Romans 5:1-11; Peace with God

Jason Sterling March 15, 2026 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin

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Transcript

Romans 5 And Justification Defined

SPEAKER_00 0:23

If you have a copy of God's word, turn with me to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5, the text is printed in your bulletin. It'll also be on the screen behind me in a moment. We've been studying as a church through the book of Romans, and for weeks now, uh the Apostle Paul has been building his case for justification by faith alone. That word justification, I'm not trying to be overly heady or use religious jargon. That's a Bible word, and it's a very important Bible word, and one that every Christian should know. It's at the very heart of the gospel, and it gets at the question of how a person is made right with God. Essentially means two things. First of all, you're forgiven of all your sins. Secondly, you have been given by faith. The righteousness of Christ has been imputed to you. To say it another way, it's as if you'd never sinned, and God through Jesus looks at you as if you had done everything right. And now the apostle Paul says, Therefore. So, in light of everything I've just been saying about justification by faith, what does that mean for how you actually live? As we like to say around here, what does justification look like on a Tuesday afternoon at 2 p.m.? So let's look at this passage. I'll read it for us and then we'll pray. This is the word of God. Therefore, since we've 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 hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were still, or while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. This is God's word. Let me pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to come and help us this morning. Please bow with me. Father, give us, you've brought us here this morning. Would you give us receptive hearts, ears to hear? Help us to be alert and attentive to the word. Work through your spirit. Apply this to every heart. And I pray that everyone would have an encounter with Jesus this morning. We really want to be changed. Only you can do that. And so please come and change us. In Jesus' name. Amen. It's a tragedy to live as though you were at war when peace has actually come. In 1974, there was a Japanese intelligence officer by the name of Hiro Anoda. And he emerged from the jungles of the Philippines after 29 years in hiding. He'd been fighting in the Second World War, a war that ended in 1945. For nearly three decades, he lived in the jungle. He was convinced that he was still at war, still in danger, still under attack. And when his friend and fellow soldier finally convinced Anoda that the war was over, he laid down his rifle and wept. Twenty-nine years living as though he was at war when peace had already come. We hear a story, I hear a story like that. And I think, what in the world? And yet, how many of us are living in our relationship with God as if we are still at war? We might intellectually talk and know justification by faith, and know that in our heads, we know that the war is over, but we live every single day as if we're still fighting. Anxious about our standing before God, always anxious and nervous and not able to rest, still wondering when God, when the other shoes are going to drop, when God is going to turn against us, waiting for that to happen. And Paul wants all of us to know this morning, the war is over. God is not your enemy. And that truth impacts how you live and causes you great joy. Did you notice three times in 11 verses the word rejoice? Here's our question today. What does justification bring into your life that causes unshakable joy? What does justification bring into your life that causes unshakable joy? Three things we see in this passage. One, justification brings peace. Secondly, hope. Thirdly, certainty. Peace, hope, and certainty. That's where we're headed this morning. Let's look at our first heading: justification brings peace. Look at verse one. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace, very important word, with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we need peace with God? Well, we're at war with God. And we started the war. Go all the way back to the beginning of the Bible in the garden in Genesis chapter 3. We rebelled against God. We sinned against God, breaking our peace with God. We essentially said, I want to rule my own life, God. I don't want you in my life. I will rule my own life and be my own king. And what happens when two people want to be king and claim to be king? You have war. You have conflict. You have hostility. And that is why all of our peace efforts fail. Because you can't have peace with others when you're at war with your creator. You can't have peace within yourself when you're in rebellion against the one who made you. And so when Paul says we have peace with God, this is massive. And please note the difference. It is not the same as peace of God. The peace of God is what Paul talks about in Philippians chapter 4, verse 7. It's a subjective, peace of God is a subjective feeling of calm. It is emotional, it is experiential. And honestly, it fluctuates. Some days you feel it, and other days you don't. But peace with God is completely different. That is objective, it's legal. It's not about how you feel, it's about where you stand. And the war is over because God's wrath was satisfied with Jesus on the cross. Look at verse 10. We have been reconciled to God. Hostility on both sides has been resolved. You have permanent peace with God. Not a ceasefire, not a truce, not a probation period. Permanent peace with God. And that distinction matters significantly for your life because you might not feel peaceful right now. Your life and your circumstances might be very chaotic, but that doesn't change your peace with God. The war is over whether you feel it or not. And notice what this peace brings. Look at verse 2. We have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. Really amazing section here of this verse. The word access means introduction. So think about it. You couldn't just walk into the king's chambers on your own. You had to be introduced. You need someone to introduce you to the king. That's Jesus. At his name, the doors fly open. You are welcomed in. You didn't sneak in. You didn't break in. You're formally introduced and welcomed. And it's not temporary. It's the grace in which you now stand. And the sense of that is permanent residence. You're not going to be asked to leave. You're not a guest. At the end of the evening, it's time for you to go. You live there now. That's what this is getting at. Think about those home makeover shows or fixer upper shows. And some family, they get this beautiful brand new house built. And they don't at the end of the show say, hey, enjoy this for a week. And then you need to move out. That would be cruel. No, what do they tell them instead? Here's the keys. This is yours forever. That's the gospel. Mortgage paid, bills paid, this is yours forever. Grace is not something that you try to reach or maintain. It is now where you live. It's your permanent address. Application. So the question is: are you living like someone who has peace with God? Or are you living like the soldier who's still fighting a war that's already over? How do you know when you're still fighting, if you're constantly walking on eggshells and never feeling safe with God? If you're always waiting for the other shoe to drop, never being able to rest, thinking God is going to take this away from me. If that's your posture, you're living like you're on probation. Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ means that God is never going to turn against you. The war is over. You're still fighting. If you see and treat every hardship as punishment, every time something goes wrong, have you experienced this? Maybe a difficult diagnosis or a job loss or a marriage struggle or a rebellious child, and your first thought and your immediate thought is, God must be punishing me. What did I do wrong? And you start, you do this, go through your life, and start saying, Where did I sin big enough for God to do this to me? If you're living like that, you're living as though God is your enemy, waiting for him to strike. That is not peace with God. God is not your enemy, God is your father. And yes, fathers discipline their children. But discipline is not the same as punishment. Discipline comes from love. Discipline or punishment comes from wrath. And God's wrath has been exhausted at the cross. Hardship is not God turning against you. Hardship and difficulty, though, is God refining you and redirecting you and growing you and making you more like Him. It is not punishment. The war is over. Or you're still fighting and living like you're at war. If every time you fail, you go into hiding. We do this too, don't we? I do this. You start to pull away, right? When you blow it, you start to you know you stop showing up, or maybe you stop engaging, or you avoid your relationship with God, thinking I got to clean myself up first. No, Paul says you have access to the grace of God right now, to the throne of God, even when you fail, even when you're ashamed. Access is not only, this is that would be terrible news if access was only when you were good or good enough or had proven yourself enough. No, the gospel is access right now. Why? Because Jesus has put his name on you. Your access is not based on your performance, it's based on his. It's based on Jesus' finished work. And so we have peace. Permanent, unshakable peace with God. The war is over, the door is open, grace is your address and your home. Secondly, justification brings hope. Look at verses two and three. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings. Wait a minute. Did I hear that right? We rejoice in our suffering. Now, if you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, you're like, that's nuts. That's foolish, even. That sounds crazy. Give me a chance to work this out and hear what Paul is really saying. The joys, peace with God, access of his grace, hope of glory, remain joy, remain joys even in our sorrow and suffering, and they actually help us to find joy in our sorrow and suffering. Paul is not saying here that suffering is good in itself. He's not saying that we should go looking for it. He's not saying that we need it. We rejoice because of suffering. Or not we don't rejoice because of suffering, we rejoice in suffering, is what Paul is saying. Why? Because of what suffering produces. And that's verses three through four. Suffering produces endurance. Think about the word endurance. It actually means single-minded focus. And we all know this. Suffering has a way of stripping away the world from us and the things that distract us. They reveal, suffering reveals what we're really trusting in. That's what the word endurance is getting at. Endurance produces character, character produces hope. How does suffering actually produce hope instead of destroying it? Because it would seem like suffering would destroy it. So how does it produce hope? Well, if you're trusting in justification by grace, suffering will deepen your joy. But if you're trusting in yourself, suffering will break you. Because self-justifiers are always insecure. Because they feel like everything, hard thing that comes into their life is punishment from God. And so suffering actually drives them inward. If you're trusting in yourself, it will drive you inward to self-loathing and drive you away from God. But if you know who you are and you're standing before Christ, that you're justified by grace, not in your performance, suffering actually drives you towards God because you discover that God is still there and that his promises are still true. Tim Keller has this great little illustration that I think is helpful in seeing how this actually plays out and how it works in your life. I experienced this as a kid. I've done this with my kids. If you have children, perhaps you have two. Parents will say around dinner time. You know, the kids have the tendency to come into the kitchen and grab a plate of cookies right when dinner is about to be done. And my parents, if they said it once, they said it many, many times. Don't do that before dinner. It will ruin your meal. You won't be hungry. Why? Because sugar tells you that you're not hungry and that you don't need food. Sugar masks your true hunger. Favorable circumstances are spiritual sugar. They mask your real hunger for God because we think we're being fed by success and by comfortable finances and by good health and by a happy family and by people's approval. But suffering actually strips away the candy. And when those things are taken away, we discover I am so hungry. I need the real thing. I don't want candy. I need nutrition. I need God. I need something that will satisfy my soul at the deepest level. That's what suffering does. It reveals and strips away what you're really trusting. And so, what's the spiritual sugar that you're feeding on this morning? If losing your health would destroy your joy, you're feeding on sugar. If losing your job would devastate you, sugar. If your kid's success determines your peace, sugar. If people's approval makes or breaks your self-worth, sugar. Are those things good? Absolutely. Health is good, family is good, jobs are good, but they are terrible saviors. And when you are feeding on them, instead of feeding on God, suffering is actually a gift because it strips away the candy and it forces you back to the real deal. It forces you back to the feast. And it changes you and shapes you and produces, think about what Paul says, endurance and character and hope. Perhaps you're in a season of suffering right now. Don't waste it. Would you be willing to lean into it and let God do his work? Ask the hard questions. Lord, show me. Take away the candy because I want you. Would you let it drive you back to God Himself? Because here's the promise. Look at verse five. Hope does not disappoint. God's love has been poured into your heart through the Holy Spirit. And you might not feel that right now, but the truth is, God's love is being poured into your heart through the Spirit and through the suffering you're experiencing that on a deeper level, that love is refining your hope. God is getting to prove Himself and His faithfulness to you once again. When the candy is finally gone, we finally discover that God is so much better than everything that we have been feasting on in the world. Lastly, justification brings certainty. So we have peace with God. We have hope that actually transforms us in our suffering, but we still need something, don't we? We still need the certainty that God really loves us. Because I know this happens to me. One of the reasons that we lose our joy, especially in suffering, is because we lose our confidence and we start to doubt the love of God for us. Our life gets hit, the breath gets knocked out of us, and we start to say, God, where are you? Do you really love me? What did I do? And if you love me, how could you let this happen to me? You see, that doubt destroys joy. And Paul takes us back once again to the cross in order to build our certainty. And that's what he does. Look at verses six through eight. Let's just walk through this briefly. He's making an argument here. Verse 7 it's rare for anyone to die for someone that's warm and kind and upright. That might happen. But I, Paul, this is what he's getting at, but I can assure you of what will not happen, and that is for someone to die for an evil person. Verse 8. And so here's the proof that God loves you. While you were evil, God died for you. While you were still a sinner rebelling against him, Christ died. And again, notice it is not when you finally get your act together, or hey, it's not God saying, let me see if they're really serious this time. Let me see if they can start to turn a corner then, no, while you were look at verses six, eight, and ten, ungodly sinners, weak, God's enemies. Even while we were those things, Christ died. That's the proof. That's how you know objectively, beyond all doubts, that God loves you, even when your circumstances make you wonder if that's true and cause you to be unsettled. Look at the cross. And Paul takes that proof that Christ died for his enemies and he builds our confidence for the future. Look at verses 9 through 10. This is the argument from the lesser to the greater. If God did that for you while you were in godly, while you were his enemy, how much more will he do that for you now? How much more will he love you now as his child? If God saving you required dying for you, if he did that then, when you were dead and weak and his enemy, how much more now? When your circumstances make you wonder if God really cares, don't trust your feelings. Don't let your feelings override the cross. The cross is the proof. I don't know why whatever is happening in your life. I don't know why it's happening. God doesn't tell us that, but I know one thing, it cannot be. It is not that God doesn't love you, it cannot be that. And we know it cannot be that because of the cross. When you're anxious about your future, wondering if God's going to come through, remember if he gave his son while you were his enemy, he is most certainly not going to leave you now. In Walker Percy's novel, Love in the Ruins, 1971, there's this scene, very powerful scene with Dr. Tom Moore, and he's talking to his wife, and their marriage is in ruins. It's falling apart, and everything is broken. And his wife looks at him and says, Don't you see? People grow apart. We're dead. And Tom Moore looks at his wife and says, I love you dead at this moment. And she whispers, dead, dead. And he simply says, Love. I love you dead in this moment. That's the scandal of the gospel. God loves us dead. Spiritually dead, relationally dead, morally dead. We cannot repair ourselves. We are his enemies. And when you were his enemy and powerless, Jesus died for you dead. And if he loved you dead, how much more will he love you as his child? The war is over. You have peace with God. Grace is your permanent address. And his love for you is certain. Will you come to Jesus this morning? He is so much better than you think. Let's pray. Father, the gospel is so amazing. And I pray that you would never let us get used to it. Never let us get bored by it. While we were your enemy, you came for us and died for us. Forgive us for hiding. Forgive us for all the ways that we live, like we're still at war with you. Would you help us, Holy Spirit, to change and to live in the confidence of the work of Jesus on our behalf? I pray that we would live as if grace were our permanent address. Change us by our suffering. May we trust your love and may we look at the cross. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.