The Results Of Reconciliation Series

The Results of Reconciliation

Romans 5:9-11

Rev. Brian Bill

10/15/06

A teenager received his driver’s permit and asked his dad about using the family car. His father sat him down and said, “I’ll make a deal with you. You bring your grades up from a C to a B average, study your Bible more, get your hair cut, and we’ll talk about the car.” After a couple weeks went by, the dad said, “Son, I’m real proud of you. You brought your grades up, you’ve been studying your Bible more and you’re going to youth group. But, I’m disappointed that you haven’t gotten your hair cut.”

The son paused for a moment, and then said, “You know, Dad, I’ve noticed in my study of the Bible that Samson had long hair, John the Baptist had long hair, Moses had long hair, and I wouldn’t doubt that Jesus’ hair was long.” To which his father replied, “You’re right son. Did you also notice that they all walked everywhere they went?”

As we’ve been roaming through the Book of Romans, we’ve been learning that God loves losers like us even when we don’t do what we’re supposed to do. We were reminded again last week that not only do we have a hard time living up to external expectations, we have even bigger problems: we’re weak, wicked, and wayward. This morning we’re going to see that there are some amazing results of our reconciliation.

Let’s read Romans 5:9-11 together: “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 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! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Last Saturday night at the Men’s Night Out, many men gave testimonies about what God is doing in their lives. We heard from the young and the old, from farmers to a car salesman. By the way guys; don’t miss the men’s breakfast this Saturday. When we were leaving Joe Myzia commented to me that the one common denominator in all the sharing was the blood of Jesus. He put it something like this: “The thread through all the discussion was the cross.” We’ll see in our passage today that indeed the thread is the cross.

Paul is using a form of argument called a fortiori, or “how much more.” It basically works like this: If the greater thing is true, then the lesser thing is of necessity also true. If God has done the harder thing, then surely He will do the easier task. Look closely at verse 9: “Since we have now…how much more shall we be…” And verse 10: “For if when we were…how much more…” Even verse 11 employs something similar: “Not only…we also.”

Since God did the more difficult task of justifying weak, wayward and wicked sinners, then to rescue us from wrath is relatively effortless. We could say it this way: If God has already done the difficult, can we not trust Him to do the comparatively simple thing of completing the task?

Paul is making some stunning statements in this section of Scripture to show that we are to live with the tension of what we have “already” and what is “still to come.” The best is really yet to be! In each of these three verses we’ll discover a conviction that comes with a corollary truth.

Look at verse 9: “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!”

Conviction #1: We have been justified by His blood. At conversion our sins are forgiven, and all charges against us are dropped. This is a legal term from the world of law. To justify means to “declare not guilty.” Wayne Grudem defines it this way: “An instantaneous legal act of God in which He thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us.” We are found not guilty but we are also declared righteous. According to 2 Corinthians 5:21, the righteousness of Christ is credited to your account. Romans 8:1 says, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Don’t miss the fact that we are saved by “His blood.” As the song says, “there is power in the blood” not in pop psychology or in other blather baptized in the waters of Christian words. Why is the blood of Jesus so important?

• There is no forgiveness without blood. Hebrews 9:22: “…Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

• The blood satisfies the Holy claims of God. Exodus 12:13: “…when I see the blood, I will pass over you.”