Romans 5 (Part 1)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures verse by verse with No Compromise.

Romans 5 and the Glory of God in Salvation

Please take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 5 this morning. I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but salvation isn't mainly about you. Your salvation isn't mainly about you, it's the glory of the triune God.

And what God does, he does with excellence, he does with precision, and everything he does gives him glory. That's why our salvation is so great, not just for our benefit, although that's a wonderful blessing isn't it?

But it's great because whatever God does, he does with greatness. A salvation that doesn't save isn't great. A sanctification that doesn't sanctify isn't that great. A glorification that waits upon you to do something isn't that great.

But a salvation that extols God must be great, and you're going to see in Romans chapter 5 today, the best of the best. I say whenever I'm preaching, this is my favorite passage, I know. But I kid you not, this is my favorite chapter in all the Bible.

My friend Pastor Steve Fernandez died last week, he was just a few years older than I am, died of a brain tumor, and lots of faithful saints went and ministered to him. If you can only read one thing to me, when I'm on my deathbed, I want you to read Romans chapter 5.

I want you to read it to me, because it extols Christ Jesus. I will glory in my Redeemer, that's exactly what this chapter does. Oh, read me John chapter 10, I love that chapter. Read me John 17, I love the chapter.

Read me Ephesians chapter 2, I love the chapter. Romans chapter 5, this is my favorite of all time. Martin Luther said of this chapter, in the whole Bible there is hardly another chapter which can equal this triumphant text.

Now as you know, we've been going through Romans chapter by chapter. Usually we're going verse by verse, but we're doing a special series, Romans in 16 weeks. And out of all the weeks, that you need more time, and that you need a speaker to speak faster, today's the day.

Because really there are probably 15 sermons in here, but we're going to do Romans chapter 5, 1 to 21, so you can glory in your Redeemer, Christ Jesus. The best thing to do when you're studying the Bible is ask what's already happened previously.

And Paul has made it very clear, in chapter 1, we don't have righteousness. Gentiles, non-Jews, they don't have righteousness. They're sinful, they need righteousness. Chapter 2, there are religious people, they need righteousness.

End of chapter 2 in verse 3, Jewish people, they need righteousness. And as Scott read in Galatians chapter 2, how many people are justified by works of the law? No one's justified by works of the law.

We need a Savior. Here, the law of God is this simply, obey me completely and you'll live. Do this and live. Except after one sin, we're undone. So we need someone to do this and live for us. Everything turns in the book of Romans on chapter 3, verse 21, where the gospel method versus the law method is now explained.

Justification by faith alone. Sinners justified based on the work of another. Magnifying God's glory. I drove past on my bicycle the other day, a week ago, Oakdale Methodist Church, and the sign out front said, signs always are interesting to me, church signs, and it said, I'm not perfect, but Jesus thinks I'm to die for.

That might be a funny pop little slogan, but it is blasphemous. There's nothing good in me and nothing good in you to die for. The cross is magnified because even though we're sinners, Christ died for us anyway.

He doesn't die for good people, he doesn't die for perfect people, he dies because he's got a lot of great love for us, and that's exactly what the passage is talking about today. How are people saved in the Old Testament?

Romans chapter 4 answered the question, by faith alone. So we move to Romans chapter 5, and we see God's working. Two major sections here, if you're taking notes. The first section you can even see in your own Bible, is verses 1 through 11, talking about the benefits of justification.

Paul described justification in chapter 3, gave an illustration of it in chapter 4, and now he gives benefits to God's justification. And then in verses 12 through 21, he answers the question, how could somebody get benefits from another person?

How could one person do something and then I receive benefits from that person? So let's go to 1 through 11 first, and let me give you five blissful consequences, as one commentator calls them, of justification.

Five blissful consequences, five blessings, five things about justification that should make you have joy and excitement in the Lord. Fruits of justification, we could call this. And remember, what is justification?

You see in verse 1 of chapter 5, therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have been acquitted by God. On my office, in my study desk, I have lots of things. I have a clock, I have a lamp. But front and center, I have a gavel, a wooden gavel.

To always remind me of this very fact, because with the wooden gavel, you can use it for lots of different reasons. One is if people are too talkative in my office, I can stop them immediately, the loquacious people.

But it reminds me of justification by faith alone. It's like the judge looked at me and said, Mike, you're not guilty. Because Christ paid for my sins, my sins were credited to Christ's account, put in his spiritual ledger.

And he bore those completely. And then Christ's perfect life gets credited to my account. It's a declaration, it's a forensic term, it's a legal term. It's the opposite of condemnation. I'm no longer condemned, not guilty based on the work of another.

Not by my works, but by Christ's works. When you think of justification, you should always say to yourself, I should think about Christ's perfect life credited to my account. I should think about my life of sin credited to Christ's account.

I should think that the Father accepted this great double imputation by raising Jesus from the dead. And I should think that it is by or through faith. Not meritorious faith, but I just say, God, that was really great, I believe what you did.

Peace with God Through Justification

The first blissful consequence of justification by faith alone, and every one of these should just make you excited and thrilled in your soul. The first one is, you have peace with God. Believers have peace with God.

It's like he starts off with the best first. This is the top of the list almost. We have peace with God. Paul is now including himself. In chapter one, he said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Chapter two, you don't have any righteousness.

Chapter three, the Jews, they don't have any righteousness. And then in Romans chapter 4, 16 and following, it's back to we language. And this is present tense. We have and we always have. Anyone says, well, you could lose your salvation.

We have peace with God. How can I undo what God has done? God's justification gave me peace with him. Now what does this imply? It implies there used to be what before we were saved? War. Oh, I'm not mad at God.

Unbelievers might say. Well, the Bible would say God's mad at you. He's at war with you because God's holy and unbelievers, all unbelievers are sinful and there's war. And so Paul says, listen, when God looks at you in Christ, when he sees no sin in you because you're covered with Christ's righteousness, the war is over.

Victory, peace. The word peace means there's one party here. There's one party here. There's an irreconcilable difference. But because of the blood of Christ, his life, death confirmed by the resurrection, you bring something back together.

You bind it back together. Peace with God. Now, some people think, oh, this means I've got a peaceful feeling. Got that easy, peaceful feeling kind of thing. Well, you can look for peaceful feelings in Philippians 2.

This is objective. This is, you can feel like you're not at war with God, but he can be at war with you. But then Christ steps in and he assuages the wrath of God. That's the human side, the divine side, propitiation.

And on the human side, we receive peace with God. It's not a feeling. It's what we get from the prince of peace, Christ Jesus. It's not a state of mind. It's a fact. War is over. The breach that had occurred, Christ alone fixed.

Think about a world today, even with North Korea, everybody's talking about peace. Everybody wants peace. They want peace in the home, peace at work, peace in the church. It's an obsession. What you need out of all those, though, is peace with God.

The king does what to the rebellious, traitorous, AWOL servant. And the text look at it, peace with God. The word with there is a special word. It means a peace facing God. Standing before God with no shame, no condemnation, Jude verse 24 and 25, standing in his presence.

You watch people who get pulled in front of a court or they're in front of a camera and they're criminals. What's the first thing you see them do? Hot. They drop their nose is what they do. First service, I flung my glasses out into the front row.

I've never done that before. I'm wondering what if I can do that again and repeat it. People are hiding their face. You ever get called into your boss's office when you knew you did the wrong thing? It's not kind of chest out, you know, I'm doing this great thing or you do something wrong at home and your dad says, we need to have a talk and now the God of the universe, he created you to love him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself and done everything but that.

But then Jesus did love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, didn't love his neighbors himself. And when you go in here, peace with God based on the work of another. No wonder Peter said in Acts 10, the word which he sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ.

No wonder Isaiah 53 says he was wounded for our transgressions. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. You should be joyful, Christian, no matter what you're going through because you have peace with God.

Access to God Through Christ

Number two, the second blissful consequence of justification by faith alone resulting in praise is that you have access to God through Christ. You have access to God through Christ up into the point where you share in his glory.

Let's see in chapter five, verse two, all about God, all what he's done for us as our great savior and lover of our souls through him and through no one else. We Paul and the rest of us have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

The promised blessing of enjoying eternity in the presence of God and his glory. And you get that end by the beginning and that's access. Take a look at that word access there. Think about it. Access to God.

I don't know what's going on with me today. Access with God. If you were Jewish and you knew the Old Testament or if you're a Gentile and you know the Old Testament, you think, okay, the temple. I'm a Gentile and I can go no farther than the court of the Gentiles will allow me.

I'm a woman. I can go no farther than the court of the women will allow. I'm a priest. I can go no farther. I have to get, I have to stop at the Holy of Holies and there's a curtain there. I have no access.

I can't get in. There's a separation. That's what the temple was designed to teach among other things. But you know, when Jesus died, what happened to that veil that was in between? Ripped from the top to the bottom, ripped and now it stays open.

We have access to God. A third party has introduced us to God. Not for just kind of a little interview, just stay for a little while. One of my old seminary professors, he got up at four in the morning to write and so at 7pm, if you were over at his house for dinner, I was over there once, at 7pm he would stand up and say, thanks for coming, time to go.

I tried that sometimes at our house, it didn't seem to work. Thanks for coming, 7 o 'clock. But here this access is, you don't have to go. This isn't like for a little interview, did I pass? You have access and permanent access.

This is the word entree. You have entree to God, to remain with Him. Christ brought you to the presence of God and you get to stay. No wonder Lloyd-Jones says this is one of the greatest and most glorious statements that's found in all of scripture.

Why is it staggering? Because our God is a consuming what? Fire. Fire. There's nothing to consume in us because Christ has bore our penalty, the sacrifice was acceptable. First Peter 3 says, for Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might make you happy, make you wealthy, keep you out of hell.

Know what's the text saying in First Peter 3 .18, that He might what? Bring us to God. Before heaven, we have this, no trespassing, all violators will be prosecuted or if you live in the country, all violators will be shot and that's the way it is for every unbeliever because of their sin and because of God's holiness.

There's a no access sign, locked out like Adam and Eve driven out of the garden, like Cain driven out of the side of Eden and now because of what Christ has done, He's a welcome man. The welcome man is out, the red carpet's out and what happens, you see it in verse 2, and we exalt in hope of the glory of God.

We have hope now that He's introduced us and then there's glory one day, one day we get to be glorified. We have peace with God, that was taken care of in the past, what about our future? There's going to be a great future of glorification all based on justification by faith alone but you know what Mike, I suffer now, I have trials now, I have heartaches now, what about that?

Joy and Hope in Suffering

Blissful consequence number 3, believers can have joy and hope while suffering in the present. You can have hope and joy, verses 3 -5. Not only that, this is just extra, piled on, not only that but we rejoice in our sufferings.

You tell me an unbeliever who does that. How can a Christian rejoice in our suffering? Comma, knowing that suffering produces endurance, boy this is a good slap in the face to all these health, wealth, false teachers on TV.

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 out or dumped into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Christian friend, are you suffering? The trial isn't working against you. Who but God could take a trial that seems to be working against you and make it not work against you? It works for you, trials work for you.

I've got problems at home, I've got problems with myself, I've got problems with my family, I've got problems with my health, I've got problems with my job, I've got problems with other people, I've got problems with Christians, I've got problems with people who persecute me.

When you were an unbeliever you thought affliction and distress and pressure, you couldn't get out of it fast enough. It was no good, it wasn't right, there was no purpose, random chance, why am I, you know, I drew the short end of the straw.

And now even in this fallen world there still is trials but it's because God's care for you to sanctify you and get the dross off your life and reminding you though that this hope doesn't be, it's not put to shame, verse 5, because God's love has been poured out.

God still loves us in the middle of it to an end in glory and it's not just a stoic endurance, it's really going to happen. So Paul says, I'm going to exalt in glory and, you know, you can't say, can you, beloved?

Paul didn't know what he was talking about, Paul never suffered. God sustains to the end, encourages them with hope with this love that's just poured out. The way I would teach it to a youth group or young people, the idea of poured out here is when you get one of those big containers of electrolyte liquid, a football game, basketball game, the team finally wins and the two big guys come over and pick up the thing of Gatorade and they do what?

They just put their fingers in the top and they kind of flick a little out. You know, you're in a hard trial, in this world you will have persecutions and, you know, God loves you and he just gives you a little dabble, do you?

Because of the spirit of God's work it's, yes, you're having a trial and here it's just dumped out, that's the idea. Fourthly, believers should be joyful because Paul says a consequence of justification by faith is that we're reminded about God's great love for us in salvation.

God's Love Demonstrated in Christ's Death

Verses six through eight, picking up the love of God in verse five. We have peace with God, we have access to God, we can have hope and joy and suffering and it's all because God reminds us just how great his love for us is.

Does God love me in this trial? Does God care about me? Of course God loves you, of course God loves the elect. Look at how many times can you see the word died in verses six, seven and eight. I think you'll see die or died four times.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would even dare to die. But God keeps on demonstrating, keeps on showing, keeps on putting on display his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This is the proof of the love of God. What does verse six say? He died for the weak, people without strength, people that can't figure out how to save themselves. Inability, feebleness to take over such a task.

Be easier to build a Noah's Ark times five thousand than to come up with a scheme to save yourself. Just at the right time he sent Christ. No further testing needed at the time of our greatest need. This is a fixed appointed time.

He says by comparison here in verse seven, one will scarcely die for a righteous person. I'm not perfect but Jesus thinks I'm to die for. Hardly, though perhaps for a good person one would even dare even to die.

The worth is in the Savior who dies for us, not in our unworthiness. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Then don't you love the verse in verse eight? I hope you memorize this verse.

God continues to show his love for us. He renders conspicuous. It's the present tense. Always demonstrating. Prove is maybe a better word. He proves his love for us. While we are still sinners Christ died for us.

Does God love me? If you're a Christian you think of Calvary. And number five found in verses nine through eleven. Believers have more than just hope in a trial. They have the assurance that they'll never go to hell.

Assurance of Final Salvation

The assurance they'll never go to hell. If God had his son die for you when you were an enemy. How will he treat you now you're a friend? If you love enemies and die for them. How do you treat them when you're a friend or a child of God?

That's what he's talking about here. Will my final salvation be secure? Justification by faith guarantees it. Deliverance from wrath. Verses nine through eleven. Look for the much mores. More than that.

It's a common Pauline way to teach an argument here. Lesser to the greater. Since therefore we have been justified by his blood. I just have to pause there for a second. Lots of times we say justified by faith.

Justified by faith. Justified by faith. Yeah that's my faith. I came up with it. I did it. Somehow thinking my faith caused my salvation. Instead of my faith is a gift and a result of salvation. So Paul makes sure we're clear here.

You're not justified because of your faith. You're justified through your faith. And here he says justified by his blood. Much more. Shall we be saved from him from the wrath of God? For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.

Much more. What does he do to a son? More than what he'd do for an enemy. Now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. More than that. This ought to cause some people to praise the Lord. We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through whom we have now received reconciliation. Friends. I'm not asking you to be peppy, happy. Come up with something out of your own. So you can just paint a smile on your face. But true or false.

Christians should be the most joyous people in all the world. Food of the spirit is love and what? Joy. Joy. Now while I don't want to go too far back in my past. And live in my past sin of unbelief before I was a Christian.

Because even here Paul has got the focus on Christ Jesus. It only takes just a little turnaround to your life before you got saved. And you just take a little whiff of the odor. That your lifestyle was and who you were.

To make you think I know who I was. I know what I deserve. And then now I know who I am. But more importantly I know who God is. And I know where I'm going.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth. Is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church. Firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word.

Through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text. Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 830 and 11 AM. And Sunday evenings at 6 PM. We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org. Or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio. Do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.