The Result

Our journey through Romans started by talking repeatedly about the good news, but then immediately Paul talked about the bad news. Chapter 2 and part of Chapter 3 focused on sin and the fact that we are all sinners. God’s law simply reveals how sinful we are.

3:21 changed the narrative: “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the law and the Prophets testify.” There is a new righteousness given to those who have faith in Jesus Christ. The story of Abraham shows us that this righteousness is given not because of our works or our obedience to the law or circumcision. It is received through faith in Jesus Christ. Abraham reveals what faith looks like: believing what God says and living as if we believe it.

That is all very good but so what? What difference does that make?

READ Romans 5:1-11

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith…

• We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (v.1)

• We have gained access into this grace in which we now stand (v.2)

• We boast in the hope of the glory of God (v.2)

Not only that…

• We also boast (it’s the same word), or glory, or rejoice, in our sufferings (v.3)

  • •  We will come back to that.

• God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

When we put our faith in Jesus, the result is peace with God, standing in His grace, hope for eternity, knowing God’s love because of the gift of the Holy Spirit and the ability to see suffering as ultimately a good thing. This has been described like opening a treasure chest. These are the blessings.

1. Peace with God

This peace is not feeling peaceful, although that is also true. This means that we have been reconciled to God; we are at peace with God. Paul has emphasised that we have all broken God’s law. Our natural inclination is that when God says to act in a certain way, we want to do it some other way. In our human nature, we think we know better than God, and we do not like God telling us what to do. We are rebels.

I don’t know if you have noticed but Paul is realistic about the reality of judgement.

Romans 1:18

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness…

Romans 2:5

But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

Romans 2:8-9

But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;

Romans 4:14-15

For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15 because the law brings wrath…

Rebellion against God brings judgement. But, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That is a seismic shift: from being under condemnation to being at peace with God. That is eternity-changing but it is also life-changing. Instead of feeling that God is distant and unreachable, or being terrified of God, we are at peace with God.

2. Grace

Also, through Jesus, we have gained access into this grace in which we now stand. What does “this grace” mean – the grace of reconciliation with God or the grace of an ongoing relationship with God? “Gained access” suggests the initial reconciliation - entry into the throne room of God.

“In which we now stand” suggests the ongoing experience of a relationship with God. He is a gracious, generous, loving God. We gain entry into a relationship with God in which we experience His acceptance and His smile; knowing His favour and His generosity.

We have peace with God and we are recipients of constant generosity from God - through Jesus.

3. Hope

“We boast, or rejoice, in the hope of glory.”

•  We have been justified – past tense. It has already happened.

• We have peace with God – present tense. Current reality.

• We have entered into grace – past tense. Already happened.

• We stand there – present tense. Current reality.

There are past realities and current realities but there is also a future reality. Hope is about the future. It is not just about what life is like now. There is more – far more. Hope in the Bible means confidence – looking to the future knowing that God will keep His promises. Paul says our hope is the glory of God. Our hope is that we will experience, and we will share in, the glory of God. We might think of glory as the radiance, the magnificence of God – the way He appears. We look on His glory.

What is the most magnificent thing you have ever seen? It might have been a dazzling sunset. It might have been the view from a mountain. It might have been a new-born baby. It might have been the incredible beauty of a particular flower. What took you breath away?

That us just a shadow of the glory of God. Imagine standing in the presence of God surrounded by dazzling light and rainbows and jewels and angels.

But the glory of God is also the awareness of how good and gracious and powerful He is. The Cross was a very dark time, but we see the glory of God – just how unbelievably good God is – in the Cross. And we will be awed even more when we see the full extent of God’s glorious goodness.

4. Suffering takes on a whole new meaning

The person who trusts in God sees suffering in such a different way that he/she can rejoice in it.

That is not to say that suffering is pleasant or that we should welcome it, but it is to say that we recognise that God is working out a much bigger plan. Suffering is not pleasant, but it does have a purpose. Suffering does not indicate that God has stopped loving us; it indicates that God loves us so much He wants the very best for us, and sometimes that best comes through suffering.

Paul describes the sequence like this: suffering produces perseverance. Of course that is not always true. Very often suffering produces the very opposite; suffering leads to giving up. We have to assume that Paul is talking about the person who faces suffering in faith, trusting that God is good, believing that there is hope; there is a better future. That person learns how to keep going rather than give up.

Perseverance produces character. We grow as people when we trust God and we keep going. Sometime suffering make people very bitter, but sometimes the most gracious, beautiful, gentle people are those who have suffered the most, and they are that way because they suffered.

Character produces hope. When we experience the goodness of God in the midst of suffering – goodness that doesn’t simply remove the suffering but that brings good out of the suffering; and when we experience that God faithfully brings us through suffering, then our confidence in God grows. We are even more convinced that God is good and that God keeps His promises.

But is this false hope? Will we be disappointed if everything we hoped for doesn’t happen?

5. God’s love through the Holy Spirit

No, we remain confident because of two other, closely-related gifts from God given to those who have been justified through faith: the love of God through the Holy Spirit, poured into our hearts. The Holy Spirit is a gift and through Him we experience the love of God – the generous love of God – poured out.

Notice that love has been poured out and the Holy Spirit has been given – both past tense, meaning we have already received them.

Last week, at Night Church, I had thirteen different Bible verses printed out – verses about Jesus’ sacrifice for us – and I asked people to select one that spoke to them, before taking Communion. The verse chosen more than any other was…

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrated His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Notice Paul’s emphasis on the Cross

• Christ died for the ungodly (v.6)

• Christ died for us (v.8)

• We have now been justified by His blood (v.9)

• We were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son (v.10)

Vv.6-8 declare how utterly amazing this is. Heroes are heroes because they do what other people will not do. Very rarely will anyone die for someone else. If it is going to happen at all, it would only be for a good person. No one lays down their life to save a despicable person. But the love of God is revealed in the fact that He died for despicable people. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It was while we were enemies rebelling against God that He sent His Son to die for us.

If this is all true – if God has done this much for us –we can be confident that He will also save us from God’s wrath. God has started something. We can be very confident He will finish it. He will save us. He reconciled us by Jesus’ death. He will save us through His life.

Here His life is not the time He spent on earth. It refers to the life He has now as a result of the resurrection. We are reconciled by His death, and we will receive eternal life because of Jesus’ resurrection. We will receive His resurrection life.

We will not read vv.12-21, but I encourage you to do that. They contrast Adam and Jesus. Adam sinned and death came into the world, infecting the whole world. Jesus was obedient and new life came into the world. With the giving of the law, sin became intentional disobedience. Intentional disobedience is more serious than unwitting disobedience. So, sin increased, but when sin increased, God’s grace increased all the more. No matter how much sin there was, God’s grace was greater. Grace wins; grace defeats sin. Grace will reign to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus has reversed the impact of Adam’s disobedience. The whole world was messed up when sin became part of it. Jesus, in obedience, died for us. When we put our trust in Him incredible things happen. We have peace with God. We are in a place of grace. We have hope. We know that God has a bigger plan even when we suffer and we trust Him to grow us and deliver us. We receive God’s Holy Spirit and through Him, the love of God is poured into our hearts. If the first part of this letter sounded like bad news, this is good news for all who have faith in Jesus.

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