Justification by Faith

“Your sins are forgiven.” These are words that Jesus frequently used in his earthly ministry to a paralyzed man, a sinful woman, and even those who were crucifying him. Paul grasped these words and the significance of what it meant to be in right relationship with God through Jesus. His “Damascus Road” experience from Acts 9 tells us of the dramatic events in Paul’s life that turned him from an enemy of Christ to the apostle to the Gentiles.

In Romans 5, Paul outlines what life as a person who has been forgiven and reconciled is like. He shows us the benefits of justification by faith. We are given a new perspective on life that leads us to peace, joy and hope even in the face of difficult circumstances. Because we have been justified through faith, we are also shown the great love of God that even though were were his enemies in our sin he loves us so much that at exactly the right time, Jesus enters into human history to bring salvation to all those who believe.

God’s forgiveness results from nothing else than God’s great mercy and our feeble faith. So today, we are going to explore what God is doing through Christ to bring us forgiveness and reconciliation.

1. The divine act of grace calls us to faith. (vs. 1-2)

Over the past few weeks, we have outlined that grace is passive. That is, grace is more than just something God does in forgiving us of our sins and giving us mercy for the fate that we all deserve - death. Grace is an active gift that is given to us when we trust and believe in Christ. It is grace that defends us from the power of sin and promotes us to a right relationship with God.

Paul introduces the effects of grace not just for the Christian but everyone - believer and unbeliever. He has established that there is a prevenient grace active in the life of every person. It is grace that calls us to faith in Christ. Faith doesn’t just switch grace on. Grace makes hope possible in one’s life. As a new creation in Christ, faith is more than an operating principle. It is the defining principle. It is grace that calls us to do what is right in the sight of God. It is grace that defends us from sin. We are now sustained by God’s grace through faith. It is the default position of the Christian that trusts in Christ.

Because we have been justified and made right with God through faith, we have peace with him. We are no longer enemies with God. We have this peace because we can stand secure in our salvation through faith in Christ. The writer of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Faith provides us entrance into the presence of our Heavenly Father.

It is told of Martin Luther after his dramatic conversion that he often felt plagued by doubts and assaults on his spiritual life. One of the ways that he overcame these times of fear and doubt was to find a secluded place and verbally address Satan and his demonic forces with these words: “Satan, leave me, I am baptized!”

If we listen to those attacks by Satan to discourage us and tell us we are not good enough to be loved by God, we will find ourselves on shaky ground. Critics will always want to point out our spiritual flaws and question whether or not we are really Christians. There are also the self-doubts that creep into our thoughts. Satan will do whatever he can to discourage us and keep us from being strengthened by the Lord.

In those moments, we must remember that by faith we trust God in our salvation, and he has credited that faith to us as righteousness just like he did Abraham. We have to remember that this work is his not ours. However, this does not give us free licence to do whatever we want. That we get our “fire insurance card” and move on with life. We must continually access this grace by faith in Christ. Even though we may fail and sin, we are secure in Christ through faith in him. Luther returned to his baptism in times of temptation, not because the act saved him, but because of what was underlying that baptism - the bold statements of “I believe...” of the Apostles’ Creed which is a baptismal creed. The believer’s ongoing faith in “God Almighty…and in Jesus Christ, His Son…and in the Holy Spirit…the forgiveness of sins…the resurrection of the body…and the life everlasting.” This gives access to divine grace and security for the believer.

2. Our new standing in Christ allows us to rejoice in our suffering. (vs. 3-5)

Paul ends verse 2 by declaring that we rejoice in God’s glory and leads into verse 3 by saying that we also rejoice in our sufferings. For Paul, these two are connected - glory and suffering. Rejoicing in the hope of glory or in our sufferings is not an emotional endeavor. Rather, it is our position in life by grace through faith in Christ. It is the distinction that our lives are not wrapped up in the circumstances of the moment. Glory describes the splendor and brilliance of the character of God. Glory is his nature. We read all throughout the Old and New Testaments about God’s glory being revealed. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, it says, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” This word from Paul draws us into the future with joy because of God’s glory.

That is why when he begins to speak about suffering leading eventually to hope as God’s love is poured out in us it is an inbreaking of God’s glorious kingdom as we participate in the new reality that is found in being justified and sanctified in Christ. God’s glory breaks into human history through us and his church in the everyday world.

Rejoicing in glory is tempered by the realities of the world around us. When Paul writes to the Roman church, they were facing hardships on behalf of the government and a fallen world, but they also faced hostile opposition from Satan. Jesus tells his disciples in John 16:33 “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.””

Paul’s reaction to all of this was not unlike Jesus’. He told his readers that they were called to rejoice in their sufferings. Paul dares to believe that even the stresses of life can be used by God to bring about his glory. He says in Philippians 4:4-6, “4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

Paul’s call to the Roman church and to us is different from the attitude of “health and wealth” we often get today. This false gospel claims success, happiness, and ease for those who have “real” faith in God. Paul rejected such teaching as simplistic understandings of the Christian life. We do not have to escape stresses of life to experience true joy. The person of faith can discover joy because he or she stands in right relationship with God and knows that circumstances change but God is everlasting.

This is why we hope, and this hope does not disappoint. We rejoice because we are confident that God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Only a person of faith can look at the sufferings of life and see God’s love being poured out into such a stressful circumstance. One can soar from suffering to the love of God, as long as that person sees with eyes of faith and hope.

Paul is outlining for us in these lyrical verses the benefits that result from God’s sovereign act of justification. God’s poured-out love has provided for us access to grace, right standing with God, reconciliation and peace with God. That is reason enough to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God!

3. God’s love is shown to us through Christ’s death. (vs. 6-11)

One of the central tenets of the Christian faith is that Christ died the death that we deserved so that we might have life in him. This means that Jesus’ coming had a specific purpose. Christ dying for us while we were sinners is an attribute of God’s love for us. 1 John 4:9 says, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” The power behind God’s grace is the love that he has shown us through Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross.

So when Paul says in verse 8 that Christ died “for us,” it suggests that we as sinners were doomed to death, and that through Christ’s action on the cross we are given life. Most scholars believe that since Paul uses legal terms like condemnation, judgment, and justification, the situation that Paul is describing is a kind of spiritual “death row.” Because of our offenses against the law of God, all human beings stand under the sentence of death. Our death is the right payment for our disobedience to God. That is what is said to Adam and Eve in the Garden, “if you eat of this tree, on that day you shall surely die.” On that day, they died spiritually. Our sentence for disobedience is to be born spiritual dead through original sin.

God takes the first step in our salvation. At exactly the right time, Jesus stepped into human history to bring about God’s plan to the world. When we talk about the timing of it, we have to understand our view and time and God’s view of time. Our view of time operates primarily in what we call “chronos” or chronological time. This is our view that time moves in a linear pattern so that there is always a past, present, and future. For God, time is seen in “kairos.” Time is all-encompassing. There is no past or future. It is just now. That is why God’s name when Moses asks for it at the burning bush is “I AM WHO I AM.” God just is. So that means that while we are waiting and looking at our watch for God to do something, God acts according to his purposes at exactly the right time in order to bring about his glory and purpose.

At the time of Jesus’ coming, we were still powerless and sinners. We were enemies of God, not because of his lack of love for us but because of our lack of love for him. In these words, Paul strips away any notion that salvation is a reward or divine response for something that we have done. We respond to what Jesus has already accomplished for us.

Since we were enemies of God, we deserved his wrath, but instead, we received grace. Paul says in Romans 5:10 “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.” The benefit of having been justified in Christ that there is much more peace, joy, and hope can we receive in our life in Christ. We have been reconciled to him. Our relationship has been made right. We can be in the presence of God. God does not hold any anger. This peace that is given to us will not be broken by God. Since God has done this work of reconciliation for us, how much more will God do in accomplishing his purposes for our lives?

At the exact time, God through Jesus entered into human history for the purpose of showing us the kingdom of God and allowing all who believe to be a part of this kingdom through faith in Christ. It is by faith we are justified and reconciled to God. It is by faith in God and placing our trust in him that we can have a new life. The justification for all of those who believe has been declared. Sin has been defeated, and we can walk in new life. This is a life of joy, hope, and peace. It is a life that is not based on circumstances but on the reality of God’s grace. We live in God’s reality as justified and reconciled people.