Benefits of Justification
Romans 5:1-2
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/BenefitsJustification.html
What are the benefits of justification? Escaping hell? Going to heaven? Yes! In the future. But how about right now?
The first few chapters have shown us our need for justification and how we receive it. Then he illustrated it thru Abraham in chapter 4. Now we’re in a new section looking at the blessings and benefits of justification. Not just the benefits in the sweet by and by, but in the nasty now and now.
1. Peace with God.
v. 1 There are many kinds of peace in the Bible, like world peace, which will never happen until the Prince of Peace establishes it. As long as there’s sin in the hearts of humans it won’t happen.
Then there’s the peace OF God, which is tranquility in your soul. Contentment and anxiety free living.
John 14:27
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
It’s the peace that passes [surpasses] understanding.
Sometimes I have this peace of God, it is always available to me, but often I allow life to rob me of this. I become worried, paranoid, fearful, bitter, aggravated. That’s not the peace of God. They are mutually exclusive. I cannot be bitter and have the peace of God. If I’m worried them I’m not trusting. If I’m aggravated w/ someone I’m not praying for them.
But peace WITH God is different. It’s the opposite of being under the wrath of God. It’s taking care of the state of hostility that exists between God and man prior to salvation. The war between God’s holiness and man’s sinfulness is won thru justification and a benefit is we are at peace with God!
Before salvation we are God’s enemies.
v. 7-10a
ill.--an atheist was on his deathbed. His Godly grandmother visited and asked if he made his peace with God. Smarting off he replied, "I didn’t know we’d been fighting."
Most lost people don’t know they are God’s enemy because they don’t actively oppose the work of God. They feel they are neutral towards God...but there’s no such thing.
Matthew 12:30
He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
John 8:44
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
You’re a child of God or of the devil. A citizen of God’s kingdom of the devil’s. A friend of God or an enemy.
Romans 8:6-8
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
All unbelievers are the enemy of God. Let’s take it a step further: God is the enemy of all unbelievers. He is angry with them and condemns them.
Romans 1:8
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
Psalm 7:1
O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me:
Deuteronomy 32:21-24
21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.
24 They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
Joshua 23:16
16 When ye have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you.
"But God would never send anyone to hell."
Ephesians 5:6
Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
’these things’ is a list of sins in previous verses.
If we are at enmity with God, what can be done? There has to be a mediator!
v. 1 ’through Jesus’
A mediator tries to bring reconciliation, but it has to be agreeable to both sides.
[baseball strike / Israel and Palestinians / you and your spouse!
1 Timothy 2:5-6
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
Colossians 1:19-22
19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Jesus is our go between. Hanging on the cross He was suspended between heaven and earth. He reached down to sinful man and reached up to the Holy Father and brought us together by paying our penalty and breaking down the wall of division between us!
"Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinner reconciled!"
That peace is permanent.
Hebrews 7:25
25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
1. Peace with God
2. Access
v. 2 Ever tried to call the President? You don’t have access!
But thru justification we have access to the Author of life, of salvation, and of the Bible!
Ephesians 2:14-18
14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Ephesians 3:11-12
11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
’Access’ means entrance to the king thru the favor of another.
ill.--years ago a little boy living in the British Isles wanted to see the king of England. He slipped away from his parents to Buckingham Palace and presented himself at the gate. He had no business there...no credentials. He was turned away by the guards. He went and sat on a curb and put his face in his hands and began to weep. Another older boy walked by and asked why he was crying. "I wanted to see the king!" The young man said, I can help you. He took him by the hand and walked right past the guards unchallenged, in the doors, up the stairs and right to the living quarters. The little boy got to meet the king. He didn’t buy his way in, he performed no great feats or tricks to get the king’s attention.
The only thing that changed was he was holding the hand of the prince, the king’s son! That’s how he got access to the king. Just like Jesus did for us!
The veil of the temple kept the Jew out, and a wall kept the Gentile out.
Eph. 2 says Jesus tore down that wall of partition. And that veil was torn in two.
Knowing the price paid so we might have access, I wonder how Jesus must feel when we do not avail ourselves to that access thru constant prayer? Not just having a prayer time, but a prayer life!
There are more benefits to justification we’ll continue looking at in coming weeks.
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/BenefitsJustification.html
Benefits of Justification, pt. 2
Romans 5:2b
Last time:
1. Peace with God
2. Access to God
3. Hope of the glory of God.
v. 2b Man can live weeks without food, days without water, but only hours without hope.
ill.--In 1965 James Stockdale became one of the first American pilots shot down over Vietnam. He was a POW for 7 yrs...tortured frequently to get info. and try to get him to denounce the USA. He was chained for days with hands above head so he could not even swat the mosquitoes which swarmed his body. His leg was broken and never reset. How could anyone survive 7 yrs. of such treatment? He said it was all about hope...that one day he would go home and see his family again. One by one he saw his fellow captors give up hope and die.
We have an endless hope, but this world has a hopeless end. A great cloud of pessimism and hopelessness covers the earth.
Students were asked their philosophy of life and answered:
Life is a punishment for the crime of being born.
Life is a disease for which the only cure is death.
"Oh yeah, life goes on. Long after the thrill of living is gone!" [Mellencamp]
No wonder scores of Americans end their life each day.
The theory of evolution leaves man without hope. Godless philosophies leave people empty inside. Socialism steals away man’s desire to thrive and prosper. Atheism is supposed to close the door on God but instead it leaves man incomplete and inwardly void.
George Barnard Shaw pinned his hope on atheism while he was alive. The closer he got to death the more empty and hopeless he felt. Just before he died he said, "You are looking at an atheist who has lost his faith!"
When the atheist loses his faith there’s nothing else left.
Thank God the believer has a Bible full of the promises of hope!
Titus 2:13
Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
Jesus gives meaning to life, purpose in life, and hope for the future.
One of the great present benefits of justification is hope.
"Because He lives I can face tomorrow, all fear is gone, I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living!"
Let’s get a firm grasp on the Biblical meaning of hope, as many have a wrong concept of it. Hope in the Bible does not mean ’wishful thinking’. Today we say I hope it doesn’t rain [wishful thinking] or I hope the Cubs win the pennant [really wishful thinking!]
In the Bible, hope is seldom a verb, and usually a noun. It is not something we do, it is something we have. It is a concrete object, not an airy ideal. It is synonymous with ’promise.’ The blessed hope of His return is a promise, not a wish.
And I don’t hope for salvation, I have hope in my salvation. "I hope I’m saved." That’s not good enough. I know I’m saved because of the hope I received thru justification!
Philippians 3:20
For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
I’m as sure of heaven as if I’m already there. Heaven isn’t my home someday, it is my home right now, and I’m just away. We’re pilgrims and strangers in a foreign land and this world is not our home...
Philippians 1:6
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
God began the mammoth building project of your life at salvation and he never abandons the jobsite. What He starts He finishes.
2 Timothy 1:12
For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
It’s not me holding out, it’s God holding on!
Some say it’s all about your perseverance in the faith that maintains your salvation. Oh no! It’s simply an evidence of the salvation that is already there.
1 John 2:19
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
A person who makes a profession of faith and turns his back on it all permanently was never truly saved.
And the hope is for now, not just for the rapture and for heaven someday, but hope for living, and hope for sharing.
And we have the future hope of His glory, that we will be like Him someday! This is the primary interpretation of the end of v. 2.
John 17:22
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
In the mind of God we already have this glory in the present. How could this future glory be ours today? How can we reconcile the two as reality? I’ll tell you how: because when God makes a promise, it’s as good as done! It’s already a reality because it’s going to happen and nothing can stop it!
Faith is the substance of things hoped for [not just wishful thinking]
Romans 8:28-30
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
So it is in the future I have the glory but it’s in the present I have the hope [promise] of this reality.
1 John 3:2-3
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
In the future I have the glory and in the present I have the hope. Our God is not restricted by the constraints of time like we are. He is timeless. In His economy I am already in the heavenlies and it’s as though I’ve always been there and always will be.
One of the benefits of justification is that although I am not yet what I should be, praise God, by His grace, I’m not what I used to be, and I’m not what I’m going to be...like Christ in glory!
And with all of this hope, what should be our response?
v. 2 ’rejoice!’ It means jubilation. We have no reason to fear the future and every reason to rejoice in it because Christ Himself is our hope.
1 Timothy 1:1
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;
I don’t know about tomorrow
I just live from day to day
I don’t borrow from its sunshine
For its skies may turn to gray
And I don’t worry oe’r the future
For I know what Jesus said
And today He walks beside me
For He knows what is ahead
Many things about tomorrow
I don’t seem to understand
But I know who holds tomorrow
And I know who holds my hand!
Now look at the first 3 benefits of justification together:
• Peace with God means that in the past Jesus made it possible for me to not be His enemy but His friend. So my salvation is anchored in the past.
• Access to God means that since Jesus is my High Priest right now, my salvation is anchored in the present.
• Hope of glory means my salvation is anchored in the future.
No matter how you look at it, my anchor holds!
[there’s 4 more benefits yet to come!]
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