The Blessings Of Justification

So if you turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 5. So Romans chapter 5, we'll read from verses 1 and 2. We'll read verses 1 and 2 of Romans chapter 5. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.”

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this word that you've given us in the language that we can read and understand, and as we spend time to meditate about it, Lord, may you speak to our hearts through your word, convict us, challenge us and change us into the image of your son Jesus Christ, and in his name we pray. Amen. So today from this, from these two verses, we'll look at this topic, the blessings of justification, and the three ideas that we'll see in this: peace, grace and hope. Peace, grace and hope. So we can see that there are few things that are of a Christian according to this

passage. There are many more things happening, but there'll be, but here we'll only see three things as these verses shows. Those things are an effect of justification, a result of justification in our lives. Once a Christian is justified by faith — we have been looking at this topic for a few weeks — so once a Christian is justified by faith, that is declared righteous before God because of his faith in the finished work of Jesus on that cross, then what follows according to this passage is reconciliation, installation and anticipation. So these are the three things that we'll look at as we go through these two verses.

Reconciliation, installation — I know that's a different word, but uh I'll explain that uh as we go through it — and anticipation. These are the three things that we'll be noticing in these two verses. We will um talk about these things as we uh look into these verses. Look at how this passage is starting with the word “therefore.” The word “therefore” is a conjunctive adverb. Conjunctive adverb. That means it can also say “for that reason” or “consequently” or “as a result of.” So it is primarily used to connect two independent clauses and show that the second statement is a direct logical sequence of the first statement.

Sorry, that sounds like a grammar class, but for us to understand the text we need that. So there is a connection between what has been said in chapters one to four. Paul already made the point that all have sinned, both Gentiles and Jews, and that there is no one who can stand before God in their own righteousness, that is self-righteousness. It is because no one can become righteous by their own works. That has been laid firmly in chapters 1 through 4. However, Paul shows that there is a way to become righteous before God and enjoy God's holy presence forever, and the one and only

way for us to become righteous before God is to borrow God's own righteousness. We can do that when we acknowledge before God that we are sinners and need a savior, and when we put our faith in Jesus Christ who died for our sins. So God himself clothes us with his righteousness and legally declares us righteous the very moment we trust him. That is not the end of the story in a Christian's life, but just the beginning. There is much more to follow. So if justification is the cause, then the effects are many. So we'll once again look at what justification is, because this verse in

this verse Paul starts saying, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith.” The word starts like this: “therefore,” again backward to previous chapter, wrapping up the previous argument. It is like Paul saying, based on everything I just proved about the justification by faith in chapter 4, and then he is continuing his thought. And then after “therefore” we see what the word “since” point forward to the immediate idea of this new sentence. It's like saying “since” or “because” or “given that” the justification by faith is now true, you have peace, grace and hope. That's the line of argument that Paul is coming up with. So

again, look at the tenses of the verb here. You have been justified. “Have been justified” is in the present perfect passive voice. I'm sorry, present perfect. It connects a past even to the present, a past event to the present. The action happened in the past but the status or result is still true even now in the present. The fact that you are justified by faith in the past is true even today, and will be true even tomorrow, the day after and so on.

It will be true every day till you die and forever true after you die. We have been justified by faith. Here in this context, Paul is focusing on today, not in a sense of 24-hour day, but the present reality. Or let's say, even these days that we are currently living out.

It is an ongoing period, and in this period the reality that we are justified by faith is the same and never changes. It is a permanent state that a Christian enjoys. It starts at one point but it continues forever. And Paul uses a passive voice here. The subject “we” is receiving the action. We are not justifying ourselves, not doing the work here, but God is doing the work. God is the one doing the justifying part and we just receive it or experience it. “By faith” explains the instrument or means used to achieve the justification. It's through faith, it's by faith that we receive it. Just imagine how it would have

been if you were born without sin, lived without sin, how would God treat you? If that is true in your life, let's say you do not have sin in your heart, all your thoughts are pure, you never imagine a dirty thought against your neighbor, you never stole anything, not even by watching that pirated movie in YouTube, you never murdered anyone, not angry with someone — that's murder, right? You never committed adultery or fornication, not even in your thoughts. You have always been to the church on time and worshipped God with deep affections in your heart towards him. You have always been there for those in need

of help. You never spoke anything about anyone in a negative sense. You never gossiped about others. You never treated others badly. You ignored people but always greeted people with a genuine smile and welcoming words. You have never showed any partiality towards anyone in the church or in the family. In your family you stood for your deep convictions. You stayed righteous in all your thoughts and actions. If that is the case with you, then how would God respond to you?

He will be well pleased with you. He will rejoice over you. He will honor you greatly for all your obedience and He will welcome you into His eternal glory with great joy because you deserve it. He will treat you well because you proved yourself worthy by all your actions, righteous deeds done by you, right? Isn't it? But the reality is quite the opposite of what has been described. Not just the opposite, but it is much worse than that. We human beings are sinful to the core. All the intentions of our hearts are evil continually, because we never do anything for the glory of God and for the good of our other fellow beings. We do not even try to know the commandments of God and what is in the law that we are to follow. We ignorantly and willfully disobey God. We

do things selfishly for our own sake, for our own, even if it causes harm to others. Why? Because we are totally influenced by sin in every aspect of our life. That is what is called as total depravity. We are dead in our sins. That is our spiritual condition as human beings. We do not have the ability to make right choices or do righteous works. We just cannot. It is not in our sinful nature to do good, really good as God sees it. Might be good in our sight but not in God's sight. So now, how should God treat us? How should God

treat us in the light of our sins. Surely, He will not be pleased with us. He will not rejoice over us. He cannot honor us. He cannot welcome us into His holy presence because of our sinful nature and sinful deeds. But he must punish us by pouring out his wrath upon us, the intense anger, right? We deserve it. We deserve it. But the reality about those who are justified by faith is quite the opposite again. He will be pleased with us. He will rejoice over us. He will honor, welcome us into his presence with great joy and treats us as if we have never sinned. All because of what Jesus who lived on our behalf, the life that we failed to live, and died on our behalf by taking on himself the punishment that we deserve. It's all because of Jesus. He treats us in this

way. God accepted Jesus's sacrifice on the cross and raised him from the dead. So based on what Jesus did for us, God will treat us as righteous and he welcomes us into his presence. There's nothing in us that qualify us for such a great salvation, but only because of Jesus Christ God treats us qualified for heaven. What a glorious grace it is! It's only by grace through faith. And what a privilege it is for us to enter into God's presence in such a way. Do we understand the value of salvation? Do we understand the value of his grace? It's so great, so great, dear friend

if you truly have the genuine faith in Jesus, then you are already in a justified state. Even today you stand righteous before God, even now at this moment. That is true even of those around you, those brothers and sisters who have trusted in Jesus. So keep that in mind and live your life accordingly. Nothing in this world or other can change your status. Now if that is how God treats you, that is, as righteous before him, then why you worry about your past sins again and again? Leave them behind. If you have sinned again, then be quick to confess it before God and leave it

for you're already justified by faith by God. Don't live in the guilt of your past sins. Satan wants live in your guilt, but not God, but not God. So live in the reality of your justification. Also, when your brothers and sisters, that is, those with you in the church, those fellow members with you who made covenant with you, when they sin, please do not use a magnifying glass to zoom into their sins and make a big deal out of it.

They are justified by God according to their faith and you cannot condemn them. You cannot judge them. But instead, treat them as God treats them and God treats you. Do not look at their sins but look at the righteousness of Christ that they're covered with and honor them. For that is pleasing in God's sight.

Treat them just as you want to be treated by others. Be gracious towards them. Be gracious to one another. Bear with one another even in weaknesses. We all have weaknesses. That's why we need to bear one another. That's why there is a command called bear one another, forgive one another. Dear friend, if you are not yet justified by God by your faith, then know that you are still in your sins and you stand before God as a sinner, guilty and condemned already. He will not be pleased with you and you might have to face his wrath and a day

of judgment. If you do not repent of your sins and trust him now, the punishment will be too great for you to bear. One day we will all die. We will all die. Then what? It is a horrible thing to end up in eternal hell, and hell is a real place. So before that great and terrible day, before you lose your life on this earth, which you do not know when — so before your time comes, acknowledge your sin before God and repent of it and put your faith in Jesus. Now the moment you do that, God will justify you and will treat you as

righteous in his sight. It is possible only through faith in Jesus Christ. So I plead with you today to turn to him. If you want to know more about Jesus and how you can be forgiven of your sins through him, please talk to any Christian who is here, or talk to the pastors or elders here. So now, let’s get back to our passage and see in chapter 5 of Romans, verse 1, Paul is talking about the current state of believers. He says, “we have peace with God.” That’s the ESV version. “We have peace with God.” That’s a reconciliation thing. Let us step back and understand what was the previous state of believers before we see the current state of believers.

verse was it. Was there peace between God and us before? No, not at all. If not peace, then what was there between us and God? War. When a person disregards God and disobeys him, he’s not only rejecting God’s authority over him, but is claiming to have his own authority against the authority of God. If God is a sovereign king, then the sinner is claiming himself to be a sovereign king as well, and claiming right to rule over God’s creation. In doing so, is challenging the true sovereign king of this universe. We from the old

testament, what happens when a king of one nation challenges the king of other nation and tries to take over his kingdom? Even today we see that one nation challenges other nation to grab the land. What happens? War happens. It is the same with God and sinners. There is a war between God and sinners. Guess who is the winning? God. You and I as sinners cannot win against God. So when God takes action against sinners, then there will be only trouble, defeat, death and destruction for his enemies.

And if you want to escape these consequences, then there should be peace between God and sinners. How can it be made possible? Not by our works. We cannot give him any gift to make him feel peace towards us. We cannot appease his wrath by our actions or by our gifts. You cannot bribe him by putting more into offering bag. Your sins won’t be forgiven. The only way we can achieve peace between God and man is through justification by faith in Christ alone. There is no other way.

An author says, “to be at peace with God means to be in a reconciled relationship with Him,” which is the first blessing of justification. Justification and reconciliation being together, for God does not — sorry — belong together. “Justification and reconciliation belong together, for God does not confer the status of righteousness upon us without at the same time giving himself to us in friendship and establishing peace between himself and us.” So what happens when a person is justified? The enemy is not just declared as not an enemy, but he is made a friend of God. It is like taking a step closer to God to build a relationship with him. Once justified, there will be no more enmity between God and them, but only friendship forever. Despite our weaknesses and failures, despite our

weaknesses and failures, nothing will change our friendship status with God. Nothing will change. Nobody can change that. Again, this relationship is not like the ones we have on this earth. One moment, a person is friend on Facebook. But the moment he or she posts something that we don’t like, we unfriend him or her.

Right? This relationship is not even like the friendships in the church. At one time, people are so close that they share everything with one another. And the moment someone goofs up, they become enemies and stop talking to each other for days or weeks or months or even years. They hold on to the bitterness for a long time and still take part in the communion as if nothing has happened. If God treats us the same way, nobody will ever have peace with him. We will have to face eternal misery if God treats us the same way. But now, since God is maintaining that peace with us by his grace, we too are obligated to maintain peace with one another. When you are dealing with one another, let God’s peace rule over your

hearts and guide you. Overlook silly things or minor sins that others do. We’ll only bring up major sins to do church discipline but not minor sins. So, overlook minor things. Do not spy on others. People will change over time for good. Give them time to change. Be quick to forgive them and make peace with them.

You need to intentionally work it out. Otherwise, Satan will take advantage of you and use you as an instrument in his hands to destroy the church which Christ bought with his own blood. Do you see the seriousness of it? So, dear brothers, make sure that you’re not joining hands with Satan to destroy your own brothers and sisters in Christ justified by faith in Christ.

Remember the covenant that you have made with the church when becoming a member. You have obligations to fulfill. Think about your status before God and theirs as well and act accordingly in all faithfulness and gentleness towards one another. Peace within ourselves is something everybody wants to have, right? But few find it. You need to let things go and clear your heart from any past sins that others committed against you to once again find peace within yourself.

You need to prayerfully work hard to achieve it in this world. Being at peace with one another is truly a challenge in a local church. Why? Because we are born fighters. We are born fighters, and we want to simply fight with people. That’s our sinful heart, our sinful nature. So we need to first fight with our own heart to set it right before the Lord, and then take proper steps to stop fighting with others and make peace with them. Peace with God is something many will consider, but only few will obtain it. The way is narrow and few will find it. We can only have it by faith, and we Christians have it now. If we truly understand the gospel and how God pursued us to make peace with us who are unworthy people, then much

more we need to work hard to maintain peace within the church among our brothers and sisters. We do it with a grateful heart toward God for what He has done in our lives. We do not deserve anything from God but His holy wrath.

Let us not forget it and behave as if we deserve to be treated well and not others. So this peace with God is achieved through our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what Paul is saying here in verse 1 of chapter 5. This peace with God the Father is only obtained through Jesus. And we can only experience it when we have a particular relationship with Jesus.

It is the Father’s plan to make peace with us. And that’s why he sent his son Jesus to accomplish it for us. So he’s the only means, Jesus is the only means to obtain peace with the Father. So what particular relationship we need to have to obtain this peace with God? First, we need to believe that Jesus is the Christ.

And that he is our Christ, not just Christ, our Christ. Jesus is the anointed one who was sent on a mission, and his mission is to save a people whom God the Father gave him. Jesus accomplished it through his life, death and resurrection. So we should believe that Jesus is Christ. Then we should also believe that Jesus is the Lord. God made Jesus the Lord of all. It means that we acknowledge that Jesus is a sovereign King and not us, and not as—Jesus is the ruler of this universe and not us. Jesus rules over us and not we over Jesus.

When we say that Jesus is our Lord, then we are submitting ourselves to His rule and authority. That submission will be displayed in the life that we live in this world. So if we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus and trust that He is our Lord and Savior, then we will have forgiveness of our sins and we will be clothed with the righteousness, will be reconciled to God, having peace with him. Through Jesus we obtain this. Dear brothers and sisters, I know that we all say that we are, we have repented of our sins and trusted in Jesus our Savior, but are we truly submitting to his rule and authority? Do we understand what it means to submit to him? Jesus himself said many times, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” This is how

we submit to his leadership, to his lordship. We will follow him by obeying him. If there is no desire to obey him, or if we do not care to obey his commandments, then the big question is, Jesus our Lord and Savior? Is it truly our Lord? And the answer to that would be no.

That means there will be eternal consequences in hell when you and I die in disobedience, in sin. Do you see the seriousness of that? That's why we remind people again and again the gospel and its effects in our day-to-day lives. It should be evident in our habits, in our character, in our relationships as well, that we are Christians.

People must be able to see and know that we are Christians. If not, then probably we are not Christians. And probably we are deceiving ourselves, thinking that we are Christians. And probably we might end up in that horrible hell. That’ll be a surprise for us then. We don’t want that to happen to those who come to the Gospel Life Church. That is why we preach the gospel again and again and encourage people to have the conversations around the Word of God. So we’ll come to the second point, installation. Paul says here we have access into this grace in which we stand. Verse 2: “Through him we have also obtained access into this grace in which…” Let us get back

to the text and see what else Paul is saying. Again, Paul is using the same idea through him, that is through our Lord Jesus Christ, to show that we are obtaining one more thing through our Lord Jesus Christ and by faith in him.

What is that thing? Access or admission into this grace in which we stand. See here that Paul says that we, that is those who are justified by faith, have obtained already — oh, sorry — obtained or already achieved the admission into God’s presence. It’s a past tense. Your grace is presented as a place where we stand. In this context it can be understood as the sphere of God’s grace or our privileged position of acceptance by God. Says an author, the word access can mean to lead towards, to approach, to bring near, or draw near. Paul is not presenting the idea of people walking into God’s presence by themselves, by their own righteousness, but that they are led into God’s presence

or brought near to God. We are introduced into his presence, and the believer takes a stand there and is unmoved. The believer takes a stand in God’s grace and is unmoved. We can say that it is by faith and through our Lord Jesus Christ that the believer is installed into God’s gracious presence. Who does that? God himself does that. Think of this word installation. Again, we install a TV screen to the wall and it is fixed in that position, right? Unmoved. Or a better example is installing an elder in the church. When you install an elder in the chair in a church, in the church

he takes that position in the pulpit and stays there preaching until his term is ended. Or think of the book of Esther. Queen Vashti refused to go before King when summoned, and she was removed from her position in chapter 1. And when Mordecai asked Queen Esther to go to the king to beg his favor upon Jews, Esther replies in Esther chapter 4 verse 11. This is what she says: “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law — to be put to

death except the one to whom the king holds out the golden sceptre so that he may live.” Then Esther decides to go to the king, saying, “If I perish, I perish.” But the king, Ahasuerus, showing favor, spares her life because he was pleased with her.

God is the great king of this universe, and no one can freely walk into his presence just like that, enemies, the sinners, but those who are justified by faith are ushered into his great and glorious presence. What justification by faith in Christ does is that it installs us into God’s gracious realm of presence, and we stand there fixed before God, and nobody can move us from that state, nobody can remove us from that state. Now, because Jesus represents us, wherever he is, there we are. Praise God! What a promise we have from God! What an assurance that we can have in Jesus. And we

come to the third point, anticipation. In verse 2 of chapter 5 Paul says, “And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. If only we can understand what justification by faith does to us, what reconciliation builds between God and us, and where installation puts us in, we will rejoice not only for the present situation, but we will rejoice in anticipation of the future participation in the glory of God. This hope is not an uncertain hope. The Bible does not use the word hope in the way we normally use it. You might say, I

hope it rains today. Will it rain today? We’re not sure. We expect it to rain or we expect it not to rain, and we do not know whether it rains or not. We are uncertain about it, but we hope that it might rain, right? So it might happen or might not happen, and that hope is kind of uncertain hope. The Christian hope that one day we will see God face to face in all his glory and splendor, and that we will enjoy our eternity in fellowship with him, is not an uncertain hope, an uncertain prediction, but a certainty that we believe in. It will happen

one day. We know for sure that it will happen. We are the people of that hope. This reality of heaven should be in our minds day in and day out. Abraham journeyed in the promised land without possessing it, but while he was living in that land he was looking forward to another city whose builder is God himself. He was looking forward to heaven itself. James chapter 2 verse 23 says this: “And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’ — and he was called a friend of God.” Abraham lived for God and he died to be

with God, called him friend, and that same God calls you friend, if you put your trust in Jesus. Dear brothers and sisters, what are you living for? What are you living for in this world? And what will you die for? With what will you live and with what will you die?

Can you say, “I’ll live for this hope and I’ll die for this hope”? So do you live with this hope every day? Do you long for him who saved you, justified you, made peace with you and took you into his gracious presence and fixed you there in his presence? Do you desire him and want to see him face to face?

As you read his word and pray to him and worship him in the fellowship of other saints, do you increasingly grow in your affections for Christ? Or are you caught up with the things and worries of this world? Are you caught up in your own sins and the sins of others?

How much of your focus is on this world or on that world? And on that world. Soon we will have to leave this world and stand before God. He might come first or we might go first, but we will one day soon stand before God. When you hear these words or get this thought, will that scare you?

Do you feel, “I don’t want to die now”? Or will you get excited to meet God and Saviour? Do you anticipate Christ coming eagerly? Do you wish, do you pray that He comes soon? Own brothers and sisters, let us show our faith in action and not in words. Let us be sure that we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, and let us grow in the knowledge of God and understand the worth of Christ and look forward to his glorious appearing. Let us prepare ourselves together to meet our Savior Jesus our Lord. That is why we exist as Gospel Life Church. Do you realize that? Do you realize that? So let us prepare ourselves together, week after week, day after day.