Last time in Romans, Paul illustrated justification by faith by using the real-life example of Abraham. Abraham believed in the Lord, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. He was imputed righteousness by faith before he was circumcised. This means that both Jew and Gentile must be saved in the same way. The law can only leave us in debt to God and subject to His wrath. Our only hope is the righteousness of Christ credited to us by faith. He meets us when we are spiritually dead, and brings life to us where there was no life. We are born again and made into a new creation. This is possible because Jesus died for our sins and was raised for our justification.
Paul continues on that same topic, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Justified is a legal decree rendering someone just or innocent. Chapter 1:18-3:20 proved us guilty before God, but because of our faith in Jesus and what He did on the cross, our guilty sentence is changed to justified (just as if I’d never sinned).
Before coming to Christ, we were God’s enemies and under His wrath, but now, because of our faith in Jesus, the thing that made us His enemies (our sin) has been removed. We are now at peace with Him. Not only are we at peace with God, we have been given His peace. Jesus told His disciples, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (Jn 14:26-27) Paul also wrote to the Ephesians, “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation” (Eph 2:14) The peace of God in our lives is Jesus Christ who dwells in us through the person of the Holy Spirit.
Not only do we have the very presence of God dwelling inside us, we have access to the grace of God through faith in this same Jesus. Access means to have the privilege of approach. We get to approach unto God anytime because of our faith in Him. This word appears three times in the NT, here, in Ephesians 2:14, and in 3:12. In each instance, it is referring to the access we have to the Father and to the grace of God through faith in Christ. The author of Hebrews also writes, “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Heb 10:19-22)
The word “access” means that it happened in the past, but the results continue into the future. It is also unchanging (we are not in jeopardy of losing this privilege). This speaks to the security of the believer. If our sin could not stop us from receiving this access to the grace of God, then it cannot cause us to lose it either. If it could, then we would never know when we had lost it. What sin would be bad enough, or how many times after committing the same sin would the Lord say “that’s enough?” This creates fear and condemnation in the life of the believer, neither which are of God. The Scriptures state, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Tim 1:7) In summary, we are justified, at peace with God, and have access to the grace of God by faith which cannot be lost. It is for these reasons we can rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
It is for these reasons we can also glory in tribulations. Now, we don’t typically think of glorying or rejoicing in tribulation, but when God allows trials into our lives, there is a purpose. One of His purposes in allowing us to suffer is to teach us patience (perseverance). This is a character trait that is largely going by the wayside today. We have a whole generation who don’t know how to persevere through trials, but give up at the first sign of adversity. We have all heard the saying, no pain, no gain, and this is true in our spiritual lives as well. James writes, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-4) As we learn to persevere through trials, God uses this to build our character. Trials are God’s way of refining us to make us more Christ-like. I’ve heard it said that trials don’t cause us to sin, they only reveal what is already there. So, if we are feeling pressed and pressured from various trials, and the ugly comes bubbling to the surface, this is the Lord’s way of teaching us obedience which leads to more blessing in our lives.
So, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. Biblical hope, again, does not mean I wish something will happen, but it’s a confident expectation that God will do what He says He will do. When the Lord brings us through hard times, it gives us confidence He will then bring us through the next trial. This gives us confidence He will bring us through the greatest trial which is death, and bring us into eternal life.
The hope that comes from tribulation does not disappoint us, because it gives us the ability to comprehend the love that God has for us. He pours out His love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us at salvation. This seems to be speaking to an experience: It’s in those times of great trial that the Lord ministers to us that we sense His comfort and love, and we can, in turn, share this same love with others in their trials. We may not always sense His presence and love, but we can still rest in it by faith.
The proof of God’s love is in that, when we were still helpless, Christ died for the ungodly. Paul has already spent the first three chapters proving how hopelessly lost and incapable of saving ourselves that we were. Jesus came and died at the right time. The bible doesn’t tell us why God picked the time that He did to send His Son into the world, but there are some observations worth noting. First, at the time of Jesus’ birth, the known world was under the control of Rome, and it was a relatively stable and peaceful time in the empire. The empire had spread throughout much of Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East, and it had a great network of roads, kept safe by Roman soldiers. This greater ease of travel would have aided early Christians in spreading the Gospel, whereas it would not have been possible in other eras. Second, although Rome had conquered the known world, the Greek culture still prevailed. This meant that the common Greek was the trade language, and was spoken by most people in the empire, making communicating the Gospel possible to more people. Third, there was a great anticipation among the Jews that the Messiah would come. Fourth, the Jews had been under the Law for over 1,300 years, which was ample time for they and the whole world to see that no one could live up to its demands. The school master had done its job.
For Christ to die for the ungodly is an incredible thing, because most people wouldn’t die for a righteous man (someone who is moral in conduct. More people may be willing to die for a good man (someone who is also kind and benevolent to others), but it is against our nature to die for a wicked person. However, this is precisely what Jesus did for you and me.
God demonstrates (proves in action) His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God justifies man by faith in His Son, and love is His motivation for doing so. To help illustrate this, I want to go back to Genesis.
God told Abraham, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Gen 22:2) Most of us know the story, Abraham took Isaac his son, and left for the land of Moriah. When they could see the mountain that God had told him of in the distance, he laid the wood for the offering on Isaac, and he carrying the knife and fire, climbed the mountain with his son to the place that God had said. Abraham built an altar, placed the wood on it, and then bound Isaac to it. Just as he was getting ready to slay his son, the angel of the Lord spoke to him from Heaven, and told him not to lay his hand on him.
The parallels here are quite obvious. The area of Moriah is where Jerusalem would later be, and where Salem was in Abraham’s time. So, it was the same region, and some believe it was the same place that Jesus was crucified. Isaac carried the wood up the hill, and went in agreement with his father. He submitted to the will of his father, even to the point of allowing him to plunge a knife into him. Jesus carried His cross towards Golgotha, and submitted to the will of His Father, even unto death. The author of Hebrews later tells us that Abraham was acting in faith that God would raise him from the dead (Heb 11:17-19)
In Bible interpretation there is something called the principle of first mention. The first time something appears in the Bible, it often is the clearest and simplest explanation of a certain biblical truth, and the Holy Spirit is teaching us something that will help us understand the same truth found later in the Scriptures. This is by no means a hard and fast rule, but there are some examples that are quite compelling. As we discussed last time, Genesis 15 is the first time that the words “believe” and “righteousness” appear in the Bible, and Genesis 22 is the first time the word “love” appears in the Bible. This is no accident that this passage closely mirrors the cross, for the greatest proof of God’s love is what Jesus did on the cross for you and me.
Much more then, since we have been justified by His blood (the price has been paid), we shall be saved from wrath through Him. As believers we are not appointed unto wrath (1 Thes 5:9), and this is one of the primary reasons I believe Christians will not be here during the tribulation, a time of God’s wrath on sinful humanity. If we were reconciled to God when we were His enemies through the death of His Son, how much more will we be saved by His life. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s stamp of approval that everything Jesus did and said are true. More than that, we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have received reconciliation (being restored to Divine favor).
God, beyond a shadow of a doubt, has proven His love for us by sending His Son to die for us when we were His enemies. The word love has been heavily abused in the English language, but is rich with meaning in the Scriptures. The Vine’s dictionary states the following regarding the love of God in its verb form: “In respect of agapao as used of God, it expresses the deep and constant "love" and interest of a perfect Being towards entirely unworthy objects, producing and fostering a reverential "love" in them towards the Giver, and a practical "love" towards those who are partakers of the same, and a desire to help others to seek the Giver.” God loved us when we were altogether unworthy of it, and it was this sacrificial love that caused Him to go to the cross for you and me. It is this same love that we can have toward Him and to one another. In the remainder of the chapter Paul will speak to the relationship between sin and death, and contrast this with the grace of God that reigns through righteousness unto eternal life.
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