March 5, 2017 Rejoicing Through It All by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Open your Bibles, if you would, to Romans chapter 5, and our text this morning

will be the first 11 verses of Romans chapter 5, so

that the Apostle Paul writes to us,.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him we also have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the

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.

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 shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

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 we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.

Much more, now that we have reconciled, we shall 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 are our verses, this is our passage, our text for this morning as we continue working our way through

this epistle to the Romans, this letter in our scriptures to us.

You might notice that the Apostle Paul has been arguing for some time to establish this one fact, this

one premier fact, this one that he has gone over so many times, and I've repeated it each time in the

preaching.

We've got to get this.

You've been justified by faith, faith that is solely centered in and based upon

the Lord Jesus Christ, his person, his life, his work on the cross.

This is what he's been arguing for throughout this epistle up to this point, and now in these verses,

Romans 5, 1 to 11, he draws out for us some of the implications

of this glorious truth that you have been justified by faith.

He does so with two statements of fact, and after each statement of fact, he's going to give us

some of the ramifications, some of the implications of that.

We'll get to this, and I will explain this structure as we go through, but I want you to be keyed for this, be attuned to this, that

we're going to have a statement, an indicative, something that is actual, that tells you reality, things as they are,

and after that, a consequent response on our part because of this truth

that he will bring out for us.

And what we have in the first of these statements of fact, this indicative,

is that we have access to the grace of God, and we stand in this grace of God.

We even thrive because of this grace in which we stand in the face of worldly travails.

That's verse two.

This is that first statement of fact.

In the second verse, through him, through Jesus Christ, we have obtained access by faith, an

indicative, something you can rely on.

The second of these statements of fact actually begins in verse six and goes all the way through verse ten,

and it describes to us, it tells us the fact, the reality of our abject

inability to have had any part in what Jesus Christ accomplished for us by his

death and resurrection, which of course is to be justified, to be justified before

God.

And in this, the second statement of fact, and we'll repeat these as we go through them, so don't worry about

having the outline locked into your head.

In this, like the first statement of fact, we respond with rejoicing.

This is really the outline of the message this morning, is two statements of fact, and after each

statement, after each indicative, after each truth, a consequent

rejoicing by God's people who by this word have been saved,

was the message to the church this morning.

Rejoice.

Rejoice, therefore, you Christian.

Rejoice in the hope of the glory of God and have no fear of trials.

Rejoice, O Church of God, Church of Christ.

It is Christ whose death has satisfied God's wrath and provided us this entrance to God's very

presence.

This is basically our message this morning, and this is all because what?

Because we've been justified, declared not guilty before God by the work of the

Lord Jesus Christ and our faith therein.

Let's begin with verse 1 in chapter 5.

Therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

This also is a statement of fact, but is not the first of the two that I'm going to work on.

This is the transition from chapter 4 and how that chapter ended, and chapter 5, and where the

Apostle Paul is now bringing us.

We've been justified by faith.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And he says, therefore.

In this case, the Apostle Paul is really summarizing what's come prior to it,

perhaps most primarily chapter 4, verses 23 to 25, which I'll read in a moment.

But also, we could stretch ourselves all the way back to chapter 1 and verse 18.

And the whole thesis that Paul has been giving us about man's universal

condemnation, just condemnation before God for his willing violation

of the law of God.

You Gentile, with the law written on your heart, you have been judged by that law.

You Jew, who follows the law written on tablets of stone, you have violated that law, and both in the same way

are judged by that law.

And as we've worked through this, we've seen that the only answer, of course I'm summarizing quite a bit of text,

the only answer to this is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom and by whom alone we can be

justified, declared righteous before God.

When Paul in verse 1 of chapter 5 says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, this summarizes all of that.

The closest connection of the word therefore is in the previous chapter, chapter 4

verses 23 to 25.

You can look up there, but let me read those to you.

Romans 4, 23 to 25.

But the words, it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also.

It will be counted to us who believe in him, that's Jesus, in him who was, it

will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, who was delivered up for

our trespasses and raised for our justification.

We who believe have been by this decisive, by this definitive act of God, justified, declared

not guilty, and therefore we have something.

We have a lasting peace with him, with God, by and through and because of Jesus

Christ.

This summarizes what's come before.

This is the springboard to what we're going to start looking at in a few moments.

Chapter 5 verse 2 through 11, those statements of fact with the consequent rejoicing.

But this first verse here in chapter 5, this first verse

is the answer to so much that's come before.

We've been justified by faith.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

That answers chapter 1 verse 18, which has God giving men up to their

lusts.

This answers chapter 1 verse 24.

This is the answer to chapter 2 verse 12, which says that whether sin was

committed under the law on the heart or law on tablets of stone, the judgment is the same.

This is the solution to chapter 3 verse 20, which says that by our own efforts, justification before

God is impossible.

This is the answer to chapter 3 verse 23, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

All these things, all these verses, they surround us with our sin.

It's sort of a strangulation.

We're kind of choked by it.

We're enmeshed in it, and we see our well -deserved condemnation.

And if we read this rightly, we look up and we say, oh Lord, what is the way out?

God, save me.

All this is answered here.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord

Jesus Christ.

Ties back to words that were not written for him alone.

It was not counted to him alone, this righteousness.

Tying back to this whole explanation he gave of Abraham and David, these two models of what it was

to have something imputed, something reckoned to them, something given to their account.

Not that they earned or deserved, not in a commercial sense, but by God's grace, by his

free grace, accounting, attributing, imputing to us this

righteousness.

It was not counted to him alone.

Like him as King David, there was that imputed righteousness bestowed upon him when he repented of his sin and he

trusted Christ for his forgiveness.

The word of comfort is that this blessed state is for more than just him.

For David, who ended with the last figure in chapter 4 there, is for all who believe

and trust God as he did.

David looked ahead to what his greatest son would accomplish, and we look back to what he did accomplish.

The faith and the blessings are the same.

And so the beginning verse here, therefore we've been justified by faith.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, taking us back to this whole argument that's been going on before, and

perhaps most primarily, this imputation, this reckoning, this giving, this charging

to your account, the righteousness of Christ for all who believe in him.

And now we're led to rejoice in the Lord for what he has done.

Salvation was one for us at the cross where God made final our redemption, but that said,

our salvation is also a process.

Salvation is a fact.

It's been one.

Those who have faith in Christ are indeed saved, but it's also a process whereby we grow in

holiness, grow in sanctification.

We become more and more like our Savior as we work out the ramifications of our salvation with

fear and trembling.

Paul exhorts the Christian to reflect on these two bedrock truths, both of which should bring forth acclamations

of joy and rejoicing in us.

The first of them begins in verse 2.

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.

There's an imagery here, this idea of access, the images of a royal chamberlain granting someone

entrance into a king's chambers.

It's like what happened earlier this week, in a way, where the president went into the joint Congress and

the sergeant -at -arms calls out in a loud voice, says, Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States,

and so introduces them into his presence in that sense.

It's like that when it says that we have access by faith, speaking of access to God

himself.

Now we don't need to be introduced to God, do we?

Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4 says that God chose us one at a time, individually,

before the foundation of the world, to be in his Son Jesus Christ.

But it is Jesus who, as it were, opens the door to the divine presence for us.

It's like he has one hand on our shoulder and he guides us in through the door, and with the other hand he

sweeps our vision towards the throne of grace where God resides.

It's like that, having this access, having this royal introduction into the divine presence.

And once we're there, once we're in his presence, our access to him

is direct and unfettered.

We have access to him by faith into this grace in which we stand.

A very important truth for us to slow down for just a moment and think about.

I ask, do you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?

Is he your Savior, Lord, Master?

If your answer is yes, if your answer is affirmative, you have access

to God by and through him.

Do you believe that he died for your sins, that his suffering paid your penalty for your sins?

Well then you are justified, and so the Holy God, whose person you had offended, has declared you not guilty, and he

accepts you.

This is the access Paul means.

And we must remember, as individuals, when we go to God in prayer, when we kneel down

before him, think of who we're speaking to.

Think of the cost, the price that was paid that we can't go directly to him.

This is what Paul's speaking of here, having this access to God, standing on that.

We go to him as a church.

When we together, in one spirit, worship our Lord Jesus Christ, go to God in

his name, it's the same.

We speak of God by his spirit being in and amongst and through us as we worship him together.

He's in us individually and in us severally.

This is what Paul is speaking of here, too.

Access to God.

Remember that we are standing in God, the Father's, the creator, the master of the universe.

We are in his direct presence, a privilege, a right, a joy, a

blessing purchased for us by Jesus.

This is the access Paul means.

And we stand here firm, we stand here unshakable, and we stand in this grace of our justification, this

grace of God that he would even think to justify a sinner.

Paul will write later, in chapter 8 and verse 33, says who shall bring a charge, any charge, against God's elect?

It is God who justifies.

He will not change his mind.

It is God who justifies, and he says here in this verse that we stand in this grace.

The word stand is very important.

It's in a form we call the perfect, and what that means is something that happened in the past that has benefit to us today.

It has effect on us today.

So upon faith we could say, when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes and

causes us to be able to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are then made to stand,

and we stand even now.

We still have the effect of what God has done.

He stood us before him in that way.

We're firm, we're unshakable.

We can't get knocked off this foundation.

God will not change his mind.

It's not his nature to change his mind.

The prophet writes, I am the Lord, I do not change.

Numbers chapter 23 verse 19 says, God is not man that he should lie, or a son of

man that he should change his mind.

Has he said, and he will not do it, or has he spoken, and he will not fulfill it?

You see, this grace of justification in which we now stand firm,

on which we stake our eternal destiny, we have to remember it came at the price of God's own Son.

Again, borrowing from chapter 8, who is to condemn?

It is Christ Jesus who died.

Our justification before God comes from a completed act,

which is Christ's death on the cross.

The declaration that resulted can no more be undone than can Jesus Christ's

death.

God can no more unjustify one he's declared justified than he can

unkill Jesus Christ.

The Lord died in time and space.

He came in history.

It's a fact that he did go to the cross and die for sinners.

And when he said it is finished, he meant that he had in himself borne all God's wrath for our sins.

This cannot be undone.

And so when the Apostle writes and says we stand on this grace, this grace of justification, this is

what we stand on.

Remember, a completed act, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the declaration as

righteous those who believe in him that has current effect now.

So though the historical event of the Lord's crucifixion some 2 ,000 years ago, the effect of it,

if you believe in him, is with us even now today.

This becomes important as we go through the reason we're going to rejoice in this and stand firm on this.

Standing in God's grace and the hope of his glory means that we participate now in the blessings of salvation yet

to come.

Again, borrowing from later on in this book, for in this hope we were saved.

Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees?

We don't see the Lord Jesus Christ now.

We see him in Scripture.

We know him as we pray, as we submit to his spirit, as we study his word, learn more

about him.

But all this is just a foretaste of what is yet to come.

While we are here, we stand in this grace, stand firm and

immovable.

Paul goes on to draw the significance of this fact in our lives as we sojourn on this planet, as we go

through this world, this life that we have.

Chapter 5, looking at verse 3.

Let's look at verses 3 to 5.

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.

There's some amazing words to start with, aren't they?

More than that, justification before God, declared not guilty

despite all our sins, cleansed of our sins by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Is that not enough?

And we have access by grace into this faith.

That's not enough.

Our salvation secured is more than we could ask or even imagine.

And Paul says, more than that.

It's a phrase he's going to repeat in verse 11.

More than that, more than this grace of redemption, above and beyond even that, beyond

having an eternity in the presence of God ahead of us, purchased for us by our Savior,

we have now in this life cause to rejoice in whatever comes.

Rejoice in our sufferings.

Knowing the suffering produces, can we just summarize all that and say, good in us?

We stand.

We're solid.

We're implacable, immovable.

We are confident in our justification, so much so that even the trials in this life cannot

dissuade us from our faith.

He says we rejoice in this.

Rejoice translates to a word that is more commonly translated as boasting.

It's actually the same word we had back in chapter 4 and verse 2.

If Abraham was justified by his works, he has something to boast about.

With this word in chapter 5 and verse 3, we rejoice in our sufferings.

That's the same word as boasting in chapter 4 verse 2.

Chapter 3 verse 27, Paul asks where is boasting?

Of course, he then says immediately it is excluded.

Boasting, again, the same word that in your ESV Bible is translated rejoicing.

In the New King James it says we glory in our sufferings.

Most major versions stick with rejoice as we have it.

The Revised Standard Version does something that I really appreciate.

It uses the word boast.

We boast in our sufferings.

It ties it all back to the boasting in the previous chapters that I just cited to you, and it coincides with other scriptures

which allow for a proper cause of boasting, which is God.

As Paul says to the Corinthians, may it never be that I boast except in the cross

of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Boasting not in ourselves, not making ourselves grand, boasting in God and what he's doing

and can do and has done in and through us.

I think the Apostle has a thought process something like this.

If God can make something good, which to the naked eye is incredibly ugly, like

let's say the cross, if this God can take rampant sinners like us and

give us an everlasting hope in his glory, then there's nothing for it but to rejoice.

To boast in a God who could do something like that and would do it.

And here what Paul says is even our suffering in this world is for our good.

Even our suffering is caused to boast in a God who can do this.

Not boasting in ourselves, but in a God who's so great as to give as a gift his justifying

grace.

So suffering properly understood brings us from endurance to character to hope.

This word suffering, rejoice in our suffering, is a stronger word than just the trials of

life that we have living on this sin -crushed orb.

Those are real enough and as we sojourn here and see a world determined to celebrate what God calls

evil or to detest what he calls good, we might well join with righteous lot,

greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked.

But the word here, and I hesitate to try to pronounce it because I'm going

to stumble over it, is philipsis.

The Greek word is philipsis, T -H -L -I -P -S -I -S.

It's usually translated as tribulation as Jesus used it on the Olivet Discourse when he talked about the tribulation,

the philipsis to come.

Extreme and severe trials coming upon Jerusalem.

More often is used to mean persecution, which is the active

antagonism of the world against our faith, especially against those who hold to the

faith, trying to keep us from standing in the faith.

You know Paul's saying here, suffering is neither random nor useless.

It's neither bad luck or purposeless.

As we go through it, we find that by the grace in which we stand and stand solid by

the hope of glory which we have because of the grace that God has given, the hope of glory yet to be

seen, all this is resulting in our good.

It develops in us endurance and character and hope.

Endurance and all the pictures we can use for endurance, I mean they're so simple, but they make sense and they help us here.

How do you build up endurance?

If you're going to run a marathon, do you just jump out the door of your house, put

on your sneakers and go running 26 miles?

Of course not.

You start by running a few miles.

If you're me, you start by trying to walk around the block once.

You build up to it.

You could do it twice, five, six, seven times.

You build up your endurance.

The idea here is just like a muscle.

Suffering brings us endurance.

Now of course, if you stop training, then you stop building up endurance, don't you?

Isn't that simple?

If you're working out in a gym, lifting weights, if you're trying to run, anything you were doing, as

you continue in it, as you get stronger at it, you build up more endurance.

And if you stop, that's the limit of your endurance right there.

Paul's speaking of those who continue to go through, enduring the eclipses, the

trials, the tribulations, the persecutions of this world.

And as we go through them, as we finish that one finite, discrete race that God has put

before us, then we've built up endurance.

And then the next time it comes along, we say, yes, by God's grace and with his help, I can do this.

Instead of four laps around the track, I think I can make five, because I've seen the four before, and I have that endurance, and

I'm ready to build up more.

It builds up character, assurance, a strength of personality, if you will.

And finally, hope.

Hope in a God that sees us through.

Hope in a God that not just sees us through, but as we proceed, as we build up, as we

endure and build up our endurance and our strength, our hope is

built up.

Our hope is increased, because we see that God is doing as God has promised to do.

Endurance, some translations say perseverance, just the ability to see it through.

When we bear up under the trial, the tribulation, the persecution, our Christian character is enhanced.

And then when the new persecution, the new eclipses comes along, we're able to face it with a more assured

spirit, with greater hope, having trusted God before we find ourselves able to move to that path more

quickly and stay there more certainly.

And then Paul says the strength and character leads to that, just more and more hope, more assurance in God's

promises.

Read James chapter 1 verses 2 through 4.

Read 1st Peter chapter 1 verses 6 through 7.

They both expound the same truth, that God gives us our trials for our good, and as

we go through them, he's building Christian character in us.

Peter calls it faith.

There's a perspective that too many churches today have forgotten, too many Christians

don't focus on enough.

That suffering is for our good.

It's not something that we have to avoid.

We don't rejoice because we're suffering.

That would be almost ludicrous, but we can, we must rejoice in the good that God does, that he

intends by it.

It's perfectly fine, it's even biblical to pray for the suffering to come to an end.

With that prayer, let us rejoice in how it matures us and strengthens us in the Lord.

So our first statement of fact is that we have access by faith into this grace

in which we stand, and because we stand, our sufferings work

to our good, producing in us this endurance, this character, and this hope.

The second statement of fact is a little bit longer, but it works the same way.

Unindicative, if you will, a statement of how things are, a statement of reality, is in verses 6 through 10.

Take a look at that there with me in Romans 5 verse 6.

You know we've seen before when Paul uses the word for, he's answering a question he assumes readers would have.

It's something like this, how do we know that God means suffering for our good?

Answer, Christ died for you.

While we're yet weak, unable to do anything for ourselves, he did what no one else could do.

Christ, God's righteous one, died for the ungodly.

It's just what he says, isn't it?

Isn't it what Jesus said in the Gospels?

That he called to come sinners, not the righteous, to repentance.

Christ died for the ungodly.

It's a good place to pause and ask this question, did Christ die for you?

Do you know with all your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength, that Christ died for you?

Can you say with the Apostle Paul, Galatians 2 20, that the Son of God

loved me and gave himself up for me?

Is it personal?

Not just an intellectual idea that yes, I believe Christ lived and seemed like he died this crucifixion death,

and I understand what this means in terms of me.

Is it personal?

Can you say that he died for me, he gave himself for me?

I pray that you can because of all confessions we might make as individuals, this is the most important.

That Christ died on a cross is historical fact believed by many, but too many who can affirm that they

believe the historicity of his life and death cannot, they will not take the next step, which

is that his death was personally, not exclusively for you, but personally meant for you, for me.

For me, a weak one who could in no way do

for myself what God in Christ did.

If you can say that in all sincerity and faith, then you with the rest of believers from all times and all places are among the

ungodly for whom God gave his son, one of the ungodly for whom Christ gave

himself.

And if we understand that, the next verses fall easily into place.

Think about this, one would hardly consider the idea of dying for a righteous man,

and Paul's saying you might, you might think of giving your life for a good man,

doesn't give any definition here of a righteous or a good man, but he's saying you'd scarcely think about it,

not to denigrate acts of heroism that we read about with soldiers in war, where they give themselves selflessly

for the lives of others, often losing their life in the process.

Paul's in a different plane here, he's presenting us the case of someone who has time and space to think it through.

Not the immediate need for action right now, but able to consider whether or not this person

or that person is worthy of the sacrifice that it would seem to make to help them along.

I read recently of one of those cars that spun out along the Delta area here.

Remember, a bystander saw it and immediately jumped in and helped the person out of their car.

Well, Paul's thinking somebody has even more time than that.

Would you die for a righteous person?

He's thinking that you have the luxury of thinking it through.

Perhaps giving them a bit of a questionnaire, you know, how many good deeds did you do today?

How do you treat your wife and your children?

How are you at work?

And this sort of thing.

Okay, well, I don't know if you're righteous enough for this sort of a sacrifice.

He's talking about somebody who really has the luxury of time.

Yeah, so I thought I heard something else up there.

This is the ultimate manifestation of God's love.

He sent his son to give his life for sinners, not for righteous people, not even for good people,

for weak, for ungodly sinners, for smelly, messy, obnoxious, stubborn, unruly,

unclean, unwashed, undeserving, God -haters.

That's who Christ died for.

That's not too flattering, but that's what he says.

It's much the same thought we have in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 9.

You might want to turn there, actually, because this really informs the passage.

1 Corinthians chapter 6.

We're

asking the question, for whom did Christ die?

When did Christ die for us?

He died for us when we're still weak.

He died for the ungodly.

1 Corinthians 6 verse 9.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived.

Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,

nor thieves, nor the ungodly, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the

kingdom of God.

And the next words ring very true for all of us.

And such were some of you, but you are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified in the name of the Lord

Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

All these verbs, you are washed, you are sanctified, you're justified, are in the past.

These are not things that we accomplished ourselves.

They were done over us.

They were done for us.

We're passive recipients, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our God.

All credit, all glory to Him for this.

There's so many so -called religions that force people to work themselves up to becoming good enough

for some so -called God to accept you.

Think about this a moment.

Islam disallows the idea that you can even know if you're saved until the day that you meet Allah.

Roman Catholicism would rather see her adherents always striving to do more, to fill up the

cup of righteousness with their good deeds.

Always striving to do enough to impress God.

The reincarnation cults are even more hopeless, leaving it to some impersonal force they call karma

to determine whether you're going to move up or down the spiritual plane.

Always trying to earn, always trying to self -justify.

Are you like this?

I mean, very often I hear people say that they they would love to be a Christian but they're working on becoming good enough.

Have you ever heard anything like this?

As soon as I can quit drinking or quit smoking or quit cursing or whatever the case is, well then I'll come to church.

Hey, good enough?

I mean, is that you with all this striving?

Trying to make yourself acceptable?

I need to tell you something because if you're striving towards being good enough,

you set the standard impossibly high.

In fact, if you said you'll come to Christ when you're something more than just really miserably bad,

you're still setting the bar way too high.

I want to draw a picture for you.

Now I'm 61 and a half years old.

Multiple sclerosis has ravaged my coordination, my endurance to the point that I can barely walk around the block.

Now the world record high jump is held by a Cuban named Javier Sotomayor.

Do you know how high he jumped?

He jumped eight feet and three -quarters inches.

That was back, I forget when that was, but it was some time ago.

Eight feet and three -quarters inches.

You watch the YouTube on that, it's incredible that a person can do that, even go six or seven feet, eight

feet, three -quarters of inches.

For you to say that you will come to Christ when you're good enough is like me

saying I'm going to beat that record.

That sounds absurd, doesn't it?

But I'll tell you the truth, I have a better chance of jumping eight feet and three -quarters inches than you have in a thousand,

thousand, thousand lifetimes of good deeds to make yourself fit for heaven.

Christ died for the decidedly unfit.

And to just expand that example a little bit, if you had ten thousand times ten thousand lifetimes and did

all the righteous deeds you could think of every day during all those lifetimes, I have a better

chance of jumping ten feet without a running start than you have

in all those days to make yourself good enough for heaven.

The only explanation for this is the vast, the immeasurable, the inexplicable, the unbounded love

of God flooded down upon sinners.

I didn't say very much about verse 5 earlier.

I'm going to take it a little bit out of order now.

Hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit has been given to us.

This ties all the way back to Romans 1 verses 16 and 17.

Just the first few words there.

For I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

And here in chapter 5 verse 5, hope does not put us to shame.

We think of not being ashamed as not being embarrassed about something.

Instead, into being embarrassed we find ourselves, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, therefore I'm going to be bold about the gospel.

I'm going to be ready and willing to proclaim it anytime, any place.

Which of course we should be ready to give an answer for the hope that we have within.

But that's not what is meant here.

Not in verse 5, 5, not in verse 116.

I am not ashamed speaks of a hope, a trust, a faith, a confidence that is

rightly placed and it will never be proven false because of him in whom we have that.

And that's Christ.

My confidence in the gospel of God in Jesus Christ is secure and will never let me down.

Ever.

Not because of the strength or the fervor of our hope.

Not because we testify more often or more convincingly than anyone else, but because of him who is the object of our

hope.

Nor will he ever fail us in this life as he brings increases to our endurance, our character,

and throughout our lives confirms us in our hope.

In this hope that will never let us down.

And all this but a foretaste of the final hope, which is when we shall finally be like Jesus and we shall see him

as he is.

All this is the knowledge and the experience of his love.

The Holy Spirit poured into us this certainty of his love.

It was testified by him in the death of his son on behalf of marvelously

undeserving and unworthy and unqualified and unable sinners like me and

Lord willing like you.

That's your second statement of fact.

That Christ died for the weak, for the ungodly, for the incapable, for smelly, messy,

miserable, ungodly, rebellious sinners.

That's that outpouring.

That effusion of God's love shown in his son Jesus Christ

who died for our sins.

And so how do we respond to that?

If the first statement of fact leads to a response of rejoicing, this

access we have by faith in which we stand leads to rejoicing in our sufferings and now we know that Christ died for the

ungodly, he died for the undeserving, he died for those who could not accomplish anything that

Christ did to bring us to God.

How then do we respond to that?

Since therefore we have been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

For 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.

Justification by faith and was accomplished by Christ's blood.

His death is the only answer for our sins.

Now because of him, we're reconciled to God.

This is the basis for our peace that the chapter began with.

We have peace with God because we've been justified by faith in his gospel.

That justification is what reconciled us to him.

Reconciliation carries this idea of an exchange, enemies now friends.

It's really that simple.

We're enemies, that nature was exchanged to be God's friend.

All that was in us that was opposed to God has been set aside and exchanged for friendly relations.

It's important for us to note here that he did not reconcile himself to us.

God did not reconcile God to man.

That would require of him to change his very nature.

It's the other way around.

He reconciled us to him.

How can a holy God, one who's indignant against sin every day, be at peace with such as us?

Because by the blood of his son, applied to us by the Holy Spirit, apprehended by faith, our sins have been

covered.

They are no longer in his sight because they were placed on Jesus Christ.

And by this great act of God, the status of all who believe is exchanged from

enemy to friend, reconciled now to God.

And so we go on with rejoicing.

More than that, the same verbiage we had back in verse 3,

more than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received

reconciliation.

More than having hope in the glory of God, we boast where we boast in our suffering because of what God produces in us.

Now, more than the wonder we have that Christ died for miserable, for weak sinners, we rejoice, we

boast, we glory in this reconciliation that has been made final and made secure.

Just one more comment I want to make and then we'll close.

Look again at verse 9 if you would.

Verse 9 in Romans 5 and really the second half of it.

Much more shall we be saved by him, by Jesus, from the wrath of God.

I said a moment ago that you can't make yourself acceptable to God by your own efforts or by your own standards.

There is only one.

It's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his death for you, repentance for your sins, in faith believing that

God will attribute to you Christ's righteousness in place of your own.

You simply, you cannot reconcile yourself to God.

He can reconcile you to him but never the other way around.

And this he does by his Son Jesus.

And verse 9 puts the final nail in the coffin of any self -generated righteousness.

If you ask someone if they want to be saved, they often say, well yes, of course, I'd much rather spend eternity in a good place

instead of a bad one.

But now ask, from what will you be spared?

Many will then say, from my sins.

And I would say from chapter 5 and verse 9 in the second half of that verse, no.

Do not be saved from your sins.

There are too many.

They are too constant.

Another person might say, I want to be saved from hell.

Too many have been brought to terror about hell, the repository of all who refuse God's reconciling grace.

But again, to be saved from hell is a beggarly way to come to Christ.

Another might say, I just want to be better, which we've discussed enough.

The question I want to end with, the question I want to answer to end this, is from what must you be saved?

Much more shall we be saved by him, by Jesus, from the wrath of God.

The wrath of God, you see, didn't just go away.

It was poured out on Jesus Christ.

He bore it all on the cross until none remained.

Believe this gospel and be saved from, not your sins, from hell,

from just being bad.

Be saved from God the Father's holy indignation against your sins.

Believe this gospel.

Be saved from his wrath.

Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.

Not wrath.

That's all expended.

That's all on Christ.

By faith, he bore it in your place.

Believe this gospel.

Be saved from God.

Refuse to believe this gospel, and you will find that some wrath was actually withheld from Jesus Christ when he was on the

cross.

That wrath yet to be poured out upon all who do not believe this gospel.

A wrath yet to be given reserved for those who will not repent.

We've been justified by faith.

By faith, you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

He gives us the access to God, and on that grace, in that faith, we stand.

And we stand against all the trials and tribulations of this world, knowing that our good God brings good to us

by and through them.

Amen.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this day.

Thank you again for your word, for the sureness that we have in the death of Jesus Christ on behalf of sinners.

I pray Father that all who hear this word, have heard this word, who have not yet come to the Lord Jesus Christ, have

not repented of their sins, Father, would by the warning, by the admonition, by the truth of your

word, and by the grace and power of your Holy Spirit, Father, do just that.

That they will repent, and you, Father, would grant them to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and what he

has done.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.