Life Group - Romans 5

Welcome to Life Group. We invite you to join

us in this verse -by -verse study through the

Word of God. In the first four chapters of Romans,

Paul convinced us that the only way of salvation

is to be justified by grace through faith. Now,

in chapter 5, he begins to tell us about some

of the practical benefits, explaining how it's

more than just an interesting idea or concept.

Let's begin in Romans 5, verse 1. Therefore,

Romans 5:1

since we have been made right in God's sight

by faith, we have peace with God because of what

Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Since

we have been made right with God, and other translations

say, since we have been justified by faith. You

see, the... Understanding of the word justified

or being made right, it's a legal term. So we

could put it this way. By God's legal decree,

our guilty sentence has been expunged. Now, when

a guilty sentence is expunged, it's erased and

removed completely. And that's what happens when

we've been justified. It's just as if we have

never sinned. when we put our faith in Christ.

This verse tells us one of those benefits that

I was talking about. Benefit number one, we could

say is that we have peace with God. I want you

to think about what it is to have peace with

another person. When we're at peace with someone,

there's nothing in the way to hinder our relationship.

So now we have peace with God. There's Nothing

in the way. Our sin is no longer separating us

from our holy God. Verse 2. Because of our faith,

Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved

privilege where we now stand. And we confidently

and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory.

Here's benefit number two, we could call it.

We now stand, when we're in Christ, we stand

in a place of undeserved privilege. We stand

in the place of grace. What is grace? Grace is

God's acts of kindness and favor. And we need

to understand that God's acts of kindness and

favor not only made our salvation possible, it

is where we have the opportunity to live. We

have the opportunity to live our lives in the

presence and in the experience of God's acts

of kindness and favor towards us. We stand now

in the place. of grace. Standing in grace means

that you don't have to prove that you're worthy

of God's love. It means that God is actually

your friend. Standing in grace means that the

door of access to God is permanently opened to

you. It means that you are free from any kind

of score sheet. In Jesus. And standing in grace

means that you can spend more time praising God

instead of condemning or hating yourself. You

can live in God's favor. Standing in God's grace

means that his promises are yes and amen for

you. So our response to having peace with God.

and having the opportunity to live in the continual

flow of his acts of kindness and favor towards

us, our response should naturally be joy and

rejoicing. Verse 3. We can rejoice too when we

run into problems and trials, for we know that

they help us develop endurance, and endurance

develops strength of character. and character

strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

And this hope will not lead to disappointment,

for we know how dearly God loves us, because

He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts

with His love. So when we are confidently standing

in the place of grace, we do not lose our joy

when we encounter troubles. We endure, we keep

standing, and we... Develop a character of standing.

Each time we stand, we develop a character of

standing. It's actually who you become, who you

are. We develop hope. Hope is often looked at

as a confident expectation, a hope in salvation

and rescue and our deliverance and our breakthrough

when we encounter troubles. So you will never

be disappointed when you hold on to a confident

expectation of seeing the goodness, kindness,

and favor of God. And when you stand in faith

without wavering. His goodness is always pursuing

you and running after you. The Bible communicates

this in Psalms 23, 6. David writes, Surely your

goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all

the days of my life, and I will live in the house

of the Lord forever. So when we have that mental

image of God's goodness is coming after us, is

running after us, that gives us hope. It gives

us encouragement when we face trouble that we

can stand in. Because God loves us, he has taken

up residence in us by the power of the Holy Spirit

being in us. He empowers us to endure. So therefore,

when we face trouble, we're not alone. We realize

we're not standing by ourselves in our own power.

But God has empowered us to stand, to endure

trouble. And when we constantly acknowledge this

fact, when we acknowledge him being with us,

we can become a person who stands in confident

hope, in faith, and in love. Verse 6. When we

were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the

right time and died for us sinners. It's important

to realize that Jesus came into the world at

just the right time. The world was prepared spiritually,

economically, linguistically, politically, philosophically,

and even geographically for the coming of Jesus

and the spreading of the gospel. That particular

culture allowed the gospel and allowed his coming

to be of the most impact that it possibly could

over any other time in history. it would have

not seen as much impact as it did if he didn't

come at just the right time. And that's what

Paul is communicating here. Verse 7, Now most

people would not be willing to die for an upright

person, though someone might perhaps be willing

to die for a person who is especially good. But

God showed his great love for us by sending Christ

to die for us while we were still sinners. So

Paul presents the idea of Christ's substitutionary

sacrifice with the word propitiation in Romans

Romans 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3, as we've seen before. But here, he

continues that thought by saying Christ died

for us while we were still sinners. That Greek

word translated for is the word huper, which

means for the sake of, on behalf of, and instead

of. Communicating the idea that Jesus died in

our place for us. And in that way, God's love

is far beyond the greatest love humans are even

capable of. You know, a good man might die for

the right kind of person, someone that they deem

as especially good. But Jesus, he died for those

who were neither righteous nor good. Verse 9.

And since we have been made right in God's sight

by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save

us from God's condemnation. For since our friendship

with God was restored by the death of His Son

while we were still His enemies, we will certainly

be saved through the life of His Son. So now

we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship

with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made

us friends of God. You see, our natural response

to understanding what Jesus has done for us should

be rejoicing. That word rejoicing literally translated

means to hold your head up high. We're not supposed

to be hanging our heads in shame or defeat from

the condemnation of sin. There's no condemnation.

for us in Christ, we should be bragging. Rejoicing

conveys the idea of us always bragging about

the goodness of God, what God has done for us,

what he does every single day, and what he has

done for us on the cross, right? And we should

live with this. We should stand in this with

this God -given confidence, or you could even

say swagger, right? You live with that intentional

acknowledgement of who he is and what he's done

for you causes you to rejoice and live with your

head held high. And this brings us three more

benefits, right? We see this in the passage.

Benefit three would be that we have been made

right with him. God has made us right with himself,

has restored us. And benefit four would be that

we have been relieved of all condemnation. There's

no condemnation for the believer, right? And

then benefit five is that it says that we are

friends with God. We're not just servants, but

he has called us friends. We are friends with

him, and we share that relationship with God.

Verse 12. When Adam sinned, sin entered the world.

Adam's sin brought death. So death spread to

everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, people sinned

even before the law was given. But it was not

counted as sin, because there was not yet any

law to break. Still, everyone died, from the

time of Adam to the time of Moses. even those

who did not disobey an explicit commandment of

God, as Adam did. Now, Adam is a symbol. God's

Word tells us that Adam is symbolic of humanity.

As the first human, Adam is considered the federal

head, the leader, the representative of humanity.

And through his actions, he is the one who legally

defined and established our connection to God,

who's our creator. Now, through his actions,

Adam is responsible for the fall of the human

race. Death was introduced into the world when

Adam sinned, and death has reigned on earth ever

since. In the garden, God told Adam if he ate

of the fruit of that tree, he would surely die,

and that's when death entered the world, and

it was through Adam's actions. Now, this may

seem unfair to our individualistic ears, but

Paul clearly teaches that we all sinned in Adam.

Adam is the common father of every person on

earth. Every human who has ever lived was in

Adam's genetic makeup. Therefore, all mankind

actually sinned in Adam. Adam's rebellion, his

sin, established an unreparable separation, a

schism, a rip between mankind. and a holy God.

Picking back up with verse 14. Now, Adam is a

symbol, a representation of Christ who is yet

to come. But there's a great difference between

Adam's sin and God's gracious gift. For the sin

of this one man, Adam, brought death to many.

But even greater is God's wonderful grace and

his gift of forgiveness to many through this

other man, Jesus Christ. The verse tells us that

there's a difference between Adam's offense and

Jesus' gift. The free gift of Jesus is not like

the offense of Adam. As a matter of fact, they're

not identical in their result or in their application.

You see, without you and I making a personal

choice, every person after Adam received the

curse of Adam's offense, which is death. However,

Jesus' gift requires a personal choice or a personal

decision. for a person to receive that gift.

Verse 16. And the result of God's gracious gift

is very different from the result of that one

man's sin. For Adam's sin led to condemnation,

but God's free gift leads to our being made right

with God, even though we are guilty of many sins.

For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death

to rule over many. But even greater is God's

wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness,

for all who receive it will live in triumph over

sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.

Yes, Adam's one sin brings condemnation for everyone,

but Christ's one act of righteousness brings

a right relationship with God and new life for

everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many

became sinners. But because one other person

obeyed God, many will be made righteous. We need

to understand that both Adam and Jesus were completely

sinless men from the beginning, and both of them

did things that had consequences for all mankind.

Adam's work or actions brought death, but Jesus'

work and actions brings grace. We could put it

this way. Both Adam and Jesus are kings, and

each king instituted their reign or their kingdom.

Now, under Adam, Sin and death reigns. But under

Jesus, grace and life reigns. Everyone is identified

as either in Adam or in Jesus. See, all of us

are born in Adam or identified with Adam. But

we have the opportunity to be born again. into

identification with Jesus or in Christ. And since

we all became sinners in Adam, we can all become

righteous in Christ. In Christ, we move out from

under Adam, and Jesus becomes our new federal

head, our representative. Through his actions,

his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus legally

redefined and re -established our connection

to God. Verse 20. God's law was given so that

all people could see how sinful they were. But

as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful

grace became more abundant. You see, the law

was too late to prevent sin and death, and it

is too weak to save from sin and death. The law

is good but lacks the power to bring salvation

to humanity. But God's grace is more powerful

than sin, and there is no sin that the blood

of Jesus cannot cleanse. And this reminds us

of a hymn that says, There is a fountain filled

with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. and sinners

plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty

stains. Picking up in verse 21, So just as sin

ruled over all people and brought them to death,

now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving

us right standing with God and resulting in eternal

life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So benefit

six is sin no longer rules over us. It used to

be our master, but not anymore when we are in

Christ. If we're in Christ, we're no longer a

slave to sin. It has no power over us. We are

under the rule of God's wonderful grace. Thank

you for joining us for Life Group. Allow God's

Word to build your faith and transform your life.