and bless us eternally by his grace. As Christians we don’t just enter salvation by grace. No, we STAND forever in the grace of God.
So we see where Paul is going in this new section of Romans. The previous four chapters were a treatise on getting saved. The next four are going to be a comforting volume about our assurance in our salvation.
Having been justified by faith, and having peace with God, we now stand in his grace forever and can say with King David: “I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.” (Psalm 40:1-3)
Conclusion:
We have just started our journey through this beautiful section of scripture, and there is a lot to talk about. I really had planned to go all the way through this celebration of Peace, Hope and Love. But each one of these requires its own sermon, I think, so the next time I am called to preach here we will look at how our new Position because of our Justification produces a new perspective, and how that new perspective leads to rejoicing and vindication.
(next)
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