Scripture
In Romans 5:1-11 we read of several blessings of justification. Let’s read Romans 5:1-11, paying special attention to verses 9-11, which is our text for today:
"1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 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. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 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.
"6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if 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. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." (Romans 5:1-11)
Introduction
Paul wrote the fifth chapter of Romans to teach those who have been justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ that they also have the blessings of justification.
We have already examined five blessings. They are peace with God, standing in grace, rejoicing in hope, rejoicing in suffering, and God’s love demonstrated. Today, we examine a sixth (and final) blessing, which is full salvation.
Review
Before we explore the fullness of our salvation, let’s briefly review what we have learned so far. (You can learn more by reading or listening to my previous sermons, which can be accessed on our church’s web page at www.tampabaypresbyterian.org.)
I. Our Position in Christ (5:1a)
Let us notice in the first place our position in Christ.
The apostle Paul said in Romans 5:1a, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith. . . .”
The apostle Paul begins by stating our position in Christ. If we are Christians, then we have been justified by faith.
II. Our Possessions in Christ (5:1b-2)
But what are the blessings of our justification? What are our possessions in Christ?
The apostle Paul said in Romans 5:1b, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have. . . ” certain possessions.
A. Peace with God (5:1b)
Our first possession in Christ is peace with God.
The apostle Paul said in Romans 5:1b, “. . . we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
B. Standing in Grace (5:2a)
Our second possession in Christ is standing in grace.
The apostle Paul said in Romans 5:2a, “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.”
C. Rejoicing in Hope (5:2b)
Our third possession in Christ is rejoicing in hope.
The apostle Paul said in Romans 5:2b, “. . . and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
D. Rejoicing in Suffering (5:3-5)
Our fourth possession in Christ is rejoicing in suffering.
The apostle Paul said in Romans 5:3-5, “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.”
E. God’s Love Demonstrated (5:6-8)
Our fifth possession in Christ is God’s love demonstrated.
The apostle Paul said in Romans 5:6-8, “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 dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Lesson
Today, in Romans 5:9-11 we come to a sixth blessing of justification, a sixth possession in Christ.
F. Full Salvation (5:9-11)
Our sixth possession in Christ is full salvation.
The apostle Paul said in Romans 5:9-11, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if 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. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
I want us to notice today how rich and full our salvation is. James Montgomery Boice points out three truths about our justification, that is, our full salvation in Jesus Christ.
1. Saved from God’s Wrath (5:9)
The first truth Paul tells us about our salvation is that we have been saved from God’s wrath. In verse 9 he says: “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”
Paul uses an argument here that was common in his day. He is arguing that if something great is true, then something lesser in the same category will also be true. Therefore, if God has justified us, Paul is saying, then surely that great work will be followed by a lesser work, namely, that God will save us from his wrath.
Now, this is the first time that Paul uses the word “saved” in his letter to the Romans. What does that mean?
To understand what is happening we have to realize that “saved” is used in at least three different ways in the Bible, in three different tenses. Sometimes it refers to something past, sometimes to something present, and sometimes to something future.
Let me illustrate. Suppose I ask you, “Are you saved?” How would you respond?
If you are a Christian, you would say, “Yes, I am saved.”
But it would be possible for you to answer in three different ways, the answer “Yes, I am saved” being only one of them.
If you are thinking of what Jesus accomplished on your behalf by dying for you on the cross, it would be correct to have answered as you did, for Jesus did save you by his substitutionary death. That is the past tense of “saved.”
But if you are thinking of the present and of what God is accomplishing in you day by day, it would also be correct to say, “I am being saved.” Paul uses the word this way in 1 Corinthians 1:18, where he says, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” This verse means that God works through the power of the cross to save us from sin now in the present.
And third, you could think in future terms and answer the question by say¬ing, “No, I am not saved yet, but I will be when I die or when Jesus returns, whichever comes first.” In this case, you would be looking forward to your future glorification when the work begun in the past by Jesus and continued into the present by the power of the Holy Spirit, who works in you, will be perfected. On that day you will be delivered even from the presence of sin and made like Jesus forever.
I mention these three tenses of “saved” because it is important to see that it is in this third sense, the future sense of salvation, that Paul speaks here in verse 9. He is not denying the other two tenses, particularly not the first. But he is thinking of the judgment to come and is saying that because you have already been justified by God on the basis of the death of Christ, you can be certain of being saved from the outpouring of God’s wrath on the final day.
Commentator D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “The apostle’s argument is that this method, this way of salvation that God has planned, is a complete whole, and therefore, if we have been justified by Christ’s blood we are joined to Christ, we are in Christ, and we shall therefore be saved by him completely and perfectly.”
In the day of horse and buggies, a father went to the schoolhouse to pick up his three children ages 9, 11, and 17. As soon as he had them in the buggy—just before he stepped in—probably out of fear of the storm, the horses bolted and took off in the blizzard.
Hours and miles later, when he found his children, the father’s 17-year-old daughter stood over the now-dead and frozen bodies of her 9-year-old brother and 11-year-old sister. Sobbing uncontrollably, she collapsed into her father’s arms.
When she had regained her composure, she explained to her father that she tried to take her big, heavy coat and wrap it around them all. But she cried, “The coat wasn’t big enough.”
Listen! The blood that Christ shed on the cross was big enough to cover all of our sins—past, present and future. God fully and completely justifies us by the blood of his Son, so that we are saved from his wrath.
2. Reconciled to God (5:10)
The second truth Paul tells us about our salvation is that we have been reconciled to God through the death of his Son, Jesus Christ. In verse 10 he says, “For if 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.”
Paul is again arguing from the greater to the lesser. Paul says that the greater work is God’s reconciliation.
It is the very work we were looking at in detail last week. I was dealing with the love of God, and I showed that the basis upon which God demonstrates his love to us is that it caused him to send his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for us while we were still sinners.
But we were not merely “sinners.” We were “enemies.” It means not only that we disliked God, but also that we were so opposed to God that we would destroy him if we could.
But, says Paul, it is while we were like this—enemies—that God reconciled us to himself through the death of his Son.
“Reconciled” means to remove the grounds of hos¬tility and transform the relationship, changing it from one of enmity to one of friendship.
In our case, as Paul has shown earlier, it meant taking us out of the category of enemy and bringing us into God’s family as a privileged son or daughter.
If God did that for us while we were enemies, Paul rea¬sons, he is certainly going to save us from the final outpouring of his wrath on the Day of Judgment, now that we are family members.
The 1989 movie Field of Dreams is a fantasy-drama about baseball, the pursuit of a dream, and reconciliation between a father and son. Though the film borders on the thoroughly unbelievable (with a “voice” talking from a corn field, old baseball players walking in and out of a center-field “baseball heaven,” and time travel back to a town in 1972), it somehow gets us to suspend our disbelief because of its thematic realism.
Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) is on the way to reconciling with his long-dead father—though he doesn’t know it yet. About halfway through the movie he’s driving his rustic red Volkswagen van down back roads in the heart of the Midwest, the gently sloping hills and cornfields passing by. Sitting next to Ray is his newfound friend Terrence (played by James Earl Jones). The two men have just picked up an adolescent hitchhiker who tells them: “I’m a baseball player.”
It sparks a conversation about Ray and his father—and the role that baseball once played in their relationship.
“What happened to your father?” Terrence asks.
“He never made it as a ball player,” says Ray. “So he tried to get his son to make it for him. By the time I was 10, playing baseball got to be like eating vegetables or taking out the garbage. So when I was 14, I started to refuse. Can you believe that? An American boy refusing to play catch with his father?”
Ray goes on to talk about the pain of the ever-widening rift that grew between them until one day it resulted in a complete and permanent separation. “When I was 17, I packed my things, said something awful, and left. After awhile, I wanted to come home, but I didn’t know how. . . . Made it back for the funeral, though.”
Sadness and regret pervade the atmosphere as the van continues down the road.
But in the extended closing scene of the movie, Ray Kinsella is miraculously allowed to meet his dead father, John Kinsella.
They meet on a baseball field that Ray has constructed in a cornfield on his Iowa farm. Ray stands along the sidelines with his wife, Annie. They turn their gaze to home plate. There, standing with his back to them and pulling off his old-fashioned catcher’s equipment is a young man dressed in a loosely fitting uniform he once wore as a minor leaguer.
Suddenly it dawns on Ray that he is witnessing a miracle of monumental proportions. He soon shakes hands with John Kinsella, his own father, returned from “baseball heaven.” They talk for a while, and then his father begins to walk away.
Suddenly Ray calls out: “Hey, Dad, want to play catch?”
“I’d like that,” says the father.
They walk onto the field together, Ray standing by home plate, his father out on the pitcher’s mound, and they begin tossing the ball back and forth. There is a gleam in their eyes; no words need be spoken, for they have finally been reconciled.
The enmity that once existed has been broken down. Finally, they are now family.
God sent his Son Jesus—not from “baseball heaven”—but from his own heaven to reconcile us to himself. And if God has done the greater thing, he will do the lesser. If he has reconciled us while we were enemies, he will certainly save us as his family.
3. Rejoice in God (5:11)
The third truth Paul tells us about our salvation is that we can rejoice in God. In verse 11 he says, “More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
There is a sense in which this idea returns us to where we started out, since Romans 5:2 speaks of just such a rejoicing: “And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
But careful reading will show that the object of our rejoicing is not the same in both cases. In verse 2, our rejoicing is in “hope of the glory of God.” That is, it is in our future glorification. Knowing that we are going to be glorified one day and see God face to face is a cause of great joy for us.
However, here in verse 11, the object of our rejoicing is not our glorification, important as that is, but our rejoicing is in God himself. Our rejoicing is in the person and work of God himself. And, of course, of the two ideas the second is obviously the greater. To rejoice in God is the greatest of all human activities.
It has led one commentator to say, “The one clear mark of a true Christian is that he always rejoices.”
But do we rejoice in God? Frankly, if we reflect on that question, we must admit that we do not always rejoice in God.
Why is that?
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great preacher in the middle of the last century, suggested three reasons why we do not always rejoice in God. Let’s examine ourselves in view of these three reasons. Sometimes we do not rejoice in God because of:
1. A failure to grasp the truth of justification by faith alone.
2. A failure to think and meditate about what we do know.
3. A failure to draw the necessary conclusions from the Scriptures.
Are these the reasons why we do not rejoice in God?
Perhaps there is another reason.
Whatever the reason, however, anything that keeps us from rejoicing in God is robbing God of his glory and us of our joy.
Find the reason, and overcome it.
Then rejoice in God, and in the many blessings he has bestowed on us, one of which is full salvation.
Conclusion
While on a short-term missions trip, Pastor Jack Hinton was leading a worship service at a leper colony on the island of Tobago.
Pastor Hinton asked members of the congregation to suggest favorite hymns to sing. People called out their favorite hymns and then the congregation sang those hymns.
After a number of hymns had been sung, a woman who had been facing away from the pulpit finally turned around and faced Pastor Hinton. He was stunned.
“It was the most hideous face I had ever seen,” he said. “The woman’s nose and ears were entirely gone. Then, she lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked, ‘Can we sing “Count Your Blessings?”’”
Overcome with emotion, Pastor Hinton had to leave the service while the congregation sang “Count Your Blessings.”
He was followed by a team member who said, “I guess you’ll never be able to sing that song again.”
“Yes I will,” he replied, “but I’ll never sing it the same way.”
Paul wrote the fifth chapter of Romans to teach us who have been justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ that we also have the blessings of justification. These blessings are peace with God, standing in grace, rejoicing in hope, rejoicing in suffering, God’s love demonstrated, and full salvation in Jesus Christ.
If you are not yet a Christian, these blessings can be yours when you are justified by faith in Jesus Christ. How do you do that?
First, affirm that you are sinner, and repent of your sin.
And second, believe that Jesus died to pay the penalty for all of your sin. Ask God to forgive you, and to credit you with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Then, enjoy the blessings of justification by faith. Amen.
