Romans 5: Glorification & Eternal Security Series

Romans 5: Glorification & Eternal Security

Date: 6/29/08

At: Tioga Heights Christian Church

By: Wayne ODonnell

Web: http://bible.ag

Ok, good morning again. How are you doing? It must be the fifth Sunday, because I am here. The last time I was here, I started a survey of Romans. We covered chapters 1 through 4. Today I would like to look at Romans chapter 5. Is this too loud? No?

Today I would like to look at Romans chapter 5, which is about glorification and eternal security. This is a special topic to me, so I am really thankful that I can be here and share it with you.

The Three Tenses Of Our Salvation

We are going to start by looking at the first two verses of Romans chapter 5, and it is about the three tenses of our salvation. The past tense of our salvation is justification. Paul covered that in Romans chapters one through four. Chapter 5 verse 1 says, “Therefore being justified,” which is better translated “having been justified”, past tense, “by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

To be justified means that God, who is holy, and his wrath is against all unrighteousness, counts a man who is not just, as if he were just. And he does that because of our faith in what Jesus Christ did for us as our substitute, in taking our sin and providing us his righteousness. And then “we have peace with God,” Rom5:1. “We”, who still commit acts of unrighteousness, “have peace with God,” the just holy judge, because God counts us as if we are just, as if we are righteous, “through Christ our Lord,” Rom5:1. So that is justification, the past aspect of our salvation. And I hope that is a past aspect for each person in this room, that we have already been justified in the past, that at some day in the past we believed on Jesus Christ.

The present aspect of our salvation is sanctification, a big word. And Paul is going to cover that in Romans 12 through 16. Romans 5:2 says, “By whom also we have access,” it should be “have had access,” past tense, “by faith into this grace wherein we stand.” So when you believed on Jesus Christ for justification something else happened and you didn’t realize it at the time; you also had access into grace through Jesus Christ at the same time. And it is a one way door into grace. You can go in, but you can’t come out. Nobody ever leaves grace once they enter in because we stand in grace. Nobody falls in grace. We don’t stumble in grace. It says, “Wherein we stand,” Rom5:2. Not some of us, not just for a little while; but, we stand in grace.

The future aspect of our salvation is glorification. Paul’s beginning that topic right here in Romans chapter 5 and it will go on through chapter 11. The end of chapter 5 verse 2 says, “And rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

That word “hope” tells us that it is something about the future. It doesn’t mean “hope so”; like, “I hope it comes to pass”, “I’m not really sure”. It is a very certain thing that is going to happen in the future for all who have been justified. But the word “hope” is just there because it is something in the future. If there is something certain that happened in the past, like Christ’s death on the cross, we can have faith in that because it happened in the past. But if it is something sure that is going to happen in the future, we have hope in that.

And the thing that is in the future that is certain that we are looking forward to is the glory of God. Now that doesn’t mean that God is glorious, though he is. It is talking about the fact that God is going to give glory to man, to all who have been justified. We are not going to just see the glory of God, we are going to share in the glory of God. Praise the Lord.

And we rejoice in that hope of glory because it is a sure thing. If it wasn’t a sure thing it would be presumptuous of us to rejoice in it. If we didn’t know it was going to happen we should, out of humility, wait until we know for sure before we rejoice in it. But since it is going to happen, we rejoice in it now.

Now here is a diagram of the three tenses of our salvation. On the left hand side you see justification. That is a past event for those who have been justified, and it affects our spirits. On the right hand side you see glorification. That is a future event, and it affects our bodies. Our bodies didn’t change when we believed on Jesus Christ, except now they are older than they used to be. But in the future they will be changed.