Law & Grace - Romans 5:1-11 This grace in which we stand
Romans 5:1-11 · Vern Peterman · Jul 22, 2012
Law & Grace, No. 74
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926322204357

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're going to be continuing on our Law and Grace series, and we're going to do so, having completed the book of Matthew, we're going to do so by stepping into various selected passages in the New Testament that are applicable to this issue, this question of law and grace. And so we'll begin with the passage that Brad read for us here. And continuing on into the next few months, in fact, into the book of Romans.

One of the things that we've been trying to bring out, understanding what the Bible says about law and grace is of great importance. It is exceedingly valuable for us to look at these things and to understand these things. One of the things that we want to bring forward, and we will do so in the weeks ahead, is that Christ voluntarily loved us and gave his life for several different purposes, one of which is to separate us in the church from the law. I would say most of Christendom does not understand that. Most of Christendom does not understand that. because what the tendency is among Christians is to have some clinging to the law and not realizing that Christ died on the cross to separate us from the law and not just parts of it, all of it. So, we'll be looking at some of these passages in the weeks and months to come here.

We are saved by grace and not by the law. The law has no ability to save you. People oftentimes don't recognize that. They'll say, well, the Ten Commandments, or 11, or 9, or whatever number they happen to pick. The reality is the law never had the ability to save anyone. Salvation is always by faith. The law is not designed to save anyone. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 3, calls it a ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation. Anybody like to volunteer for those ministries? Ministry of death and condemnation? Do you like that? By the law, none will be saved. In contrast, all who are saved are saved by grace through faith only. We have here grace all saved. What we mean by that is that all who are saved are saved by grace entirely.

Paul starts off Romans 5.1.

Romans, as you may have noticed, makes full use of the logical terms therefore and because. Each of those words occurs more than two dozen times in the book of Romans. Therefore and because, and this is no exception. So he's building a logical case in this book. Having been justified by faith was established in the two previous chapters, Romans chapters 3 and 4. So that's what this therefore is. Therefore, right?

Romans 3.28, he said, for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

The works of the law are not going to save anyone. It's not going to justify anyone. Now, something to make clear, this word justify in Paul's writings means to be declared righteous. We make that distinction because in the book of James, justified does not mean the same thing. It is used differently. It is God who declares a person righteous. That's what is meant here. Being justified means God declares a person righteous. That's what's being communicated. Now we've got to say what faith is not because quite often faith is misunderstood. Faith is not believing something you know isn't true. Oh well, no reaction, I don't know.

Faith is not meritorious. Faith does not merit anything. God does not count faith as spiritual brownie points. It isn't something that merits us because it's entirely confidence in God's merit. That's why. Faith is not something we add to what God is also contributing. It isn't, I add my faith to what God does and together that pulls it off. No. That's not what's intended. Faith is also not claiming something on pure presumption and then expecting God to fulfill that presumption. That's called the Word of Faith movement. There are some so-called televangelists who promote this idea.

A few years back, I was talking to a fellow over in Africa who said, boy, we're believing God to provide a certain amount of money. Believing God? Where did God say he was going to provide you the money? He never did, right? It's presumption. And then expecting God to fulfill that presumption is not faith. It's presumption. That's all. Also, faith is not a blind leap. Ever heard of the leap of faith? Never take a leap of faith. It's not what God has in mind. Never take a leap of faith.

Finally, faith is, positive statement, faith is dependent upon God's revelation and what He's revealed as far as accomplishment and the resources He's made available to us. Faith is confidence in what God has said, what God has said He has done and will do. Then we see we have, that little word pair in Romans 5, we have peace with God through the work that was done by Jesus Christ.

The words we have often state a positional truth, or even, as you could put it this way, a possession that we have spiritually. We have peace with God. That's a possession that we have, and we have it eternally. Through Christ we have Positional, that's what we use to understand this. We have positional peace with God. That is, it isn't something that comes and goes, but we have peace with God continuously based on Christ's work on the cross. And we have obtained an introduction into this grace in which we stand. All that we did was to believe what God said. That's all that we did. It's what God did that pulls it off, that accomplishes it. This grace in which we stand.

In the pagan world, that word grace was a favor you did for a friend or a relative and didn't expect anything in return. Although the friend or relative could conceivably pay you back, you didn't expect anything back. That was all the word meant in the pagan world.

What happened is as the authors of the New Testament began using the word, they greatly expanded it. Grace meant something much larger. So the New Testament expanded on that pagan understanding, which was really fairly small and minimal, and made grace this huge infinite thing.

God's grace begins by paying a massive debt entirely at God's expense. through Christ for us who were outright enemies at the time. He accomplished everything there in the spiritual realm and that's just the start of grace. We're going to be looking at other things that grace does. Rather than being something that is just a favor you do for a friend or a relative, this grace is going to be so huge that as we continue to look at it, it will be something that we discover on into the rolling ages of eternity. God will demonstrate it. We'll be looking at that.

Now this grace in which we stand, let's take a look at this word stand. The grace not only gets us in the door, we're saved by grace, spiritually speaking, but it's a place where we stand even right now. It's the spiritual atmosphere that we as Christians breathe. We breathe and live in pure, complete, total grace. No law. We don't need it. Christ died to separate us from the law.

This Greek word for stand is in a form that means we've been made to stand in the past. A completed action. Completely made to stand. And that has enduring results into the present and on into the future. And it implies that we stand permanently in this grace. So the grace isn't something we stand in for five minutes until coffee break. The grace is something we stand in eternally. We breathe in grace. We stand in it from this day forward. It's done. It's all accomplished by God. We don't go move in and out of it. We don't try to get there. We've been made to stand by God. He pulled it off.

In verses three through five, Paul goes to this tribulation. We glory in our tribulations, or exult, as the numerical standard says, not because we're masochists who delight in pain. It's not because, oh good, it hurts, right? but rather because of the spiritual outcome from it.

It is of great value. God produces something. With this shooting event that happened in Aurora just a few days ago, the world has something like that hit them, and it's distressing. It's disturbing. But for the believer, one of the things that's wonderful is no matter what goes on, we can take confidence that God has a purpose in everything that takes place. Everything. God doesn't waste anything. There is no senseless tragedy in the life of the Christian. These things, the perseverance and proven character, result in a certain and fixed hope A true hope. It's not based on what this world has where I hope for this and I hope that this happens or I hope that doesn't happen.

All in probabilities and possibilities. This is a hope that we have in the Lord that is absolutely certain. Are we going to be with the Lord and see Him face to face? Is that something you just hope that turns out that way? No. It's something we can absolutely count on. And the things that happen in this world that to others may just be unsettling and disturbing, to us end up building our hope in the Lord. It's a hope that is absolutely certain, the glory of God.

In verse 5, he says, the love of God has been poured out. 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. This is one way that God says, I love you. If you're a believer here today, he has given you the Holy Spirit. And he uses the Holy Spirit's presence in your heart to say, I love you. That's one of the ways we're going to see more before we're done here. It's one of the ways He says, I love you. This is not an, I hope so, kind of hope. It is a certain hope.

God's love for us is real, it's personal, and it is profoundly gracious. Did you earn and work for having the Holy Spirit poured out in your heart? No. It is completely and entirely by grace. We didn't and never could earn that kind of love. In Romans chapter 8, Paul will expand on the ministry of the Holy Spirit has been given to us and we'll take a look at that down the road here. In verses 6 and 8, it says Christ died for the ungodly. You see, in the pagan notion of grace, you did a favor for a friend or relative, someone with whom you had a good relationship. Right? That was as good as grace got.

But under this grace, and I put it in all capital letters here, under this huge grace, God pays for salvation at his own expense for us when we were enemies. When we were alienated from him, he says, I'll pay the full price. And that's expensive. But he paid it all. Us who could not possibly repay him.

One of the things you might notice is we tend not to sing songs and verses here at Holly Hills that talk about us paying God back, or we owe Him. It's a gift. It is absolutely free. We can't owe Him. How would you like it if I said, hey, happy birthday, and here's a gift, and there's the invoice? You wouldn't like that, right? That's not a gift. This is grace. We don't pay Him back, and we don't owe Him. We can't. There's no way we can pay him back. It is absolutely of grace. Furthermore, this passage says that the timing was right.

And we can add to that Galatians 4.4 that it says it was the fullness of the time when Christ came. It was the right time. It was the fullness of time when Christ came to die for the ungodly.

We were spiritually helpless. Only the wealth of God's grace comes out of Ephesians 2, could satisfy what we needed. We didn't need just a little bit of grace, not just a smidgen, right? We needed huge, huge amounts of grace and that's exactly what God offers. Massive grace, infinite grace.

God demonstrates his own love toward us. God's love is not just hypothetical, it's not a secret love. It's not something he kept to himself. He demonstrates his great love for us. God expressed and demonstrated this gracious love in that Christ died for us.

That is another way that God says, I love you. Christ died for you. He gave you his Holy Spirit. Those are two ways in this passage that God says, I love you. Christ died for us when there was nothing we could do that would cause him to want to die for us. God didn't look down and say, oh, aren't those people cute? Right? He didn't say, oh, they're so nice. No. He died for the ungodly.

He demonstrates his love for us that while we were enemies, Christ died for us. We were estranged from him out of his love and his grace. Christ died for us. That we who believe have been justified, that is, declared righteous, by his blood is certainly most amazing.

Well, it's amazing grace, right? But that is just the beginning of the good news and it's just the beginning of what grace is. It's not the sole and total statement of what grace is. Grace is massive. It's huge. It's going to take us forever to understand how massive and huge grace is.

We will also, this passage says, be saved from the wrath of God which will come upon those who reject this most gracious offer. This is a promise to rapture the church before the seven-year tribulation period. We have it here in a diagram. The Lord is going to take us out before this coming tribulation period, and it could be today. At the end of that seven-year tribulation period, the Lord will come back. So initially what this is saying is, The first time the Lord comes, He will come for us. Seven years later, He will come with us.

See the difference? 1 Thessalonians 1, 9, and 10, which you have on page 2 in your handout, underscore the same point. It talks in there about serving a living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is, Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come, this seven-year tribulation period. Later on in that same book, 1 Thessalonians 5, 9, and 10, for God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. The wrath of God or of the Lamb is in Revelation chapter 6. That's the first chapter that describes the tribulation period all the way into chapter 19, which is the last chapter that describes the tribulation period. The wrath of God is in there.

We are saved from that. We're rescued from it. That's what this Romans 5 passage and these two Thessalonians passages say. There is more, of course, than we can cover on this pre-tribulation rapture. There is a handout. We also offered it a few months ago, so if you got that before, that's fine. But we're making it available on the cabinet to the right as you exit this room. It explains there.

Have you ever heard somebody say, well, the word rapture is never in the New Testament, never in the Bible. That's true. The Greek word is harpazo. And so the word harpazo, this taking up, is in the Bible, but people don't look it up by that, right? So that is there. Anyway, lots of other good information is provided in that handout.

Verses 10 and 11, we were reconciled. We were enemies of God at one time, but we couldn't do anything about it. We couldn't fix it, even if we wanted to and we didn't. But because of God's wealth of grace and his immense love for us, He offered reconciliation at His own expense. And by the way, reconciliation brings us back to God. We're the one that moved away, not Him. It's to bring us into a relationship of peace, to reconcile us to Him, to bring us back in relationship to Him. He did that at His own expense. The promise to be saved from God's wrath is because we're reconciled. We're reconciled, therefore we're not subject to God's wrath.

The New American Standard in this whole passage uses exalt three times in this Romans 5 passage, verses 2, 3, and 11. The King James uses rejoice, glory, and joy, which is fine. As a matter of fact, it may even be a little more understandable. The good news for the believer, however, is good news again and again. There's lots of reason for us to rejoice greatly and deeply and then again. The good news from God is that good. We can rejoice again and again because it is repeatedly good news.

We have a gracious position. This passage speaks about our eternal position, that is, who we are permanently and irreversibly in Christ and who Christ is in us. The first one is that we are justified by faith. That doesn't come and go. Once a person believes, they are declared righteous entirely by faith in what God has accomplished.

We have peace with God as God's accomplishment. All we did was believe. We have a grace in which we are made to stand forever. The Holy Spirit was given to us. That doesn't change. The Holy Spirit doesn't come and go. Christ died for our sins. That is God's accomplishment. We are reconciled to God. This passage makes clear. You see, God's call on our lives, in fact, I'll put it this way. God does not want you to try to be a good Christian. Don't try it. Don't try it at home. Don't try it anywhere. God does not want you to try to be a good Christian.

He has, in your position, already made who you are in Christ to be the Christian that He wants. It is our walking in faith according to what He's already done. that is the living out of the Christian life that he intends. He does not want us to try to be a good Christian. He does not want us to be disappointed because we weren't. He wants us to walk in faith with him. He also, in addition to a position that's gracious, has given a gracious process in our lives.

The things that are unchanging are our eternal position. And we could say our possessions in Christ, we have peace with God, for example. Our possessions are a part of that position that we have. But there are things that God is doing that are intended to change us, and those are gracious processes. Some things are not intended to change, that's our position. Then there are the things that God does intend to change us, that's the process. And here he wants to use tribulation in our life, the difficulties, the trials, to produce perseverance and proven character and ultimately result in hope. It is a hope that does not disappoint because it's not an I hope so hope. It's not a I hope this happens or I hope that doesn't happen kind of hope. It is a certain and fixed hope that we can count upon absolutely.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, boy, what love, what hope. There is so much we can count upon. Matter of fact, in the whole passage, there's nothing for us to do. And Lord, we recognize what you have done and are doing and will do. that's brought forth in this passage, and we put our trust and confidence in you. And Lord, may we be led not to try to be a good Christian, but to have Christ's very life be the life that lives this out. We thank you for your gracious love towards us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.