Romans 5:1-5 "The Benefits of Justification"

0:59In Romans chapter 3, Paul explained the doctrine of justification by faith: that we are counted righteous not by what we do, not by our works, but through faith in Jesus Christ. And then in Romans 4, Paul illustrated that idea of justification by faith, that doctrine, by pointing to the life of Abraham, who was justified not by what he did, but through faith in the God who made him the promises. We saw that the blessing of justification. Is for all who believe God and his promises, for the uncircumcised Gentile as well as for the circumcised Jew.

1:39And so I hope this morning, if I were to give a pop quiz on the doctrine of justification by faith, that every one of you who has been here over the last month would get a 100 on that quiz. Hopefully, we have seen and internalized the idea that God counts us righteous not by what we do, but through faith in Christ. But here's the thing: I have known many professing Christians who would get a 100 on that theological quiz, who also live lives that are not characterized by peace or hope.

2:22They believe in Jesus. They believe that He lived and He died and He rose again for them. They believe that God will not count their sins against Him and that instead He will count the righteousness of Christ toward them on the day of judgment through faith. In other words, they have a completely biblical theology of justification, but they don't have much peace or hope. And if we're being honest, I think that's true for a lot of us.

2:57That we don't have much peace or hope because we fail. To make this connection between justification and daily life in this fallen world that we live in, justification seems like one of those doctrines that's relevant for the future. On the day that you die, on the day that Jesus returns, on the day that you stand before God in judgment, justification seems very relevant for the tail end of your life. But we struggle to see its connection to our daily life in this fallen world. Is that true of you?

3:36If you honestly evaluate your life, would you say that you are filled with peace and hope? Would those people who know you the best, your spouse, your parents, your kids, your extended family, your friends, your coworkers, would they say that you are a person who is filled and marked and characterized by peace and hope? I'm not sure if people who knew me well could say that my life is always characterized or even often characterized by peace and hope. I often struggle to make the connection between my justification and my life in this fallen world today. I have struggled this weekend to make that connection.

4:23And so if you're anything like me, I want to invite you this morning to allow God's word and God's Spirit to minister to us and to challenge the way that we are thinking and living our lives. Because we all want peace, we need grace, and we struggle to hope. And so this morning in Romans 5, we're going to see that through faith we have peace with God, access to God's grace, and enduring hope. So join me now in verse 1, Romans chapter 5, where we're going to see that through faith we have peace with God.

5:10Therefore, Paul says, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, we were born into a world at war. A world at war with God, our Creator and Sustainer, the King of the universe. And we are not born as innocent civilians in this great conflict. We are born as active soldiers who are a part of the rebellion against our God and King. Take a look at Ephesians 2.

5:47And you are dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. By nature, Paul says, we are children of wrath. That is, we have followed Satan, the prince of the power of the air, in rebellion against God, and his wrath, his righteous anger, presses down on us because of it. We are not born at peace with God.

6:33We are born as his enemies, as disobedient rebels who are actively working to overthrow him as king, so that we can take his place on his throne. We are not born at peace with God. And because we are not born at peace with God, we are not born at peace. God is the king of the universe, and he has created us in such a way that for us to flourish, for us to thrive, we can only do that when we are living in submission to him and to his law.

7:06That is the way that he has created all things. As long as we refuse to submit to God as king, we will never flourish, we will never thrive, we will never be at peace with God, we will never be at peace with others, we will never be at peace with ourselves. What does the scripture say? Look at Isaiah 59. But your iniquities have Made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he does not hear.

7:38We have no peace with God. Look at Titus chapter 3. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. We have no peace with each other. And take a look at Psalm 31. For my life is spent with sorrow and my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity and my bones waste away. We have no peace with him.

8:20As long as we refuse to submit to God and his law, we will never flourish, never thrive. We will not have peace with God, with each other, or within ourselves. But friends, thankfully, God did for us what we could not and would not do for ourselves. Look at verse 1 again in the text, Romans 5:1. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to focus on those words. We have peace.

8:56That Greek word translated peace means soundness and wholeness. In our relationship with God, as opposed to the brokenness and enmity that we experienced when we were at war with him. So, understand this: when we trust in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God does not make peace possible for us. He does not say, since you have been justified by faith, you might experience peace if you find the perfect job and the perfect spouse and the perfect house and you understand the Enneagram.

9:38That is not what Paul says. He says that since we have been counted righteous by faith, we have peace with God. Christian, you have peace with God. You have peace with God through faith in Christ. And if we can have peace with God, then it stands to reason that surely we can have peace with each other and with ourselves. But as we've already said, for many professing Christians, we would not say that our lives are characterized by peace, that we experience peace on a daily basis. So, what's the deal? Paul says that we have peace, but that's not our experience a lot of the time. What is going on?

10:24Well, there's a couple things that could be going on. God may be calling you right now. Pay attention to this. What is going on when we don't have peace with God? Well, first, it may be due to unconfessed, unrepentant sin in our lives. It may be due to unconfessed, unrepentant sin. Look on the screen at Psalm 32. David said, For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me, my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

11:05You see, when David was living with unconfessed, unrepentant sin, he had no peace. He tossed and turned in his bed all night long. He was not able to rest. He felt physically ill and sapped of vitality. But all of that changed when he confessed and acknowledged and owned his sin before God. Take a look at the very next verse, Psalm 32, 5. He says, I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

11:45So understand, if you are not experiencing peace, it might be due to unconfessed, unrepentant sin. I am a huge proponent of counseling. I think everybody benefits from counseling. Some of y'all are going to counsel. Because you have unconfessed unrepentant sin in your life. There are any number of reasons to go to counseling. That is a great thing. It is hard to live in this world with all of the various problems that we deal with internally and externally. You should go to counseling. But, friends, if you have unconfessed unrepentant sin in your life, you don't need counseling, you need confession.

12:26And that is what David says. Maybe we don't have peace with God because we're robbing ourselves of it. Have you ever thought about that? You might be robbing yourself of peace. I've been around so many people who are constantly on social media. I have walked into many homes of people I know and love where MSNBC or Fox News is on all of the time. It's like the extra family member, like the grumpy uncle muttering in the corner.

13:06These companies, that is what they are. They are companies for profit, just like Starbucks or anything else. These companies trade in fear and outrage and offense because that is what gets attention. That is what sells advertising. So make no mistake: MSNBC and Fox News and CNN and all of them are companies. That are for profit. And they are profiting off of what they are telling you. Here's what they would say to you. Take a look at this on the screen. This is their message. Fear I leave with you. My outrage I give to you. Just as the world gives, do I give to you. Let your hearts be troubled and let them be afraid.

13:55But look at how different the message of Jesus Christ is. He says, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. That is a very different message. So maybe if we aren't experiencing peace, it is because we are robbing ourselves of it. We're being discipled by the media instead of the Messiah. Friends, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So if we aren't experiencing that, something is wrong. Could be unconfessed sin. It could be we're robbing ourselves of it. It could be some other reason. It could be that we are not justified by faith in Christ. And so some of you, this morning, God is calling you to put your faith in Christ so that you can experience, you can have peace with God.

14:56Respond to him today. Let's move on to verse 2, where we're going to see that through faith, we have access to God's grace. Verse 2. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. Life in this fallen world is really, really hard. We all know that from experience. And even though we have peace with God and with others and with ourselves through faith in Christ, that does not always make navigating life in this fallen world a whole lot easier. And so what do we need, friends?

15:44We need the grace of God. We need the grace of God to help us navigate life in this fallen world. And thankfully, Paul says that we have it. He says, through Christ, we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. So I want you to think about this. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He says through Malachi, I, the Lord, do not change. God did not become gracious at some point in time. It's not like what some people think, that the God of the Old Testament was angry and the God of the New Testament is gracious. It's the same God. He is the same God. Yesterday, today, and forever. He has always been gracious. So, what we needed but didn't have was access to God's grace. Remember Isaiah 59?

16:42But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God. Your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. God has not changed. For all eternity, he has been perfectly gracious, but because our sin made the separation between us and God, we did not have access to God and his grace. You know what I think of when I hear the word access is celebrities. I grew up in the 90s. We had shows like Access Hollywood. Is that still on?

17:20Wonder why. Celebrities will sell you all access passes. It's one of the only contexts in which the word access is used anymore. And so here's the thing: if you want access to a superstar, you can get it. If you want to meet LeBron or Taylor Swift or Harry Styles, you can get access. That can be arranged. All you have to do is shell out thousands or maybe tens of thousands of dollars and you'll get access. But what does that mean in practice?

17:59By spending. All of that money, you're going to get 30 minutes, maybe an hour with them. You're going to get a couple of photos, some autographs, some memorabilia, and that's it. Your access to that superstar is over. And sure, you could get access to them again if you're willing to shell out that kind of money and those passes are available. You could potentially get access to them again. But look at what Paul says to us in verse 2. He says, Through Jesus, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.

18:37Friends, we have access to grace that we stand in. It is a permanent reality. It did not cost us anything because Jesus paid everything for us. He purchased our access to God with his blood. And what kind of access is this? Are we talking 30 minutes, 60 minutes, once in a lifetime, once in a while? Not at all. Look at Hebrews chapter 4. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted just as we are, yet without sin. Listen to this. Let us then. With confidence, draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

19:42Because of Jesus, our high priest, we have permanent, lifelong access to God and His grace. Anytime we want it, we have it. It is yours, it is mine, it is ours through faith. So, look on the screen at these words that Paul says. Let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace. Brothers and sisters, we do not have to hang our heads and crawl trembling to God's throne. No, we can go confidently and draw near to him because Jesus, our high priest, passed through the heavens and opened the door for us, welcoming us in to God's presence forever.

20:30And why would we do that? Why would we go to the throne of grace? Again, look at that verse, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Friends, every person wants peace. And Paul says, we have peace with God. Every person needs grace. And look at what Paul has said. We have access to it. We have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And so, where do you need? Grace this morning.

21:04Is it to submit to a difficult boss? You have access to God's grace. Is it to deal with setbacks at school? You have access to God's grace. To endure chronic illness or pain, you have access to God's grace. To trust God to provide a spouse or a child, to love your spouse when that seems impossible to do, to lead your family spiritually, to submit to your parents, wherever you find yourself in need of God's grace, Paul says you have access to the throne of God. And if you go there in faith, you will receive mercy, you will find grace to help in time of need.

21:55Friends, through faith, we have peace with God and access to God's grace. We just have to take advantage of it. Let's move on now to the second half of verse 2, where we'll see that we have enduring hope through faith. Beginning in the middle of verse 2, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. I wonder how many of us find it difficult to hope on a regular basis. We just find hope illusory. Paul says that because we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God, we have access to his grace, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

22:44A lot of people define hope as wishful thinking. And with the majority of us Aggies, we know all about that. It's wanting something to be true, although it is unlikely to happen or unlikely to be true. That is wishful thinking. We want something to be true, although it's unlikely to be true or unlikely to happen. But friends, that is not Christian hope. Christian hope is not wishful thinking. The Greek word translated hope means something like to look forward with confident expectation.

23:22To look forward with confident expectation. So the end of verse 2 could read, We rejoice looking forward with confident expectation to the glory of God. You see, because of God's promises, we have hope. We have confident expectation for the future. And what are these promises that provide this hope for the future? I want to highlight three of those. We will see God's glory. Our bodies will be glorified. And the whole earth will be filled with God's glory.

24:04First, we will see God's glory. Look at John 11, 40. Jesus is talking to Mary after the death of her brother. Jesus said to her, Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? Our bodies will be glorified. Look at Philippians chapter 3. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

24:45And the whole earth will be filled with God's glory. Look at Revelation 22. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

25:13Brothers and sisters, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We have hope and confident expectation that a magnificent future is waiting for us, where we will see God's glory face to face. Where these bodies that are subject to sickness and aches and pains and death will be glorified and be like his glorious body. We will live not in a fallen world, but in a brand new recreated heavens and earth with Jesus as our king who will rule in righteousness forever.

25:56We have a glorious future. And our future hope is a confident expectation because God is the one who made these promises and God never lies. Our future is secure. Our future hope is strong. It's so strong that it even gives us a new perspective on suffering in this life. Look at verse 3. Paul says, more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. Friends, this word translated suffering has a range of meaning, just like most words. And it can mean anything from persecution, suffering specifically for your faith in Christ, all the way down to the basic suffering that we experience from living life in a fallen world.

27:02And so, this passage applies to you whether you live in the United States of America or Iran, like Pastor Micah prayed about, whether you are experiencing persecution for your faith or if you stubbed your toe this morning. This passage applies to every one of us in our sufferings. And so, friends, what the message is to us is that we can rejoice in hope because we know that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

27:37But, friends, I will confess to you that as I'm reading and studying this passage over the past couple of weeks, I was thinking to myself, I believe this. I believe this intellectually with my mind, that whether I am persecuted or whether I have stubbed my toe, it is all okay because I have this future hope that cannot be taken away from me. I believe that up here. But my experience as a Christian is that in my day-to-day life, I lose hope very quickly in the light of suffering.

28:11I don't know if that's true for you, but that's certainly true for me. I expect that it's true for you. And I'll tell you, as a pastor, I have a front-row seat to all of your suffering. I think about just in the last few months, the pastors. Our life group leaders, our deacons, we are all working together to minister to multiple people who have cancer, multiple people who have chronic illnesses that leave them without energy and barely able to get out of bed every day, multiple people struggling with mental health issues, anxiety, depression, fear, bipolar disorder. We have people parenting children who are challenging and difficult. We have people parenting challenging children because of learning disabilities, nothing of their own fault, but things that they are struggling with. Dealing with people who are constantly sick, whose jobs are frustrating and disappointing, who make no progress academically in their hopes and aspirations for their career because they have been blockaded by a bureaucracy.

29:19We see this every day in your life. And so, friends, it's no wonder that you struggle to hope sometimes. It's no wonder that I struggle to hope sometimes. And there are days, I had some of those days this past week where I feel crushed, crushed by everything that I know that's going on in your life. Not to mention all the stuff going on in my life, not to mention all the stuff going on in our church and our nation, our community. It is crushing. Where do we look for hope?

29:54Paul says, here is what you need to understand. Friends, no matter what you are. Going through. If you have been justified by faith in Christ, you do have a hope that will not disappoint you, but you cannot look here for it. And I think that is the insight that God gave me this week. It's like, why do I struggle to hope so much? Maybe why do you struggle to hope so much? It's because I don't actually believe Jesus when he says, in this world, you will have trouble.

30:30That's like a foundational assumption when I get up in the morning. I get up in the morning, and then nine minutes into my day, something goes wrong, and I'm like, what is this? I thought today would go perfectly like no other day in my life ever has. So it comes back to my expectations that I think this life is going to be easy. This life is going to be comfortable. I'm not going to suffer. I'm an American.

31:02And so I wonder if God is calling us to shift our perspective to one that actually believes Jesus' words when he says, in this world, you will have trouble. And I'm going to confess to you, I don't know how to help you here. I don't know how to help myself here. I don't know how you don't become a cynic and wake up every day saying, like, yep, Murphy's law. Of course. Of course, everything's going wrong. Is certainly not a biblical perspective. So the biblical perspective is somewhere in between Murphy's Law is my life and I think everything's going to go awesome today.

31:42It's a perspective that enables us to say, when I suffer, no matter where it is on the spectrum of suffering, I have an enduring hope because I know that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. Hope for the future and hope for today. And look at verse 5. 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. You remember how we said the world defines hope as wishful thinking? Wishful thinking lets us down all the time, but Christian hope never lets us down. It never puts us to shame. It is a confident expectation about things that we cannot see. And here is how we know that we have this hope. Look at Ephesians 1.

32:36In Jesus, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. Friends, you can know that your hope will never be taken away. Will never disappoint you because you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit at the moment of your conversion. Brothers and sisters, because we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God. We have access to His grace, and we have an enduring hope, not just for the future, not just on the day we die or the day that Jesus comes back, but a hope for today that allows us even to rejoice in suffering. Because in the end, our hope in God will be vindicated. He will not let us down. And we know that because God has poured His love into our hearts through the promised Holy Spirit.

33:38So, friends, this morning, there is not going to be a pop quiz over any of this material that we covered because Paul is not trying to prepare us for a theological examination in a classroom. He is trying to prepare us for daily life in this fallen world, and he is trying to prepare us for eternity. He does that by helping us to see that justification by faith is not a doctrine that only matters on the last day of our lives or on the day that Jesus returns. Justification by faith is important today. It is relevant to your life here and now in this moment because every person wants peace and needs grace and struggles to hope.

34:26If you believe in Jesus Christ, you have been justified by faith. And so, friends, the call this morning to Christians is to believe these truths and to put them into practice. You have peace with God. And so, if you're not living in peace, ask yourself why. Is it sin? Are you robbing yourself of peace some way? What is the reason that you don't have peace? Are you taking advantage of the grace of God that you have access to? Do you stay away from God in your darkest moments and moments of need, or do you go to the throne of grace with confidence, believing that you will receive grace and mercy to help you in your time of need?

35:13If you struggle to hope, what are your expectations for this life? Can they be taken away by the trials and challenges of a fallen world and your own sin? If so, hope in Christ. Believe that God has sealed you with His Holy Spirit and guaranteed that promise. Friends, if you're here this morning and this life feels overwhelming to you, if you lack peace, if you have little hope for today or for the future, I am delighted to be able to tell you that you can have those things. You can have peace and hope, but there is only one way to do that, and that is through faith in Jesus Christ.

35:54If you put your hope in yourself or various strategies for coping with this world, They will let you down and disappoint you every single time, but Jesus Christ will never disappoint you, He will never let you down because He never breaks a promise. And He promises to give you peace, access to His grace, and a hope that endures everything that this world can throw at you. So put your hope in Christ today. Let's pray. O Father, every person here wants peace and needs your grace and struggles to hope.

37:12Those might be in bigger or smaller ways, but they define every one of us in some regard. And so we pray this morning that we would fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who will Keep every one of his promises. And we know that because he rose from the dead. God, I pray for every person here who is struggling this morning, who walked into this room struggling, who drove to this building struggling, who got out of bed this morning struggling. I pray that you would fill their hearts with faith. Fill their hearts with peace. Fill their hearts with hope.

38:02God, I pray for every person here who has never known lasting peace or hope because they haven't known Jesus. I pray that you would move in their hearts today and draw them to your Son. We pray that many would experience the peace and hope that only comes through Christ today. God, thank you for your word, for its relevance across the centuries, and its perfect relevance to our lives, even today, in 2024. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

38:43Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.