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