Romans

Romans 5:1-5

The language used for 'justified by faith' implies it is a onetime legal declaration with ongoing results.  Justification itself is not an ongoing process.  You can't be saved over and over again.  It happens once and lasts forever.  Once that happens, there is an ongoing process that is called sanctification.  God doesn't require us to clean our lives up prior to justification.  This cleansing and remodel begin immediately after though.  God gives us a new heart with new values.  He begins to apply this new worldview to our life.  Sometimes God cleans some things out of the life of a new convert right away, but mostly it is a slow process of growth.  At any time, we ought to be able to look back and see the change God has brought.

There are a couple things to consider here.  If you don't see sanctification, it probably means there was no justification.  If someone isn't growing in the Lord, it may indicate they aren't saved, regardless of what they think, feel or have been told.  Justification is solely a work of the Lord, but there is a right response to this amazing thing God offers to us.  Paul will deal with this later.  To receive an amazing eternal gift that cannot be purchased; to be granted life where death reigned; to be delivered from enmity with God to peace with God, can only be responded to with thankfulness and praise, forever.

There are many folks who memorized the 23^rd Psalm, the Ten Commandments or some other list of religious effects, or they made a statement of faith and signed a card and then were subsequently baptized and declared bound for heaven.  Many have been fooled into believing they were saved by performing some work designed by men.  No human, priest, pastor or anyone else can declare you justified.  You cannot declare yourself justified by reciting some prayer.  You can only trust in Jesus and repent of your sins and ask Him to save you and He promised us that he would.

 

***

The result of justification is:

• We have peace
• We have access
• We rejoice in hope
• We glory in tribulation

 

Peace (eirene) used 92 times in NT.

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, ²⁰ and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (Colossians 1:19-20)

We know that once justification is declared, Paul says, "We have peace with God."  We were once under a horrible wrath from our sin.  Having been justified by Jesus, the wrath has been satisfied.  It was poored out on Christ on you behalf.  You can have peace because of work Jesus did. 

The peace Paul is talking about is not a serenity and relaxed atmosphere that comes from being saved.  It's not as if all your problems suddenly go away.  It's not peace from God, it's peace with God.  The plain definition of the word is 'well-being, prosperity, safety from harm and deliverance from enemies.'  It is in part a 'laying down of arms' against God; but it's so much more than that.  It's the change of heart that comes from agreeing with God that you are a sinner.  It's changing sides, from the sin fallen kingdom of Satan to the everlasting Kingdom of God.  In this context is it 'harmony with God'.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, (Isaiah 54:5)

¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation (Ephesians 2:14)

⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

Mankind searches for peace in many ways.  We hear of peace constantly in politics.  True peace comes through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Ralph Sockman told the story of a New York lawyer who, when he first came to the city, would take his young son on long walks. In order to keep up, the small fellow would hold his father's little finger. By and by the lad would grow weary, and his steps would lag. At last he looked into the benign face of his father and asked, "You'll have to take hold of my hand now, Daddy, for I can't hold on much longer."

Is this not a picture of ourselves? We have been holding onto the little fingers of security so long that we are losing our grip on things that matter. Now we must ask God to take our hand and lead us. "Thou dost keep him in perfect peace,/whose mind is stayed on thee" (Isa. 26:3).^[1]

It's one of the great historical ironies that the pax Romana came from the reign of Augustus.  Every Roman knew of this Pax Romana, the idea of 'the peace of Rome'.  It was a ceasing from military expansion but also promoting the idea of prosperity and contentment among the people after difficult times and civil war in Rome.  The irony is that Augustus, the author of Pax Romana, is the one who called for a census that sent David and Mary to Bethlehem where one would be born that would bring true, real and everlasting peace. 

 

Access (prosegoge) 3 uses

It is through Jesus we also have access, acquired by faith, to His grace.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; (Ephesians 2:8)

It is by this grace we are saved, but it does not end there.  After justification, we still have access to the grace that saved us.  In fact, Paul said it is this grace in which we stand.  By grace we were saved, by grace stand in the present.  This is access to God's grace.  What a precious gift.  Jesus said:

⁹ I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. (John 10:9)

Jesus presents this as the picture of the sheep with free access to the sheepfold that the shepherd oversees.  The sheep can go in and out freely to the pasture.  This access joins quite nicely with the peace previously discussed.  It is a restored and right relationship between the sheep and shepherd. It is healthy and not just a neutral or bland existence, but abundant and free of all the encumbrances of sin.  This leads to rejoicing.

For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. (Ephesians 2:18)

We might picture this as approaching our Heavenly Father in His exaltation and glory and being introduced by Jesus as those who belong to Him and thereby also belong to the Father. 

To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, ⁹ and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; ¹⁰ to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, ¹¹ according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, ¹² in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him (Ephesians 3:8-12)

At the core of the temple was the holiest place.  This was the holiest place on earth, pictured as God's footstool.  A thick veil sealed off the holy of Holies from the holy place where the priests ministered.  It was only on the day of Atonement this high priest went through the veil.  When he did, there was much preparation and the sprinkling of blood when he entered.  When Christ died, the veil of the temple was torn.  It was the picture of the access available by the death of Christ. 

The grace that made salvation and sanctification available to us will also usher us into the Lord's presence when we leave this world.  It is only by grace we might enter in and have fellowship with Him.  Its as though grace unlocks the door, it is the way, the one and only.  It is just beyond the horizon, near but unseen; real, but can't be touched.  Soon, but we don't know when, we will go through that door that grace opened and our hope will no longer be hope, but our eternal destiny.

¹⁶ Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  (Hebrews 4:16)

Suddenly we have an opportunity we've not had before.  Even folks who've been saved for years don't always come boldly to that throne of grace.  We have access to the king of kings.  Do we timidly lay back and not take advantage of that access?

We can live lives of victory because of the sure hope that we have.  Yet, sadly, many still live defeated lives with one foot still in the grave.  They say they are Christians and that they are born again from the grip of sin and death, yet they are still wearing their grave clothes.  They refuse to let go of the last remnants of death.  That's our own sinful nature telling us we don't deserve life and we have no right to that bold approach to God.  The truth is we don't deserve life and we have no right, but it's been granted to us by Grace.  That's the grace that comes from the Lord.

 

Hope (elpis) – used 54 times in NT

For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. (Romans 8:24)

When we say we 'hope' for something there is still some doubt, like it may not necessarily happen.  "I hope someone gives me a lot of money some day!!"  or "I hope it doesn't rain this week." And so on.  That's not the kind of hope this is.  The word 'hope' used here means it will happen with all certainty.  There is not a shred of doubt, even though we can't see it.  The hope of His glory is a sure and absolute thing.   Hebrews tells us that every house is built by someone.  God is the builder of all things. 

⁶ but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. (Hebrews 3:6)

Having been justified, now at peace with God and having access to grace, we are brought to rejoicing in the hope we have.  What is this hope?  Those who are of the faith like Abraham won't boast of their works or keeping of the law.  To believe the promises of God is to trust He is able to save you regardless of your wicked heart, human frailty and sinful nature.  Though we are weak and incapable of nothing, we have a boast, that is to boast.  This is to boast in God's power to provide and fulfill all His promises.  It is by Christ we rejoice.  And we are portrayed as the house of God. 

This 'hope' is expectation, something longed for?  When we think of something longed for we tend to think in the short term, after all we don't like waiting.  I long for my house to get finished.  Maybe you long for some day when things will change for you.  Maybe you long for a return of good health or to be through a particularly challenging season in life.  These longings are fine, but they are fulfilling only briefly if they are fulfilled in the greatest way we imagine.  However, deep in each of us is an eternal longing.  It's hope for a day when there are no more tears and no more suffering.  When there are no more children with cancer and no more babies aborted.  There is a day coming when all this and more will be fulfilled. 

 

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,

Nor have entered into the heart of man

The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)

CS Lewis wrote a lot about this longing.  He associated with a german word 'sehnsucht' which means longing or desire. He said it was:

That unnameable something

Desire for which pierces us like a rapier at the smell of a bonfire

The sound of wild ducks flying overhead

The title of The Well at the World's End

The opening lines of Kubla Khan

The morning cobwebs in late summer

or the noise of falling waves.

Lewis defined Sehnsucht as "a feeling of nostalgia that faces towards the future."  In Mere Christianity, Lewis used the concept of Sehnsucht to argue Christianity:

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

Our desire for love, safety, security, belonging are never truly satisfied here in this life.  The fulfillment is short of the longing, leaving us desiring something lasting.  It reminds us of the deep longing, the hope we have.

For me 'sehnsucht' is seeing the birth of my first grandson. 

• It's the rustle of corn leaves on a hot July morning. 
• It's a long straight flat road with heat radiating from it in the sun.

These become a glimpse of heaven or a nugget of hope to energize you and refresh in a dark valley.  Hope does not disappoint.  These simple things, we can barely describe are precious gifts from God in which to glory in until the day of the fullness of our hope is received. 

Finally, this word 'hope' does not show up anywhere in the four gospels.  As the gospels speak of Christ, its as though hope was present and there was no need for that word.  It shows up first in Acts 2:26.  Peter was preaching the sermon of his life at Pentecost to explain the coming of the Holy Spirit and to answer the question, "Whatever could this mean."  He is quoting David in Psalm 16 where he expresses his confidence in Yahweh that there was a yet unfulfilled promise of deliverance from death.

²⁶          Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad;

Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope.  (Acts 2:26)

Peter used this verse to point toward Christ's resurrection.  This Greek word for hope is then used in nearly every book after that first use, except Philemon, James and Revelation.  The last use in the New Testament gives us a beautiful vision of our hope.

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. ³ And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.  (1 John 3:3)

 

Tribulation (thlipsis)

The word used for tribulation here is a word meaning 'pressure' or maybe oppression, pressing down, affliction and distress.  It is also translated to affliction, trouble, anguish, persecution, burdened and distress.  As it pertains to people, humans and specifically believers, tribulation looks like it hurts.

There is a story of a group of believers who were about to be killed for their beliefs.  They included women and children.  One man knew he would be first to be burned at the stake.  Fear and panic was creeping in and overwhelming faith.  The man encouraged them by telling them if it doesn't hurt, I'll raise my hand.  As the fire raged around him, the ropes were burned away, he raised his hands in praise and encouragement.  The others began to praise and worship Jesus.  Faith was strengthened hope was once again in view.

It is from the crushing that new wine comes forth.  It is from the pressing that oil comes forth from the olive.  Paul said we find glory in tribulation.  This process of being crushed or pressed, afflicted and troubled bring distress and anguish. 

 

Perseverance (Hypomeonen)

All this is tribulation that Paul tells us will produce perseverance.  It seems that we simply learn to deal with difficult and threatening times from a new perspective. Our hope isn't found in the preservation of our flesh or maintaining our control over a situation.  Tribulation brings opportunity to trust God at a new level.  I think it was Chuck Misler who said:

"Every day, in a myriad of ways, God is asking you if you trust Him in this also" 

Perseverance is sometimes translated as patience.  We would add the idea of patient endurance. 

It's not just surviving a situation (because there is no promise of survival).

It's not just enduring and getting through some dark time.

It's not just holding our own more hour or day.

Although any of these things might well be part of our experiences.  Paul is talking about glory in tribulation.  This is a boast just as hope is.  As we look to the horizon and know hope is just out of sight. We can look along our way and know there will be tribulation, just as Jesus suffered tribulation.  We are to persevere filled with the Spirit of Jesus and endure as Jesus would endure.   It's holding on to our peace, access and hope while being crushed.

This tribulation seems to have a purifying effect.  On an individual level, we discover what is important in our lives when we suffer.  Our vision toward spiritual things is enhances, the deception of this world, the pull of the flesh is pressed away.

When I think of this, I see faces that have witnessed to me.

• Linda – who smiled and laughed and told stories of her childhood.  She loved Jesus as much then as ever.  She was sicker than we thought, passing just a few days later.
• Loren – my friend from whom I learned so much.  Died of bone cancer at 46 years old.  He had a joy, born of his faith in Christ that never wavered as he suffered.
• Bob – affectionately known as Bob the mower man.  Bobby had over 100 surgeries.  He outlived the expectations of all the doctors.  He was on full dialysis at a young age.  Bobby loved to laugh, loved music and loved Jesus.  He had been through so much.  I saw his body begin to fail.  He seemed to know it was near and He wanted to be with Jesus.

We tend to distance ourselves from these situations; from suffering pain and death.  Yet, in the midst of them is a testimony that is the glory of tribulation.

 

Character

This perseverance produces character.  Someone once said that character is what you do when no one is watching, yet character is seen by everyone.  The word for character means 'proof'.  This was used to determine the purity of metal.  (18k gold is 18 of 24 parts gold – 75% pure).  It's proof or character is its purity.  The metal of a man (or woman) comes from his perseverance through tribulation.  Your proof is built from patience endurance through tribulation.

You can see a person's character when they are under pressure.  What is deep inside is revealed.  We could see a range of response.  The one who once rose up in the flesh, with all its ugliness of clawing for survival as if this life and their way is all that mattered, through perseverance can be purified and their faith proved out.  It's a gaining of confidence that if we are a new person in Christ, then every situation in life is an opportunity to seek and glorify Jesus. 

Character is revealed in persevering difficult times:

• The way we carry ourself
• The decisions we make
• The words we speak (and how we speak them)
• How we treat others
• How accepting we are of the place we find our self

Perseverance changes who you are when no one is watching.  We care more about what God sees in us than what the world sees on the outside.

 

Hope

The underlying principle is hope. A man can put up with tribulation because He knows there is a time coming.  He can suffer through the lessons in patience because he knows there is a time coming; that's his sure hope. 

In hope we find it easy to glory (boast); in tribulation we find it much more difficult.  Paul is telling us tribulation has its way, doing a work in our life, delivering us back to hope.  The glory of hope is special and that longing is amazing, but it is so much more after tribulation!  The boast of a day to come when there will be no more suffering, no more tribulation has new meaning.  Your character comes from holding less and less to this world and more on the next; that's hope.  That hope is being absolutely convinced of another world to come.  It is a confident expectation of eternal salvation and Paul says that hope does not disappoint.

The word disappoint means we won't be left in shame.  We don't be let down or disgraced.  It marks the completeness and assurance of our hope.  It removes any doubt and this becomes a freedom from holding onto some fallback position.  We've stepped into sanctification, we can step all the way in, which is the only way we can be sanctified.  We cannot leave one foot in the world, just in case.  Justification opens a door, we walk through and the door is shut.  Welcome to a new life.

God loves us too much to leave us as we are.

Justification opens a door.  We stand in grace, a life completely undeserved.  God moved us from justification to sanctification, this ongoing process of being transformed.  The more the world beats you up, the more you realize your hope isn't in what we see.  The more your body lets you down, the more you realize your future isn't in this flesh.  Our hope lies in the unseen.  Our hope is in the eternal things; as we are transformed to look like our savior.

This is God's love, poured out in our hearts.  He does this by the Holy Spirit that lives in us.  This is Christ in you the hope of glory (Col 1:27).  The evidence of our new standing with God is the love that has been poured out in our hearts.  Paul gives us this picture of love being poured into our lives.

(See also 2Corinthians 6.    See also James 1:2-4 and 1Peter 1:6-7.) 

 

Romans 5:6-8

The first five verses might be considered the width and the length of the love of Christ.  If that is so, then the following is the depth and height.  When Christ went to the cross, it was the ultimate expression of love.

That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—¹⁹ to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19)

To be found without strength in relation to our sinful nature and our wretchedness means we had no ability to help ourself.  Abraham believed the promises of God of which he had no strength or ability to accomplish himself.  It is the same with us.  We cannot sufficiently reign over our life sufficiently nor can we perform anything holy or eternally beneficial by our strength.  We were simply without remedy.  We were under the weight of sin, dead in our sin.  The penalty of sin is death and we were destined to suffer from our sin in this life and then for all eternity.

As Paul wrote this, it had been about 24 years since Christ had gone to the Christ.  Some were alive at that time and would concede, they were without strength.  Others might say, "Hey, wait a minute, when Christ went to the cross, I wasn't even born yet!"  The situation would change whether you were born before, during or after the life of Christ. 

We rarely understand God's perfect timing.  In fact, man normally finds God's timing frustrating and torturous at times.  Yet, we later note the perfection of His timing.  It was in God's remarkable timing that Christ came.  This 'due' time is the very moment in time that God determined it would happen.  The world was ready.  Rome had built the roads.  The Temple worship had lost its way.  The foundations of our modern culture we being laid out; of art, music, education, government, judicial system and more.  

At this perfect time, Jesus died for the ungodly.  That's you and I and everyone else.  There are only the ungodly, those who don't yet know they are ungodly and the regenerated ungodly.  

• We can hear of stories of someone dying to save a righteous man.
• We might even find evidence of someone dying for a good man.
• But who dies for their enemies?

Think about it.  Under the oppression of the Romans, they were spiritually hungry and seeking answers.  Great philosophers were seeking to answer man's greatest questions.  Who am I?  Why am I here?  Where am I going?  While men were going about their business just as they had done for hundreds of years, Jesus was born.  He was born into a working class at a time when most folks were of similar means.  Jesus came to the exact place at the exact time to that exact purpose.  He had the answer that men needed, forgiveness of sin.  The time, the place, and every other detail were ordained before the foundations of the world.

God demonstrated His great love for them by dying for them while they were His enemy.  They were at war with Him.  They were under wrath, rebellious and full of sin.  If we were there, we would be no different.  As Christ went to the Christ, it's as if we were there, present in our sin that He took to the cross.  In our time, as we became aware of our sin, we also became aware of Christ, yet we still sinned.  We aren't sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners.  It is bread into us.  Adam saw his son Cain murder his other son Able.  Adam looked at Cain and knew that was his son.  Like father, like son.  We are sons of our father, Adam.

 

Romans 5:9-11

What an amazing thing that Jesus would die a horrible, brutal and painful death for the ungodly on a Roman cross.  This expression of love is our justification; our ability to be found innocent of all charges.  As beautiful and amazing as that was, there's more.  Or, as Paul put it, "much more" we shall be saved from wrath.  Even better than being justified, we will also be saved from the wrath of God.  Suddenly, it's as though we owed no sin debt because our wrath was poured out on the Jesus.

Justified by Blood

Saved from Wrath

This wrath poured out on Jesus was the wrath for all sin committed by those who will trust in Him.  If you've been justified, there is no wrath left, it's gone.  The cup that held your wrath is empty.

Reconciled by death

Saved by His life (resurrection)

You can imagine if God went to such great lengths to save us while we were His enemy, now that we've been reconciled and are no longer His enemy, how much more God will do for us.  We were reconciled to God through the death of Jesus, but even better than that, we are saved by His life.  Christ overcame death and so shall those who are found in Him.  As He rose again, so shall we be resurrected into newness of life. 

Not only that, but we also rejoice (boast) in God

It's not just that our sins are forgiven, but we also don't have any wrath stored against us and by his death we are brought back to God and not in our death but in life.  And now, Paul said, not only that we get to rejoice in God through Jesus Christ.  We were once rebels, warring against Him, no we are reconciled.  The One whom we were at enmity with we now get to rejoice in.  This brings to mind Saul getting knocked from His horse on the way to Damascus to kill Christians.  Jesus asked him why he kicked against the goads.  Suddenly Saul became one of the Christians he once despised.  God is good.

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, (2 Corinthians 5:18)

Jesus reversed the damage done in the garden of Eden.  He repaired the relationship between God and humanity.

 

Romans 5:12-14

It's as though Adam stood in our place; as though we were present in his genetics.  Eve was deceived and sinned, maybe as he stood by and watched.  Why didn't he stop her?  Then Adam made a conscious choice to join her in her predicament.  The wages of sin is death.  This was like the original direct deposit.  When Adam sinned, the wages were prepaid to all our accounts, putting us in a terrible debt.  Adam and eve died spiritually that day and would one day die physically.  Because of their disobedient rebellion against God, every offspring would suffer from the same affliction.  This is the destiny of natural man; born a sinner, growing and acting out nature proving it to be true. 

John Donne, a poet and scholar in the 1500's spoke of our relationship to Adam this way:

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.

Adam was created and placed in the garden and enthroned by God over all the creation.  He was perfect, living in perfection and eating from the tree of life.  After the fall, he was cursed.  He surrendered his authority over creation.  Access to the tree of life was removed.  Paradise was lost.  The descendants of Adam lived, begot the next, then died; they begot another and died and so on.  Even though there was no law given, all of mankind was guilty of sin and destined to death when Adam failed in his responsibility.    

God told Adam in Genesis 2, speaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil:

"For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

Adam wasn't made for death but death came to him because of sin.  We were present in Adam when that sin and death entered the human race.  We don't become sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners by nature.  It was bred into us from the beginning.

Sin beginning at the tree & Sin defeated at the tree

1. 1. Adam, sin & death
      1. The responsibility for initiating sin.
      2. Failed,
      3. Disobedient
      4. Lost it all.
         1. Tempted by the Devil, creating a desire to rule all.
         2. Believed the Devil instead of the Lord.
         3. A desire for moral autonomy resulted in bondage to sin.
      5. Brought death to all men.
2. 1. 6. Morally tainted all of mankind
3. 1. 7. Adam enthroned over creation. 
         1. Surrendered to the Devil.
4. 1. 1. 2. Throne uninhabited, no man sufficient.
5. 1. 8. GUILTY!!

 

Jesus Christ, righteousness & life

• • • The responsibility for initiating righteousness.
    • Succeeded,
    • Obedient,
    • recovered all.
      1. Tempted by Devil, offered a chance to rule all
      2. Believed the Lord instead of the Devil
      3. Total surrender of self to will of the Lord.
    • Overcame death, offers eternal life.
    • Man overcomes the moral taint by the blood of Christ.
    • Christ Named King of kings.
      1. He will break the seal and be enthroned.
      2. He will be enthroned over the earth.
      3. He alone is sufficient.
    • JUSTIFIED!