ROMANS 5 Verse 1-2  We Have Peace with God

 

    

 

  

^{Ro 5:1} Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ^{Ro 5:2} through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

  

 

The Justification is now a given- as a result of all we have already learned.

  

 

What Have We Learned?

 

 

^{Ro 3:21} But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 

^{Ro 3:22} This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,  

^{Ro 3:23} for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  

^{Ro 3:24} and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

 

 

 This justification gives us three things.

 

 

 1. PEACE WITH…

  This Justification gives us Peace with God- I want to dwell on this peace with God

   

 

 

 This peace is the answer to or the opposite to the wrath of God.  It describes a reconciliation between man and God

  We saw before in Romans 1: 18 that the wrath of God was revealed when man chose to live his life as if God did not exist, in spite of the evidence to substantiate His role in nature.   

   

Even if we were to accept that the evidence was not overwhelming (which I don’t!!), man still chooses to live outside of any moral framework. He chose to leave the loving friendship of a relationship with God

   

This makes Him subject to the wrath of God.

  

^{Ro 1:18} The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ^{Ro 1:19} since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.^{Ro 1:20} For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

  

 This peace with God is achieved by what Jesus has done for us on the cross. We are Justified by Him, and the wrath of God is turned away from us.

  

There is a difference to note here too this is not the peace of God, but rather peace with God.  We can speak of the peace of God as something that we can pray for another and as a result see healing see power, see change.  

  

But Paul’s description of Peace with God reminds me of the parable of the Prodigal.  This image of the son reconciled to the father.  There is something I want to stress here and will return to – and that is the mutual nature of that reconciliation It is something shared God feels it too. Yes in some mysterious way I believe that God shares that sense of completion and fulfillment when each one of us is reconciled back to God.

   

There is too that wonderful image of the father running to meet his son the words whilst he was still far off…

   

Filled with compassion for him…

   

^{Lk 15:11}

Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 

 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.

 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.  So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.

He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!  I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ 

 

  

So he got up and went to his father.

 

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

 

“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

   

The Father was filled with Filled with compassion for him Shared Passion for unity

  

 

 The Gestalt with God

 We have peace with God.  We are restored to friendship. I like to think of this as a completed whole the resolution of our lives.

 

In our lives we have tiny copies of that same sense of completion

  

• Musically it would be like the completed interrupted Cadence.

   

• The maths formula completed,

   

• the finished Sudoku.

   

• The last jigsaw piece.  

  
  We need to note here the role that Jesus plays so wonderfully in this.  Whereas the prodigal goes alone to his father with no expectations but servanthood. We go in faith and hope of something more, accompanied by Jesus. We enter the presence of God using Jesus as our sponsor our guide. 
   

   

And we gain peace with God

  

I have spoken of Peace before as a part of our lives that we need to explore. Peace is that place of wholeness, completion That Hebrew concept of Shalom.  A place when we feel completely in need of nothing more than God’s presence.

  

Lesson Number 1 from Paul

 We have Peace  because it is ours, We need to practice peace. Practice being with

 

Quality time with God. 

 

Not car time

or bedtime

or before work time

or Sunday

or meeting-

 

Devoted, unrestricted uncounted out lavished time.

 

Tape what you want to watch,

Pay what you need to pay,

Do what you can to sleep well the night before,

Settle what you need to settle and

stop.

 If you are married or have family commitments ask your family to give you an afternoon and go somewhere you will not be disturbed,

turn the mobile off.

 

 

 Don’t do that thing of expectation. If you get distracted laugh about it and focus afresh, use the word read it aloud or worship in song.

 

The aim is not an agenda of change, but to be with   

  

Matthew Henry         

 It is sin that breeds the quarrel between us and God, creates not only a strangeness, but an enmity; the holy righteous God cannot in honour be at peace with a sinner while he continues under the guilt of sin. Justification takes away the guilt, and so makes way for peace. And such are the benignity and good-will of God to man that, immediately upon the removing of that obstacle, the peace is made. By faith we lay hold of God’s arm and of his strength, and so are at peace, Isa. 27:4, 5. There is more in this peace than barely a cessation of enmity, there is friendship and loving-kindness, for God is either the worst enemy or the best friend. Abraham, being justified by faith, was called the friend of God (Jas. 2:23), which was his honour, but not his peculiar honour: Christ has called his disciples friends, John 15:13-15. And surely a man needs no more to make him happy than to have God his friend! But this is through our Lord Jesus Christ—through him as the great peace-maker, the Mediator between God and man.   

   

2. ACCESS INTO…

 ^{Ro 5:1} Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ^{Ro 5:2} through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

 

 

 Second, this justification gives us ‘Access into this grace in which we now stand’-  Some commentators view this access as being like the access gained by priests into the Holy of Holies.

   

Others describe the word used here as meaning that we are introduced to a person of incredible importance.

   

In Ephesians 2 and Hebrews 10 we see a wonderful elaboration on these very same points, but we need to be careful because the words in Romans do not say Access to God or the throne or His presence, NO its speaks instead of the access the right we have gained to grace in which we stand.

  

^{Eph 2:1} As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,  in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)—

  

 

 

^{Eph 2:12} remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

^{Eph 2:13} But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.  

^{Eph 2:14} For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,  

^{Eph 2:15} by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace,

 ^{Eph 2:16} and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.  

 

  

^{Eph 2:17} He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

 ^{Eph 2:18} For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

 ^{Eph 2:19} Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household,

 ^{Eph 2:20} built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

 ^{Eph 2:21} In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.

 ^{Eph 2:22} And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

  

^{Heb 10:19} Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the

Most Holy Place   by the blood of Jesus,

 by the blood of Jesus,

 

^{Heb 10:20} by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

 

 I have been given the passport of Grace. Because Jesus takes us by the hand and presents us we can stand secure in the Grace of God.

   

When I was a young Christian I provoked friends with the question –‘What is Grace?’ and refused all answers.  I have since decided that I was refusing to accept my passport into grace. 

  

I don’t deserve to be here, but Jesus achieves for me access to the

  

• Undeserved,

   

• Unrestrained,

   

• Unquenchable, 

 

 LOVE OF GOD

  

 

 

Why does Paul say the Grace in which I stand?

  

 

 

I believe this is because we occupy the position of Grace against screams of opposition – Who are you to deserve His love? 

  

 

 

Most of those screams come from within!

 

 

 

But I was reminded of another place Paul uses the expression Stand- When he talks of the armour of God. We defend our position of Grace. Paul here in Romans us declaring our right to stand in it and in Ephesians 6, giving us weapons to hold that ground having occupied it.

  

 

 

The concept of access to such grace would be of great significance to the Jewish Romans.  Their access to the Holy, had, since the covenants had been established, only been possible once per year by one man- the high priest. Paul was speaking of Instant unrestricted Access.  And that is what we know.

 

 

 

Lesson 2 from Paul.

 

Everyone has a passport to Grace

Look at your passport to Grace.

•  Accept it as yours
  
• Who’s name is on it?

   

• What is the expiry date upon it?

   

• What exclusions are there on it?

   

• Is it fake or is it real? 

   

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. HOPE OF ….

 Third, this justification makes us rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

 

 

 

 

 

^{Ro 5:1} Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ^{Ro 5:2} through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

  

 

 

^{1Pe 2:9} But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

 
^{1Pe 2:10} Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

 

 

 

 

 

Contrast of Hopelessness to Hope The Brotherhood of Faith & Hope

  

 

 

I have met few people who admitted to having no hope but it is a sorry state to be in. 

 

 

 

The word for hope in the NT carries a great deal more certainty about it than the English word Hope does.  ‘We hope that our letter arrives’ carries with it a level of uncertainty

 

 

 

Faith and hope are partners in the word of God harnessed together to bring about the Glory of God.  They are inseparable.  Hope in God has faith wrapped up and intertwined within it. 

  

 

 

Paul speaks of the Glory of God for which He hopes.  (Sure and certain Hope).

 
What is this Glory?

 

 

 

 

 

‘For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,

as the waters cover the sea.’  Habbakuk 2:14

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Glory of the Lord in the OT was clearly the presence of God as demonstrated in the Temple and Tabernacle.

 

 

 

The Glory of the Lord filled the temple so that the priests could not enter.

 

 

 

His presence is a glorious presence

^{Phil 3:21} who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

 

 

 

 

 

I do not believe Paul is referring just to the presence of God in the earth, but rather it is the promise that God will in His plan and timing achieve His purpose to extend His Kingdom Rule into every part of His creation.  It is a promise to see our families those around us challenged by His word.  It is also a challenge to us to be a part of this promise.

 

 

 

Lesson 3 from Paul.

 

 

 

We have seen three ways in which being made right with God gives us promises of

• Peace with God
  
• Access to His grace

   

• A hope in a glorious future. 
  
  Make a list of other present blessings you enjoy on a daily basis.

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