DEFINITION: True saving faith, like the faith of Abraham, is faith that declares us righteous before God.
• Romans 4:22-25,(NASB), Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. 23 Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, 24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 He who was delivered over because of our wrongdoings, and was raised because of our justification.
TITLE: Celebrating True Saving Faith (Rom. 5:1-11)
There are SIX blessings of true saving faith listed here to celebrate:
- We celebrate peace with God. (1)
- We celebrate access to grace. (2a)
- We celebrate the hope of glory. (2b)
- We celebrate growth in trials. (3-4)
- We celebrate assurance of God’s love. (5-9)
- We celebrate friendship with God. (10-11)
NOTE: All these blessings are, “through Christ…” (v. 1, 11)
- We celebrate peace with God.
Romans 5:1 (NASB), “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
• Romans 3:17 states the human problem, “They have not known the way of peace.” • Peace with God, is not about a subjective “feeling.” • Peace with God is a Gospel fact. • True saving faith, objectively means this: God is no longer against us – He is for us. • Peace with God means, “harmony”, “agreement,” “reconciliation,” and like Abraham, there is real friendship with God.
- We celebrate access to grace.
Romans 5:2, “...through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand….”
• God’s grace is His unmerited favor toward underserving people. • The word, “introduction” is good because it recognizes that we are undeserving of God’s grace. We need someone to bring us, to introduce us, into God’s favor. That’s Jesus. • Michael Bird says standing in grace means, “… we always have a VIP pass into the hallways of heavenly power.” • Hebrews 4:16, “… approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.”
- We celebrate the hope of glory.
Romans 5:2b, “...we celebrate in hope of the glory of God.”
• For the first time, the word celebrate shows up in this text. It’s in v, 2, 3, 11. Other translations say, “we rejoice” or “we boast.” • Biblical hope is certainty of a future that is filled with the glory of God. The future will be one day be all about God in all His radiant splendor and glory. • In the future, the Lord’s prayer is answered when, “His kingdom comes and His will is done on earth as it is in heaven.” • 1 John 3 says that, “… when Christ appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”
• When we see Jesus in all His glory, we will also be glorified – having reached the final stage of salvation, or glorification. • Douglas J. Moo “… ‘the glory of God’ is that state of ‘God-like-ness’ which has been lost because of sin, and which will be restored in the last day to every Christian. A joyful confidence in this prospect, overcoming our (proper) frustration at our present failure to be all that God would want us to be, should be the mark of every believer.”
CONCLUSION and QUOTES:
John Stott, “We pause, after Paul’s first three affirmations about the ‘blessedness’ of the justified, and reflect. The fruits of justification relate to the past, present and future. ‘We have peace with God’ (as a result of our past forgiveness). ‘We are standing in grace’ (our present privilege). ‘We rejoice in the hope of glory’ (our future inheritance).”
Michael Bird, “Christ’s benefits for believers encompass more than peace and include access to divine grace and hope for divine glory. Christ is the one “through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God” (v. 2). There is an interesting narrative here. Faith in Christ brings us into grace and grace leads to hope, and hope basks in God’s glory. Here “grace” does not appear to mean an initial saving grace, like mercy, but something more akin to the continuing favor of God on his people… From this grace, Christians may boast in the fact that they have a hope in the glory of God. Hope and glory are often interweaved together by Paul since hope is largely for glory (see Rom 8:14 – 39; Eph 1:12; Col 1:27; 1 Thess 2:19; Titus 2:13). Not a hope of one day knowing God’s glory, but more of a hope of sharing in it, what theologians call “glorification,” to which Paul will refer in Romans 8:30. Paul’s brief summation of the gospel highlights the effect of God’s saving work. Believers experience a justification unto peace, a Christ-given access into divine favor, and a further hope of sharing in God’s everlasting glory.”
