Saved from Wrath

Romans 5:1-11

 

Good morning!  We’ve got more good news from Romans today.  God is good. 

We’ve gone through four chapters in Paul’s letter to the church at Rome.  We’ve talked about the introduction and theme of this letter which is the righteousness which comes from God rather than from anything we do.  It’s summed up in Romans 1:16-17:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.  For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed--a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”  —Romans 1:16-17

After this statement, the letter explains how all people are unrighteous apart from God.  The remainder of chapter 1, all of chapter 2, and well into chapter 3, the situation of all people is made clear both for Jewish and non-Jewish persons.  We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (3:23)

But wait!  There is hope.  God sees and knows our helplessness.  He made a way for His righteousness to be applied to us.  The word impute has come to be used in English translation of Scripture.  Last week, we sang the first couple of verses from Psalm 32 which is quoted in Romans.  The song says, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity.”  That’s the NAS, New American Standard translation.  Impute means to credit, ascribe, or attribute something.

The word has been around for a long time in English, since the 14^th century which is essentially the beginning of “modern” English.  Impute comes straight out of Latin, imputare.

In Christ, the Lord does not impute iniquity.  God does not attribute our iniquity to us.  Instead, He places it on Jesus.  Through Christ, the Lord imputes Jesus’ righteousness to us.  God credits righteousness to those who trust Jesus for salvation.  The end of chapter 3 explains the principle that righteousness is credited to us by faith.  Chapter 4, which we looked at last week, illustrates this principle of righteousness credited by faith in the life of Abraham.

Today, we start in chapter 5.  In it, we will see some of the fruits of the righteousness which God has given to each believer.  It’s good stuff, so let’s pray and get started.

Lord God, thank You for changing our lives.  Thank You for working out salvation and justification and reconciliation and eternal relationship for every believer through Jesus and His sacrifice.  Teach us and encourage us through this passage today.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

We’ll start with verse 1.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. –Romans 5:1

I already talked some about what has come before.  What is the therefore there for?  In light of what God has done, that He has made a way to have His righteousness through faith, we have peace with God.  That phrase is the verse on the front of the bulletin this week.

We have peace with God.  To me, that’s a tremendously exciting thing.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace with God.  I don’t know if you’ve experienced relationships which are or seem conditional, where what someone thinks about us depends on how we behave or perform or something else that depends on us.  Apart from Christ, it’s almost impossible not to think this way.  God’s not looking at what we do to decide whether or not He loves us.  When we have faith in Him, He sees Jesus’ righteousness.  We are justified through faith.

This peace is not simply a warm and fuzzy feeling of peace, but our objective status.  We have a new relationship with God.  Once we were His enemies, now we are His friends.  In Ephesians 2:15-16, we see that through the cross, God has put away our hostility toward Him and each other.    In Colossians 1:21-22, we read that “Once [we] were alienated from God and were  enemies in [our] minds because of [our] evil behavior.  But now He has reconciled [us] by Christ's physical body through death to present [us] holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”

We are holy in His sight, without blemish, free from accusation, and we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ …

…through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.  –Romans 5:2

Through Jesus we have access.  Jesus brings us into the presence of God.  Oftentimes, we think of the scene in Matthew 27:51 where at the moment Jesus cried out and gave up his life, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  The earth shook, the rocks split, and the tombs broke open.”  When that great curtain in the temple was torn, we can see a physical symbol that separation between people and God has been removed.  We have gained access to grace through Jesus.  In this grace, we stand …

Melissa did some tidying up in our bedroom this week, mainly because we switched sides of the bed.  I tended to be hot on my side and she cold on hers, so we swapped.  We swap every now and again.  Some folks will tell you that when you get married you should pick wisely because you will always sleep on that side of the bed even if you travel together.  For us, it’s not that big a deal.  The tidying up came because my stuff was on the side she moved to, and her stuff was on the side I moved to.  Out of this, a slender volume was found among many other books.

It was Watchman Nee’s short book titled, Sit, Walk, Stand.  It is a book about the Christian life based on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  Ephesians 2:6 explains that “God has raised us up and seated us in the heavenly realms with Christ.”  It is a helpful book about Christian living.  You can find a good summary of the book at the end.

“The Christian life consists of sitting with Christ, walking by Him and standing in Him. We begin our spiritual life by resting in the finished work of the Lord Jesus. That rest is the source of our strength or a consistent and unfaltering walk in the world. And at the end of a grueling warfare with the hosts of darkness we are found standing with Him at last in triumphant possession of the field.” (p.78, Sit, Walk, Stand, Watchman Nee)

If you’re feeling somewhat off balance in your spiritual life, this is a good reminder of what we need to do to get situated or settled or secured.

“Whereas God worked six days and then enjoyed His sabbath rest, Adam began his life with the sabbath; for God works before He rests, while man must first enter into God’s rest, and then alone can he work.” (p.16, Sit, Walk, Stand, Watchman Nee)

That’s where the sitting comes in.  As to walking, it appears several times in chapters 2-5.  Ephesians 2:10 talks about how God created good works for us to do beforehand and that we should walk in them.  In keeping with that verse, Watchman Nee wrote …

“The all-important rule is not to ‘try’ but to ‘trust,’ not to depend upon our own strength but upon his… Too many of us are caught acting as Christians. The life of many Christians today is largely a pretense. They live a ‘spiritual’ life, talk a ‘spiritual’ language, adopt ‘spiritual’ attitudes, but they are doing the whole thing themselves.” (pp.38-9, Sit, Walk, Stand, Watchman Nee)

Keep in mind that Sit, Walk, Stand was published in 1957.  “There is nothing new under the sun.”  (Ecclesiastes 1:9) Or as Malcolm Muggeridge has said, “All new news is old news happening to new people.”

Finally, looking at standing … Ephesians ends (chapter 6) with the familiar passage on the armor of God and spiritual warfare … ours though is a unique kind of battle …

“Today we do not fight for victory; we fight from victory… When you fight to get the victory, then you have lost the battle at the outset. … “Because victory is His, therefore it is ours.” (p.55-56, Sit, Walk, Stand, Watchman Nee)

Let’s look back at Romans 5:2.  We stand in grace, not on our own, but in the victory of Christ.  In His victory, we are able to boast.  We don’t boast in ourselves, rather if we boast in anything, we boast in the Lord.  Jeremiah says it this way …

This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD.—Jeremiah 9:23-24

Jeremiah does not negate that there are wise or strong or rich people, but these are not things that we should be prideful about.  Paul quoted this Jeremiah passage in both letters to the Corinthians.  Let’s take a look at I Corinthians 1:28-31 …

God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord."—I Corinthians 1:28-31

Jesus is wisdom from God, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.  He is our boast.

Romans 5:2 ends with the hope of glory.  A couple of weeks ago, we talked about falling short of the glory of God as mentioned in Romans 3:23.  In Romans 5:2, we are talking about the hope of the glory of God.  In this case, the glory of God applied to us is what God intended humankind to be.  It is the glory which Adam and Eve had before the fall, living in perfect righteousness in an undamaged relationship with God.  That glory is restored to each believer through Christ.  Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10 both talk about putting on the new self which is “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” and “is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”  Christ will bring about the ultimate fulfillment as described in Hebrews 2:5-9.

It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified: "What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet." In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. –Hebrews 2:5-9

A future time is coming where we will see everything set right and our place will be one of glory and honor because of Jesus who we do see now.  Not only do we look to that glory to come, but we glory in the present, but perhaps not in a way we would prefer?

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  –Romans 5:3-4

Glory in suffering?  That doesn’t sound like much fun, does it?  Well, we are not to have some kind of morbid fascination with suffering.  We’re not rejoicing because of suffering.  Instead rather, we are rejoicing “in” suffering.  Years ago, I came across this quote from Peter Marshall.  Peter Marshall was a pastor as well as chaplain to the US Senate in the 1940’s.  He also was the husband of Catherine Marshall, the author of the book Christy as well as a book about her husband titled A Man Called Peter.

There are in our day some philosophies growing in popularity that teach the attractive idea that God always reveals His love by removing the distasteful and the unpleasant from our lives. But where in the Bible do you find support for this attractive and alluring concept? Certainly not from the lips of Jesus. On the contrary, you are startled to discover how plainly and bluntly Christ told His disciples to expect trouble. “In the world ye shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer.” That is His message. “Be of good cheer ... I have overcome the world.” Christians are not spared!? The calamities of life knock on their door with the same startling swiftness? There is no hint or intimation anywhere in the Gospels that they who follow Him shall never hunger or be out of work or be left alone. No, there is no hint of such immunity. But, there is the promise of something far better. The promise of deliverance. Not from these things, but in these things. There is an air of reality about the Gospels!—Peter Marshall

James 1:2-9 is also a familiar passage which talks not directly of suffering but of trials which test our faith.  Likewise, James speaks of how these events bring about perseverance.  This process is necessary and beneficial to bring about maturity of which character must be a part.  Finally, it says in James that these trials and testings bring about completeness in us.

What happens or what should we do if we don’t understand such difficulty and circumstances?  We should ask God.  We should not doubt that God is there, that He hears and understand.  When He does give us instruction, we should be willing to take it and obey.  If we don’t, then James says we run the risk of being off balance, confused, and struggling.

We can rejoice in suffering because we have God’s assurance that it is not meaningless.  One of the most challenging things I can recall in my walk with God is when another believer told me that a trial that I was experiencing was just a mundane thing that people go through.  I’m sure I’ve unwittingly done the same thing to others.  But that’s not what God’s Word says.  It says that God’s purpose in suffering is to produce character leading to hope.

And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.  –Romans 5:5

Other translations say not only does hope not put us to shame, hope does not disappoint.  We don’t have a wishful thinking sort of hope.  It’s not a self-help kind of pull yourself up by your proverbial bootstraps kind of hope.  It’s not “if you just believe hard enough, then you will get what you want” kind of hope.  Rather, we have blessed assurance founded in the love of God revealed by the Holy Spirit living in us.  Additionally, we have assurance objectively demonstrated in the death of Jesus.  God’s love poured out for us.

There is a familiar progression from verse 1, to verses 2, 4 into the first part of verse 5, and then on to the end of verse 5. Faith, hope and then love appear in succession as in I Corinthians 13:13, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” and also in I Thessalonians 1:3, “We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

I Thessalonians 1:3 is interesting because we see that hope inspires endurance.  Walking through times of suffering with perseverance while growing in character produces hope which in turn inspires more endurance in us.  Let’s look back at Romans 5:5.

And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.  –Romans 5:5

The NIV Study Bible points out that the expression “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” is a present state resulting from a past action.  So we can understand it in this way … At belief in Christ, the Holy Spirit poured out His love in our hearts, and His love for us continues to dwell in us since then and always into the future.  How?

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.  –Romans 5:6-7

Jesus came at the appointed moment in God’s redemptive plan Galatians 4:4-5 explains, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”

Christ’s love is grounded in God’s free grace and is not the result of any inherent worthiness in us.  It is rather lavished on us in spite of our undesirable character.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  –Romans 5:8

We were neither righteous nor good, but sinners when Christ died for us.  The beginning of Romans 3 is a collection of Old Testament quotations which underscore the fact that both Jews and Gentiles are under the power of sin.  No one understands about God and what is right.

In the reverse of verse 7, a good and perfect person died for bad and unrighteous people.  It is the perfect demonstration of love.  Perfection sacrificed to deliver imperfection.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him! –Romans 5:9

Here is our message title.  As a direct result of being justified, being made right with God, we are saved from wrath.  This concept also appears in chapter 3 where it talks about Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement.  By shedding His own blood, Jesus was a sacrifice satisfying the righteous wrath of God.  Without this, all people are justly destined for eternal punishment.

God cannot accept imperfection, but we cannot provide perfection.  God’s holiness demands punishment for man’s sin.  God therefore out of love sent His Son to make substitutionary atonement for the believer’s sin.  In this way, the Father’s wrath is satisfied; His wrath against the Christian’s sin has been turned away and directed toward Christ.

God’s forgiveness must however be received by faith.  Saving faith looks to Jesus in His sacrificial death for us.  Jesus is the one who turns aside God’s wrath, taking away our sins.

I Thessalonians 1:9-10 explains this kind of saving faith.  “You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead--Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.”  The Thessalonians turned away from their former beliefs, the idols they had trusted in.  Then, they trusted in and served God looking to Jesus’ promised return.  Each individual needs to come to this point of turning away from belief in themselves, their effort, intentions or works, and trusting Christ as our all in all.

For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! –Romans 5:10

We are the belligerents.  God is not the one who turned on us.  I love that phrase from the hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness” that says, “There is no shadow of turning with Thee.”  It is also in Scripture in the King James Version.  James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”  Isn’t that a glorious description of the character of God?  There is no variableness with Him.  We don’t have to worry about God changing.  We don’t have to wonder whether He got enough rest or if He might by hangry (which Microsoft Word now recognizes as a properly spelled word.) As Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Looking back at Romans 5:10, hostility must be removed from us for reconciliation to be accomplished.  God took the initiative to bring this about through the death of His Son.  Carl shared last week how God made His covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15.  It is one of the most amazing parts in Abraham’s amazing life.  God had Abraham prepare sacrifices in the customary way when a contract or covenant was made between two parties.  The idea was that the larger animals would be cut in two halves and the smaller ones would be separated as pairs.  Then, the two parties would walk through the middle of them as a commitment that they were bound to fulfill the contract even if it meant their own hurt or even death.

Then, as Carl explained, God caused a deep drowsiness or sleep to come over Abraham, and God went through the sacrifices on the covenantal walk alone.  God in essence said, “Abraham, this is my covenant with you.  Man of faith, I promise to make you the father of many nations even if it means I will die.”  God didn’t make or even allow Abraham to walk with Him.  God walked alone.

Later, when Abraham walked up Mount Moriah thinking that he would have to sacrifice his son Isaac, God stepped in.  At that time, He provided a goat as a sacrifice, but ultimately, God’s one and only Son Jesus would be the sacrifice which would fulfill the covenant which God had made with Abraham.

After reminding us that Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, Galatians 3:7, 9 says, “those who have faith are children of Abraham … those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”  That’s why the kids’ song Father Abraham says, “I am one of them and so are you.”  By faith we are part of that heritage which began with Abraham.

To reconcile means to put an end to hostility.  This was done by Jesus.

We can also see parallels between verses 9 and 10.  I put them together on the same slide.  Once I started putting colors on the similarities, I practically ended up with a rainbow.

We were, or have been justified and reconciled.  These are accomplished by His blood, through the death of His Son.  With that foundational truth, how much more (or with what great confidence) shall we be saved through Him and His life.

We are saved through His life. Jesus is not dead, but alive!  His life is never-ending.  The ministry of the resurrected Christ for His people continues.  Christ lives on to keep us His.  Hebrews 7:25 says, “Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.”  Why can’t you lose your salvation?  You can’t lose something which Jesus is keeping for you.  He always lives.  He always lives to intercede for you.

Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. –Romans 5:11

Reconciliation and justification with God are both a present reality.  You have them now.  This is something to rejoice about.  We can boast in this.  Let’s do it!

That concludes our passage for today.  But, I’m going to put my toe over the line into next week’s passage.  I think Brian will be giving the message next week.  Hopefully, he won’t mind.

The entire passage of Romans 5:12-21 contains a contrast of Adam and Jesus.  Adam introduced sin and death into the world.  Jesus brought righteousness and life.  It’s been a number of years, but I was listening to the New Testament on an audio bible, and verse 12 set a contrast in my mind.  Romans 5:12 says …

Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned. –Romans 5:12

When I heard that, it made me think that each person is one man or one woman through whom sin or righteousness come.  Whichever one we bring then tends to multiply.  Sin produces more sin, righteousness and grace tend to counteract sin.

James 1:20 talks about the ineffectiveness of human anger.  Human anger can bring about a number of things.  One thing it doesn’t bring about is “the righteousness that God desires.”

There is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson that says, “Grow angry slowly, there is plenty of time.”  Last week, I was sharing a list of items from Ephesians 4:31 by email.  I went through the list one item at a time rather than communicating the whole list at once.  I would encourage this in general when you’re reading lists from Scripture.  If you take it one item at a time, you might find something that hadn’t been apparent to you before.

The list gives a number of different kinds of anger and bitterness.  The full list is included in this phrase, “Let all [insert list here] be put away from you.”  There is an item on the list which is translated “clamor” in the version I was sharing (ESV).  So, “Let all clamor be put away from you.”  Except, what’s clamor?

Maybe you will think this is silly, but I wasn’t really sure.  In short, clamor is crying out wordlessly or it can mean shouting words.  The Greek word appears quite a bit in Scripture … as a noun only 6 times, but as a verb like 60 times.  I haven’t made a full study of all the usages, but sometimes that word translated clamor is a good thing, sometimes it’s a neutral thing, and sometimes it’s a bad thing.  In light of the Ephesians 4:31, I’d say Paul is saying that we should put aside raising our voices in anger.  If you were ever looking for a verse which specifically says that, well there you go.  Please use it responsibly.  Up till this point, I’ve only shared it once in that email and not in a moment of tension.

There is another aspect of Ephesians 4:31 which I think is really crucial.  It says to “Let these things be put away from you.”  We can’t set aside anger or bitterness or gossip or any of the rest in our own strength.  We’ll just keep coming back to them in the “heat” of the moment.

We have to be led by the Spirit.  The fruits of the Spirit which take the place of the wrong acts of the flesh are fruit.  They have to grow.  We do have to say no to the wrong things, but we also need help to let the wrong attitudes and actions to be put away.  Galatians 5 talks about how we should keep in step with the Spirit.

I’ll go back again to Watchman Nee, also from Sit, Walk, Stand for an encouragement of how to keep in step with the Spirit.

“Too often we think that the actual doing is what matters. We have to learn the lesson of not doing – of keeping quiet for Him. We have to learn that if God does not move we dare not move… The abiding principle of all true Christian work is: ‘In the beginning God…’” (p.67, Sit, Walk, Stand, Watchman Nee)

As we think of the wonderful verses we have read today in Romans 5, let us seek God and draw near to Him.  I didn’t have time to unpack it, but I was listening to a podcast at the end of this past week.  It was entitled, “Live Deeper.”  So often, we’re concerned with what is on the outside even of ourselves.  You remember that verse where God talks to Samuel before he reveals that the young shepherd boy David will be the next king of Israel.  God says, “People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”  I think we often look at the outward appearance of ourselves more than the heart.  Let’s live deeper and invite God in to continue that work which He started when we first put our trust in Christ because, as we read in Romans 5:5, “God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” remembering that it has been poured out into us and continues to dwell there always and forever. 

Let’s pray:

Lord God, thank You for salvation, justification and reconciliation with You through Jesus.  I pray that You would continue to impress these truths on our hearts each day.  Help us also to be filled with Your Holy Spirit and to bear much fruit.  All this we pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen.