Title: Romans 5
By: Todd Bevins
Intro
Open your Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 5. As soon as Joe read that and then Dan got up and mentioned about our needing patience, and I agree with him. I thought about Shannon’s lesson this morning. I started scratching my head and said, Lord, are you talking to me, or somebody around here has to got to hear this. I am not sure who it is so you might want to listen.
I want to begin in verse one. We are going to read the first eleven verses. Then we will talk to you about them for a few moments.
1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
Love of God
As I get ready to talk about these verses; I was thinking along the lines of how much that I love the Lord, how much I appreciate the Lord, and how much I need the Lord. As I was preparing, we forget—in our conversation with one of our children yesterday; I made the comment about Romans 8:28. I said you know that all things work together for the good to them that love God, who are called according to His purpose. Those that love God—I am asking you this morning—do you really believe that absolutely everything, that if you love God, you know Him personally. Everything He permits in your life is for good. We should say Amen, because it is true.
God loves us more than we could ever imagine. My mind cannot wrap around it. Our conversation was hinged around the Love of God. That is what I want to talk about this morning is the Love of God. In my conversation with our son, I said this: “Son, it is like this. You have to absolutely fall head over heels for the Lord. You just want to fall in love with Him so deep and so much and in doing so He draws you close to His side. You learn so much about Him. You desire Him. You want to be near Him. You want to be around His people. You want to be around your brothers and sisters in Christ. That is kind of how that conversation was going which leads me to this.
If I believe absolutely everything, if I love God with all my heart, and therefore, I believe that everything He permits in my life is to bring glory unto His name and intended for good. God never intended anything bad for my life. God has only intended good for my life. Absolutely good—everything! Then I must understand that there are things that come into my life that does not appear to be good but they are good. What will come from them is good. What God will use them for is good in our life. We don’t always understand them.
I kind of giggle sometimes when I think about—brother Dan, actually it is true—she does need a lot of patience and she must have them. You don’t know what I have put her through. Just some of the crazy ideas that I have, but she went along with them. I thank God for her.
Along with that is this. I giggle sometimes when people say I just ask the Lord to give me patience. Why? Because the traffic is backed up, or I can’t get into such and such place I want to eat. I hope the Lord just gives me patience. I kind of giggle at those things because really in essence that is not what we are talking about when we talk about patience of the Bible and we talk about the tribulations that brings about patience. We are talking about some real hard times. We are talking about when we get things from the doctor we don’t want to hear. We are talking about when we get news from the job that we did not want to hear. When we get a bill that comes unexpectedly that we have no idea how it is going to be paid, but it must be paid one way or the other. It is the serious things in life that God allows and permits in our lives. I want to take a moment and say this. Let us not be oblivious to the fact that we can also create our own problems. We can add onto some of those things as well that God never intended. Let us make sure when we are going through them that we are seeking the face of God and asking God to use them for our good in His glory.
Faith
As we move right on, Paul begins in his writing; he has been talking about faith. As he moves on, he says therefore, off the hinges of. Let us look back at the last couple of verses what he was talking about.
24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
“…imputed” talking about righteousness, putting faith in the Lord as Abraham did. He says:
Romans 4
24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
Romans 5
1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
Because we took our faith that God gave to every man a measure of faith and we placed that into the work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. God says when He looks at us, He looks through the blood of Jesus Christ—and just to simplify it—it is just as you had never sinned. It is not that we have not sinned. It is not that we have not been guilty. It is not that. No doubt, justification can go a lot deeper than that but just to simplify it this morning; when God looks at us, He sees the blood of His Son, and we are right with God. That is wonderful news! Isn’t it? Think about it just for a moment. God loves us so much! He knew the mouth you would have. He knew the life you would live. I am going to say these things based upon my life. You may not have had a filthy mouth. You may not have lived a bad life. He knew what I would do. He knew my behavior. He knew my conduct, yet God said, I am going to provide a way for you to have a relationship with me that you might be able to come and spend eternity with me and not have to go to hell. I don’t know any greater love than that. I don’t know anyone that could love greater or more than that. Absolutely! They cannot. God is the only one that can.
Peace with God
He said this: because we did that we are not only justified, but we have peace. Peace what? Peace with God—the One that really matters. The Only One that matter.
When I think about the things that are going on over in the middle east, I am glad for some of the things that seem to be calming down just a little bit. I am thankful for that. I am thankful for all of that. Listen. If you don’t have peace with God, I don’t care, we can have world peace—which will never happen until the Lord comes, until He reigns—however, you don’t know what real peace is. I don’t care if it is calm over there right now or not. It might not be calm in your heart and it is not going to be until you know Jesus Christ. Until you allow Him to move in and make lordship of your heart, and sit upon the throne of your heart, and understand and experience—not just hear about the Love of God, but experience how much He really genuinely loves you. Even though He knows you, He loves you. It is amazing! Isn’t it?
Access to the Throne Room
We think about this. Paul mentions that not only do we have peace with God; he says, “How?” through our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the only way to have peace with God. He says by whom also there is more than that. He says we have access by faith. Access to what? Access to the throne room of God. In to this grace wherein we stand.
I like what one theologian says. He says that through trusting God we have peace with God. We have access into the presence of God. We are standing in grace. Wonderful news! This morning that you can go into the very presence of God. We don’t need a high priest. We don’t need to go to this one or that one. We don’t need to go here and talk about things, or someone else. I can go directly to the throne room of grace and I can do that through the blood of Jesus Christ. You say, well, that sounds great! How do I do it? Put your faith in Christ. Believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He was the sinless Son of God, that He came to give His life for ransom for all who would believe and trust in Him. Praise God! If you will do that, He will save you to the uttermost.
We find out here that he says this. In verses three through five:
3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Rejoice in Hope
Oh! There is more! We not only have access to the throne room of God. We not only can rejoice in our hope. What kind of hope? A hope that is settled.
I am going to back up and cover that just for a second. You thought I was going to skip it, but I am not.
The hope that we have today is a settled, confirmed hope. I am not saying I hope that one day I will see the Lord. I am saying through what He has done I know—Praise God—That is a settled hope. I am going to see the Lord. I don’t hope that I will get to heaven in that it might happen. It is something I know is going to happen. Praise God! I rejoice in that hope because Jesus Christ made it possible.
Glory in Tribulation
Going on he said this. Guess what? We have a lot of things to glory about but he really throws a curve ball. Paul was a good pitcher. I never could sling any curves or anything else. However, Paul throws a good one here. He says, “Guess what? We also glory in tribulation.”
Listen to this just for a moment. What is tribulation? What does Paul mean when he says we glory in tribulation. Who is we? The same, the born again. We have already been talking with them. Those that have taken their faith and put it in Jesus Christ. We have shouted Hallelujah about Jesus Christ. We have shouted hallelujah about peace. We stood at awe at the fact that we could stand before a holy and righteous God. In His grace and in His mercy come before His presence.
Now we are talking about—oh, wait a minute—we can glory also in tribulation. So, what is it? Here it is. Tribulation brings out the idea of a stress filled problem. An actual definition is this: pressing. I am going to give you an example that I robbed from another individual, another minister that I was listening to, and I thought, wow. That is amazing!
Execution in a town in England at some point in history; how it worked or what they did was they would take a criminal and they would lay the criminal down. As they would lay the criminal down, they take a board and place it upon this individual. As they placed the board upon the individual they would begin to carry—think about this just for a moment—really massive heavy rocks. They would place them on the board that was on the chest of that individual and place them on the board. They would continue to do that until the individual got to the place that they could no longer breathe. It was called execution by pressing. That is an example, when we look at the word tribulation. We are talking about things that are hard to hear. They are not easy to deal with.
You face a situation that it has to be God and nothing else. There are going to be moments like that. Do you know what he says? You can glory in them. How is that? Because we know that all things work together for the good to them that love God, who are the called according to His purpose. We know and we are convinced, we are sold out to the fact that we have a God, that when we placed it in Him and said we love you with all our heart. He said I am your God and you are my child. I love you and will be there and I will take care of you. We have accepted the fact that whatever He permits in our lives, He is going to make good of it no matter what it is.
What happens a lot of time is this. We lose focus of that and we begin staring at the problem rather than focusing on the solution. When we do that, when we add to it, or when we try to handle it; the peace is not there. We are not standing in the very presence, the throne room of God where we could be. I am going to tell you something else. I think in my life, I have added to that a lot that God says that wasn’t part of it. However, because you tried to handle it yourself, here it is.
Do you know what? In the days to come, I pray, and I know for myself, as I was preparing that it is a whole lot easier said than done. It is a whole lot easier when you are not in that storm as Shannon talked this morning. You are not in that situation where it feels like that you are almost down to the last huge rock that could be placed on your chest. It is easy to say, glory in all of this when you are not the one there. I pray in the days to come I never forget what God permits in my life; He is working it out for good.
So, I say it with encouragement this morning. Don’t forget if you love God, whatever it may be today, or in the future that may be permitted in your life; know that God can and will work it out for good in your life. It will bring glory to His name. When you allow that to happen, He is cultivating. He is working in your life. He is building patience and character. Doing what? He is transforming your life to be more like Him. He is allowing you and teaching you that what? I went through this storm, so when the next one comes; I don’t spend as much time wringing my hands. I go straight to the master. My pathway to Him is a lot quicker because, “We’ve been here before.” This storm looks a little different. It is a little bigger. The boat’s rocking a little harder. The wind is blowing a little stronger. We are okay with that because we have already seen what He can do. Therefore, we are quicker to get to Him. We don’t always understand why God permits these things, but what we must know is this. He is doing it for our good. When we look at it in the light, in the realm of that then we can glory in tribulation. We can say, it does not feel good right now but when it is all said and done; I will be a lot closer Him. I will be a lot nearer to Him. I am going to know a lot more about Him when I come though this thing than when I first started.
Hope Maketh Not Ashamed
As we move on he says this.
3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
“Hope maketh not ashamed.” Why? Because of the love of God that has been shed abroad, or it has been dumped out, poured out into our heart. Why is that? Because of that… It is saying this. I don’t have to worry about these things. I am not going to fret about these things that come into my life. I have placed my faith in Jesus Christ. I have been justified by His blood. When God looks at me, I have a right standing before Him through the blood of Christ. I am standing before the one that can absolutely conquer and overcome anything in my life. If it enters my life, He has permitted it in one way or another.
How and Why?
Here is the next thing I want you to think about. I like what one theologian said. How and why can we glory in our stress filled problems? Because we know tribulation works patience, and patience hope. This is why we can glory in our stress filled problems. This is why stress filled problems do not disappoint us. Why? We glory in them. We glory in them because they are the occasion to produce perseverance. We glory in them. We are not ashamed of them. We are not worried about them. We glory in them because we know God is working out things for a greater good. He is working our life. He is molding it. He is shaping it. Into what? I have already said, to be more like Him. Who in the world else would you want to be more like? To love people that hate you. To love people who want to do bad things in your life and be able to look at them in love, in a pure love, and know that you want nothing but good for them. To be able to do things for those that are in need. Not want anything in return. To have that type of character about you, God wants us to be as much like Him as possible. Therefore, guess what? Every tribulation that comes that He permits in our life for the working of patience and to mold us like Him; it tailor-made just for us.
The things that I have to go through and the things I have to deal with won’t be exactly what you deal with. Why? Brother Dan said it the other day better than anybody. There are no two people exactly the same. Kate and I have twins, we couldn’t rear them the same. They are reared in the same house. We did our best. However, they are not the same. There are differences between them. No identical twins are the same.
So, if that be the case, here is the great thing, because of faith and the shed blood of Jesus Christ, we stand in the presence of the one who created us. Now that we are standing in His presence, when those things come; we can glory because as we are looking at Him and not the problem, or what we think is the problem, or what is pressing upon us. As we look at Him, we understand; you made us, and since you made us and I belong to you, you already know this is needed in my life. You have tailor fit this just for me. Now, I am asking of you God, help me that you receive the glory from it. Then it works out everything you intended in my life.
There is no better way of living in this life than having a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing Him personally, knowing Him without a shadow of a doubt.
Tailor-made
Here is what he goes on to say. I will hurry through these last few.
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
He is reminding them of something. He is saying, guys listen; those difficult days have been tailor made for you. He knows what you need. He is working out good things. Don’t allow them not to work out.
I will pause to say this. I would say I have been guilty of that a time or two. There are things that could have been different in my life if maybe I would have accepted some of the things God permitted in my life and allowed Him to work them out for my good and not be so resistant towards them and look toward Him rather than the problem. However, we will save that for another time.
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Who is the ungodly? Take a good look on your right and on your left because we are all ungodly. He died for all of us, every one of us. Do you know when He died? At the exact appointed time. He did exactly what was needed, at the exact time. How does that go together with all the rest of it? Because He helps us at exactly the right time. He brings the tribulation exactly at the right time. He helps us through it exactly the right way, exactly what we need in our lives. God does that. When you and I can do absolutely nothing, God prevailed and He did what man could not do.
Do you know what? The same thing, if He had done that in saving our lives; He does that in keeping our lives. He does that as we deal with tribulations, as we deal with problems, as we deal with things that are pressing, as we deal with things that we struggle with.
I often think about our children. I am sure you may as well. You hate to see them go through things. You hate to see them deal with things, especially as they move out of the nest. They move on. You think about this life in itself. Sometimes, it can get so heavy and so pressing. Sometimes you can sense it or you can feel it. You want to do something but there is not really anything you can do. You hate to see that but you also know this. It is not going to last forever. They are going to figure things out. They will get through it and when they do; they are going to be better for it.
There is no doubt in my mind as the Lord looks down upon us; there are things that He permits in our lives. As we love our children, He loves us. No. It may not always be easy, but He knows this. I am certain in His way He sends us the love and encouragement that we need. Just hang in there, it is going to work out for your good. You need it more than you realize. Sister, daughter you need it more than you realize.
Died for the Ungodly
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
He is bringing their attention to the fact of the Love of God, and to the benefits of the righteousness of God. He said:
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
Maybe, possibly; you might find somebody that is really a great person, somebody may die for them.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
God said, you know what? They are not righteous. They are not good. They are not any of those things. They are ungodly. He said I am going to give Jesus Christ His Son to come and die in our place. He died for you and I. Why?
9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
He Paid it All
I am going to end it on that verse by saying this. He has paid it all. It is a done deal. He has said, I not only saved you, but I keep you. You can trust in Him for salvation. You can trust in Him for assurance and the hope that one day we are going to see Him. We are going to see Him for ourselves and not another. Not only that but if we can trust Him for all of that—and we can—then we can trust Him when times are difficult and things are hard. Know this. If you love God, He is working it out for your good and for His glory. He is working things out that you and I might be more like Him. Love more is a great thing. To be able to help people more than we ever have before is a great thing. The more we become like Him, the more we want to be and do those things.
Come and be saved.