Justified By Faith

Introduction

Good evening to everyone. We have a great crowd for a Wednesday night or a Sunday night, and we’re so thankful that you’re here and appreciate all our visitors for being with us once again. And as you be turning in your Bibles to Romans chapter 5, and we’ll be saying from there for a few moments this evening, Romans chapter 5, as we continue our study of a series of lessons I’ve been presenting from the book of Romans. That is taking a bit longer than normal, because I’ve been preaching once or twice a month, so it takes longer to get through a five lesson series. And this is actually in Psalm number four. We combine to a little bit chapters two and three, so I can get through chapter six and five lessons.

And so here we are in Romans chapter five. This is one of my favorite passages of Scripture, and I can certainly thank Ross for the songs that he picked tonight, all wonderful selections for what we’re talking about tonight, and especially the last one in Can It Beh, don’t think we could have picked a better song to sing right before this lesson. This is a passage that I read a lot, that I think about a lot, that I read, especially when I’m trying to concentrate on the Lord’s Supper, and think about Jesus’ death and what that means for me in my life and why it is that we come together and remember that death every Lord’s day. But this marks the beginning of a new section of this epistle.

In the previous chapters, Paul has been developing and proving the theme that we are justified by faith, and that the righteous shall live by faith. In chapters 1, 2, and 3, Paul has proved his point. He has proved that the whole world is guilty before God, that no one can be saved by keeping the law, that we are justified by faith, and that the righteous shall live by faith. He’s explained that God’s way of salvation has always been by grace through faith. As he backs up in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9. And he has proved in chapter 4 by using the illustration of Abraham that what he wrote in chapters 1, 2, and 3 was true. He shows that in Abraham in chapter 4.

And so now we get to chapter 5, and Paul explains the last two words of chapter 4, which is our justification. He explains two basic truths that the blessings of our justification are what those are in verses 1 through 11 and the basis for our justification in verses 12 through 21. More than that, he goes on to explain how it is possible for God to save a sinner through the death of Christ on the cross, and how it is that our justification is indeed for all men and for all time.

1. We Have Peace With God

When he says, Therefore. Of course, anytime we see a therefore, that means because of everything I just said. 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. And so he says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith. Again, calling to mind everything that he has just proven, literally, what he’s saying there is, since we have been declared righteous by God.

What an amazing thought. And what that implies is that before we were justified, we did not have peace with God. We were in a very poor state. We were, in fact, at enmity with God. We were hostile to Him. We are enemies. But now we’re at peace. What an amazing state to be able to live in harmony with the Almighty God of the universe. Can I just stop for a second and say, wow. This is so different than the way it should be. We should be lost. We should be condemned. We should not be justified, and yet he has removed our sin and our guilt from us. Linsky says that by removing all of our sin and all of our guilt, all of his wrath is turned from us.

2. Access by Faith Into This Grace in Which We Stand

All his grace rests upon us. God is at peace with all the righteous, the justified. And not that we deserve that righteousness being pronounced upon us, because, as Paul said in Romans chapter 3, verse 23, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But those who are in Christ, who are standing in his grace, are justified and have peace with him. And so he says, it continues there in verse 2. It says, Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And that is to say that we have this access by Christ. In Christ alone, my hope is found. He is my life, my strength, my song. We sing that over and over, and it’s a wonderful song.

It is through Christ alone that we can have access. How is it we get that access? By faith, he says. By faith. Trusting submission is the condition for this faith. The faith that Abraham has. We studied last time in chapter 4. Because of the justification through the blood of Christ, we have access to God’s grace. We can come boldly, as we just sang, boldly to the throne of God with our petitions as his child, and he hears us. And we stand in his grace. The spiritual blessings in Christ that we have that we’re in something about on Wednesday nights. And so we have these blessings. Number one, that we have peace with God. Number two, that we have that we can stand in his grace. And what does it mean to be standing in his grace?

Now, this you know, am I just to imagine some giant pool of grace and I’m just standing in it, and that’s all it is? I don’t think so. I think it’s a little bit more than that. We’re standing in his grace, that means that is where we live. That is where we abide. We are firmly established in it. We live in it, we are confident of its eternal effects. We know that it is for us, that it will last, that it will get me to heaven. It is for all men for all time, as he’ll go on to say in verse 18. So one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. And because of that, we can, blessing number three, rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

3. We Rejoice in Hope and in Our Sufferings

Brother, that’s why he made us. If it wasn’t for Christ’s sacrifice, if it wasn’t for God’s grace, we would have no hope. We cannot hope to ever see God. We cannot hope to ever share in his glory. And yet, the very reason that he created us was to be with him. It was to be there in heaven and around his throne praising him. And he sent his son so that we might have that hope once again. And so he goes on to say that this Christian life produces something in us. We have all these blessings. But some of those blessings sometimes they don’t seem like blessings. Sometimes they present themselves as suffering. And yet he tells us that we ought to rejoice in our sufferings. He says, more than just rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God, he says, more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings.

In verses 3 through 5, we see this progression, this building of all these things that come from sufferings and how that should change us, the kind of work that should produce in us and make us better people. But it all starts with the suffering. Frother, trials work for us, not against us. No amount of suffering can separate us from the Lord. And he’ll go on to write in Romans chapter 8, verses 35 through 39. Trials bring us closer to the Lord. They make us more like him. Faithful Christians will have childs. Therefore, he says, rejoice in them, because that suffering produces endurance. It builds the determination that we need to press on to that goal, to have, to continue to have that hope of the glory of God.

It builds strength, it builds character, fortitude, inner spiritual makeup that we need to be approved by God. It refines us by fire, as Peter writes in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 7. And that character produces hope. The more like Christ I become, the more I become sure of the fact that I will indeed see him one day.

And that hope does not put us to shame. How is it that hope doesn’t put us to shame? You know, the world is going to try and tell us that what we’re doing makes no sense. They’re going to try and tell us that it’s not going to matter, that there is no heaven, and that there is no God. And that we’re just missing out on all the fun that life has to offer.

Shame because it is based on the promises, the righteousness that we studied in chapter 3 of God. It is based on promises which are sure to be fulfilled because of the God who made them. The hope of the glory of God will not be put to shame if we continue to be faithful unto him. We have been justified by our faith in him. And God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, he says in verse 5. And I’ll let Linsky once again expound upon this last verse of this section for us. He writes, In the moment of justification we receive the Spirit as a gift, Acts 2.38. But he enters our hearts by means of the Word. The more we hear and absorb the Word, letting it fill us, the more the Spirit fills us.

The figure used in pour out is that of water.

And this may come upon us like a stream or like a rain of living water and chains our hearts into fruitful, delightful soil. Again, the means is the word, the summon substance of which is the love of God. And this love, not as a mere feeling in God toward us, but is actively conveying all the gifts of this love to us by means of the word. God does not love in words only, but in deeds. How much of his love embodied in his gifts is poured out in our hearts depends on the receptivity in us.

Let it be a vast lake. The volume of love’s gifts from God through the Spirit and Word is unrestrained. The only restraint put upon it is our reluctance, our timidity, our lurking thoughts of unbelief, and the like. He who thus knows the love of God and feels its power and control daily in his heart through the Spirit is certain that his hope of the glory of God will never put him to shame. The God who began his work in us will not abandon it or leave it unfinished. How hard is it for us to dispel those last remaining notions of unbelief? It’s been stressing over and over again that it is true faith, it is true belief that allows us to be justified and to have hope of the glory of God.

And yet, how often does that faith not be as strong as it ought to be? How often do those doubts linger? How often is our heart just a thimble and not a vast lake in our receptivity of the things that God wants for us.

4. While We Were Still Weak, Christ Died for the Ungodly

This happened. We have to believe that. While we were still weak, while we were powerless, while we were hopeless, Christ died for the ungodly. He didn’t die for the godly. There were no godly. He didn’t come to save or heal those who are well, but those who are sick. Because we were still in our sins, because we were too weak to follow the law and be justified in that way. Christ had to die for the ungodly. And as we stand before him in our sins, we are not in a position of strength before holy God. We could not fix the problem. We could do nothing about it on our own. The price to be paid was death and condemnation. We could not affect our own salvation.

Therefore, we have to cast ourselves on His mercy, the mercy of the God who sent His Son to die for the ungodly. Brother, we need to see the contrast.

Between us and His holiness, between us and His power.

Removed I am from his holiness. I think about standing on top of a mountain range. And if any of you have ever, probably the most likely scenario has been skiing. And if you go all the way up to the very top of that mountain range, you can just see for forever, it seems like. I’ve been skiing in a few different places, New Mexico, Colorado. When we get up on the top of those mountains, usually, at least one direction that you look, you can see down to the two valleys and the plains down below, maybe a lake or something like that. But I’ve also been skiing in the Austrian Alps. And when you get to the top of those mountains, that’s all you see. Just forever. Mountains.

And that’s what I think about. How far I am from His holiness. I can’t even see it. How far I am from being able to create something like that. I could never do it. And so when God says, while I was still weak, we cannot ever overstate how weak and powerless we indeed are in comparison to him. And how great his gift of love for us was.

On the one who at the right time, he says, sent Christ to die for the ungodly. When he says at the right time, he means that he did it at the very moment when we needed it, at the strategic moment, when we were still in our sins, he said, and there’s much that can be said about the perfection of God’s plan. It was done at the right time, not only to fulfill prophecies, but to effect the spread of the gospel because of persecution. It was the right regime, the right environment. And Christ, in that time when we most needed it, died for the ungodly. And herein lies the amazing nature of the gospel. We cannot forget how stark, how shocking the contrast. And we also need to remember in terms of the Jews and what they would have been thinking.

The Jews were sitting here going, God needs to condemn the ungodly.

Not justified. And yet again, there were none who were godly. And so the only perfect one had to pay the price for those who were hopelessly imperfect. And he says in verse 7, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. Would you die for a random person on the street? What about for an acquaintance that you considered to be a good person? What about for a good friend or a neighbor? What about for your child? But God shows his love for us that even though we were not good people, in fact, we were still sinners, he sent Christ to die for us. Verse 8. God didn’t just die for his child, like many of us would be more than willing to do.

He sent his child to die. We need to see the magnitude of his sacrifice, the magnitude of his love. If we were to boil the gospel message, the message of the Bible down to one verse. I think a pretty strong argument can be made that it’s this verse. But God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is the saving message of the gospel that tells us that we are saved from the wrath of God. Verse 9. He says, Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For while, if we were still enemies, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more.

5. Reconciled to God by the Death of His Son

Now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life? More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. These three verses talk about how we have been brought back together with God into a relationship with him. Because we were ungodly. We were separated from him. We were far away from him. And yet we have been justified by his blood. We have been pronounced free of guilt. Because that guilt was placed upon Christ, and his blood paid the price for our sin. But we needed something more. We are therefore saved from the wrath of God. Now once for all, his wrath has been appeased. And I think of the blood of the goat that was sprinkled on the mercy seat and the guilt that was placed upon the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16, and how that goat was sent out into the wilderness.

And yet that couldn’t, it symbolized the taking away of sins, but it couldn’t actually take away sins. Only Christ’s sacrifice paid the price fully once and for all. Again, we were enemies of God, verse 10. When God created man, they were friends. He would walk in the garden with Adam and Eve and talk as friends. It was this beautiful, pure, unbroken relationship. But because of sin, that friendship was broken. That pure relationship was defiled. We were no longer his friends. We were enemies, enmity, hostility with God, James 4 and verse 4.

And the death of Christ brought us back to him. We can have peace with God, as he says in verse 1. We can be reconciled, brought back together, be friends again, because Christ broke down that wall of hostility that stood between us. He fixed the problem of sin. He did away with that which was keeping us apart.

When we look over at Ephesians chapter 2, and I’m not going to read this whole context for sake of time right now, but Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through verses 11 through 19. Paul writes again about this hostility that was between us and God. But he also writes about the hostility that was between Jew and Gentile. And specifically, he’s talking about the hostility that was between a Gentile and God. They had an even further distance between them. Verses 11 through 13 of that context. And Paul is speaking there about not only the hills the hostility between God and man, but between Jew and Gentile, and he says that all those walls have been broken down. The law has been abolished. And now in the church there is one new man in place of the two, verse 15.

We’ve been reconciled to God, verse 16. And that peace is preached to those far off, the Gentile, and those who are near, verse 17. And we both have access to God and his grace, verse 18. So we’re no longer strangers, but fellow citizens, verse 19 of the kingdom. And he goes on to say that not only are we reconciled, but we are saved by the life of Christ. His death reconciled us, his resurrection, his life, gives us life. And we can rejoice in God because we receive the reconciliation through Christ in verse 11. Like Abraham, we can be friends of God. What great cause for rejoicing indeed that we who are once of enmity with him have the opportunity, once we’ve been justified, to be one with him again.

6. The Basis for Our Justification

Now in the remainder of this section, he switches gears on to the basis. We’ve talked about the blessings of our justification. Now he switches to the basis for our justification, and how sin came into the world. He says in verse 12, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sin. For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died to the one man’s trespass, much more had the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many.

And the free gift is not like the results of that one man’s sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation. But the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. If because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who received the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. I’m going to stop there. It says that sin and death enter the world through Adam, verses 12 through 14, and that death spread to all men because all sin.

Now, it’s not that we can put all that blame on Adam. We can’t. We’ve got to blame ourselves too. He allowed sin into the world. But we all sin ourselves. Death spread to all men because all sinned. And sin was in the world before the law was given, verse 13. There are these self-conceived moral principles that he wrote about in chapter 2 and verse 14, the Gentiles as being law unto themselves. This is proven by the fact that sin dates to the very first man and woman. It’s proven in chapter 4 by the case of Abraham’s justification before the law. He says that sin is not counted where there is no law, and it’s not that it was totally overlooked, but that the lack of law means that it is not as apparent.

And yet death reigned all the way from Adam to Moses, that is the period from the beginning of time until the law of Moses came into being. Even though sin was not counted for lack of a codified law until Moses came and the law was given to him, just because they didn’t have the law didn’t mean sin and death did not reign. That’s very evident in the fact that Noah and the flood. Man was completely sinful. But their sinning was not like the sin of Adam, he says. They weren’t violating some positive precept, some law that was in place, specifically written down. But Adam was a type of the Christ, in that he was the antithesis, the antitype of what Christ would do, which was to undo what Adam had done.

Christ would bring forgiveness and life rather than a reign of death. And so the gift is contrasted to the trespass.

This gift of eternal salvation is offered truly to those who had reach out and take it, those who would have the faith of Abraham. It says that many died because of the one man’s trespass. But the free gift is not like the trespass. Verse 16 the one trespass brought judgment and condemnation to me, and the one free gift following many trespasses brought justification. One of these things brought death, and the other brought life. Again, we see the contrast over and over again in this chapter. There is contrast. One resulted in more sin, one put an end to the reign of sin. One trespass led to many trespasses. And yet the many trespasses led to the one free gift, which frees us from sin. And so in verses 17 through 19, he writes and tells us about how much greater is the reign of life than the reign of death.

Because of one man’s sinned, death reigned, and we followed in that one man’s footsteps. Let us not overlook the fact that we are very much like Adam in that regard. And yet, through one man, Jesus Christ, the free gift of righteousness is given, and life will reign over all who receive the abundance of his grace. So we follow it in Adam’s footsteps, but now we must follow in Christ’s footsteps. Through one man came a problem, and through one man the problem was fixed. One man’s act brought condemnation. One man’s act brought justification and life. One man’s disobedience meant that many were made sinners. One man’s obedience meant that many were made righteous. And so he comes to a conclusion of this chapter here in verses 20 and 21, and really he’s introducing the thoughts coming up in chapter 6.

In his introduction to sin and grace, he says, Now the law came in to increase the trespass. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

That they were in sin, and thus their need for a redeeming Savior.

And yet he says, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Literally, what that means is that, but where this, if in the Greek it says, but where the sin abounded, the grace over abounded. Which is to say that the power of the grace of God towers vastly over the power of sin and of Satan. Satan cannot win. The more sin there was, the more God’s grace came into effect. Because number one, he overlooked the times of ignorance, at 1730, and number two, the more sin there were, the more sin that Christ sacrificed and grace eventually covered. Now, not that we use that as an excuse to sin all the more, as it’ll get into in chapter 6. But he’s just illustrating the greatness of the nature of God’s saving grace.

How it abounds over even the increase of sin. Before Christ, sin reigned in death, but now that Christ has come, grace reigns through righteousness, leading to eternal life. Again, contrast. The sin doesn’t win. The sin doesn’t have to drag you down with it. Sin reigned in death. But let it reign in your life no longer. Grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to what? To eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us not overlook. He said that yes, this was a very real thing. Sin’s reign. It was out there, it was raining. And let us not overlook the full power and terror of the reign of sin and death. And be thankful that it rains no longer. And it reigns no longer because its territory was invaded and conquered by grace, righteousness, justification, and faith, leading to eternal life.

Conclusion

God’s power is greater than our sin. I’ll let Linsky conclude here by saying that the great and most essential effect of righteousness is eternal life. This whole effect of justification is presented as being mediated through Christ. Verse 1 starts with through our Lord Jesus Christ. And you can follow his name on through until it now closes the chapter through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here is the great mediator in his whole work, his obedience, his death in blood, his reconciliation, which mediates our justification and its effect, salvation and life eternal. Who but an inspired writer could put such a volume of saving truth into 21 short verses. And to that I say, Amen. What a wonderful chapter in God’s word that we have studied tonight. A chapter that if we had nothing else, we could know.

That we not only need to be saved, but that we can be saved. And that’s through our Lord Jesus Christ, whom God sent to die on the cross for our sins while we were still weak. At the right time, he sent Christ to die for the ungodly. And that’s us.

And we can have peace with God because Christ died for the ungodly, allowing us to be justified by his blood, and allowing the free gift of God’s grace to triumph over sin and death. And so, how do we obtain access into this grace in which we stand? Paul alludes to the answer in chapter 6, verse 3 and 4, when he says, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death. In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. We’ll delve more deeply into that next Sunday evening. But for now, if you’re here tonight and you are not a Christian, understand that it is through baptism that one who has faith in Christ can put on Christ for the remission of one’s sins.

They’re baptized into his death, they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and they rise to walk in newness of life, freed from the bondage of sin, letting it reign in their lives no longer.