Destined For Glory Series

Chico Alliance Church

August 19, 2001

Pastor David Welch

“Destined for Glory”

Romans 5:2

Review

I. Receive the gift of God’s righteousness by faith 1-5

A. God proves every man needs His righteousness 1-3

B. God explains and illustrates His way to righteousness 3:21-4:25

C. Justification results in multiple benefits 5:1-21

1. Benefits of justification highlighted 5:1-11

Therefore, having been justified by faith let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have obtained our introduction (access) into this grace in which we stand and let us exult in hope of the glory of God.

a) Let us have (enjoy) peace with God

Through Christ we have been granted introduction or access into a grace or blessing in which we presently “stand”. It is a grace in which God, on the basis of our faith, established us and in which we STILL stand!

b) Let us exult in hope of the glory of God

Whereas verse one focused on our present peace with God and the urging to fully experience the full ramifications of it and the first part of verse two looked to the past establishment of our standing before God that continues into the present, the last part of verse two looks to our future blessing – the glory of God. In the same way that verse one may be interpreted declarative or suggestive. So the verb used in the last part of verse two may also be interpreted either way.

“We exult in hope of the glory of God.” (declarative)

“Let us exult in hope of the glory of God.” (suggestive)

Whatever interpretation you embrace does not alter three powerful points emphasized here.

The focus on exultation.

The emphasis on our ultimate hope.

The anticipation of the glory of God.

Exult

Paul either declares the reality of those who exult in hope of the glory of God as a result of justification or Paul urges all believers, including himself, to exult in hope of the glory having already experienced the blessing of justification and the wonder of peace with God.

The term “exult” means to boast or verbalize something with confident and enthusiastic fervor. It describes the natural response when we accomplish something or witness something for which we feel a great sense of accomplishment or have great interest.

My father/mother…

My wife/husband…

My son/daughter…

I finally finished…

My grandchildren…

You get the idea.

Here, the optimistic outburst has to do with our hope or confident expectation of the glory of God.

“Hope”

“hope” reflects the “desire of some good with expectation of obtaining it.” The emphasis is on the confident expectation. We often use this term in relation to a desire or which for something to happen. “I hope so!” “I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow.” “I hope I don’t run out of gas.”

“I hope to see you soon.”

The New Testament use of the word communicates a higher concept of “hope” by weighing in more heavily on the idea of a confident expectation of future good in spite of present grief. Biblical hope transcends a mere desire or wish that something might happen.

The effectiveness of hope has to with the object or outcome of our hope, just like the effectiveness of faith has to do with its object. Hope in government? Hope for people to change? Hope for prosperity, comfort and ease? The more powerful the object of our hope the stronger our confidence. Of course Biblical hope focuses on God as the object of hope.

We hope in God. We expectantly wait for God to bring about the good He has promised. Faith and hope are very close cousins. We choose to believe in the promise of God and endure today because of our confidence (hope) that God will bring about good tomorrow.

One could legitimately substitute the word confidence in place of hope.

“Let us exult in confidence and full expectation of one day truly reflecting the glory of God.”

The New Testament is full of hope. It is one of the crown jewels of Christianity – faith, hope and love along with peace. We will deal more fully with the wonder of hope later when we bump into it in chapter 8. This passage is actually a wonderful summary of a number of truths expanded upon later.

Hope is just one of them. God’s promise (hope) was such a striking reality to Paul that he was able to face trials and eventually death because of it.

"And now I am standing trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers; the promise to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. And for this hope, O King, I am being accused by Jews. Acts 26:6-7