The Difference Christ Makes
ROMANS 5:1-5
• Chapter 5 is a new beginning:
1) Chapters 1-3 demonstrate that sin is an issue that every man, woman, and child must deal with. ALL HAVE SINNED AND FALLEN SHORT.
2) Chapter 4 Paul shows us that dealing with this problem is only possible through one means. Works righteousness is impossible….even Abraham demonstrated that by his life….only faith in Christ can deal with sin in our lives.
• THEREFORE: Pointing backwards, ‘because of all that I have proven you can now count on these wonderful truths’.
• THREE THINGS PAUL SHARES WITH US IN Verses 1-5
1) The Blessings of the Past
2) The Blessings of the Present
3) The Blessings of the Future
(1) Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (2) through Whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. (3) And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; (4) and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; (5) 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.
• These are things that are truly available to them because they understand how a true relationship of God comes:
Admitting our sin(1-3) &
Resting by Faith on the Finished Work of Jesus Christ thru His shed blood
on the cross(4).
Now they can know the benefits of a genuine relationship with God.
• Faith is not a new message: Abraham demonstrated it before the law, David demonstrated it while under the law, God expects it of us apart from the law.
THE BLESSINGS IN THE PAST: Therefore, having been justified by faith..
• Past tense statement of what is now true of us if we have trusted by faith in Jesus Christ.
• You may have in your Bible, ‘Therefore being justified by faith..’(RSV/KJV). AORIST tense verb meaning a simple past act with lasting effects today. Also has a PASSIVE VOICE: Means that it is something received without any effort or action of your own.
1) Paid mortgage/bills for children in hope: Done on their behalf without any effort or action of their own.
2) We have no point of boasting regarding our relationship with God. Except in what Christ has done for us. It was our only hope.
Family reunion in KC some years ago. Stayed at a Holidome with an indoor pool. Kid’s were much younger then. Shiloh was maybe 2 at the time. Older kid’s were all splashing around in the pool and I was bringing Shiloh down some steps. I had him on the final step before the bottom and was about to pick him up and take him out into deeper waters.
One of the other kids distracted me and I turned to respond for a few moments. When I turned around I saw something that really intrigued me: With my back turned Shiloh had stepped on off that last step which was over his head.
But he was not splashing or struggling in fact I could see him under the water: his eyes were open, he was holding his breath and just turning his head from side to side.
NO CLUE THE DANGER HE WAS IN. Unless I reached out and grabbed him before his air ran out he would be in real trouble.
WORLD is that way. Don’t understand the danger but holding on as best they can and just maintaining an interest in what surrounds them.
OLD HYMN: My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Blood and righteousness, I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name’
• JUSTIFIED: Comes from a root meaning a ‘measuring reed’. They would go to a riverside and pick a straight reed to measure with like we might use a yardstick. Straight as well as a certain length.
1) Because of what Christ has done for us our record can be taken and placed up against God’s standard and we pass. Made acceptable, in right standing up against God’s standards.
2) Not because of our own works but because of our faith upon the finished work of Jesus thru which God has imputed His righteousness to us.
3) Every word in Hebrew/greek that talks about sin describes a deviation from a standard: missed the mark, fallen short. Sin is not achieving God’s acceptable standard. In Christ we find our only hope.
• BY FAITH: Our only action in the justification process is the exercise of our faith.
ILLUSTRATION OF FAITH: Have ball handed to you with closed hand first(ball does not stay). Then receive it with an open hand and ball is taken. Same action occurred by giver on both occasions but only the open hand of faith received what is given. Faith is a willingness to receive demonstrated by an opening of the life: SURRENDER, Acceptance of His will.
We live in a world that has a clenched fist towards God instead of an open hand of faith. Hands closed and holding onto their own things
God wants to give to everybody the gift of salvation but ‘to as many as received Him to them He gave the right to become children of God’(JN 1:12)
MY PART: I love to toss balls around, play catch, juggle, play games.
God created me with a desire to have what was trying to be given to me.
God put in my heart a desire to know His Son and so in 1979 I opened my hand, opened my life and received what God was trying to give.
Holy Spirit’s ministry is to convict us before God of our sin and to place into our hearts a desire to receive God’s provision.
• Justifying faith is receiving that which has been done for us thru Jesus Christ with an open surrendered life before God.
MEXICO: There is a portion where some Bible translators went to(CHAMULA).
They tried to translate verse 1 of Romans 5. There was not in the language a single word for FAITH. The translators had to try to discover a way of conveying the concept of saving faith without a direct equivalent word in the language.
They could only find a equivalent phrase. The phrase was translated, ‘Therefore, having been justified by taking seriously what God has obligated Himself to do we have peace with God thru our Lord Jesus Christ’.
1) God has obligated to save us if we will come by the right way: No one who trusts in the name of Jesus Christ will ever be turned away.
2) So many people don’t take seriously that which is life’s most important concern. Every person knows that same fact: SOME DAY WE WILL ALL DIE. If we do not die by some random accident or unexpected disease at best we will lay on a death bed in old age and watch life in this world disappear.
3) Need to take serious that most important fact and deal with what matters regarding it.
Back in the 1960’s just before we moved from Tulsa to Mannford. Portions of the town had been moved to a new location. The building of Keystone dam and the formation of Keystone Lake would cause the old town of Mannford to be under water.
Go to Old Mannford Ramp and camp and my Dad and others would tell us how the buildings of the old town was out there under the water. Fish probably sitting in living rooms people used to.
Know that when the news came out that the town would be flooded and covered that people didn’t say, ‘I think I will paint my house this week’, Maybe I will repave my driveway…..I think I will build a new addition on the side of the house.
This all was passing away so why invest in it. The reality of the future was what mattered the most
1 John 5:17 The world is passing away and also it lusts.
THE BLESSINGS OF THE PRESENT: ..we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (2) through Whom we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. Three things we now have because of Jesus Christ: PEACE – GRACE - HOPE
1. WE HAVE THE PEACE OF GOD
a. Bible states that every person who is lost is an enemy of God(5:10). Our relationship with Jesus brings peace between ourselves and God.
b. Sin caused a hostile relationship between ourselves and God(James 4:4 do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility to God’
Footage on HISTORY CHANNEL of when Wars ended(WW1 & WW2) The excitement and jubilation after the hostilities were over. The excitement that peace has come with a great victory. There is no greater peace to celebrate than our peace with God, no greater victory to celebrate than that over sin.
c. The opposite of PEACE is to still be in hostility and that is where a lost person finds themselves in their relationship with God.
2. WE HAVE ACCESS TO THE GRACE OF GOD (2) we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace.
a. May have word ‘access’. Problem and the problem is the English language. Both words should be there to provide the full meaning.
b. PERFECT TENSE: Not a tense in English. Greek tense that says ‘past action with continuing effect on us’. In the past we were INTRODUCED to this grace BUT today we continue to have ACCESS to it for every need.
Man during the middle of the Civil War was released from a prison camp. He was a confederate soldier. Release because he had been so maimed by an injury that he was no longer considered a threat.
Went to the White House to talk to LINCOLN. He had one brother left who was also in a prison came and wanted to appeal the brother’s freedom to go home and care for the mother.
At doors at White House the guard denied him any access. As he left he sat down and began to cry.
A little boy walked up and asked why he was crying. The man shared with the boy. The boy took him by the hand and walked him past the guards and walked him thru the halls and walked him into the office where Abraham Lincoln sat. LITTLE BOY WAS PRESIDENT SON. Given introduction.
Jesus takes us by the hand when we meet him at the cross and brings us to the father.
All debts are paid at the cross.
1) Beyond that we have continual access. Soldier come back with any need for the future without denial.
2) More than just a gift of salvation given when you walked an aisle but today you can go to God freely and receive what you need. INTRODUCTION & ACCESS
CONCLUSION: Tonight we will look at the third blessing of the present which is a hope we have now because of our relationship with God. Also we will look at the BLESSINGS OF THE FUTURE as God begins to work His purpose out in our lives to make us more like Jesus Christ.
In the mid-17th century Oliver Cromwell sent his secretary to the European continent on important business.
One night during his travels the secretary found himself unable to sleep. A servant was sleeping soundly in the same room. The secretary woke the man to tell the servant of his mission, ‘I am unable to sleep because I am so afraid something will go wrong with the mission’.
‘Master, may I ask a question or two….did God rule the world before we were born?......And will He rule it after we are gone?’……Then why not let Him rule the present too?
The reply was so sobering that the secretary had no trouble sleeping the rest of the night.
1. The question we must ask ourselves this morning is ‘am I receiving with open hand all that God wants to give’. Salvation – Peace – Grace – Hope. I DAILY decide to receive all that He continues to provide and it is always thru the avenue of FAITH.
A relief worker during WW2 was handing out provisions to needy children.
The worker held a glass of milk before a child whose eyes exploded out of a gaunt little face. The child couldn’t remember if ever seeing a full glass of milk. ‘How deep shall I drink”?
‘Drink as deep as you can, son, drink as deep as you can’.
God would give us the same answer regarding our faith. ‘How much can I ask of God? How much faith can I have? GOD SAYS, “Drink as deep as you can, exhaust the benefits of My grace, there is no limit to what I will do to respond to your need’.
Need to remind ourselves each do to receive out of God’s resourses all we need until we finally see the bottom of the glass. To exhaust all that He would have for our lives BECAUSE we are justified by Faith as a result of all that Christ has done for us.
