From God's Heart to Ours: Romans 5:1-5

You can turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

You'll find the sermon text printed in your bulletin as well.

This morning we're focusing on one more of God's promises.

Some of you know this is the theme of the year.

Once a month we're looking at the promises of God.

And it's our desire that we will pray in these promises, not just read about them, not just talk about them, but to actually pray in these promises of God and live out these promises of God.

And so we come this morning to this passage.

The Apostle Paul wrote this to the Roman Christians.

Hear the word of God.

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 hope of the glory of God.

Not only that, but we will 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.

This is the reading of God's holy, infallible, and errant word.

Let's ask the Spirit to give us what we need.

Lord, we do thank you.

We thank you for your apostle.

We thank you for his letter, inspired by you, Spirit.

Now, Spirit, as we read your word that you authored, we we pray that you would open wide our minds to understand, our hearts to believe.

And Lord, that we will be changed, transformed by what you do in our hearts now.

In Jesus' name, amen.

I'm not going to tell you the promises coming out of the gate.

You're going to have to pay attention.

But there's a few great promises here.

A few great promises in this text to take in and to live out.

From God's heart to ours, these promises, as Paul talks about.

We're going to begin with a supernatural beginning.

Secondly, we're going to look at a glorious ending.

And thirdly, a hope that gets us through the journey from the beginning to the end.

A supernatural beginning.

That's what the Apostle Paul has been talking about in this passage.

Before we dive into chapter 5, just a little bit of background.

Many, perhaps most Bible scholars agree that this is a pretty good outline understanding the book of Romans.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

Chapter 1 through chapter 3, verse 20, the Apostle Paul is telling us about the need for justification.

And if you're new to the Christian faith, I'll unpack that word, that concept in a minute.

Chapter 3, verse 21 through chapter 4, not the need for justification, but the way of justification.

And then you get to chapter 5 on.

Chapters 5 through chapter 8.

You could say the benefits of justification, the fruits of justification.

So what is justification?

Sounds like a big word, but it's a biblical word.

It's not just a theological word, it's a biblical word.

It's a word that the Bible uses many times, so it's very important that we understand what it is.

First of all, it's an act of God's free grace.

It's not a work of God's grace.

That would be sanctification.

That's once you become a Christian, then there's a work that the Holy Spirit wants to do in our lives to grow us up, to change us from the inside out more and more.

But no, this is an act.

It's forensic language.

It's language in the courtroom of a judge.

It's a term that speaks of God's act, God's verdict in the courts of heaven.

All right, the gavel in his hand, he's making a verdict.

What is that verdict?

As you come to Jesus Christ, as you are saved by the grace of Jesus, God the Father, the King, the Almighty, says, You are no longer guilty in my sight.

All of your sins are forgiven because of Jesus Christ, my son.

Why he came to this earth.

He came to live the life that we could never live.

He came to obey in all the ways that we have not.

And that's only half of it.

He says, you are no longer guilty.

All of your sins have been paid for.

Past, present, future.

Take that in again today.

But that's, as I said, only half of it.

That's his declaration.

But the other declaration that the judge says is not only are you no longer guilty, but you are now righteous in my sight.

I see you covered by the perfected work of Jesus Christ.

I see you as I see my own son.

Now, some of you probably have never heard this.

It's true.

And you say, well, yeah, but I know my sin, and we still do sin every day.

But when this judge said, You are now righteous in my sight, the reason is we have been declared righteous because of the righteousness of Jesus Himself.

Jesus takes his record and gives it to you.

Can you imagine that?

And he took your record the moment you come to Christ.

He took your sin.

He gave you his righteousness.

And the judge says, All is good now.

How do we receive this?

It's charged to our account.

One of our members is telling me a story this week.

It's a really heartwarming, encouraging story about a need that they had.

They had a pretty big need, and somebody else in this church became aware of it, and somebody else in this church said to this person, hey, would you give me your bank account?

Would you give me your pen?

That's pretty crazy, right?

I mean, who are you going to give your bank account information to?

Well, she did.

She gave her the bank account information.

And this other person dropped a lot of money into her account.

And she told me about the love of the family of God.

This was a testimony of the love of the family of God.

And she told me, she said, I think my bank account was really surprised that day.

My bank account isn't used to seeing that kind of money.

You know what happened the moment you come to Jesus Christ?

And maybe you haven't yet.

Maybe you haven't yet.

But maybe you are today.

You know what happens the moment that you come to faith in Jesus Christ?

You receive this by faith.

We don't work for it.

There's nothing we contribute to it.

All we can do is receive it by faith alone.

The moment that you do, it hits your account.

Is that something?

The moment Jesus transferred his righteousness to your account, it hit your account.

And all of a sudden you become very, very wealthy.

This is justification.

Paul says in chapter 5, verse 1, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, God's verdict has been rendered because of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus.

When we believe and trust in him and by faith alone put our weight on Jesus, yes, you are forgiven.

And yes, you are declared righteous.

And God will never love you more than he loves you now.

Because he loves you for the sake of Jesus.

How could he ever love you more if he's already declared that he loves you because of what Jesus has done for you?

You're not going to do anything to make him love you more.

What you have to do is accept and to receive and to believe what he's done.

This record.

Charles Burgeon said, when I look at myself, I don't know how I could be saved.

When I look at Jesus, I don't know how I can be lost.

That's good.

Do you believe that?

He says you stand before God as a Christian.

Once you've been justified, okay, it has to happen.

Nobody's born a Christian.

Let's get that straight.

Nobody is born a Christian.

Even if you grew up in a Christian home, there comes a point when you understand this and you believe this and you respond and you put your weight on Jesus.

And what you do and you're justified, you stand before God as if you were Christ, because Christ stood before you.

Before God, excuse me, as if he were you.

You stand before God as if you were Christ, because Christ stood before God as if he were you.

Is this good news?

You're not getting over this, are you?

Is this just become old news?

Oh no.

Not if the Spirit is working in you.

The good news becomes better the more you understand, and the more you see how much you've messed up, how much you've sinned, how much Jesus has forgiven you.

It gets better.

And your worship will get better the more you believe this.

He says, we then have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And so this supernatural beginning, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ.

And again, you may think, well, I've always been at peace with God.

No, you haven't.

He's not talking about subjective peace here.

He's talking about something that is objective.

He's not talking about, oh yeah, you know, because I came to church today, I'm going to go home feeling more peaceful.

He's not talking about that.

That's a secondary application.

That's not the primary application.

The primary application in the context when Paul uses this word is once you become a Christian, God lays down his arms against you.

God's no longer at war with you.

Did you know that before you become a Christian, God is at war with you?

You may say, well, I don't feel that way.

Well, okay, it doesn't really matter what you feel.

You're not the judge.

A lot of people delude themselves.

A lot of people convince themselves that everything's good.

They don't need Jesus.

No.

The moment you were justified, God said, We're now friends.

We are now friends.

And we have peace with God through Jesus Christ.

God Himself made peace with sinners like me, and we are no longer at war.

We have no idea how far our sin has separated us from Jesus.

Christ died to make his enemies his friends, even though he could have created new ones cheaper.

That's what a Puritan, Thomas Goodwin, said centuries ago.

I've been thinking about that this week.

Christ died to make his enemies his friends, even though he could have created new ones cheaper.

That he might not have sent his son to die for you.

Why?

Because of love.

Because of love he did this.

I'm going to read just a few more verses if your Bible's open.

I'm going to pick up in verse 6 of the text.

For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, although for a good person he might dare even die.

But God shows his love for us in this.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God?

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, how much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?

It's true.

If Jesus did that while you were his enemy, do you think he's going to stop now?

He's got more love to pour out into your heart, into your life.

He's got more.

Secondly, let's look at the glorious ending.

He says in the text, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

This is what theologians believe he's referring to as the doctrine of glorification.

Again, it's a biblical word.

What is glorification?

We've talked about justification.

Glorification is how it's all going to end.

How it's all going to end in that final glorified state of everybody who's been justified.

Justification leads to glorification.

Those of us who have been justified will one day be glorified.

You know what that means when Jesus comes back, or you go to see him first?

The moment you pass over, you're going to be perfect.

No more sin.

No more struggle.

No more hating the sin.

Maybe no more hating yourself because of your sin.

It's all going to be gone.

The Bible says that when you see him, when that moment comes, when you get home, when I get home, we're going to see him as he is.

And it's just going to be different.

And it's going to be better.

The Bible says, wait for it.

Wait for it.

He says it in the verse.

He says, we rejoice now in hope of the glory of God.

Those of us who have been justified will in fact be glorified.

So here's the point.

Now live for the glory of God.

Glorification is the ultimate promise that when Christ returns or we meet him, we will be entirely freed from sin.

And we will be made perfect.

Wait for it.

Live for it.

This glorious ending.

Then we will behold the fullness of God's glory.

The song that we sang a few moments ago.

I've been thinking about this song a lot this week.

Till your glory fills our eyes and our faith is turned to sight.

Till our thirsty souls are satisfied.

Our thirsty souls are not going to be completely, fully satisfied until that moment.

But Jesus is here now and he's saying, You come to me and I will give you living water, water that will well up within you, water that will overflow from you.

I will give that to you now.

But the thing is now, we can't do that continuously, can we?

We just can't.

We have frail bodies, we have frail souls sometimes.

We lose our grip.

I was thinking about the anchor.

We sang about Christ our shore and steady anchor.

Yeah, you know, a boat.

A boat doesn't hold the anchor, does it?

The anchor holds the boat.

Even through harsh winds, even through big storms.

The anchor holds the boat.

And maybe this morning you're thinking, you know, I think I'm losing my grip.

There's a lot going on.

That happens.

I'm not sure I can continue to hold on.

Jesus is your sure and your steady anchor.

And he's not going to let you go.

He's not going to let you crash on the rocks.

Do you believe that?

That's who Jesus is.

You come to Jesus.

You come to Jesus when you're losing your grip.

You come to Jesus when the storms are fierce.

We had a fierce storm the other night, huh?

It broke our canopy and our on our patio, just blew it right out of this hole.

There are storms.

There are storms.

But you know about that, don't you?

You've been through a few.

Rejoice is a word that the Apostle Paul liked.

He used it 72 times in his writings.

But this is a different word than what he usually uses.

This is a different Greek word.

This word means more like boast.

What am I boasting in or glory in?

Even stronger than just rejoicing, boasting.

So here's the question I think he's asking us.

Whose glory are we boasting in?

When was the last time you thought about that?

When was the last time you asked yourself that question?

Whose glory am I boasting in?

In glory, we will only boast in God Himself.

How odd that so often in life we tend to boast in ourselves in ways that we're not even aware.

If you boast in your strength, then you will despair when you feel weak.

Can I repeat that?

You don't, if you don't know, sometimes we just don't know that we're boasting in our own glory.

We say, well, I don't think so.

Here's one litmus test.

If you boast in your strength, you will be in despair when you feel weak.

That's when it'll be revealed.

That's how it will be revealed.

And you'll turn in on yourself.

Or you'll turn out against other people.

There will be a lashing out when you're boasting in yourself.

That's just the way it works.

One commentator put it like this: the day when we are glorified with God and in God and rejoice in that hope of the glory of God, one day the curtain will be raised and the glory of God will be fully displayed.

That's true.

Wait for it.

Which brings me to the last point.

Okay, we've looked in the past, that we were justified through Jesus Christ.

We're going to look to the future.

This is all going to happen.

Jesus has promised it.

Now, looking back, looking forward, what difference does it make now, today?

That's a good question, right?

It's a fair question.

Does it make any difference?

Is it making any difference in your life now?

This is what he says.

He says, talks about hope.

Do you see that in the text?

He talks about hope.

And he says, not only do we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, not only that, but we rejoice even now in our sufferings.

And we say, ouch.

I wish that wasn't in there.

How in the world do you rejoice in your sufferings?

God knew that we needed to hear this.

That's why he put it in there.

He knew.

Hope.

What is hope?

When the Bible talks about hope, it's not like we talk about it, you know, just wishful thinking, wishful thinking.

I hope that everything turns out.

That's not hope in the Bible.

Hope in the Bible is this confident expectation that everything that God has promised will come true.

Hope in the Bible is the certainty, if God said it, He's going to do it.

You see, now, what do you need today?

A hope that gets you through the journey from now until the end.

How does this change us now?

That's the question before us.

We rejoice in our sufferings.

Notice what he didn't say.

He didn't say we rejoice because of our sufferings.

Don't go looking for suffering.

Alright?

Just don't.

It'll come to you.

Because if you're the kind of person that loves suffering, you look, you search it out, you might be a stoic.

You might be, no, I can take anything in life.

Come on, bring it.

You ever meet people like that?

I can get through anything.

No, don't be that person.

That's pride.

That's arrogance.

No, he's not saying, thank you, God, for all the hard things because it just makes me stronger in myself.

He's saying, no, when God sends suffering into your life, it is possible to find joy even then, even there.

It's possible to rejoice then.

How?

He says, because suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

Suffering, that word in the Greek means pressure points.

Under pressure.

Suffering.

And it comes in many ways, doesn't it?

Sometimes it comes through financial pressures.

Sometimes it comes through health pressures.

Sometimes it comes through relational heartache.

It comes in many forms, but it comes.

Suffering produces endurance.

What is endurance?

That word in the Bible means to live under, to remain under these pressures and not demand that you can get out.

That's challenging, isn't it?

Because when we suffer, I mean really suffer, okay, suffering can be like one to ten, right?

A one, a two.

I don't think he's talking about a one or a two here.

I think he's talking about, you know, the eight, nine, and tens in our life.

And we just want to get out from under it.

And we want things to change, and we want things to change immediately.

And we don't know if we can do it.

And we just start to kind of disintegrate, fall apart.

We start to get really cranky or critical of others, of ourselves, demanding.

We can be easily become demanding when we want out.

But the pressure's still there.

And the pressure is something that God sends for a reason, for a purpose.

Because endurance produces character.

And that's what Jesus is after.

In you, in me.

That's what he wants.

He says, you know, there's a reason I justified you.

There's a reason one day I'm going to glorify you.

And I'm going to give you everything you need, but you're going to have to keep your eyes on me, and you're going to have to invite me to do my work in you.

And as I do, I'm going to change you.

You're not going to look like the person you used to.

Now we could call that sanctification, God making us more holy.

That's true.

What do you need to get through?

I mean, let's just sit on that for a second, can't we?

What do you need to get through life's pressures?

Booze?

Career?

Achievement?

Reputation?

You know, as a pastor, I see a lot of people that don't get through very well.

And I see people who do get through by the grace of God.

And I know in my own life, sometimes I handle it better than other times.

Character.

Let's go.

If your Bible's open, let's just turn over to Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

He says in verse 28, and we know that for all those who love God, all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that we might be the firstborn among many brothers.

In those whom he predestined, he also called.

In those whom he justified, he also glorified.

Now here's a question: why is glorified in the past tense?

If it hasn't happened yet?

Because it's certain.

It's as good as done.

That's what you're going to look like one day.

That's what I'm going to look like one day.

He says, I want you to believe it now.

I want you to hold on to it now.

I want to, you see, I want you to see everything that God has done from the beginning to the end and how that's going to show up today in the way you face the pressures in your life.

Oh, we need this, friends.

We need this.

This is the work of God in us.

Suffering is the path to glory.

It was for Jesus, and it is for us.

We will not and cannot learn endurance without suffering, because without suffering, there's nothing to endure, is there?

And we can long for a nice, cushy, comfy life.

We can aspire for that.

How's that working?

You see, God has a different purpose.

God's more interested in making us more like Jesus than letting us live a life without pressure.

Because a life without pressure with our eyes on Jesus makes us look more like Jesus.

That's what this is about.

This is how we get through the hardships of life.

And so we come to verse 5.

Hope does not put us to shame.

Hope does not disappoint us.

Because why?

God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

If you've taken walking in the Spirit, there's a reason why Sharon and I have put this in there.

This is like one of our key verses.

We need it, we still need it.

Because there's so many challenges and pressures in life and disappointments in life.

We need to know more of God's love for us.

And nobody in this room is going to work that up.

Nobody in this room is going to make that happen.

It doesn't work that way.

You're not that powerful.

You're not that resourceful.

Only the Holy Spirit can do this for you.

That's what we believe.

Only the Holy Spirit can convince you that these things are true.

You can't convince yourself, you can't convince anybody else.

Only the Holy Spirit can make the love of God so real, so beautiful, so precious, that you can stay under the pressure.

And you can rejoice in the glory of God.

And you're going to say, I'm going to make my life about boasting in the glory of God.

Not about my glory.

You can do that in Christ.

But the Holy Spirit is the one who makes it real.

Oh, I love that word.

Because God's love has been poured into our hearts.

Not trickles.

Are you here this morning?

Does it feel like a trickle?

Does God's love feel like a trickle, do you?

Be honest.

Sometimes.

Maybe all the time.

It's not a trickle.

If it's a trickle, that's you.

The Holy Spirit doesn't do trickles.

There's a pouring out.

And what is he pouring out?

Because he justified you, and you're going to be glorified.

What's he pouring out?

You and I need to be more and more convinced of how deeply we are loved by God our Father.

And the Holy Spirit is the one that makes that true.

I know in my life, how about you?

I know when it feels like a trickle.

But I've experienced, have you ever experienced a pouring out of God's love?

Have you done that?

Have you received that?

Do you say, Holy Spirit, show me, convince me?

Out of love.

That's why you're here this morning.

God wants you to tell you again how much he loves you.

God wants to tell you again.

How are you dealing with the pressures in your life?

God wants to say to you this morning, He wants to say to me, the Holy Spirit was given to you to open yourself up to the promises of God.

You will be justified when you turn to Christ.

You will be glorified when you turn to Christ.

You want some good promises?

How about those?

You are justified by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Cling to that promise.

You will be glorified by the work of God's Spirit.

Cling to that promise.

And now what's going to the hope.

The hope is going to get you and me through the journey from the beginning to the end.

God offers hope to broken people.

He does.

And that's what the Holy Spirit wants to tell you today.

God offers hope to broken people who are losing their grip because he loves us.

He makes God's love deep and refreshing.

There are deeper experiences of this for you too.

Did you know that?

I find a lot of us, a lot of people don't believe that.

A lot of people don't really know that there's so much more that he wants to give us through the Holy Spirit.

Hey, let's not just stay in our heads, okay?

The Holy Spirit will give us the truth, but the Holy Spirit wants to open our hearts to actually believe that there are rivers of living water that flow from our bellies, from our innermost beings when we believe these promises.

Thomas Watson, the Puritan of centuries ago, illustrated it pretty well.

Father and the son are walking down the road together.

Father and the son.

Does the son know that the father loves him?

Yeah, hopefully.

The son knows his father loves him.

But then all of a sudden they're walking down that path, and the father just picks up his little boy.

He picks him up in his arms and he just twirls him around, holding him tightly, kissing him, hugging him.

I'm so glad you're my son.

Does he know it differently?

You bet he does.

This is what the Holy Spirit does.

The Holy Spirit picks you up, so to speak.

He puts you in the arms of Jesus, and you just know it's true, and you know it more deeply.

Are you open to that?

Are you open to a deeper experience of this truth?

Are you open to the possibility that there's more experiencing of this love that he wants you to experience?

J.I.

Packer in his book, Keeping Step with the Spirit, talks about a miracle in 1908 in Manchuria.

This is a quote from the Christians that were there.

These are these Irish and Scottish Presbyterians who sometimes are not known for their joy.

Sometimes.

A power has come into the church that we cannot control, even if we would.

It's a miracle for stolid, self-righteous Chinese to go out of their way to confess their sins, that no torture of the Yamen could ever force from them.

For them to demean themselves to crave weeping in the prayers of fellow believers is beyond all human explanation.

This is what they deduced after years of working there.

Perhaps you'll say it's sort of a religious hysteria.

So do some of us.

But here we are, 60 Scottish and Irish Presbyterians who have been here for a while, and we have seen it, all shades of temperament, and as many of us who shrank from it at the first, you get that?

We don't believe that stuff.

There's only one explanation.

God's Holy Spirit manifesting himself.

One clause of the creed that lives before us now, like never before.

I believe in the Holy Ghost.

Okay, we believe.

Are we trusting?

Are we receiving?

Are we are we looking, saying, Holy Spirit, show me more of my sin?

Holy Spirit, show me more of my what I need in my suffering.

Holy Spirit, show me more of the love of God.

Holy Spirit, open me up.

Open me up to new depths of the Father's love.

That's exactly what he's saying there.

It's changed my life.

Has it changed your life?

It's out there.

He's out there.

Father, we're asking now.

Would you open us up in new ways?

Would you open us up?

We thank you for the great doctrines of the faith.

Justification, sanctification, glorification.

We thank you for these great truths.

But Lord, we need that.

They not only are clear, but they're real to us.

We need a deeper, deeper experience that only your Holy Spirit can give us of just how much the Father loves us and of how much Jesus has saved us from.

Holy Spirit, turn the floodlights on the Father and the Son right now.

Only you can.

Amen.