The Blessings of Justification
Since we have been Justified through faith in Christ, we are blessed with
Peace with God
Access to God
Hope for God’s Glory
The Love of God
Reconciliation with God
The Basis of Justification
Outline based on Warren Wiersbe’s “Live Like a King” – Romans ch. 5 in the BE series
Introduction
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Casey Anthony case
This past week, many who followed the Casey Anthony trial were shocked by the not guilty verdict that was handed down.
Many people had a sense that she was guilty and this not guilty verdict freed her from the consequences and penalty that she should be facing for committing murder of her young daughter.
Now, while I am not here to comment on this case, it is interesting to me that what we are going to be talking about today has to do with a legal term that has as its definition exactly what happened.
It is the term justify.
It means
2. To declare free of blame; absolve.
3. To free (a human) of the guilt and penalty attached to grievous sin.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/justified
If you are a Christian, if you are someone who has received Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you have been justified by faith in Christ, you have been freed from the penalty of your sin.
Turn with me this morning to Romans Chapter 5.
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We have been spending our “Summer in Rome” studying the book of Romans.
To recap and catch us all up a bit, we have learned up to this point that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation and for righteous living.
We have seen that people will stand before God without any excuses for not receiving Christ for their salvation.
We saw that for those who don’t acknowledge Christ, that the excuse “I didn’t know there was a God” will not hold water because God has made knowledge of Himself available to everyone through Creation and our Consciences.
We also saw that Paul let the Jews know that they could not rely on their possession of the law or on the fact that they were circumcised, as a replacement for trusting in Christ by faith.
In Chapter 4, Paul even gives the example of Abraham from the Old Testament to show that salvation has always been by faith and that we will only be justified by faith, just like Abraham.
Now, let’s see what Paul has to say in Romans 5. We are going to read the first 11 verses and pause there as we discuss them.
Romans 5:1-11
5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, when 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! 11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Pray
Ok, now in the first half of Romans 5, Paul discusses some of the blessings of being justified by faith in Christ.
Now the fact that we are being let off of the penalty that is due us because of our sin, is a blessing in itself, because it is a penalty that we could never fully pay.
But there are multiple other things that the Lord gives us along with this justification through faith in Christ.
And in these verses, Paul starts out by saying that
Since we have been Justified through faith in Christ, we are blessed with…
Slide
…Peace with God
Romans 5:1 - Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, NIV
What does it mean to have peace with God?
Well, before we receive Christ as Savior, we are enemies with God living in disobedience to Him.
We have acted wickedly sinning against God and as Paul says in Ephesians 2, we were “by nature objects of wrath.” (Ephesians 2:3b)
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There is no peace between us and God because of our disobedience.
Isaiah tells us in
Isaiah 48:22 - "There is no peace," says the Lord, "for the wicked."
But now, for those in Christ, God has made peace when it is we who have made God our enemy through our wicked actions.
This is one of the blessings of being justified through faith in Christ, God making peace by paying the penalty for our sins and letting us off through our trust in Christ.
But it doesn’t end there.
He goes on to say that since we have been Justified through faith in Christ, we are also blessed with…
Access to God
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Romans 5:2a - through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
In our culture, we tend to take access to God for granted.
But to the Jews of the time when Paul was writing this was a big deal. And the reality is, is that it is a big deal for us.
You see, even though everyone may think they can talk to God, they do not have the access that a Christian does. And it is not because the Christian is any better of a person. It is solely because of what Christ has done and the Father imputing Christ’s righteousness to a person, that gives them access.
Paul tells us through him (Christ) we both (both Jews and Gentiles) have access to the Father by one Spirit. (Ephesians 2:18)
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It is only through Christ we have access to the Father.
What a blessing this is.
The Jews understood access better. It was only the High Priest who had access to God behind the Holy of holies and he could only enter that once a year.
Access to God was something very special and very limited.
I think we take our access to the Father far too casually. We need to recognize it as the blessing it is and cherish it as the blessing that it is.
If we recognized the blessing it is to have access to God through our prayer times, the privilege and blessing that it is to be able to talk to the King of kings and Lord of lords, prayer would not be something that we have to do, but something we get to do!
We have the blessing of access to God because we have been justified by faith in Christ.
But we also have the
Hope for God’s Glory
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Romans 5:2b - And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
These first 3 blessings of justification really speak to our past, present and future.
Peace with God takes care of our past. We are no longer enemies of God and he no longer holds our sin against us.
Access to God takes care of our present. We can now come to Him at any time for the help we now need. Hebrews 4:16 says - Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hope for God’s glory takes care of our future – because we have been justified through Christ, we don’t have to worry about our eternity. We will share in his glory. 2 Thessalonians 2:14 - He called you to this (salvation) through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Slide
God doesn’t just take away our responsibility to pay the penalty for our actions, but he also gives us hope for the future.
But not only is our hope for the future something to rejoice about as something in the distant future, but we can also now rejoice in the hope that our sufferings are not in vain.
Romans 5:3-4
3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. NIV
Many people have the false assumption that if I follow the Lord, I won’t suffer.
That is simply not true and is not taught in the Bible. In fact Jesus said that “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33
But the trials and troubles and sufferings we face work for us and not against us, because we have been justified through faith in Christ.
Romans 8:28
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28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
He doesn’t just take the pleasantries of life and use them for our good, but now He takes our sufferings and helps us to learn perseverance and grow our character, so that we can be the men and women of God that He is calling us to be.
So even when people are out to harm us, God now takes those sufferings and uses them for our good.
Just like for Joseph and the sins that his brothers committed against him and the suffering that he went through because of it, God used for good.
If you have received Christ as your Savior, you have been justified and our God will use any of the suffering you are experiencing for your ultimate good.
I may not know now, and you may not know now, how things will turn out in the midst of the suffering you may be experiencing now, whether it is physical pain, whether it is emotional turmoil, whether it is financial hardship, but I can tell you that God will use it for your ultimate good if you have been justified in Christ by receiving Him as your Savior.
And He does this because of another blessing of our justification through faith in Christ,
The Love of God
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Romans 5:5-8
5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God has demonstrated his love so we can know it in our minds, but He also pours out His Spirit into our hearts so we can experience His love.
Question
If He has given us His Spirit and we can experience His love, why do we sometimes question God’s love?
It is because we fail to walk with Him at times. There are times when we aren’t spending time with Him through His word, in prayer, in solitude.
No time with spouse
Imagine if we were not around our spouse for lengths of time. We may start to question their love for us, simply because we are not spending time with them.
But in reality, even though it is a blessing of our justification to be able to experience the Love of God and there are times we don’t because we are not walking with Him, the reality is that His love does not leave us.
Paul tells us a few chapters later in
Romans 8:38-39
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38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
His love is there for us in fact and in reality. Experiencing it is a blessing that is available always through His Spirit and that God has demonstrated through His sacrifice of Jesus.
Transition
These are not the only blessings that our justification through Christ has brought us. It has brought us complete
Reconciliation with God
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Romans 5:9-11
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, when 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! 11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
God did much more than just accomplish the legal requirements of justifying us, of allowing us to escape the penalty that is rightly due our actions. He also reconciled us to Himself.
Reconciliation is more a language of friendship. Christ not only paid the price for our sin so we have this right standing before God, but through His life right now, He stands as a mediator and priest constantly making intercession for us so we are continually reconciled with God.
Listen to what the author of Hebrews says when talking of his priesthood.
Hebrews 7:24-25
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because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Christ’s death, burial and resurrection has
justified us,
brought peace between us and God,
given us access to God,
brought us hope, love and complete reconciliation.
Being justified in Christ has not just let us off the hook for our sin, but has restored us to right relationship with the Father.
Casey Anthony Illustration
I started out this message talking about Casey Anthony and how we have experienced something similar in our being let off for sins we have committed.
But that is where the comparison ends. While she may be let off for something many people think she did, she will not be experiencing right relationship with the world. Everything is not restored for her. Like OJ, she is still facing other consequences of what people think she did.
We don’t have that. We have been completely reconciled.
We have sinned and we have not only been justified because someone else has paid our penalty, but we have been reconciled as Christ continually intercedes for us.
Oh have we been blessed beyond anything we could ever imagine.
It is in the realization of these blessings that we will be able to live to glorify the Lord.
Not to do things to try and pay Him back for what He has done. We can’t possibly do that. But we act and do things simply to glorify Him and please Him because of what He has done.
Transition
Now this last half of Romans 5 talks about
The Basis of our Justification in Christ
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Now avoiding the consequences of our actions, being let off, doesn’t seem fair sometimes.
It seems more fair when we are the ones being let off, but when we view people that are “worse” than us, it doesn’t seem fair.
“Why are people more sinful than me justified like I am?”
I can tell you that the Jews had some issues with it.
“Why do the gentiles get to be justified and all these blessings, just like us?”
Well, Paul discussed this in this last half of Romans 5.
We are going to just read it and then I am just going to comment on it briefly.
Romans 5:12-21
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Paul is saying that sin and the consequences of sin came through the sin of Adam to everyone, before even the law came through Moses and men could see their sinfulness even more.
And in God’s sovereignty, he imputed sin to all men through Adam.
Now, in our individualistic society, that seems completely unfair, being judged for the sin of someone else.
But the reality is that we are all sinners. And if we were judged individually the result would have been the same, we sin. We see this in our everyday lives. We know we are sinners.
And it is apparent that even before the Law was given through Moses, that sin reigned because of the sin of Adam, because everyone died.
Now while this imputation of Adam’s sin seems unfair to us, it was actually a gracious act of kindness by God, for since he judged us sinners in Adam, through one man, He can now judge us righteous through one man, Jesus Christ His Son.
We can be declared right before God, we can be justified, we can be completely reconciled with the Father when we receive Jesus Christ by faith as our Savior.
It is the same for every one of us, because everyone here is a sinner in need of a Savior.
Conclusion
Maybe you are here today and think you are not as bad as anyone else.
I don’t mean to be morbid, but everyone of us here is going to face physical death because we have been judged a sinner.
Too often we are worried about what we think is fair or right for others rather than the fact that we are in need of God’s justification for ourselves because we have sinned against God and that carries a penalty that is too high for us to ever pay.
What are you relying on when you meet God face to face?
Is it your goodness? – You aren’t good according to the standard God sets.
Are you relying on the fact that others are worse than you, so you think there may be a curve in the grading system?
There is no curve. It is pass/fail and the only passing grade is perfection.
Our only hope is to be justified through faith in Christ. And when we are, we are not only justified, but blessed beyond belief with peace, access, hope, love and complete reconciliation.
It is only through receiving Christ by faith that we will be justified and reconciled and truly be free to live.
Have you received Christ as Savior and been justified in Him?
The Bible tells us that we receive Christ by believing in Him and what He has done and it is at that point we are saved.
John 1:12 - Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
Romans 10:9 - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
If you have never received Christ as Savior, won’t you do that now by confessing your belief in Him and what He has done so you too can experience His justification and His life.
Let’s pray.
