In 1979 I had the privilege of traveling to Nigeria, Africa to speak for three weeks. After that Martha and I spent a week in Paris, France and another week in London, England. Do you know one thing that trip did for me? It gave me an amazing appreciation for the USA. I understood in a new way my ignorance of the greatness of what we have in America. A similar danger exists for believers – that they will miss the glory of what they have in Jesus Christ. Paul is trying to prevent that in Romans 5-8. He doesn’t want us to stay ignorant of our possessions in Christ.

And what are those possessions? Let me first of all summarize what Christ has done for us in these four amazing chapters. They point out the huge changes that take place when a person receives Christ. The information they convey is essential for understanding how to live the new life. Let me highlight these chapters and then let’s start in the first couple of verses of chapter 5.

Chapter 5 emphasizes what it means to be reconciled with God. We have a new peace to explore and a new relationship with God Himself.

Chapter 6 – what it means to be dead to sin. We have a new power to explore - and learn how to say "no" to the power of sin and "yes" to the invitation of God.

Chapter 7 – what it means to be free from the Law. We have a new freedom from all the desires of our bodies because the law kept us bound to the sin nature. and we can walk in newness of spirit instead of the oldness of the letter.

Chapter 8 – what it means to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We have a new partner to explore, resulting in a totally new life, as well as a totally new way of living.

And the point that is continually repeated is that all of these exciting changes come to us through Jesus Christ. Notice our passage today, 5:1-11. Verse 1 begins with, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And verse 11 ends with, "And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation." Nothing would be possible apart from Him.

The emphasis in chapter five is on what has happened in our relationship with God Himself. Now that we have been justified, we have PEACE. Verses 10-11 are going to emphasize that we have been reconciled. Now these words or concepts may not say much to you at the beginning, but they define a totally different life. Let me mention four changes that have come upon us by Grace.

I. Justification brings STATUS (1-2). Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Two words stand out in these verses, "peace," and "access." "Having been justified by faith," or "since we now have been saved" by the Grace of God in Christ, what now? Here are two practical implications of Salvation or justification – "peace with God" and "access" into God’s very presence.

Remember the story of the prodigal son who returns home after blowing his dad’s inheritance? To his surprise his dad runs out and kisses him, and places on his hand a ring and puts a robe on him and shoes on his feet. The robe indicated status, the ring was the family credit card, and the shoes indicated that he was free, not a slave, since shoes were never worn in the house except by the master. Then he commanded his servants to kill and prepare the fatted calf. That’s the animal which was specially fed and kept for honored guests. Here’s our ring, here’s our robe and shoes. Do you see the words, we have in verse one and also we have in verse 2? Like the prodigal, our Father has shocked us with the generosity of His response to our return. He has not only made us His child, but He has given us incredible status.

PEACE – we have peace. We are no longer at war. There is no longer wrath, no longer fear, no longer hesitation when it comes to God. Peace with God is not something that you purchase later on after years of suffering. It comes immediately to every saved sinner. We are friends. As verse 11 shows, we are, as a declaration of God, RECONCILED! God said that I am reconciled to Him. God says that I have peace. So it doesn’t matter how I feel. I can base my feelings and subjective considerations on the facts. I am reconciled; I have peace – with God!

ACCESS – "also we have access" – The word "access" is the word "introduction," and means to "bring someone in." We have been introduced; we have been brought in – to the family of God.

What is it like to have ACCESS? Do you remember when you were first introduced to your wife’s or husband’s family? You walked into their room, they said, "hi," but you knew that you were not a part of that bunch. But as you got to know them better, you became a part of their lives and vice versa. As a result, you now have access to that family. You are no longer a stranger. You can open their refrigerator and cook your own meal on their stove, and eat the apples even the donuts sitting on the counter top without asking permission. The same is true in God’s family. We have access because we have been introduced through our Lord Jesus Christ. Picture Christ bringing us into the heavenly dining room where God and His family are eating, and introducing us as a new member of the family.

This is why we can rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Do you know where we are headed? This family is headed for GLORY, not just Disney world! The presence of God, the diner table with the Father and Son and Holy Spirit and millions of blood bought saints. What an incredible time that will be. The whole Christian life is a life of anticipation – looking forward to glory.

How different the picture in these two verses when compared with the mainstream of religious life. When you ask a person if he or she is going to heaven, has peace with God, and access into His presence, the answer normally is, "I hope so." There’s no reticence here. Paul knows, and speaks as if we can know that we have been justified, and consequently know that we have peace, and access, and a future participation in the Glory of God Himself.

How often do you whisper a "thank you" to God in appreciation for the status He has given you?

II. Justification brings EXCITEMENT (3-5). 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

AND NOT ONLY THAT, BUT WE ALSO GLORY! verse 3 says. Verse 2 ended with "We rejoice in hope of the glory of God." If I am in the family, THE family, that belongs to the King of Kings and the Lord of lords, the creator, the Great I Am, and I have access to the dining room and the dinner table, and the refrigerator, and because of that, look forward to the future of participating in all the amazing activities of this family, even partaking in some way of God’s own glory in the future, these facts should set me off, should turn me on, should motivate me to various stages of glory, excitement, joy, delight, enthusiasm for life, because of everything we have and everything prepared for our future.

Notice the words "glory" and "hope" floating around here. Where is Paul going with these words? He is not talking about the kind of hope we speak of today. "I hope it doesn’t rain." "I hope it soon warms up." "I hope it doesn’t get too warm." This is almost the word, "confidence." It’s talking about a reaction of confidence toward a situation over which I don’t possess control. Hope is the way we respond to future events, or to the future actions of people, or to what God might do in the future.

We have good friends who came to see us this past week. They wanted to visit the Pentagon, and as far as I knew, one couldn’t wander around the Pentagon any more, guided tours are required. So I called Col. Huggler from our Praise and Worship team, and asked her if she could do anything. She graciously agreed to giving them a tour. Now what do you think that I did next? Do you think I gave instructions to the colonel and said, "now let me tell you what to do?" "I want her to see this, this, and this, and I want you to make sure she visits the room where the 9/11 plane hit, and don’t let her miss such and such." Why would I not do that? Because of my hope in Col. Huggler. She is totally competent. She will do what is best. My hope in her is a confidence in her ability to deal with future issues – namely a Pentagon tour. And what do I say to my missionary friend? "Well, I have someone lined up to give you a tour, but I don’t know how it will turn out?" No, I said to my friend Wednesday night, "you are going to have a great tour, you and your kids are going to have an exciting experience." I was actually excited for her. And she was excited as she looked forward to the next day.

The same is true with God. My "hope" in Him is a confidence in His ability to deal with the future – namely MY CIRCUMSTANCES. Can He be trusted? Can He not be trusted? My response reveals my hope.

If He can be trusted, if I know, am confident that He is going to do in my life as good a job as Col. Huggler will do at the Pentagon, I should be able to say, "I will have a great time. This will be a wonderful trip." Do you ever live that way? Do you ever view your future as an amazingly blessed tour that is guided every step of the way by the creative Genius of the Universe? That’s where Paul is living. That’s why he is rejoicing in hope and glorying in suffering.

Where do you live? It’s possible to say, "well, it looks pretty bad today." "I’m not too sure about the future. Plus I have failed a couple of times, and when I add in my guilt and the fact that I deserve punishment, I begin to wonder what I am going to get on today’s trip. And it is raining. I hate rain, and God knows it." Think as to what that kind of response says about your understanding of the character of God. Hope means a confidence in Him, a confidence that all of this is working out to the glory fo God, that it is going to be spectacular, and that you are going to be thrilled with what He does. Hope says that you can know and experience the joy AHEAD OF TIME!

But where is this trail leading? Where do circumstances go? Verses 3-5 start with a threatening word, DIFFICULTIES, TRIBULATIONS. Most people stop right there and say, "I don’t want it. Give me a different trail." But hear Him out. The fact that it starts with difficulties tells us what kind of Glory God has in mind for our future. He doesn’t intend that we only watch the action from the stands. He wants us on the playing field as participants. He wants us to share His glory because we have been changed into His likeness. He wants us to become like Him so that we can totally enjoy His glory from His point of view – as HOLY ONES. Thus He is taking us down a road that is going to prepare us for ultimate in glory, the kind of glory that only God Himself can participate in and enjoy. He wants us to experience everything He is experiencing!!!

And it starts with Tribulations – The trail STARTS with "tribulations." At its root, this word means, "pressure." It describes the kind of pressure that is strong enough to elicit an emotional response; the pressure that bothers us, frustrates us, discourages us, makes us angry. And we are rejoicing not "in" the tribulation, but "because of" the tribulation. It is the purpose of the pain that is so positive. We glory in the realization that God views us as important enough to take special pains with us.

The reason why the trail starts with pressures is because pressure "produces." It’s hard to imagine that pressures do anything but bother us and push us down. But here the statement is that tribulation possesses energy. It accomplishes something. And, strangely enough, it accomplishes something that virtually nothing else can accomplish – patience, endurance. Where do you get patience? Is it available on the internet? Variety stores? No, only in one location – through the inner workings of tribulation. And you thought that all that pain was being wasted on you! It would have been wasted, except for the fact that you are His child, and your Father knows how to use tribulation for good.

The word "produces" describes an energy that is effective action, that always accomplishes the desired result. The word produces is even used for "create." Tribulations can create what nothing else can create. And what is the desired outcome? Perseverance. Perseverance is endurance, ability to stay under and keep working when it gets hot and when the pressure increases. How do you develop people who learn to keep trusting God and obeying when things get bad? By INCREASING THE PRESSURE! How do you refine gold? By laying it out on a beach? By putting it in the refrigerator? No. Only one way; increase the pressure and temperature!

Alexander Maclaren has said that every affliction comes with a message from the heart of God. Watchman Nee said that we never learn anything new about God except by adversity. David stated, "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes" (Psalm 119:67, 71). What Paul is saying is that pressure from any cause is designed to work for our benefit. This means that when you are under heavy pressure, and feel miserable, and wonder if it will ever end, you should quit crying and mourning, with self-pity, and depression. Instead turn to God who knows how to transform the pressure into perseverance and character and hope.

Instead of running or feeling depressed, there is something to cherish in your sufferings. This is not a waste of time. Your pressures are the best thing for you. They come from the One who loves you, who knows what you need, who has created you for something great. And He has chained together perseverance and character. Endurance brings growth. And then He has also chained character with hope. All of this is what makes the Christian life worthwhile, exciting, joyous, happy, profitable.

The bottom line is "if pressures will push me closer to God and make me grow up in Christ, LET’S HAVE MORE OF THEM!

III. Justification brings LOVE (6-8). For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Paul ends verse 5 by talking about a "hope doesn’t disappoint us, doesn’t put us to shame." What is it that gives us hope? Where is the hope in a tribulation? How can a person be so positive when they are laying in bed with terminal cancer? Answer? The LOVE OF GOD for us.

God’s love has been poured out on us, verse 5 says. "Poured out" speaks of quantity." We didn’t get drips of love; we received a stream, a river of love lavished all over us. "In our hearts" means "in every part of our hearts," "throughout our hearts." God’s love has saturated us through the Holy Spirit. It pictures the richest of experiences. This is total love, like the woman in John 12 pouring her expensive ointment on Christ’s feet. And verse eight shows us when and how this ointment was poured out on our feet. "God demonstrates His OWN love toward us. . . while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Here’s the source of our hope – the display of God’s love. While we were yet sinners, angry or indifferent to anything spiritual, God knelt at our feet and poured out His most expensive gift, His only Son to die for our needs.

The ground of our assurance, the basis of our hope arises from this incredible, free love of God. It arises out of the facts of the cross. It arises out of the timing of the cross. When did Christ come and die on the cross? Verse six answers, "when we were still without strength," when we were so helpless we were only a drag and burden. Verse eight answers, "while we were still sinners," shaking our little fists in His face. THAT’S when God moved to pour out His precious ointment on us.

Don’t those facts do something to you? They are so encouraging. The answer to your down feelings, and questions for the future is, "look at the cross!" If your look at yourself, you won’t find hope; if you look at your circumstances you will be disappointed. Look at the cross!

I got a letter last week that said in part, "and then there is guilt – what many see as the central pillar of the Christian Faith – guilt at everything I am not, guilt at everything I am (which turns out to be nothing, a waste of a life with a black heart full of hate) and there is the yawning drain into which all energy and every word must eventually fall, bouncing into oblivion. . ." Do you ever feel that way? What keeps us from living a life of guilt, guilt and more guilt? Because we are bad. When you are honest with yourself, you know that thoughts come into your head that aren’t holy, and intentions arise that are sinful, and actions come out that insult God. So, why should I not just live in guilt, guilt? Because of the cross! Christ loved me and came to die for me, to rescue me when I was in the middle of guilt, guilt, of the worst kind.

Verse seven shows that normal people would have no interest in sacrificing their lives, even for someone special. God’s love is unparalleled. No one has ever seen that kind of love. Christ died for people that were so bad that there was nothing in them that would in any way attract Him or make Him say, "here’s what I will get out of this." There was nothing to get out of this for Him. He gave Himself for worthless sinners.

As a result, verse eight states that the cross has become the permanent "demonstration" of the love of God. The word "demonstrates" shows that God intends to make it large and plain, conspicuous, put it on a billboard so that everyone can see His love. "Christ died for us" at a point in time. But God "demonstrates" all the time. The cross of Jesus Christ is a continuous advertisement of the Love of God. Picture a billboard out there and on the billboard is not a picture, but the actual replay of the death of Christ. Over the top of that actual replay is the statement: "why do you question my love for you?" Wherever you go, whatever you do, however you respond or don’t respond to His love; God loves you, present tense, right now. And the proof was signed in blood on a rugged hill 2000 years ago. How do you know that all the pressures in your life are going to work for good? Because the One who brings them loves you enough to die for you.

This understanding is of primary importance in our lives. If God doesn’t love us, there isn’t much hope in life. If God does love us, life’s challenges and problems seem much smaller. We have the testimony today of one of our members who came to a new understanding a few weeks ago of the tremendous unconditional love of God. He loves her as she is. Not, "He will love her if she will straighten out her life." But He loves her now. She had been saved for more than 30 years, and yet it was almost as if a new day dawned in her life just because of a recognition of God’s love for her. His love is amazing – and life changing!

This realization is so important in life. Does your heavenly Father love you? Is He seeking your best? Or is He impatient with your mistakes? Is He standing up there with His holy hands on His hips wondering about you, when you are going to shape up and get on the ball? I was reading the testimony this week of a man who was kicked out of a church, and because of that experience wondered if God really loved him at all. He said this: "I was shown the door at this church and left with a hand full of sand for relationships, and wondered if I'd just wasted fifteen years of my life or so along with a lot of energy, grief, and oh yes money. I had quite a struggle frankly, saying I trusted Jesus, for a time the name stuck in my throat. I wondered how He could have allowed me to waste all those years, I wondered after all the indoctrination if Jesus even liked me. A noted Christian author has observed, and wisely so Spiritual Formation is a messy business. Ultimately I've found my purpose in life is to cultivate a relationship with the Father which grace allows me to engage in on a heart level, honestly." Do you realize how much God loves you? Look at the cross. "Alas and did my Savior bleed, and did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that Sacred Head, for such a worm as I?" The answer in these verses is, "absolutely!!!"

At this point Paul moves from the past to the future. If in the past Christ died for us when we were a mess, what can we expect in the future now that we are His children? Answer? "much more" (9, 10). God wants the truth of what we have seen in the past to change the way we respond to the future. God wants the demonstration of His love for us to change our outlook on what’s coming. We don’t know what is coming. We don’t have control over our future. But the One with total control of the future loves us. He has justified us; He has reconciled us; we are His friends; we are His children; we are His special projects. What can we expect? Answer? GOOD STUFF ALL THE WAY UP! If He died for us when we were His enemies to save us from His wrath, don’t you think He intends to finish the project? What does that mean? It means that "much more then, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." We aren’t going to face wrath, no matter how badly we want to! We are set up for the blessing of God.

"Wait a minute," you say. Back in verse three God promised us TRIBULATION. Now he says, "no wrath." How does that fit? The two words speak of two different experiences. The purposes are different. Wrath is what hurts and judges you. Tribulation may hurt, but it is designed to help you, strengthen you so you can share in God’s glory.

All of this should lead us to REJOICING! The "we shall be saved" is future tense. But the rejoicing is right now. Even though we don’t see the future, we can be sure of what it will be like. What did God do for us in the past? The future will be MUCH MORE of the same! That’s why we can live in continual REJOICING! And the rejoicing is a Christmas type of rejoicing; the kind you experienced as a kid as you opened your gifts, and saw that you were getting more than you ever asked for. Our rejoicing comes through Christ through whom we have already received the gift of reconciliation with God. The gift that we have received in Christ is stupendous, amazing, unbelievable, spectacular. That gift is grounds for never-ending excitement, joy, and praise. Are you happy? If not, this passage would say to you, "you don’t know what you have in Christ. You are living in ignorance. That’s why you are not happy." Our worship services ought to be bursting with rejoicing and joy and excitement. Chills ought to be running up and down your spine as you repeat some of the facts of history that have made such a change in your position before God.

There is nothing worse then apathetic Christians. The phrase is actually an oxymoron. If they are apathetic are they Christians? How can Christians be apathetic???? Only one way: through their stupidity and ignorance.

You should not be living in guilt, guilt. You should not be living in pain, pain, in frustration, frustration, under the cloud of circumstances, pressed down by coming events, fearful of impending doom. You are loved by God Himself, love so great that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And that love of God has not only provided your salvation (justification), but EVERYTHING ELSE! Because everything else is less difficult than paying the ransom for sin by death on a cross. The rest is taken care of by His LIFE! And the road we are taking is not into a deep dark hole, but ever increasing glory, because the One leading us is the One who loves us!

J. I. Packer said: "what matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it – that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because He first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when His eye is off me, or His attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore when His care falters. This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort . . . in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion Him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench His determination to bless me" (Quoted from OTOT, 236).

Amen!

04/24/05, BBC am