SOME TREASURES OF SALVATION
10 assets of justification
1-20-02
Romans 5:1-6
Up to this point in his letter to the Roman Church … Paul has been building God’s case against those who refuse to accept Jesus as their Christ.
He also has clearly stated what God has done to provide salvation … or justification by faith.
In Chapter 5 …he turns to us – the believers.
Now that we have accepted Jesus as our Christ, what can we expect?
What, exactly is the value of salvation?
1. First of all: It is just the beginning of A great adventure.
2. Next, it’s a new relationship with the creator of the entire universe.
3. Finally, it’s a life with sites … scenes … and scents that we have never experienced before – a life on a brand new level of existence … another dimension: the Spiritual dimension.
When we were first born into this world… we had needs of the flesh.
Mom, Dad, and family supplied those needs.
Now that we have been born again – born of the Spirit – we have Spiritual needs.
God fulfils the new needs.
In these first 6 verses, Paul lists 10 benefits of our salvation.
Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
1. We now have PEACE with God.
Why do we need peace with God?
Because verses 8 & 10 are going to tell us that we were sinners and enemies with him before we trusted in Jesus as our Christ.
Jesus on the cross took away the sin.
If we are willing … to place our full faith and trust in him, God sees us as though we have never sinned.
When we trust Jesus as our Christ … we find peace with God.
He pursued us in our sin … to save us from ourselves, and from eternal separation from him.
When we surrender our will – quit running … quit resisting – and accept Jesus as our Christ … we have peace with God.
This simply means that we no longer are at odds with God – the battle is over.
There is another level of peace available to us: The peace of God.
Peace with God puts us on his side.
That’s salvation.
The peace of God equips us with an indestructible joy … regardless of the circumstances of life.
That’s Spiritual maturity.
It’s a depth and strength of faith that allows us to rest in God … knowing that he is in charge.
He is our Shepherd.
He is our king.
He is in control … of everything – any circumstance that can interfere … interrupt …or dislodge us …from the protective arms of God.
Such a peace…opens another door:
Verse 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Actually, this verse list three assets:
Access … Grace … and Rejoicing in Hope.
2. Our second is: ACCESS to God.
Just imagine …
. We are never out of his reach.
. We’re just a prayer away.
And since he takes up residence within us … it’s always a local call.
By faith … trusting in the person of … and completed work of … Jesus as our Christ gives us direct access to God the Father.
. No reason to feel left out … or
. No reason to be lonely!
The whole family of God surrounds us.
And, we have him to talk to all the time.
3. And then we have GRACE.
Into this grace we stand …
Grace is that unmerited favor of God.
We don’t deserve to be in the family of God.
We don’t deserve to be in the Body of Christ,
But, God used his grace to transfer our sins to Jesus on the cross.
That same grace transferred his righteousness to us.
This is the grace that God looks through to see us as acceptable to him –
. Worthy to be numbered among his family…
. Worthy to be in the Body of Christ.
It is God’s Grace that keeps us alive.
It is Grace that allows us to grow in Christ.
It is Grace that allows us to recover…
. When we stray.
. When we fail.
GRACE is the greatest motivator that we believers have.
Notice the verse, GRACE is something that we stand in.
And it is an introduction to God’s greater grace that we can grow into.
Greater grace – or spiritual maturity – prepares us for God’s surpassing grace … that carries us through the transition of life … from the temporary … to the eternal.
4. And that’s why we can Rejoice in Hope.
Life can become rough … painful … threatening … even terminal.
But, in Christ we can see these as temporary aggravations on the launching pad—interruptions in the countdown to eternity.
The life God designed us to live …
The life He prepared us to live … in Jesus as our Christ … transcends the time we spend on earth.
This is but the beginning … the shaping… the equipping.
It’s a time of testing … of strengthening.
We can joy in the hope that we have in Christ Jesus.
It’s a guarantee that we will live throughout eternity …
. To forever celebrate God for all of his greatness … and
. To fellowship with Jesus for all of his love and sacrifice.
Verse 3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
In today’s English this reads: Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
5. This brings us to the 5th:
We can REJOICE in Adversity.
Believe me, it takes a well-grounded and well-tested faith:
To rejoice:
. When the body hurts …
. When worry paralyzes…
. When medicine quits working…
. When strength fades…
. When death becomes a welcome option.
But we can glory – that is rejoice – in such suffering because we have a risen savior:
. Who tells us that we will not be tested beyond what we can withstand
. Who promised to work everything out for our own good if we love the Lord and are called to his purpose.
. Who said, lo I’ll be with you all the way … even to the end of this age.
This takes a faith with the strength of titanium steel … and the depth of infinity, itself …
But, in Christ Jesus, we have both!
Such strength … and depth … both are necessary for the next asset:
6. PERSEVERANCE!
The regimen of life that God puts us through … toughens us.
When we know… through the strongest of FAITH … that God has our best interest at heart … we can persevere—keeping an eye firmly on a joyful … painless … and purposeful future—when we transit into the eternal dimension of life.
There’s an old hymn: Heaven Will be Worth It All.
… knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
Verse 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
7. If perseverance does nothing else … it leaves us with a PROVEN CHARACTER.
"Knowing": Is a perfect participle.
It means that what we knew in the past… we can continue to know in the future…even in the midst of problem.
PRINCIPLE: We are not to let problems take us away from doctrinal thinking.
The strength … the power … is always in the Word of God!
We’re banking of the character of God and the validity of his Word.
Regardless of our condition: God never changes.
His love and provisions are just as big.
We anticipate with full confidence that we are in His plan.
Therefore, we can celebrate his greatness whether we are weak or strong … sick or well.
8. This is what gives us the 8th, 9th & 10th assets:
HOPE … or CONFIDENCE…the LOVE of GOD… and the HOLY SPIRIT within.
Look at the 5th verse:
Verse 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us.
Literally, this says: And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
In Romans 10:11 "For the scripture saith (and Paul quotes Isaiah 28:16), Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed."
The idea of shame—as used here—is one of disappointment.
If his salvation failed, God would be shamed.
If his hope and assurance failed, God would be shamed.
If his word were not true, God would be shamed.
We would be disappointed … lost … no hope at all.
Worst of all: God would not be God.
But, of course, God is God!
His Word stands!
His promises … sound!
His salvation … permanent!
Consequently, we have full assurance—total confidence—in Jesus as our Christ.
9. That brings us to the 9th gift:
The love of God.
The love of God has been poured out within our hearts … within our souls … within the very center of our lives.
HOW? "Through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
In Ephesians 1 we have the assurance that the Holy Spirit resides in us, if we trust Jesus as our Christ.
His purpose is to be a seal—both a sign of protection and approval.
The indwelling Holy Spirit serves as a down payment … on all the great things that God gives to those who trust him.
How great is his love?
Just who would you be willing to sacrifice your firstborn for?
Just who is worth all the pain, agony, abuse, and death—that slow brutal death—that Jesus suffered?
I’m not!
You’re not!
But, to God we were.
His great love lead Jesus to take on flesh …
. To suffer shame and rejection,
. To endure beatings and sarcasm,
. To agonize for hours on the cross,
. To succumb when his father’s fellowship was ripped from him.
That’s the love of God.
That’s the fuel for his Mercy and Grace.
This brings us to the 10th attribute of our justification:
10. The Holy Spirit within.
God planted himself—the Holy Spirit—within our very souls.
He created within everyone who believes …a New Spirit.
There is where he dwells …right along with the Father and the Son.
We have the full power of the Godhead within us at all times.
And, here’s how he did it!
Look at verse 6:
Verse 6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
This verse looks back to Romans 4:5, “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness,”
We were HELPLESS.
At the right time, CHRIST DIED for the ungodly—for us ... the helpless …the hopeless!
Nothing about us made God proud.
At least once … God voiced regrets that he even put us on the earth.
Disappointment!
We were a great disappointment to God.
We were … and without Christ within us … we are still ungodly.
Galatians 4:4, "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law."
Our verse says: at the right time …
It was not because there was something within us that he thought he could develop.
Actually, salvation is starting all over again.
The death of Jesus did not offer refurbishing.
It offered a New Birth—a new beginning.
It overstepped everything … every wrong … every fault … every egotistical moment that had been lived since the Garden of Eden …
He breathed new life into an old body.
It was not life in the flesh …
Rather, it is life in the Spirit.
This is where Adam started.
But he lost it.
In Christ, we can’t lose it.
We have God’s guarantee on that.
He offers salvation … not probation.
Not because we deserve it … but because He loves us.
at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
The word: FOR is a preposition, which means substitution, "to put in place of."
God repeats this in verses 7 and 8.
The emphasis is that Jesus Christ took our place when He went to the Cross.
That’s grace!
2 Cor. 5:21 "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
We have to be just as pure and sinless as God, himself, to be accepted and blessed by him.
And God doomed his own son to a sinful death—in our place—so we would not have to endure separation from God.
That’s grace!
This is the way that God did it … the way he made us acceptable.
The very holiness of God … was stripped from the Son … and given to us—the ungodly.
God’s hope is … that we will depend entirely upon him for everything in our lives:
. The breaking of every day
. The setting of every sun
. The peace of every night’s slumber.
And to accomplish this … to make it possible for us to live the NEW life that he has given … he gave us His Holy Spirit.
Paul asked the church at Corinth:
1 Cor 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
Paul asked Timothy to:
2 Tim 1:14 Guard the good deposit (the truth of the Gospel) that was entrusted to you--guard it (HOW?) with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
God did not save us …just to toss us helpless back into Satan’s world.
. He saved us to keep us for his own … to live now and forever.
. He left us here to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with all who will listen.
. He equipped us by implanting himself within us.
We don’t have to stumble into oblivion with nothing. Nothing to look for! Nothing to live for! Nothing to die for! Nothing but pain! Agony! Loneliness! And separation!
When we let Jesus be Lord as well as Savior… when we let him lead us ALL the way…
Then we live his way,
. With his resources,
. With him in us…
. With all the heavenly blessings.
God still gives us the choice:
. His way—the strait and narrow to life eternal… or
. Our way—The broad way to destruction.
Let us choose wisely.
