having been justified by faith ...

Okay, looking at this passage here in Romans, I thought, wow, how did I get so fortunate to be able to teach this passage? This is a cool passage. This is really good. And before we dive into the coolness, cool sounds good this time of year, let's pray.

Lord, thank you. As we look at what you have in your word here this morning, how phenomenal, how wonderful, how over-the-top, overwhelmingly tremendous this is. We thank you for it. We thank you for the beyond good news and just pray for your working in our hearts and minds during this time Thank you for all that you've laid out and revealed For us out of your heart of love in Jesus name.

Amen Okay, how many of you have been through a circumstance where you have kind of gone Well, that was a close one There have been through one of those. Yeah. Yeah. I've been through one of those. If you've been through such a circumstance, then you have an idea what I'm talking about. And. So if you've been through a circumstance where you've come out and you said, boy, that was a close one. Now, let's ask this question.

Have you been through a circumstance where somebody came up to you and gave you some surprisingly really good news? Ever had that happen? Now, it's possible you say no, but at least you might have some idea or inkling of what that's like. Somebody comes up to you and gives you some unexpected, really good news.

Now, put those two together, and then put some kind of multiplier on it. A thousand is probably a good start. That's what this set of verses is like. It's, whew, boy was that a close one, and whoopee, did I get some good news. It's the combination of those two. So that's what Paul is laying out here.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Okay. Simple enough, right? Therefore, what do you think about therefore? What's that?

Yeah, yeah, this is the conclusion to be drawn, the logical conclusion to be drawn from the things that I have just laid out. Romans was a book that was used, I would say a couple centuries ago now, as standard text in law schools to teach logic. We've now, you know, anything spiritual is stripped out of it. It's got to be completely secular and worthless. So anyway, so Romans, however, was used as the example par excellence of logic.

And so this is what Paul is doing is saying, I've laid out for you all the premise for this conclusion. Premises for this conclusion that I'm now laying out here. Therefore, having been justified by faith. So Paul is building on everything from chapter 3, verse 21, which is what I taught the first, second Sunday in April, two months ago. And everything from there to 425 is built into this therefore. Having been justified by faith. So it's looking back and therefore then the next part, having been justified, is what? What does that mean? I made lots and lots of excuses. I made a really, really good excuse. Ever heard a collection of excuses? Some of them are really phenomenal. It's way beyond the dog ate my homework. No, what does he mean by justified? Yeah, Todd?

Okay, done. And it is done. You're correct so far. That's a part of the answer. What else? It's declared righteous. If you want to say, what does he mean by that? It's declared righteous. And some translations will, instead of the word justified, just put that in there. They'll just say declared righteous.

That's what it means. And this particular one, is in the context where we have peace with God is in the present tense. So the Greek points to this having been as that's a past deal. That was in the past, it's completed, it's done. That's the perspective that it comes from. So it isn't having been mostly declared righteous, having been declared pretty righteous, kinda righteous, more or less. approximately righteous. No. It's having been declared righteous as a done deal. Completed in the past. There's no amount of it ongoing. There's no amount of it yet to happen. It's completely done.

Right? Okay. So that's the next part. Now, the bottom part of your handout there, The bottom part here shows justification, but one of the things you'll notice is that justification has some things wrapped up in it. It is not a word by itself, as much as declared righteous is a good short definition. It includes other things with it. It assumes forgiveness of sins. In order for you to have been declared righteous, the sins have been forgiven.

That's step number one. Now, is that a done deal? How do we know it's a done deal? Christ died on the cross. Good. And how do we know that that's a done deal? What did that do? Wash away the sins. Alright. Where are they? Gone? What happened? Nailed to the cross. Done deal.

When Christ said, it is finished, that was an accounting term. It means the debt is paid off, and he said it in the perfect tense, which meant that it's a completed past action, ongoing results into the future, implying permanence. So, real short phrase. It is finished! But what he meant was, The debt of sin is entirely, completely, 100% paid, all completed, as of now, forever, to have consequences into the future, permanently.

That's what he said when he said, it's finished. Big impact, little tiny words. It's finished. It really is finished. So here is the forgiveness of sins, And also built into that is redemption. The price is paid. One of the analogies we used a couple months ago when we were going over this was, what is the price for our sins? Death? You mean to tell me that it's death? Well, that's no good. What am I going to get out of that? Huh? Death? Okay. So why is Christ dying on the cross good news for me?

So He paid the penalty. And He said it's finished. And He said it's a done deal. And so how does that get applied to me? We are identified with Christ. That's one. The other thing is, He took the wrath for us, right? He took it instead of us. Here's something real interesting. Christ died instead of us. In other words, we should have been there, right? We should have been the one taking the whole thing. He died in our place.

Isn't it interesting that the church after the New Testament, a thousand years went by before we have any record that anybody in the church understood that. that Christ died in our place. Isn't that interesting? It's been less than half of church history that Christians have had any understanding at all, so far as we have any record, that Christ died in my place. Isn't that phenomenal? Yes, Dawn? Oh, there were people within the New Testament era that understood it. But from the time the New Testament ink was dry up until about the year 1100, We have no record that anybody understood that, as basic as that may seem.

Amazing, isn't it? So here is this ransom price paid completely. It's entirely paid off. Done deal. So sins are forgiven, the ransom price has been paid, and there's justification. So justified or justification includes forgiveness of sins, includes the ransom price paid. All that is wrapped up. So when we say justified, it means all those other things.

That's the first part where, remember I said, have you ever been through an experience where you felt like, whew, that was close? This was the biggest that was close there ever was. We almost got fried forever. So this is really good news. This is a that was close only really really big Right make sense. Yeah, it's a really big that was close Okay, and how'd this happen? How'd this come to pass it's because we tried really really really hard to It's because I feel so bad for my sins. So very, very bad. Is that what happened? Huh? We kind of felt bad. But is that what did it? Yes? No? No. What's the deal? What's that?

It's by faith. And what does that mean? What's faith? Believing. Now, if you go to anybody that's just waiting in the grocery store, do they have faith? In something. Yeah, that's right. They have faith. So, this is by faith that is specifically directed at believing God's message. The Gospel, basic to salvation.

And it's not just, well, I feel so bad for my sins. It's not just, you know, well, heaven sakes, the pastor went and dunked me in the water. I must have been saved. I've been to church every Sunday for the last five years. Aren't I saved? I helped an old lady go across the street and she didn't even want to go, you know? So doesn't that make me saved? You could come up with a list of all the different things, and the bottom line is this is real simple.

It's faith, and 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3 and 4 lays it out. Christ died for my sins. That's the in place of me, for the purpose of taking the penalty. He died for my sins. He was buried. That is, He really did die. And He was raised to life. Not to another life like this. but to eternal life. Died for our sins. Buried. Raised. Do you believe it? By faith? That's it.

There's nothing else you can do to add to it. You can't tweak it. You can't enhance it. You can't modify it. It's that simple. By faith. We can do extra stuff. It doesn't help. We can feel really intensely about it, that doesn't make any difference. It's, do you believe it? That's the content. Completely and totally by faith. We have, ah, this is a cool one.

The we have part. This we have is a word that is used throughout the New Testament to express something we have as a believer's position in Christ. It's a word used throughout the book of Revelation for something that was grasped in the hand, implying that it was there for good. And it is our position in Christ, it's who we are in Christ, that is we have it. Right there. Echomen. Echomen.

2 Corinthians 4, 7, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. What treasure do we have that? Is that the gold crowns that I have here? We have this treasure in earthen vessels? We have a gold crown on each side. Is that what he's talking about? No? What is it? What's the treasure?

Yeah, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Is Christ himself? That is our position in Christ. We've got it. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. What's the earthen vessel? This thing. Okay? So here, you know, we walk around, we try to keep this thing going, you know, how to deal with this and have the dentist drill on them, you know, various parts and maybe you avoid that.

But anyway, for whatever we have happened, this is the earthen vessel that the Lord has designated. That's where I want the treasure, the Lord Jesus Christ. So you have that. How about that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. Isn't that something? We have this treasure in earthen vessels so that you can try really hard to impress God by what you can do on your own.

No. Todd, you're disagreeing. What are you doing disagreeing with me? It's not right. Oh, okay. Well, I certainly would want you to correct me on that. That the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. Explicitly not of us. And notice something, that the excellence of the power may be the 10% that I can't quite pull off. I'll do the 90, but he's going to do the other 10. Is that the arrangement?

No. Entirely from Him and not from us. It's not God's design that I come up here and teach or that you sit there and learn by your own best efforts with God kind of helping out with what you can't pull off yourself. It's entirely to be His. If I'm up here teaching on my own strength, even if it's trying to be my 10% and His 90%, that's not God's arrangement.

How about the next one, Ephesians 1.7, in him we have redemption, remember that's redemption, that's the ransom price paid, and the forgiveness of sins, that's at the core of being justified. So those are the beginning parts of justification, on the bottom part of the first page there, and now this justification, he says we have, echelmon as well, we have been justified, and we have Okay, the believer isn't just simply justified and then set loose.

It isn't... You've been through... I asked, you know, have you ever been through a situation you went, whew, that was close? You're just glad right then to be free, and then you go off and do whatever you're going to do. This is one of those, whew, that was close, and the Lord says, yeah, but I'm not done.

We've got something else going on here too, see? So there is a... There is an additional thing beyond just being justified. There are things that we irreversibly have as blessings that accompany this being justified. So the, whew, I'm glad that's over. The, whew, I'm glad that didn't come to pass like I was afraid it would, is just the start. The sense of relief is just the beginning. The blessings that go beyond that are so phenomenal, Paul calls them unfathomable blessings.

Unfathomable. Fathom is the idea that it's a nautical or shipping term for depth. It means you can't find the bottom of it. Bottomless. You can spend the rest of your life. How much am I blessed? I don't know. You keep dumping rope down here and just can't find the bottom. Well, turn the radar on. You go bleep. You don't get any signal back. Why? It's unfathomable. Blessings so deep, it's going to take a long time.

That's why Ephesians 2.7, it will take eternity for Him to reveal all of the grace that He has for us. We'll be gasping in awe. That kind of. Okay, now. I've got to get used to this thing. It's a little different from what I'm used to. Okay. Is that right? Boy, this is weird. I know, but it's a little odd, so it's flying past me. Is this it? Is that the next one? Peace with God. Okay. Alright.

This isn't personal peace. This isn't, oh, I finally have peace inside. Do believers have that? Or can believers have that? Yeah, they can. They can. Why is it that we can? Because of what Christ did. We can have peace within ourselves. But it's not referring to that.

Galatians 5.22, part of the fruit of the Spirit.

It isn't peace between Jews and Gentiles like in Ephesians 2.11-17, but peace with God. It's a peace with God that's a part of our position which we have in Christ. It's God's doing entirely by faith. Now, how is this peace with God set up here? Are we mad at God or is God mad at us? Before this peace comes about. Think about this.

God is the Absolute. We are the ones in Adam who moved away. By Christ's death on the cross, the alienation, the sin, was blotted out, wiped out. He says, what alienation? And so it isn't a matter of God comes halfway and we come halfway. He took the entire expense for us to be taken and drawn back to Him. Back to Him. We approach Him now. Previously it wasn't possible. We were the ones who were alienated and pushed away because of the sin. We did the moving away. God didn't move. We did.

Now we've been brought back to Him. We'll see that a little more deeply in a minute here. So that's why we have this believer arrow pointed towards God. It's our reconciliation to Him. God never moved. God didn't change. We did, in Adam. And now, in Christ, we've been moved back into reconciliation with Him. OK. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the breakthrough in the alienation.

We have been reconciled to God because I volunteered to vacuum the church one Saturday. We've been reconciled to God because Vern had another cup of coffee after breakfast. We've been reconciled to God because I felt really, really bad for what I did this last week. No. We've been reconciled to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's what He did, not what I did.

Right? Make sense? Okay so far? Okay. It's not only that reconciliation, but it's also the unfathomable blessings. So it's the, whew, I'm glad that's over, and whoopee, I got the good news. All together in one, and it's all through Jesus Christ. He accomplished it all. Okay.

Ephesians 1.3, Blessed be the God and Father, O Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Or Ephesians 3.8, To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Or in another translation, the unfathomable riches of Christ.

Way, way too big. Way, way too big to measure. Suppose somebody came to you and they said, we want you to tell us how much water there is in the ocean. Oh, what are you going to give me to measure it with? Well, let's say they go to the drawer and they pull out a little teaspoon measure from the drawer in the kitchen. And there, there's your measure. Start measuring. It's just, you're not going to get there, right? Teaspoon isn't going to do it. I'm not sure how you're going to get that done anyway. But there's no way for us to fathom it from any human standpoint. This is something the Lord can begin to reveal to us. We will still be gasping a trillion years from now how phenomenal these blessings are. Amazed at them.

Now, through whom we also have. Here's through Jesus Christ by whom. There's the by whom. been justified on the basis of faith, we don't only have peace with God, as good as that is for us to have, there is yet more to our blessings and eternal positions. Though this, we have, is the same root word as in verse 1, that echo, remember the word echomen is the statement of we have something as in a position, it's in the perfect tense. Through whom we also have, and when they say have, it's a completed past action, you already have had it, It's completely had, and the results are ongoing into the future.

Done deal. Just like it is finished. So here's something you have. You have it completely. It's a done deal. The results are going to continue to have consequences on into the future, and barring any modification in the sentence that says otherwise, it says it's permanent. You got it. So you have this. Look at what we have. That's the next thing. What is it that we have permanently?

Access. Access. Now, it isn't just an open door, an unlocked gate. It isn't like, you know, like Roy came and closed the door here and so we're going to open it up and now we have access. It's not as simplistic as that. There's more to it. This faith is the initial faith by which we're saved. So we already have it permanently. It doesn't depend on ongoing faith. So this is an access. It's there whether you believe it at the present or not. It's not your present faith that keeps your access going. The access is there permanently because of your initial belief. OK, let's take a look at this access. We're going to take a slight detour. Can you handle a detour? You have on the back of your handout a page that is custom color print, and it's a separate one-of-one kind of deal. Got that? So that's our detour.

Paul uses a word here, this word for access, that he also uses in Ephesians 2 and 3 twice, and those are the only three places the word is used in the New Testament. Okay, so let's take a look at this. This is Ephesians 2, 17 and 18, verse 18, is the place that has this access. So what exactly is this access? Is it just a door kind of left open? The door is unlocked. Go in if you want.

Is that what it means? Is it? You got the combination, or the right key stroke combination on the keyboard. Is that what it is? Is it? Hello. There we go. Is it? There's a security system, and we happen to have the right set of keys for it in our pocket. Is it? Hello.

There's a hidden door, and we just happened to discover where this somewhat obscure door is found. Well, here's the deal. The word is posagogē, and that's the word that's used there in Ephesians 2, 18, Ephesians 3, 12, and here in our passage in Romans 5. We can easily imagine this word means an open door, or a key to an open door, or, you know, the special or secret way to get in.

Some secret special access. But that's not what it means. It's not what the word means. Instead, the word had a very special meaning in New Testament times, and it's the word they chose carefully. And we have to step back in time to get the idea of where this meaning came from.

And it goes like this. About the time the Old Testament was being completed, about four hundred years before Christ. There was a Greek historian who wrote about the practices of Persian kings in their time, and the way it goes is like this. Here's the palaces at Persepolis, and the king of Persia, pictured here in this relief from the time, and here were the king's soldiers.

We're thinking, you know, I think I'd like to go talk to the king. What would happen to you if you said, I'm just going to walk in and talk to the king? Hey king, old buddy, old boy. What happens to you? Yeah, they got the Roman soldiers there and they're going to look at you and say, who are you and who gave you permission? And you're going to suddenly find yourselves perforated. Okay. So that's not going to work so good. Okay. Yeah. All right, didn't mean to hurt your feelings or anything. Okay, all right.

So, someone with authorized access to the king would make the introduction. All right, so it worked like this. The Greek historian had the name for the person who was assigned to make those special introductions, the prosagogaos, which is why Paul uses the word prosagoga. You had to have first a contact with the prosagogaus. He was the guy appointed by the king to be the official introducer. If the prosagogaus said, I will introduce you to the king, then you're okay.

If he did not, and you just walked in, you're dead. But, once the prosagogaus made the introduction, and Paul uses the term here, it's permanent, You have a once given, perpetually valid, permanent introduction. Once you're introduced, you get to walk into the king's court anytime. See the difference there? So, what does this say for you as a Christian?

Do I have to go plead, Oh Lord, please, please can I talk to you? Please will you let me, can I pray? Oh Lord, I know I kind of slipped away, but I want to come back. Will you let me come back and talk to you? Is that the situation we're in? No. Isn't this amazing?

Anytime, we just walk right in there. And the soldiers say, oh, he's had an introduction. And boom, you're right in. There is that special introduction that gives you the right to say something a little bit differently. I had an experience. This was longer ago. Boy, I'm telling my age. This was like 35 years ago.

I worked as an assembly worker. This means lowest of low. Nancy and I were, I think, married at the time, or about to get married. And we were both assembly workers at this lowest of the low. It was a division of the Dictaphone Corporation. And we were doing really sophisticated things like bending resistor wires and putting a wire in a lug and going crimp. Real sophisticated stuff like that. So anyway, lowest of low. Into the room walks this guy. And I say, Hi Dad! And the supervisor on the assembly floor says, don't do that. That's the general manager and vice president of Dictaphone Corporation. I said, yeah, he's my dad. See?

I had special privileges that, of course, got me paid the same as everybody else. But I had special privileges. I could call him my dad. I could say hi like that across the room when anybody else that did that would probably be look down upon, probably not run through, but look down upon. This is that kind of situation where there's been a special relationship by introduction. The introduction that we have is through Jesus Christ, the prosagogaos, who gave us that access, the prosagogae. Through him we both have our access, this prosagogae, that's that required, authorized introduction to the supreme royalty.

Through him we both have our access, So this word, prosagogae, is the same word in Ephesians 2.18 as it is in this Romans 5 passage.

Having the access is not just an impersonal access. Oh, the door is open. Oh, I just unlocked the door. It is having that special introduction. You have a special royal introduction with authorization that is permanent, that gives you permanent access from that point on for good. because of Jesus Christ. You have access to the Father.

And so it's no longer, oh, Father, I've done horribly, and forgive me, and I hope you'll let me back in to talk to you again, and I'll try to be good. No. How does Paul put it? Twice. Tells two different churches. Writes to them, Abba, Father. Aramaic for Papa.

That special introduction. You've got it. Special introduction. Having this access is not a passing privilege because we have an eternally established relationship with the proso gogeos. The person that did the introduction, oh yeah, by the way, we stay in relationship with him forever too. After all, we're in him. That's cool. The one with authorized access. Now, back to Romans 5, 1 and 2. Oh, one more.

1 Peter 3, 18 says, For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God. Prosago. The thing that the prosagogaos, the introducer does, is to bring us to God. It isn't just, he brought us to God. See, Verne, here's God. God, here's Verne. But he made the special introduction in the royal throne room. That introduction. Okay. Into this grace in which we stand. You see, we don't get to walk through the palace and just do a quick breeze through. Or open the door, peek your head in, there's the palace room. Click. On to the next room. No. Into this grace in which we stand. Where are you? What's that?

Yeah, you're in the race and you don't just peek your head in. You're not just doing a quick pass-through tour. It's like, you know, there are people who take a tour of some place like the White House. Does that mean you're in the White House? Not in as in, you know, I'm in the White House. It means you just took a tour. This isn't a tour. You're there and this is permanent. This is home. And your presence there is not some... you don't have a visitor's badge. You belong here. It gives us a standing, an eternal position. And rejoice and hope.

Up to this point, the verses have been pretty factual. Isn't it interesting? I mean, they're exciting things. I introduced it initially as this is a big... Boy, I'm glad that's over. And whoopee, I just got really good news, and it's better than the Geico bill. But it is finally here after statements of fact, as exciting as those statements of fact are, there's a statement of rejoicing. Rejoicing in hope.

And isn't it neat, the rejoicing... Have you ever rejoiced about something only to end up being disappointed? You rejoice in something and after a while you get to the other half of it and it's not such good news? This is one of those rejoicings that doesn't get the good news. It's dampened.

It doesn't get the good news scratched off. You want the good news or the bad news first? No, it's not one of those. It's the good news and the good news. And it stays good news. And it doesn't get turned over, or lost, or displaced, or counterbalanced by something else. It stays good news.

Rejoicing in hope. What kind of hope is that? What's that? Yes, it's a certain hope. And that's one thing. This world has no idea what a certain hope is. So that's why we have to describe it that way. This is a certain hope. The I hope so's that this world has, it's the best they can offer, so you've got to realize that that's the way it is, but the I hope so's that this world has are all hopes that something turns out this way instead of that.

This is different. This is I hope it's going to turn out this way instead of that, but I know it's going to turn out this way and not that. with a certainty attached to it. The world can't offer that. It just doesn't come to pass. It doesn't happen. Of the glory of God. Now, so this is phenomenal. This is not second class glory. This isn't glory that's just pretty good.

Ever walk into a room and it's just pitch dark? Oh, better yet, you've been to one of those caves that's underground, you've been to one of those cave tours, and one of the things they do in the deep pit of the cave is they'll turn the lights off, and you can't see a thing. You can't even sort of start to see a thing. And you turn even just a match or a cigarette lighter or something like that on, and the whole place just lights up phenomenally after that, especially once your eyes are adjusted to pitch dark.

The place just lights up phenomenally with just one little candlelight. But really the candlelight's not all that big. It's not that bright. This is a glory that's unexcelled. This is the glory of God. All other glories derive from and are secondary to the glory of God. There isn't any glory that is equal to or holds a match to God's glory. Any glory that we have here on earth is a diminutive and is also short-lived. This is one that there is no second glory here.

This is first-tier glory. This is top-ranked and it's permanent. It doesn't fade. It doesn't make us go whoopie-uh. This is phenomenal glory. So this is Rejoice in the certain hope of the unparalleled, unequaled, original glory of God. That glory. That one. Colossians 3, 4, When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Well, that would be kind of nice until the initial housewarming party is over. What do you think? Yes? No? Not sure? Yeah, this is eternal glory. This is glory that is unparalleled. This is glory that doesn't fade. That's the glory he's talking about. This is the glory of God. Think of this.

By faith, we have been justified. That's the past. I'm glad that's over. I'm glad we got through that one. By faith, we have peace with God. That's in the present. Have you got peace right now with God? If you put your trust in Him, then you do. Done deal. It's a present condition.

By faith, we have a certain hope for the future. Boy, I sure hope it turns out okay. but a certain hope. We have a past that's done dealt with, we have a present that isn't going to fade, and we have a future that's certain, with a glory that's unexcelled. Blessings that are so massive, so huge, that eternity will not be enough time. to fathom the depths.

That is what we've got. That's phenomenal. All of this by grace and by grace alone. Grace so infinite it will take eternity to reveal it all to us. We'll be gasping. Amazing grace is amazing with all capital letters and underlined in bold and italics. with really, really big font size.

Some of it won't even fit on your computer screen. Really amazing grace. It can't be excelled. It's overwhelming. It can't be comprehended. Absolutely amazing. A million, a trillion years from now, astounding grace. That's the kind of grace that we've got here.

I've been asking you short questions, but have you got any questions, long or short? When's Jim coming back? Yes? No? Okay, let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, it's a huge turning point. How astounding the expressions are here. Everything is so permanent, and it's all good stuff. Everything is so fixed in place. It's absolute grace. We didn't do anything with any of it except believe, and that's not Ours has a work. It's not something we accomplished. We just depended on what you did. It is amazing. It is astounding. Thank you for your amazing grace. In Jesus' name.