Romans 5:1-11

The Hope of Glory

It must be remembered that Paul has neither founded nor visited the churches in Rome to which he now writes but he has written this letter in hopes of receiving their support for his evangelistic work in the West.  He writes primarily to make known the gospel, which he has been set apart to proclaim to the Gentile people and which he is eager to preach to all who are in Rome.

But why?  Why is Paul so eager to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ?  Because the gospel transmits God's power to bring about salvation to all who believe.   The gospel both reveals that God is just and at the same time the justifier of sinners who put their faith in Jesus Christ.  We have all rebelled against God and are helpless under the power of sin.  But God's power is greater than our sin and through the sacrifice of His Son, God has rescued us from His wrath without violating His holy justice. 

Now beginning in chap. 5 and running through chap. 8, Paul writes to assure you that your final salvation is secure because of the work of Jesus Christ and you will certainly enter into the glory of God when Christ returns.  Nothing can stand in your way.  Not death, not sin, not the law -- nothing!  God's judicial verdict of your right standing before Him has already been declared and made certain and Jesus Christ has finished the work.  He has triumphed over all that stands in your way of certain glory -- there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But we live between the times don't we?  On the one hand, we have already received God's declaration that we are right with Him forevermore.  We have already been justified.  But on the other hand, we must wait until the final victory, which we will all receive when we enter into His glory at Christ's return.

So how do we live between the times?  How do we live the Christian life of tension and conflict between these two realms, two kingdoms?  We have already been transferred to God's heavenly kingdom through God's justification of us but yet we still live in the kingdom of this world where the powers of that old are still very much alive and continue to have great influence upon us.  Temptations to sin, suffering of the body, and ultimately the last enemy -- death!  How do we survive in the middle of these two worlds?

Every answer that Paul gives is ultimately rooted in our union with Jesus Christ.  We are one with the author and finisher of the race.  He has completed the journey and now sits in the heavens at the right hand of God victorious over all our enemies.  We are in Him and His life is our life through faith.  We forever rest in His finished work of the cross and His glorious resurrection for our right standing before God.  As Paul says in our passage this morning:  we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

In fact, Paul now celebrates with great joy the benefits we now possess because we have been justified by God in Christ.  Martin Luther wrote of this passage that Paul "speaks as one who is extremely happy and full of joy."  Why?  Because we have been justified by God, which means we have been reconciled, or better yet that God has been reconciled to us so that we now have peace with God (vv. 1, 11) and we have full assurance of hope in sharing in the glory of God (vv. 2, 5, 10).

The passage begins and ends with the word of reconciliation that brings us peace with God (vv. 1, 11).  But hope is the clear, central thrust of the passage (vv. 2, 5, 10).  Even your sufferings as a Christian lead to hope (v. 4) because your hope is rooted in the love of God revealed in the cross (vv. 5-8) and if God has done all of this for you in Christ "how much more" will you be saved from the wrath to come (vv. 9-10).

The note of the passage is one of complete assurance that God will in fact deliver you on the final day.

In v. 1 Paul sums up all that he has said in chaps. 1-4 by reminding you of your present condition before God:  You have been justified by faith.  By believing in Jesus Christ God has declared you innocent of all the charges brought against you for your rebellion against God.  You have been justified.  God's once-for-all judicial declaration that you are right before Him. 

The result of God's free justification of you in Christ is that you now have peace with God.  What is this "peace"?

Paul is not dealing with subjective peace in our inner soul, though that certainly may be the result of this peace.  Paul has in mind the objective peace, outside of us, in our relationship with God.  The word "reconciliation" picks up this theme throughout our passage (vv. 10-11).  The idea is that our relationship with God has been restored to one of friendship.  But how?

We must understand that God is the offended party due to our rebellion against him in violating His holy law, in not honoring Him as God but setting up our own idols as our gods, and by not giving him thanks for all He has made.  Because of our rebellion and unrighteousness, as Paul describes in chap. 1, God's wrath is upon us.  God, therefore, is the one to whom the atonement must be made to propitiate his wrath and reconcile him to us, resulting in our being reconciled to God. 

God has accomplished this reconciliation while we were the enemies of God (v. 10).  We were weak, ungodly sinners (vv. 6-8) when God in his love brought us into a new relationship of peace with Him.   

This peace with God comes through and only through our Lord Jesus Christ.  The person and work of Jesus Christ is the basis of all blessings we have received from God.  Just like justification, peace with God can be found in no other than in Jesus Christ our Lord.

But not only do we now have peace with God, but we have also been introduced and have continual access into the realm or life of grace through Jesus Christ (v. 2).  Grace is defined as God's unmerited, free benevolent acts toward His creatures.  But Paul is not simply referring to the gracious act of God toward us, but Paul is referring to the actual realm, the new state, which we have entered into in Christ. 

In Romans 6:14-15 Paul will contrast this new realm or life with the old life we once lived "under the law."  The believer in Christ is not longer "under the law," a realm of condemnation and death, but he is now "under the reign of grace."  Because of the work of Jesus Christ the believer now lives in a new status before God:  we are in a grace-based relationship with God.  Because of what Jesus Christ has accomplished for you, God now forever relates to you based upon His perfect work and treats you as He does His own Son. 

Every benefit that you now receive from God is given on the basis of grace.  Your entire relationship with God is now and forevermore based upon grace in which you now stand.

It is for this reason that Paul can speak of the unshakable, absolutely assured hope that we have in the glory to come.  Paul says that we exult or boast in the hope of the glory of God.  What does he mean?

The glory to come is the full enveloping of our lives in the presence of God that awaits us.  One day we will all stand in the glorious presence of God and we have absolute assurance of that standing based upon the work of Jesus Christ.

But how could a sinner ever stand in the glorious presence of God, seeing him face to face?  Remember how Moses longed to see the face of God and God told him that no man can see God and live.  But we have joyful hope, confident assurance that we will stand because we have been clothed in Jesus Christ.

It is for this reason that Paul can speak of our joyful boasting even in our tribulations that we currently experience (vv. 3-4).  Notice how Paul ties our future hope of glory to our present suffering.  It is because of the assured future glory that awaits us that our present tribulation not only doesn't remove our blessings in Christ but are actually occasions for boasting.

Paul's language is very specific.  We are not simply to rejoice while we are in the midst of sufferings but we are to boast in the affliction itself.  Why?  How?

Because we understand the times we are living in.  We live between the ages, the present evil age which includes our present pain, suffering, temptation, and death and the glorious age to come in which all pain, tears, and death are forever removed.  You rejoice even in your suffering because you know that this is not all there is.  You possess heaven.  You are loved by God.  You have peace with God, forever justified through faith in Christ.

Our absolute assurance in the heavenly age to come sustains and strengthens us to face our present suffering.  As Paul says in Rom. 8:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Rom. 8:18).

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:16-18).

The author of Hebrews stresses this when he reminds the Hebrew Christians of how they:

accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one (Heb. 10:34).

Knowing that this life is but a vapor, hear today and gone tomorrow, and that we await a future glory that will cause all our present suffering to merely fade away will sustain us through all the painful suffering that we must endure in this life.

But Paul further reminds us here that our present sufferings is actually the path or process of deliverance.  You are being conformed to the glorious image of Christ through your sufferings -- a refinement process that is actually working in you the glory to come.  Peter said:

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls (1 Pet. 1:6-9).

If our present suffering in this life is met with doubt in God's goodness and promises, or bitterness towards others, or despair and even resignation to life, the how is our view of suffering any different from unbelievers?

As Christians we look at suffering with confidence and rejoicing because we know what our present suffering is producing and where it is taking us.

Paul says that it is producing perseverance or endurance.  This term comes relates what suffering does for a Christian to the endurance of a long distance marathoner, which will enable us to run the race set before us right to the finish line.  Suffering produces "stick-to-itiveness."  But how?  Well, how does a long distance marathoner run long distances?  Does he just show up for the race one day, never having run further from the couch to the refrigerator and back to the couch again during the commercial?  No!  He has paid the price in blood, sweat, and many tears of pushing his body more and more.  Weight and stress have made him strong to endure. 

In the same way, suffering, rather than threatening or weakening our future hope of glory actually produces greater hope and certainty, which produces a tested and tried character, proven in the refinement process of suffering.  And that tested faith produces greater hope.  It is in suffering that our hope in Christ is exercised so that even in hopeless circumstances our faith in Christ is made stronger in an ever-deeper conviction and certainty of who we are in Christ.

It is with this conviction that Paul assures you that this hope will never disappoint you.  You will not reach the final day and be disappointed or put to shame for your present hope in Christ.  You do not need to fear that the last day will prove all of this present suffering to be worthless.  Rather, you have the sure confidence that the foundation upon which you are currently building your life and hope will prove secure and unshakable in the end.  Why?

Because the love of God has been poured out into your hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to you (v. 5).  You have not been merely the recipient of a small taste of God's love.   No.  God's love has been poured out on you.  Paul uses a word that connotes abundance, extravagance.  God has poured out his Spirit upon you so that you might know the fullness of His love for you.

God's love is active.  He gives to you and takes possession of you.

For the love of Christ controls us (2 Cor. 5:14).

It comes to your aid and strengthens and defends you.

If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:31-39).

This love takes hold of us and possesses forevermore.

And this love is so radically different from any form of human love.  In v. 7, Paul describes how human love, in its greatest, most fervent display, might motivate a person to give his or her life for someone who is good.  The highest love that humans demonstrate is to lay down their lives for someone close to them:  a spouse or a buddy in combat perhaps.  But God has demonstrated his love for us in that He sent His Son to die for people who hated him (cf. vv. 8, 10).

The very source of the love that has been poured out in our hearts is found in the Father who gives up His son to die for you at the cross. 

And look at the people Christ died for.  He came when we were weak and helpless, totally incapable of any good at all.  God's love for you came at just the right time:  when you were utterly helpless.  He came when you needed him most.  He came not for those who are well and perfect.  But he came for you when you were ungodly or godless.  Instead of pouring out his wrath upon you, he has lavished you with his love for you.  In contrast to the very best human love, God's love for you is demonstrated in that he came to rescue not good people but godless people -- while you were still sinners (v. 8).  He came to give up his life for his enemy (v. 10).

Now here is the key to your present hope (vv. 9-10).  If God has already accomplished the more difficult thing -- to send his Son to die for you - sinner, enemy - so that you might be reconciled to him and justified in his sight -- HOW MUCH MORE can he be trusted to accomplish the easier thing -- to save you, who have been brought into a peaceful relationship to Him, from His coming wrath.

Do you see Paul's amazing point here?  God has already accomplished the greater feat, the greater work.  He has completed your salvation in Jesus Christ.  Through his blood you have been justified (v. 9).  And if God has already done this, then what is it for him to complete your salvation in the end through the same work of Jesus Christ.  Both your initial salvation of justification and your final salvation of glorification is based upon the same selfless service of Jesus Christ for you.

While you were an enemy of God -- violating his laws, putting other gods in his place -- God came and reconciled you to Him.  How?  He poured out his wrath upon Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, in your place, so that he could pour out his love for you through the blood of Jesus Christ.  God gave his Son for you to bring peace to you.  His wrath has been satisfied.  The hostile estrangement has been broken and the two -- God and man -- have been brought together. 

Outside of Christ, the relationship between man and God is one of enmity with God.  But now in Christ, we have been reconciled so that our enemy has become our friend, our Father.

Notice how Paul includes the fullness of the work of Jesus Christ as the place where this reconciliation takes place:  in v. 9, we see how the passive, sacrificial obedient work of Jesus - the laying down of his life - is the basis for our present and future justification.  In v. 10, we see how the active obedience of Jesus - His life - is equally the basis for our past and future salvation. 

This is why Paul rejoices in v. 11 that everything we have from God -- all blessings from above -- come to us through and only through our Lord Jesus Christ.  And because our salvation is based solely upon the work of Jesus Christ, then we have perfect peace and perfect hope that our salvation is absolutely secure to the end and we will one day enter into the fullness of God's glory.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. 

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

When darkness veils his lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace.

In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, his covenant, his blood support me in the whelming flood.

When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay.

When he shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in him be found.

Dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.

Amen!

-SDG-