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"Therefore, since we are justified by faith
..." If you remember back to when we started this
series on Romans, I said then that whenever we come
across that word "Therefore" we need to stop
and think about what's gone before. What is it that the
'therefore' refers to? Well, I wonder if you can recall
what it is we've discovered as we've gone through Romans
1-4 so far? Turn back to Romans 1 if you will and see if
you can recall what we've discovered as we've gone
through each chapter. |
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We began in 1:16-17 with the statement that the
gospel is the power of God for salvation for everyone who
has faith - for the Jew first and also for the Gentile.
That certainly fits with 5:1 "Therefore, since we
are justified by faith" And we discovered that in it
a righteousness from God is revealed - again, by faith
for faith. Then in the rest of ch 1 we saw how all the
efforts of people to be righteous, to be right with God,
have failed. In ch 2 we saw how even the Jews who were
given God's law failed to keep it. So we saw that that
there's this universal failing of humanity to do what's
right, an inability to please God. But then as we moved
into ch3 we discovered that even if humanity had failed
to be righteous, God hadn't. He'd remained faithful to
his promise to Abraham to bring a blessing on all of
humanity through his descendants. How? By sending Jesus
to bring redemption to all who have faith. Look at
3:23&24: Now all people "are justified freely by
his grace through the redemption that came by Christ
Jesus." Finally, in ch 4 we discover that this has
always been the case, ever since Abraham. Abraham was
justified because he believed God. His righteousness was
counted to him as a gift, just as our righteousness is
counted to us as a gift now. |
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In other words, no-one has to earn their
salvation. God gives it to us freely as a gift. All we
have to do is to believe. |
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So, 'Therefore', he says, 'we have peace with
God.' |
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Now peace is a timely subject this week, isn't
it? The nation stopped on Thursday to remember those
Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fought and died
to secure our peace as a nation. I don't think it'd be
far off the mark to suggest that Anzac Day is the most
spiritual day in our calendar. And it's important that we
stop to remember, that we don't take for granted the
peace that we, the many, enjoy as a result of the
sacrifice of the few who fought and died. In fact if you
think about the world in which we live, peace is a rare
commodity. So much of our world suffers from war,
violence, terrorism, oppression and the like, while we
enjoy freedom, choice, comfort, a legal system that
protects our rights, a social welfare system that ensures
a basic standard of living. All as a result of the peace
in which we live. |
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There's a similar situation for those who have
faith in God. Paul says we now have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is a peace which
affects us both in the present and in the future. Look at
what he says: |
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Now: |
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"Through whom we have obtained access to
this grace in which we stand." Our current status is
that we now have access to the grace of God in which we
stand. In other words we now have access to that
righteousness that Jesus Christ has won for us. You hear
about young people who are left a large inheritance
that's tied up in a trust account that they can't access
until they've met certain conditions: coming of age,
getting a degree, getting married, getting rid of their
nose ring. And sometimes Christians think of the
righteousness that God offers us as being like that. It's
something they know is theirs but they think they have to
do something before they can actually get their hands on
it. It might be some moral reform, it might be some
regular religious service, it might be having a regular
quiet time. Whatever it is, they think that the gift of
righteousness is dependent on how they behave. But that's
to misunderstand the grace and the gift of God. There are
no strings attached to this gift. We have access to it
right now. When God looks at you today, he sees, not your
failings, but the righteousness that Jesus Christ gives
to all those who believe in him. So we have peace with
God right now. |
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But there's a future hope as well. |
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Then: |
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"We boast in our hope of sharing the glory
of God" (v2). If right now we can enjoy the
knowledge that Christ has made us right with God, we can
also look forward to the day when we'll share God's
glory. That is, we look forward with eager anticipation
to the day when our whole being will be transformed into
the likeness of God, into a state not enjoyed by human
beings since the day when Adam and Eve first disobeyed.
We look forward to a day when our righteousness will not
just be a conferred righteousness, but an actual
righteousness, when our old sinful bodies will be
replaced by new bodies at one with God. That's what he
means by sharing God's glory. No wonder he rejoices in
what's to come. |
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But even in the present, in this imperfect world
in which we still live, we can rejoice in the peace we
have with God. Even when we suffer as a result of our
faith we can be confident in the peace we have with God.
Look at v3: |
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Now: |
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"And not only that, but we also boast in
our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces
endurance, 4and endurance produces character,
and character produces hope, 5and hope does
not disappoint us," |
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Even living in a fallen world, we can rejoice,
we can boast in the knowledge that whatever happens to us
leads us to peace with God. Now remember that when Paul
talks about suffering, he's thinking of being thrown out
of the synagogue, of being spat on and cursed and
insulted. He's thinking of being imprisoned, whipped,
shipwrecked, stoned, all because of his proclamation of
Christ as Lord. But those things haven't stopped him, or
cowed him, or depressed him. Rather they reinforce his
confidence in the gospel. How is that? Well, he says,
suffering produces endurance, endurance character,
character produces hope, which doesn't disappoint us. I
found that word 'character' translated by one person as
provedness. Now I'm not sure that's an actual word. My
spell checker didn't like it. But it gives us the idea,
doesn't it? It when we've endured opposition that we
begin to discover that our faith is real and lasting. |
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When those first Anzacs sailed into Gallipoli on
the first Anzac Day, they were largely unproven soldiers.
If they'd seen any fighting it was nothing compared to
what they were about to experience. I imagine that not a
few of them would have been praying as the landing barges
hit the sand that they'd show courage in the face of the
gunfire they were about to face. But when they withdrew
some months later, having endured the relentless machine
gun fire, having made some progress against an immovable
enemy in an unwinnable campaign, they could hold their
heads high (once they were out of range of the enemy
bullets of course), because their courage, their
character, was proven. And that gave them confidence to
go into their next campaign knowing that they'd endure it
as well. |
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So for us, as we endure as Christians, as we
persevere in our faith we gain confidence that we'll
continue to endure. Our weak faith grows and character
develops. And it isn't just our own perseverance that
does this. Those who are young in the faith sometimes
wonder whether they have enough faith to see it through,
whether the faltering belief they have is enough. The
answer to that question is yes! It is enough. Why? For
two reasons. First, because faith is never measured by
quantity. Jesus said faith the size of a mustard seed was
enough to move a mountain. The quantity of faith isn't
what matters, What matters is the God we have faith in.
He's the one who supplies the power, not us. But
secondly, even if our own faith is weak, we can look at
the way the faith of others has endured through history.
Make no mistake, Satan has been trying to destroy the
church since Jesus first chose his disciples. He's thrown
every weapon in his arsenal at us, and the church is
stronger today than it's ever been. Why? Because people
have endured, they've persevered in their faith in God.
And God hasn't let them down. So again we can look
forward: |
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Then: |
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He says: "Our hope doesn't disappoint
us." He knows he'll go on, and that the church will
go on, because our faith has been proven over and over
again. |
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I guess you could say that the hope of those
first Anzacs hasn't disappointed either. We're rightly
proud of the reputation of our Aussie diggers. Wherever
they've been involved in conflicts they've done well.
Still, as the Americans discovered in the Vietnam War,
the reputation of a nation's army is only as good as the
next war allows. |
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But the proof of the Christian's future hope is
more than just the perseverance of the saints. It's this:
v5: "Because God's love has been poured into our
hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to
us." As we look forward to the hope of God's glory,
we begin to experience it even now in the indwelling of
God's Holy Spirit. God has shown his love for us not just
by sending Jesus to die for our sins and to rise for our
righteousness. He's poured his love into our hearts, Paul
says, by giving us his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's
presence is the reason that Christians have endured. Our
hope doesn't disappoint because each step of the way God
is with us strengthening us, guiding us, empowering us.
And notice the way he expresses this gift of God's love.
He's lavished love upon us. There's a sense of abundant
generosity in that phrase 'poured out'. To show just how
generous this gift of love is he goes on to show us what
God's love means in practice" |
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Before: |
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He says: "For while we were still weak, at
the right time Christ died for the ungodly." God
chose just the right time to show us how much he loved
us. How was it the right time? It was the right time
because it was while we were helpless, weak. "God
proves his love for us in that while we still were
sinners Christ died for us." Can you see why this
was "the right time"? |
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It shows the nature of his love for us. That is,
his love is unconditional. Christ died for us while we
were still sinners, while we were his enemies. You can
imagine a soldier taking a bullet to save his mate, but
you can't imagine him trying to protect one of the enemy
can you? Yet that's the nature of God's love for us. Even
when we were bitterly opposed to his rule, even when we
stood under his righteous judgement he sent his own Son
to die on our behalf. |
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Secondly it shows that our righteousness is all
his doing. There was nothing that we could do to make
things right with God. As we saw in the first couple of
chapters we're unable to do anything by ourselves to
please God. Whatever we try will be flawed. But God does
what's needed. It's all his doing. It depends on him
alone. |
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Thirdly because he did it while we were still
sinners, it assures us that nothing we do can separate us
from his love. Now Paul will develop this idea further in
chapter 8, but for now we need to remind ourselves of
this fact. Too often we fear that God has turned away
from us because of something we've done. You hear people
say "I felt like God was a long way away." Or
"God had abandoned me." If you feel like that
then it's important that you reflect on your condition
when he first called you, when he sent Jesus Christ to
die for you. It was while you were still his enemy. It
was when you were still weak, still a sinner, deserving
only of his anger and judgement, that he sent Jesus to
die, to bring you back to him. So why would he let you go
now? |
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Now: |
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Which brings us back to the present: He says,
(v11) "But more than that, we even boast in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now
received reconciliation." |
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One of the great things about the Anzac Day
service in Anzac Cove is the fact that you find there not
just Australian and New Zealand soldiers, but Turkish
soldiers as well. It's become not just a service of
remembrance of those who died, but a recognition of the
reconciliation that's come about in the years since the
war. And so they can join together in peace to remember
their fallen heroes. |
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We too can rejoice in the reconciliation with
God that we enjoy through Jesus Christ's death and
resurrection. This is a present reality that means that
we can already enjoy the presence of God with us. The
peace he talks about in v1 is a peace that rests entirely
on this fact: though we were God's enemies we've now been
reconciled through the death of his Son. We can now get
on with serving God to the best of our ability, as his
Holy Spirit enables us and as we wait for the salvation
he has prepared for us. And that brings us to our last
point: |
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Then: |
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He says, in v10: "For if while we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of
his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will
we be saved by his life. The peace we have isn't just an
external peace. It's also an internal peace, a peace of
mind, a confidence in the future. As we just saw, nothing
can separate us from God's love. But that's now. As we
look into the future, to the last day, when Jesus returns
to judge all people, what do we expect? Well, what does
it say? "If while we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more
surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his
life." Jesus died to reconcile us to God. That's our
present status. So when he comes to judge, what will
happen to us? We'll already have been reconciled to God.
Our sins have already been dealt with. All that will
remain will be for us to be raised to eternal life with
him. Which brings us back to the beginning. Jesus' risen
life will become our risen life. We'll be given a new
body which will reflect his glorious body and in that new
body we'll share the glory of God. |
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And so we return to where we started. None of us
can, nor need, earn our salvation. God offers it to us as
a gift, freely. He reconciles us to himself, removing the
cause of enmity between us. And so we have true peace,
peace which passes all understanding, peace with God, won
for us by Jesus Christ and attested to by the presence of
the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. We'll go on in the
next section to see how this peace we have with God is
made available to all people, but for now the focus is on
those who believe already. The message is one of hope and
encouragement, of assurance. So be at Peace. Be
encouraged that God's love is such that he'll never let
you go, and that through the Holy Spirit he is with you
and will help you to endure to the end. |
