Peace with God

Our scripture reading this morning is from Romans

Romans 5:1–11

chapter 5 verses 1 to 11. Romans 5

Romans 5:1–11

verses 1 to 11. Please listen now to

the reading of God's word.

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 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 now been justified by His

blood,

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,

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 the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. Please be seated.

Do you ever stop to think

about what a wonderful commodity,

what a wonderful benefit,

what a wonderful blessing

peace is.

It's not something that you think much about

when you're a child,

but the older you get, the more that

you understand

the value of peace.

Of course the term peace

can refer to an absence of hostility,

between nations for example,

or to harmonious relationships with family members,

or with friends,

or with lack of conflict

at work, or, in your neighborhood,

is the sort of thing that you may

not appreciate

until you don't have it.

And unless you're the kind of person who

enjoys conflict,

and there are some people who really do

enjoy conflict,

you will find yourself

longing

to experience

the tranquility,

the lack of drama,

and the sanity

that peace brings.

You may catch yourself thinking, oh, what I

wouldn't give to enjoy some peace and quiet.

Well, we live in one of the wealthiest

metropolitan areas

of one of the wealthiest

states

in the wealthiest country

at the most prosperous time in human history,

and yet peace

seems as elusive to us as it has

ever been for anyone.

Conflicts in the Middle East, and in the

Far East, and in

Europe, conflicts in which America is involved,

have the whole world on edge right now.

Within our own borders,

society

has not been this divided

along political,

ideological,

and religious lines, perhaps,

since the civil war.

And more people than ever before in their

own lives

and in their in in the lives of,

of their churches that they belong to,

are,

can can feel more isolated from one another.

They can feel discouraged.

They can feel,

desperate, even anxious,

and alone

than people in previous generations did. There's this

lack of cohesiveness

in the ways that we live in our

society.

And according to scripture,

the reason we feel this way,

the reason we are experiencing this lack of

peace

is because,

this is a world that is in rebellion

against God.

A world that has embraced

the lie that the serpent told in the

garden,

a world that has inherited the spirit of

Babel,

a world infected

by the devastating

effects of sin,

a world that worships and serves the creature

rather than the creator.

In short,

the reason for our lack of peace

is that this world

and our families

and we ourselves

are often being led

by weak,

ungodly sinners at enmity with God or at

least with the ideas

that these people,

have allowed

to come into the world and have triumphed

in,

in in the worldview that now governs us.

And

yet, the Bible tells us that we have

reason for hope.

The Bible tells us that the mercies of

our Heavenly Father are new every morning.

The Bible tells us that the Son of

God is the Prince of Peace.

The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit

is our helper, and that He is our

comforter.

And as we will see this morning, Romans

Romans 5:1–11

chapter 5 verses 1 to 11 tells us

that despite all the craziness that surrounds us,

and despite all the conflict that exists in

every sphere of life,

the Christian

can enjoy peace

in this life.

In fact, the main point that I want

you to remember this morning is this,

since in the past

Christ secured your future,

you can enjoy peace in the present.

Since in the past

Christ secured your future,

you can enjoy peace in the present.

So let's consider

our text under these three headings. Number 1,

rewards,

Number 2, redemption.

And number 3, rest.

Rewards, redemption, and rest. And we're going to

be looking at these 3 headings. We're gonna

spend a lot more time in the first

one. Okay? And then we'll do the second

and third one. Let's look at the first

one now, rewards.

Under this heading, we're looking at verses 1

to 5 especially, where Paul describes

6 benefits or rewards

that believers enjoy because of Christ's work.

Look at verses 1 and 2.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,

we have peace with God

through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through Him we also have obtained access by

faith into this grace in which we stand,

and we rejoice in hope of the glory

of God.

So in these verses, we find the first

four rewards

that the first five verses give us.

1st, justification by faith.

2nd,

peace with God.

3rd,

access into God's grace.

And 4th,

rejoicing

in hope.

The last verse of chapter 4, which we

looked at last week, told us that it

was the life, death, and resurrection

of Jesus Christ that secured

our justification.

It's already happened.

It's been secured. This is why Paul writes

in verse 1 that we have already

been

justified by faith, because Jesus has already in

history

lived,

died,

and resurrected.

Jesus has already, in history, atoned

for our sin.

He has already paid our debt.

He has already satisfied

the holy wrath of God that our sin

incurred.

It's already happened.

It is finished.

Jesus has done it.

He has already redeemed us by His blood.

The father has accepted

the payment that Jesus has given.

Our debt has been satisfied.

This is why Paul writes in verse 1

concerning our second benefit

or reward, which is that we have peace

with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So the first thing is that we have

been justified,

and the second is that we have peace

with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, one cannot overemphasize

the immeasurable value

of this benefit.

If you have faith in Christ,

if you trust Him,

if you rest on His finished work

to atone

for your sin,

the Bible tells us that you have peace

with God.

You have peace with God.

This peace does not simply refer

to a feeling of satisfaction

or tranquility.

It's much more than that. It refers to

a status of goodwill and harmony

with God.

It means that you are no longer

at enmity

with God.

It means that His wrath and His fury

are no longer fixed on you.

It means that you don't have to dread

His justice.

It means that He is for you

and not

against you.

Think about what amazing benefit

this is.

This is why the cross is so glorious

to the Christian.

Because at the cross,

divine justice and mercy

intertwine.

They come together

at the cross to simultaneously

satisfy the wrath of God

and to appease the conscience

of repentant sinners.

When we look to the cross, we can

know for sure that the wrath of God

has been satisfied.

And we can also be at peace in

our conscience even though we're sinners.

We know that our sin is dealt with

and has been dealt with already at the

cross. That's an amazing gift to us.

Thus, when we look to the cross, we

can say amen

to the words of James in chapter 2

13 of his epistle, which state

mercy

triumphs over judgment.

At the cross,

mercy

triumphs over judgment. When my kids were younger,

I would tell them that when they pray,

they ought to put their hands together and

when and and then they should have their

left thumb,

I mean their right thumb go over their

left thumb. And that every time they would

form that cross with their right thumb over

their left, they could remember

that mercy triumphs over judgment

at the cross.

It's just it's a reminder to us that

mercy really does triumph over judgment, that when

we approach God's throne of grace, we look

to the cross, and we have peace of

conscience

because the wrath of God has been satisfied.

We are His children now.

In verse 2,

Paul writes of our 3rd benefit or reward,

which is that in Christ, we have obtained

access

by faith into this grace in which we

stand.

When you have a problem with some kind,

of some kind,

and you have access to someone who has

in a position of authority to help you

solve that problem,

you value that contact, don't you?

For example,

if someone were to steal your golf clubs

from your garage,

imagine how good it would be

if you had the friendship of Constant Gable,

of Constable Gable.

Some of us have experienced that, haven't we?

It's it's a great gift to know someone

who knows what to do,

who knows how to help you, who knows

what to do in that circumstance. That thief,

soon discovered that he had messed with the

wrong person.

Paul writes here,

that we Christians have access by faith

into this grace in which we stand.

This grace

that we have access because of Christ

is the state

of,

is the state of peace with God.

That's the grace that we have access to.

The state of peace with God. Because through

Christ,

God has declared us righteous already.

He's a holy God, but we are righteous

because of Jesus.

We can stand before Him. We can enter

into His throne of grace. In other words,

through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ,

we have

peace with God,

therefore in Jesus

we have obtained access to a loving God.

And this access is not a precarious

benefit that can be lost at any moment.

That the next time that you don't measure

up, that the next time that you mess

up, that the next time that you sin,

now you're in enmity with God again, and

now you don't have access anymore. It's not

that kind of benefit.

It is a permanent

benefit that God has given you.

Paul writes that we stand

in that state of grace.

That we are firmly rooted in that state

of grace.

Fully secure in that state of peace. Enjoying

favored

status

with the Holy God because Christ introduced

us into the Father's throne room.

We didn't just come in trampling into His

courts.

Christ Himself led us, and He said, and

He said, They are Mine.

We have access.

Talk about having access

to someone in a position of authority

to help solve our problems.

It is

God's Son

who intercedes for you.

You have access. Jesus

has given you access with his pass.

You can enter with his ID badge.

His identity

never fails you.

Every time you swipe His ID into the

throne of grace, the door opens.

Because it is His ID. It is His

identity. You are united to Him by faith.

How amazing

is that benefit?

In Christ,

therefore,

you have justification,

you have peace with God,

and you have access

into His throne of grace. This is why

you have a 4th benefit, and that is

that in Christ, you want to rejoice in

hope.

Paul writes in verse 2 that you can

rejoice in the hope of the glory of

God.

The sense in the original Greek is that

you can exalt,

even boast

in, the hope that Christ has secured for

you.

In other words, because this justification,

peace and access

are the result of Christ's work

and they don't depend on your work, you

can have a joyful confidence

that your inheritance in Jesus Christ is fully

secure.

That it cannot be lost.

You can boast in that inheritance.

Not because it's anything you've done, but because

it's a gift that has been given to

you.

This kind of assurance, this boast in the

certainty of your salvation

that Christ has secured for you is not

presumptuous

and is not unseemly.

Precisely

because it is not your doing.

It's not your doing.

It's God's gift to you in Jesus Christ

through a spirit

wrought faith.

We boast in God.

The triune God gets all the glory because

salvation belongs to Him.

In verses 3 and 4, Paul explains that

because of Christ's work, the believer

is right to rejoice in every circumstance,

even in adverse circumstances.

He writes this,

Not only that,

but we rejoice in our sufferings,

knowing that suffering produces endurance,

and endurance produces character, and character produces

hope.

According to Paul, Christians can and ought to

rejoice in their sufferings, rejoice in their hardships,

rejoice in their trials,

rejoice in their tribulations.

Now, at first glance, this seems

to be either the epitome of irrationality

or perhaps evidence

of a psychiatric deficiency that manifests in masochism.

However, the context allows for no such conclusion.

Paul is nothing,

if not resolutely

logical in the force of his argumentation.

Just like he never argues for blind faith,

Paul never exalts meaningless suffering.

That's not what he's talking about.

Instead, he argues in a very rational,

logical, and persuasive manner that God is sovereign

over creation.

That long ago He promised to save His

people

from their sin, and that He has already

accomplished that rescue mission

through the life, death, and resurrection of His

Son.

Therefore, because this Sovereign God, who has complete

control over creation

and over the events that unfold in history,

loves His people,

it logically follows

that all the circumstances

in the lives of Christians

work together for their good

because they are planned

by their loving God.

They are foreordained

by their loving God. They are decreed

by their loving God. They are executed

in accordance with their loving God's perfect

and good

will.

Paul will explicitly

make this point in Romans 8 verses 28

Romans 8:28–30

to 30, the well known and glorious passage

which reads like this, and we know that

for 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 He might be the

firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom He predestined,

He also called,

and those whom He called, He also justified,

and those whom He justified,

He also glorified.

As a result,

because all of this is true,

because salvation belongs to the Lord, because He

is the author and perfecter of our faith,

because He holds you in the palm of

His hand and protects you,

Because no one can snatch you away from

Him. Because nothing can separate you from His

love, you can logically rejoice

in all circumstances,

even in your suffering.

Listen, Paul is not saying that suffering is

something that we are supposed to seek out,

or that we are supposed to pretend

like suffering is a pleasant experience to us.

But he's also not saying

that we are merely called to endure without

complaining.

He's not simply calling us to contentment.

Rather,

because through the blood of Christ we are

no longer God's enemies,

instead of understanding suffering as a sign of

God's displeasure

or as our punitive recompense due to our

sin,

we are to understand that our trials

have now become

an instrument

for our own

sanctification,

an instrument for our own spiritual growth,

an instrument to make us more like Jesus,

and therefore,

legitimate grounds

for our glorying and rejoicing in God.

Think about that. When we are suffering, when

we are going through difficult circumstances,

we are not to think that God is

punishing us for our sin.

Christ took our punishment. He really did. That's

not what's going on.

But He is changing us through it. He

is working in us through it. He is

going to make us more like Christ through

it.

It is an amazing

gift to us

when you are in Jesus Christ.

This is why when we have,

undergone trials as Christians,

we we have seen His faithfulness to us

and we can repeat with joy

the end of Paul's words in Romans 8,

where he boldly states,

Who shall separate us from the love of

Christ?

Shall tribulation,

or distress,

or persecution,

or famine,

or nakedness,

or danger,

or sword?

No.

In all these things we are more than

conquerors through Him who loved us.

For I am sure

that neither death nor life,

nor angels nor rulers,

nor things present nor things to come,

nor powers,

nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in

all creation will be able

to separate us from the love of God

in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What an amazing thing to say, and it's

all true. Talk about being fully justified.

Talk about having peace with God.

Talk about having access to His throne of

grace. Talk about having reason to rejoice in

all circumstances.

It's God's love

that governs

every

aspect of your life.

It is the love of your Heavenly Father

that governs every aspect of your life.

So, without minimizing its significance or pain,

nevertheless,

you can rejoice

in your suffering,

knowing that instead

of separating you from God, it will be

an occasion for you to depend on Him,

for you to recognize your own limitations,

for you to appeal to His power through

prayer,

and for you to learn to trust

and obey Him, expecting to see Him sustain

you

in and through suffering.

It's God's plan.

We were hoping to come before presbytery

this,

January 19th. We've been praying for that day,

we've been looking forward to that day, we're

gonna have to wait till April.

It's God's plan.

It teaches us patience.

It teaches us humility.

It gives us time to prepare for what's

coming. Praise the Lord. It gives us more

time to pray. Praise the Lord for that.

He's in control.

He's in control.

This is why,

suffering produces endurance.

Because you learn experientially

then God will carry you through.

He will not let go of you.

He is the good shepherd who is with

you, who goes before you

when you walk

through the valley of the shadow of death.

In verse 4, Paul writes that endurance produces

character.

The word character carries with it a sense

of being tested and approved.

It is a tried integrity.

In other words,

because God sustains his people in and through

trials, Christians who undergo trials learn to trust

in the fidelity of God.

We learn to not be shaken.

We become more firm in our conviction.

The heat of the oven of tribulation

solidifies your faith

because it removes the impurities of doubt as

you test

that God will always be with you and

that he never will abandon you.

The unbiblical doctrine of purgatory

teaches that after death, Christians need to suffer

for an undisclosed amount of time so they

can pay for the remaining guilt of their

sin,

and become worthy to stand before God forever.

Think about everything that we've read so far

in Romans. Does that make any sense?

Do you have to do it so that

you're worthy? Is there anything that you need

to add? No.

Paul's letter to the to the Romans disabuses

us from such notion, making it abundantly clear

that the blood of Christ has already atoned

for our sin,

that it is His holiness and righteousness

imputed to us

that gives us access to God both now

and forevermore.

His blood is sufficient.

His work is finished.

You are forgiven.

You have access.

Yet, there is a purgatory that is real.

It is a purgatory that takes place in

this life,

as suffering purges you, not from the guilt

of your sin,

the blood of Christ has already done that,

But, from any remaining doubt in God's love,

in God's goodness,

and in God's power to preserve you

through trial, to preserve your faith.

You see, trials are the testing ground for

God's steadfast love,

enabling you to develop a faith that has

been tested and approved.

Therefore, suffering produces endurance,

and endurance produces

character,

and character produces

hope.

And in verse 5, Paul writes,

that Paul writes the following, and hope does

not put put us to shame because God's

love has been poured out in the in

our hearts through the Lord, I'm sorry, through

the Holy Spirit who has been given to

us.

So in verses 1 to 4,

we have seen 4 rewards that the believer

can enjoy because of Christ's work. Justification by

faith,

peace with

God, access into God's grace, and rejoicing in

hope. In verse 5, we find

the the other two benefits, numbers 5 and

6, the other two rewards given to the

believer. Number 5, God pours His love into

the believer's heart. And finally, number 6, we

get the gift that makes every other gift

possible.

God gives the believer the Holy Spirit.

The gift of the Holy Spirit was predicted

by the prophet Joel in Joel 2, but

also by the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 36

Ezekiel 36:26

verses 26 and 27

where God says,

And I will give you a new heart,

and a new spirit I will put within

you.

And I will remove the heart of stone

from your heart of flesh and give you

your heart of flesh. And I will put

My spirit within you, and cause you to

walk in My statutes

and be careful to obey My rules.

In Romans 118 all the way through Romans

3 20,

Paul made it clear that fallen man is

incapable

and in

and of himself

to obey God, to please God, because fallen

human beings are corrupt.

So God graciously provides a substitute,

His own son,

to perfectly keep the law in our place

and to atone for our sin on the

cross.

Furthermore,

we now see that God also gives us

the Holy Spirit,

who as we have seen in Ezekiel,

changes our heart of stone

into a heart of flesh,

enabling us to love,

trust, and obey God.

In other words,

the Holy Spirit

regenerates our hearts

so we can see our sin,

repent,

turn away from sin, and turn to Christ,

and be saved.

It is the Holy Spirit who enables us

to do those things. That is what Jesus

refers to in John 3 verse 5, where

John 3:5

He tells Nicodemus that unless one is born

of water and the spirit,

he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

We cannot repent of our sin. We cannot

hate our sin. We cannot turn to Christ

and trust in Him. We cannot love God

unless the Holy Spirit regenerates us.

There can be therefore no greater gift than

the Holy Spirit.

It is the Holy Spirit that causes us

to be born again.

It is also the Holy Spirit who pours

God's love into our hearts,

changing our heart of stone through that love

into a heart of flesh. A heart that

is capable of loving God, a heart that

is capable of loving His law, a heart

that is capable of loving

our neighbors.

In other words, if we have the Holy

Spirit within us,

He will produce His fruit in our lives.

Saying you believe in Jesus is not enough.

In fact, in Matthew 7 verses 21 to

Matthew 7:21–23

23, Jesus gives this sobering warning. He says,

Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord'

will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the

one who does the will of my father

who is in heaven.

On that day many will say to me,

'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your

name

and cast out demons in Your name,

and do many mighty works in Your name?'

And then will I declare to them, 'I

never knew you

depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'

This warning is not meant to

make you doubt your salvation,

rather it's supposed to do the opposite if

you're in Christ.

Even though on the one hand, Jesus makes

it clear that you cannot fool God,

on the other hand, He shows that God

knows those who belong to Him.

And Jesus says that you can also know,

you can distinguish between a false teacher and

someone who truly is His disciple.

In Matthew 7 17, Jesus says this, you

will recognize them by their fruits.

You will recognize them by their fruits. In

other words, if you belong to Christ, you

will have the gift of the Holy Spirit,

and your life will manifest

the fruit of the Spirit. If you don't,

then the fruit of the spirit will not

be there. So you will recognize a false

teacher,

you will also recognize somebody who's truly a

disciple.

If you have the fruit of the spirit,

because it means you have the spirit.

Well, what is that

fruit? Paul tells us in Galatians 5 verses

Galatians 5:22–23

22 to 23. It's a great text to

memorize, Galatians 5 22 23.

There, Paul tells us that the fruit of

the Spirit is love,

joy, peace,

patience,

kindness,

goodness,

faithfulness,

gentleness,

and self control.

If you have the gift of the Holy

Spirit, you will also manifest

the gift of God's love.

So if you have God's love, that is

to say, if you love God

and,

you will also love His word,

and you will also love your neighbor.

Because the whole law is contained in this,

Jesus says. In loving God with all your

heart, mind, soul, and strength, and loving your

neighbor as yourself,

Even if not perfectly.

Even if not always.

If you love God, His word and your

neighbor,

that's a clear sign that you have the

Holy Spirit within you because He is the

one who produces the gift of love.

And from this gift of love, every other

fruit of the Spirit follows.

Perhaps not immediately, and perhaps not perfectly, but

you will grow in your joy.

You will grow

in your peace.

You will grow in patience.

You will grow in kindness.

You will grow in goodness.

You will grow in faithfulness.

You will grow in gentleness,

you will grow

in self control.

It's a wonderful way whenever you feel like

maybe God doesn't love you, whenever you have

doubts about your salvation, you can go to

this list. And far from being crushed by

it,

there there are ways in which you can

see you can pray, Lord, help me grow

in these areas.

Help me be the kind of person who

pursues peace and not conflict.

Help me be the kind of person who

is patient.

Help me be the kind of person who

exhibits self control.

And as you grow, as the as the

Spirit helps you, that will,

give give you even more assurance of your

salvation. It's a wonderful blessing to the believer

to have the fruit of the Spirit.

Therefore, your assurance of salvation is not a

boast in your goodness, rather, it is rooted

in the manifestation

of God's love in your life.

The Christian glory is in God's love because

He owes everything to God's love.

This brings us to our second heading this

morning, I'm a shorter heading, and that is

the one of redemption.

In verses 6 to 8, Paul focuses on

the role of love in securing our redemption.

He writes, 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.

Let us settle this point once and for

all.

Your obedience to God's law

is not the reason

God placed His love on you.

Your good works

are not the reason.

They're not the grounds

on which God deemed you worthy

to be saved.

Your turning away from sin from sin is

not what caused Jesus

to choose to die for you.

Therefore,

your status as saved

will neither depend

on your obedience to God's law, nor on

your good works, nor on you turning away

from sin

perfectly,

because these were never the reasons

why you were saved to begin with.

In fact, in verses 6 to 8, Paul

writes that Christ died for weak,

ungodly

sinners.

This is why,

in verse 10,

Paul says that we were enemies of God.

Now, please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm

not saying that God does not care about

our piety.

That God does not care about our godliness.

That God does not care about our doing

good works. He does, and He does very

much, and we ought to care.

We ought to care.

Remember,

that Jesus says that a good tree produces

good fruit.

But that is my point.

Good works are the fruit of your salvation,

not the root.

The root of your salvation is God's

unconditional love for you.

While you were weak,

while you were ungodly,

while you were a sinner, while you were

His enemy. In other words, the reason your

hope is secure,

the reason you can enjoy assurance of salvation,

is that it rests entirely on God's unconditional

love for you.

It is an unconditional love that He has

demonstrated already in Jesus Christ.

Imagine the implications

of Jesus' words in John 13,

when He gives us a new commandment. He

says, a new commandment I give you, that

you love one another as I have loved

you.

How has God loved us? How does Christ

love? He loves us in this way.

We were talking about this text yesterday, and

Julio told me,

that one of the ways in which he

remembers application for this text, he said,

God loved us when we didn't meet his

demands.

And so he calls us to love people

when they don't meet our demands.

Imagine that.

Husbands.

Where's Samara?

Oh, man. She's not here to hear this.

I'll tell her. Believe me.

We're to love people when they don't meet

our demands. Why? Because this is how God

loves us.

What kind of love is this? I can't

love that way.

We can in Jesus Christ. We have to

depend on Him. It's a humbling thing.

We rely on God's power to do this.

God loves you unconditionally.

And the reason you can know that He

loves you unconditionally

is precisely because while you were weak, and

ungodly, and a sinner, and an enemy of

God, Christ died for you.

Paul knows that one would scarcely die for

a righteous person, though perhaps for a good

person, one would dare even to die. But

you and I were neither righteous nor good,

we were neither morally upright, nor kind, nor

gracious,

We were not worthy of anyone's love, and

certainly not worthy of anyone sacrificing His life

for us.

Yet it was precisely

when we were in such an unworthy state,

when in the fullness of time, Christ

loved us and died for us.

Note first the irony

this entails. It is the righteousness, it is

the righteous

good man who dies for the weak ungodly

center.

Higher body.

Secondly, notice the security that this brings.

Since he took our weakness and ungodliness

and sin,

and paid for their consequences,

these attributes are no longer part of our

record.

Instead, we have His record of righteousness

and goodness

credited to us.

It's amazing.

This is the amazing nature of God's love.

The saving love that anchors our redemption.

As if commenting on our text, the Apostle

John writes in 1st John 4, verses 9

John 4:9

and 10,

In this, the love of God was made

manifested was made manifest among us, that God

sent His only Son into the world so

that we might live through Him.

In this love,

I'm sorry, in this is love,

not that we love God

but that He loved us

and sent His son to be a propitiation

for our sins.

His love is a propitiating

love, a love that transforms curse into blessing

because

wretched sinners are its object

and justified

saints are its result.

So we have seen that through Christ's work

we have received great rewards, and that through

Christ's love, we have a sure redemption.

This brings us to our final

heading this morning, rest.

In verses 9 and 10, Paul writes,

since therefore we have now been justified by

his blood,

much more shall we 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,

much more

so sorry. Much more now that we are

reconciled,

shall we be saved by His

life?

Paul, continuing with his relentless logic,

here argues that if God sent His Son

to shed His blood and to die for

us while we were His enemies,

now that we are His sons and we

are His daughters,

we can be sure that he will save

us to the uttermost.

He writes that, and while we were God's

enemies, we were reconciled to him through the

death of Jesus.

Now that Christ lives

to intercede for us, our assurance of salvation

must be unshakable.

In other words, if God loved you

while you were His enemy,

you can be sure

He loves you now,

and therefore,

that he loves you now, sorry, that you

are his son and daughter.

Think about it. He loved you while you

were his enemy, so much so much so

much so that he died for you. Now

that he lives,

you can be sure that he loves you,

that you are His son and daughter.

And if while you were God's enemy,

Christ's death brought you reconciliation,

the resurrected Jesus will certainly preserve

your salvation.

You see, through Christ, you are not merely

pardoned. God doesn't merely say, go, get out

of here, I forgive you.

No. Through Christ's life, death, and resurrection,

you become God's beloved child.

God says, come.

You have access.

Inherit the kingdom that I have prepared for

you. I love you.

So you don't have to fear God's wrath

because Christ has already satisfied it.

You don't have to fear trials and tribulations

because Christ endured tribulation for you and is

with you and will sustain you.

You don't have to fear death because Christ

died

and was raised,

and you will be raised with Him,

being united to Him by a Spirit wrought

faith.

Jesus says in John 1419,

because I live,

you also will live.

If you have placed your faith in Jesus

Christ, then you can enjoy rest,

fully confident that if He purchased you with

His death, He will also bless you forever

through His resurrection life.

In verses 12,

Paul wrote that since believers have been justified

by faith, they have peace with God through

Christ,

enabling them to experience

joy in all circumstances.

Now in verse 11,

Paul circles back to the same thought, saying,

More than that, we also rejoice in God

through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we

now receive reconciliation.

So don't miss this. The amazing this amazing

passage, which teaches us about the blessed rewards

that are ours through Christ's work, and about

our glorious redemption

through Christ's love, and that we can certainly

rest in Christ's resurrection,

this passage

is surrounded,

encompassed, and covered by the declaration

that in Christ we can rejoice

because through Christ we have peace with God.

Paul writes that you were weak,

that you were ungodly,

that you were a sinner, and that you

were God's enemy.

Yet,

because of His great love, Christ who is

strong died for the weak.

Because of his great love,

Christ who is holy died for the ungodly.

Because of his great love, Christ who is

righteous died for the sinner.

And because of his great love, Christ who

is the only begotten son of God,

died for God's enemy.

Your great problem is overcome by His great

love.

In the past, Christ secured your future so

you can enjoy peace in the present.

Thus the great reformer Martin Luther comments.

So when the devil throws your sin in

your face

and declares that you deserve death and hell,

tell him this,

I admit that I deserve death and hell

what of it?

For I know one who suffered

and made satisfaction in my behalf.

His name is Jesus Christ,

Son of God.

And where He is,

there

I shall be also.

You have access.

You have peace with God. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ.

That while we were weak

at the right time,

Christ died for us.

That while we were sinners,

He loved us in such a way that

He gave us His righteousness, and took our

sin, nailed it to the cross,

took your wrath,

being our propitiation,

removing the guilt of our sin,

satisfying your holy wrath,

making us clean by his blood,

that while we were your enemies,

He loved us in such a way that

by His life, death, and resurrection, we have

been reconciled to You. We have peace with

You, Lord.

Father, I pray that we would not forget

that.

That whenever we don't meet

the perfect requirements of the law,

we would not doubt in your love,

because while we were your enemies, Christ died

for us.

How much more now that we are your

sons and daughters through His blood,

that we have been adopted through a spirit

without faith? How much more now can we

not be certain of your love, your steadfast

love that never changes, your steadfast love that

provides mercies for us every morning?

And Father, I pray that that love would

transform us,

so that we become more like Jesus,

so that we are the furthest away possible

from any sense of self righteousness,

instead being humbled by your grace, and therefore

being the kind of people who are gracious

to others,

who forgive those who sin against us because

we have been forgiven by you.

Oh Father, may we be people of peace,

because we have peace with you.

Father, we love you, we praise you, and

we pray all these things in Christ's name.

Amen.

Well, let's stand now

to thank God with this closing hymn

as we marvel at the deep,

deep love of Jesus.