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- We're in Romans, still, chapter 5, verses 9 -11.
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- I kept this one short. Chapter 5, verses 11 -9, verses 11 -9, no, 9 -11.
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- What's wrong with me today? It's been a long time since 5.
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- Starting in verse 9, Since therefore we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.
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- For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by His life.
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- More than that, we also rejoice in God through our
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- Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
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- Last week we talked about how our hope in salvation is not founded on anything that we can do, but rather the love of God that is shown to us while we were still enemies.
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- Jesus demonstrated that love through the death of His Son on the cross.
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- Paul here in verse 9 -11 continues to emphasize assurance by making an argument from the greater to the lesser.
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- See as we move through, he is saying since this greater thing was accomplished, the lesser thing will obviously be accomplished.
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- Since therefore we have now been justified by His blood.
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- Arguing from the greater to the lesser here, it stands to reason that since Christ did this, justified us by His blood, that He will save us from the wrath to come.
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- So let's first of all tackle justified by His blood again.
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- We've talked about before Jesus kept the whole law and gave Himself as an unblemished lamb, a sacrifice on our behalf to atone for the sins of His people.
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- Hebrews chapter 10 verse 14 says, For by a single offering
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- He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
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- Throughout the Old Testament, there is the sacrificial system starting with Moses.
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- That is put in place to make atonement for sins. And sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice is made not only to atone personally for each person but also for the nation.
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- None of them is or was sufficient to accomplish the task.
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- This is why there was a need for Christ. This is what
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- He accomplished. One sacrifice. Romans chapter 3 verse 25, if you can remember, says,
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- God presented Him as an atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood in order to demonstrate
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- His righteousness because in His forbearance He passed over the sins committed beforehand.
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- Now having accomplished the acts of living a perfect sinless life,
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- His earthly ministry, His death on the cross, and having been raised again from the dead, and as I said last week, that being the confirmation of who
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- He said He was and the acceptance of that sacrifice by God the Father, having done these things, the harder thing, to justify the guilty before a perfect incorruptible judge whose wrath is being stored up, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.
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- Christ is risen and is constantly making intercession or intervening on our behalf.
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- Christ Jesus is our mediator. He stands between us and the
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- Father, constantly intervening every time we sin.
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- Always. Forever. First Timothy 2 verse 5 through 6 says,
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- For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men. The man,
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- Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
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- If He gave Himself up to be a ransom on our behalf, will He...my apologies...
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- then He will definitely not abandon us on the day of wrath. For Him to do so would make
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- His previous work on the cross needless. Why accomplish the first work if you're not going to continue that work?
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- Christ isn't going to do the work of justifying you and then make it void by not finishing that work.
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- He began a work in you and me and He will finish it. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by His life.
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- We were at one time in our lives, many still are, in a state of hostility toward God.
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- A state of separation. The popular word to describe this is estrangement.
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- Matthew, Henry, Sproul, Ferguson, and many others have pointed out the fact that humanity is not only enemies and rebels against God, but is opposed to the very idea of being
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- His enemy. Humans in their natural state hate
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- God so much that you can anger them just by telling them that they're enemies with God.
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- They would rather He didn't exist at all. They don't even want to acknowledge the fact that they hate
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- Him. If you don't believe me, evangelize. Tell someone that they hate
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- God. You know it to be true.
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- It is hard to conceive the idea, even having been in that state, of hating someone so much that you hate the idea of hating them.
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- How deep -seated does that have to be? With us, it's to our very core, the very beginning of our flesh, from conception all the way back to Adam.
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- Now, on God's part, He doesn't hate the same way.
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- Because we are enemies with Him, and He is enemies with us, as in humans in their natural state.
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- He hates sin because He is holy. He's thrice holy. He hates unrepentant sinners because of their sin.
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- Because He is holy. The angels described in Scripture hide their faces from Him because He is so holy.
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- Spiritual beings that are in His presence constantly hide their faces.
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- Just to be clear, He doesn't love the sinner and hate the sin.
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- That is not a thing that is supported anywhere by Scripture. As R .C.
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- Sproul says, It has been said that God hates sin and loves the sinner. But it is the sinner that God sends to hell, not the sin.
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- Isaiah 59 verses 1 and 2 says, Behold, the
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- Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, or His ear dull that it cannot hear.
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- But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your
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- God. And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
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- God is thrice holy and therefore turns His face from sin. We all share in His grace in the manner that it rains on the rich and the poor, the sinner and the saint.
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- We all share in that grace. But He does not treat us all the same way.
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- But when
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- Christ gave Himself up on the cross and was resurrected, satisfying God's wrath toward us, the elect, completely, this ended any estrangement on God's end.
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- Now, on our side, the estrangement is not realized until the Holy Spirit replaces our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh.
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- But on God's end, that work is completed. Ours has been realized, as in us.
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- And for some, that realization is to come. God's love for His people is unmatched in all of history, as we spoke about the other week.
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- This should cause us to want to run to Him in prayer, in praise, in worship, in times of peace, in times of trial, knowing that we are secure in Christ.
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- While in our flesh we may worry about earthly things, our ultimate peace is secured forever.
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- Whether we live in a lovely mansion with five cars and lots of money in our bank account, or whether we live in a box, all of the elect will end up in the same place.
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- More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation.
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- Rejoice, you who were lost but have now been found.
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- You have been reconciled to God who once had His face turned from you but has now adopted you as a child in Christ.
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- The fullness of time has come. That work is finished. In verse 11,
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- Paul here is restating what he said at the beginning of this chapter. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace in God through our
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- Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.
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- And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. This idea of reconciliation denotes, as I said before, estrangement.
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- But this isn't just a forgiveness.
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- Reconciliation isn't just forgiveness. It's more than that. It is the bringing back together of two parties just as a husband and wife who have separated due to certain differences reconcile their marriage and come back together.
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- We who were enemies have been brought back together in Christ to our
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- God. There are many trials and sufferings that one can suffer in a lifetime.
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- There is nothing worse than a creature being estranged from its creator.
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- We can suffer the loss of possessions the loss of family even the loss of one's own life
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- It is nowhere near as bad as estrangement from God.
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- And also there is nothing that can bring more joy than the reconciliation of us to Him.
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- Lose all of your possessions. Lose all of your family. Come very close to losing one's life and you will have nothing more to say than Job.
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- The only thing that matters is that reconciliation. And we as Christians realize this.
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- This is why we are compelled by the Spirit to share the
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- Gospel because we would rather everyone be reconciled.
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- We know that that will not be the case but we do it in spite of that knowledge.
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- We do it with the knowledge of that. As Paul says in Philippians 1 19 -24
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- Yes, and I will rejoice for I know that through your prayers and the help of the
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- Spirit of Jesus Christ this will not turn out for my deliverance.
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- As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed but that with full courage now as always
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- Christ will be honored in my body whether by life or by death for to me to live is
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- Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh that means fruitful labor for me yet which
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- I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two my desire is to depart and to be with Christ for that is far better but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
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- Paul's preference is to die to leave this life and be with Christ.
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- There is no reason that every saint should not feel the same way as many saints that denied the emperor that deny governments and everything else that will not deny their
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- Lord in that moment feel the same way as should we all the time.
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- There's a word that's used in Ecclesiastes and I think I used it last week the word is hevel it means wispy smoke or something similar everything in this life he describes it as hevel
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- Christ is forever he is the one thing that cannot be taken from any of us being heirs in him cannot be taken from us our lives are to be lives of joy in that fact and while we may experience trials and hardships we have that which is most important our relationship with the one true
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- God we have been reconciled to him our heirs with our
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- Lord in the promise for this reason we can have joy while going through anything like Paul stand on our last day and have joy in the life to come knowing that our hope is in Christ and no one else that he is a king and a
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- Lord that does not forsake his people I'll leave you with a quote from John Stout we should be the most positive people in the world we cannot mooch around the place with a drooping hanging dog we cannot drag our way through life moaning and groaning we cannot always be looking on the dark side of everything as negative prophets of doom no we exalt
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- God then every part of our life becomes suffused with glory
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- Christian worship becomes a joyful celebration of God and Christian living a joyful service of God so come let us exalt
