Romans 5:1-5 – “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.  More than that, 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.”

Before we jump into Romans 5, lets have a quick recap of where we are in Romans.  In Romans 1-the middle of chapter 3 Paul was basically saying one thing – everyone of us knows God, everyone of us has rejected God, and everyone of us should rightly be condemned as sinners.  This answers the questions about “what about the person in the middle of nowhere that never hears the gospel?”.  The answer is simple, they know God through creation and have rejected Him in their sin.  So no one is clean; no one can go before God with any kind of justifiable defense as to why they should not be judged by Him for their sin.  From the middle of Romans 3-Romans 4 Paul tells us that God put forth His Son, Jesus, God in flesh, to bear the bear our sin, die, be raised in life from death, and that everyone who believes this Provision and Promise of God is declared righteous through Jesus’s finished work.

Now we turn to Romans 5.  I love Romans 5.  The first part of Romans 5 talks about what God has done for us in Christ as individuals; and individuals perspective of salvation and redemption.  The second half of Romans 5 talks about God’s view of salvation and redemption. When we get there, the second half of Romans 5 is deep and challenging, and therefore, we’re probably going to spend a good bit of time here, but it will be well worth our efforts.

Let’s jump in.  Paul writes a building argument in these first 5 verses that as Christians we should be joyful in every circumstance.  That’s the end result of faith, joy in God, specifically the “hope of the glory of God” which we’ll break down what that means in a bit.  So what is the foundation for joy?  Paul tells us in verse one, it is peace with God.  Now in Nahum 1:3 we are told “The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.  His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.”  Now, I love God, but knowing God, I also know that His righteousness is perfect and mine is far from it (those who know me well will support this claim).  So if I read that passage in Nahum, that’s pretty scary, right!  You should be scared!  My first reaction would be fear.  There’s a healthy fear of the Lord, even for a believer, but that’s another message for another day.  Now remember that in Romans 1-3 we’ve already shown how everyone knows God and rejects him in their sin.  There’s   So how does someone who is a sinner have peace with God who is righteous and just – not forgiving sin?

We have peace with God because we have been justified (declared righteous) by faith (believing/trusting God) through our Lord Jesus Christ.  What I want to focus in on here is how in verse one, it says through our “Lord Jesus Christ”.  Now remember, that our goal is joy in the glory of God, with peace with God as the foundation.  So it’s important to get this foundational part right.  We want to know, what does it mean for Jesus to be called Lord?  What does it mean for Jesus to be called Christ?  The word Christ, Cristos in greek, means the Messiah, the promised/annointed one of God.  God had made promises about the coming Messiah, that our iniquity and sin would be place on Him, and that He would redeem a people to God.  God cannot lie, therefore, all the promises of God to us in the Messiah, have been fulfilled in Christ.  Second, Jesus is Lord.  The word Lord, Kurios in Greek, means that we belong to Jesus that he is our master and has control over us.  Now to those who bristle at the idea of being “owned” and calling Jesus “master”, before you jump ship here I want you to think about one thing; if God loves you enough to die in your place and His plan is for your infinite joy in knowing Him and walking in a right relationship with Him, why wouldn’t you jump at the opportunity to do EXACTLY what He commands of you?

Some people try to have a relationship with Jesus as the Christ (Messiah), but not as the Lord.  That is a tragedy.  That’s not Jesus.  We need to be reminded that whereas before we were slaves to sin, now we have a new master, Jesus.  If I’m trying to enjoy the glory of God built on a foundation of peace with Him, but I’ve got the whole foundation messed up, it makes sense that I’m not going to get very far, right?  So when we speak of being saved through faith in Jesus, implied there is that it is the right Jesus; the Jesus that is the promised one of God and the Jesus who is Lord of our life.

Ok, so we have the right Jesus and we are believing on Him, submitting ourselves to Him.  What now?  We are told that we have been declared righteous.  What happens if you struggle and fall into sin?  All your past, present, and future sins were put on Jesus, His victory and his righteousness are yours by faith.  God’s not going to drag you back into court.  There is no double jeopardy (for you legal people).  I don’t want to make you complacent in your fight against sin; being about the Kingdom of God and personal righteousness is part of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, but I want you to be able to look to Jesus and find in Him rest and peace.  That is what it means in verse two that through Him we have access to grace by which we stand.  Grace is not some mystical idea, Jesus paid it all for you in His blood on the cross.  His blood is your grace.  The blood of Christ covers all your sin.

Ok, so we’ve got our guilt problem covered and we have peace.  Where is the joy?  Our joy as believers is in the hope of the glory of God.  Ok, so that sounds great, but what does it mean?  Hope here doesn’t mean like hoping Santa is going to bring you a certain present, the word means eager expectation.  So it’s like knowing Santa (mom and dad) got you the toy you really wanted for Christmas, but you have to wait for it, but you know it’s coming.  That analogy is probably stained by some sinful materialism, so it’s not the best, but you get the idea.  You are hoping for what you know is coming.  Really excited.  REALLY excited.  Now what is the “glory of God”?  In a word, Jesus.  Psalm 16:11 says in the presence of God is a fullness of Joy, and at His right hand (Christ sat down at the right hand of God) are pleasures forevermore.  If God’s glory is his characteristics in their perfection, and in Hebrews 1:3 we are told of Jesus – “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature”, then the glory of God means we get Jesus.  Not for 3-4 years like the disciples, but for eternity, in perfect relationship with Him.  Infinite joy.  No suffering, no sin, but pleasure forevermore.

So we have peace by faith, and joy in hope of the glory of God.  What Paul says after that is that even those things that would seemingly rob us of joy, like suffering, God is going to use to actually increase it.  If one approaches suffering with a view of eternity in the hope of the glory of God, then even death is a means to rejoice.  Our bodies failing only remind us that we are closer to being with Christ.  A lost loved one reminds us that God is going to call us home too one day.  How can we sustain this joy, and trust that God is good even through suffering and loss?  Because God has given us Himself already through the Holy Spirit, indwelling us with the knowledge of His great love for us in Jesus.

My hope and prayer is for your continued joy in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Know you’re loved in Christ more than you can imagine, He is in control, and His plan, whatever your life looks like now, is for your joy in Him.  Rejoice in that, God is faithful.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

Romans 4:13-25  “For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.  For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.  That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead ( since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 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.”

Christians, it’s been a while since we were in Romans and so I’m looking forward to continuing our study of the gospel from Romans today.  Before we jump into Romans, I’ve got a quick exhortation (this one’s a free bonus).  Have you ever stopped to think about how important “today” is?  Living as a Christian isn’t so much about yesterday or even tomorrow, as it is “today”.  God has something to say about our past and He has given us promises for our future, but nothing is as important as what He has to say to you, today.  We see this all over scripture.  We are exhorted specifically in Hebrews 4:7 – “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”  Today and every day, we are to strive to enter into the rest, the shalom, that is afforded us through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In this way, the gospel is not the beginning of faith, it is not a part of faith, it is central to everything.  It is the water that gives us life as a new creation in Christ.  This is why we are working through Romans, the fullest explanation of the gospel of Jesus ever written.

In much of Romans 4, we’ve been looking at Abraham, who is put forth by Paul as the achetype of our faith.  Abraham, though not knowing the name “Jesus”, believed God, trusted God’s promises, and it was counted to Him as righteousness.  So for us, we too are saved by believing God; specifically God’s promise of salvation through Jesus Christ.  Some well meaning Christians sometimes say to “preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words”.  It’s necessary to use words, all the time.  It’s necessary for anyone to believe and it’s nourishment for your own soul as a believer.

There is no salvation apart from believing the specific promises of God through Jesus Christ.  We are told in Romans 10:14-17 – “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”  

So, as Abraham believed God would provide him with offspring and make him the father of many nations.  Abraham was fully convinced that God was able to do what He promised.  it was Abraham’s believing God that was counted to him as righteousness.

So what has God told each of us?  What has God given us to believe?

Just as for Abraham to have a son at his age was not only improbable, but impossible, yet he believed God, so too is our reconciliation to God impossible for us to accomplish.  We could never work our way to God, the only thing the commands of God show is how sinful we truly are.  But just as our reconciliation to God is impossible for us, all things are possible for God, and He has made a way for us to be reconciled to Him through the blood, death, and resurrection of Jesus, a great gospel for those who hope against hope to believe.  We believe the promises of God through Jesus Christ or we perish in our sin.  No one wants to go to hell though, and so we are surrounded by a great many false professions of faith.  Believing is much more than mere agreeing, though.  Look what is written in Romans 10 above.  Not all have “obeyed” the gospel, and then the saying “who has believed”.  They are not separate.  True belief has as its consequence obedience in line with that belief.  If you believe speeding at 150mph in your car will likely lead to your death, you will be obedient to not go that fast if you value your life.  If you have been united with Christ, you cannot go on sinning against a God you love, because you value Jesus and your salvation through Him.

The root lie of all sin is that you would be happier pursuing joy in the world as a God of your own making, rather than serving and worshiping your Creator, the God who loves you enough to die in your place.  This lie has been shattered by the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It’s still out there, tempting you, but whereas you were formerly dead in your trespasses, blind to this lie, you now are free by the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in Jesus Christ.  You know God, you know He is good, seeing the love with which He has loved you in Jesus, and so you trust Him when he says that obedience to Him will not take away from your life, but give you life in its fullest measure.

This gospel and believing has as its result an obedience to God.  Who can say to God, I believe you for this part, but not for the other?  Who can say to God, I believe you for salvation, but not for obedience in this one area of my life?   Who can say to God, I believe that in your presence is a fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11), but I’m going to pursue a greater joy in the world apart from you?  You cannot say to yourself, I believe God, yet not believe Him, right?  Yet this is how many people try to dance around their sin and disobedience.    This is the good news of the gospel, that you should know the Truth, and the Truth should set you free.  God is not out to rob you of joy, but to give it to you in full.

My exhortation for each of us, today, is to believe God.  Get around others who believe God and will encourage your faith from the Word.  If you have been set free by the gospel, you do not have to continue in sin.  Yesterday has no bearing on your today.  Believe God today, and stop mistaking the shadow for the substance.  Even now, for those who believe, the Truth, Jesus Christ, is with you, in you as the Holy Spirit.  Know the Word of Christ, and believe Him.  Hope in Christ will never disappoint.  Even if the world should crumble around us, it is only a reminder that this isn’t our home, that we have a place prepared for us for eternity by Him who loved us enough to die in our place, and that He has secured for us in Himself a greater posession than the whole world could ever offer.

Grace and Peace,

Adam