Peace with God
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
This morning we are going to begin with the reading of the Text for this morning’s message. A couple Sunday’s ago while I was away, I was able to sit in another church and take in their process. One thing that stood out to me was the way in which they read the text.
This morning in our series of working our way through Romans, we are going to be reading the entire chapter, but for the most part, we will not be necessarily working through the entire text this morning.
Turn with me to the fifth chapter of Romans and follow along as we read this week’s passage.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 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.
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5 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.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
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.
11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.
17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let’s Pray
Peace With God
Peace With God
How are you doing this morning, are you at peace with God.
Or maybe you came this morning seeking the peace of God for your life. It’s been messy and tangled and you have come wanting to have that peace.
This morning, as we look through the text written to Us, I hope that you will find the peace that God so freely offers each one of us as we come to Him.
What really is the peace that Paul is talking about?
One person wrote,
The book of Romans begins with Paul beginning a lengthy exposition of the reality of the wrath of God, anger that is directed against sinful people, who refused to honor him as God, who refused to manifest gratitude to him, and whose basic penchant is to exchange the truth of God for a lie and to engage in idolatry by serving and worshipping the creature rather than creator. When God looks at idolatry, he is not at peace; He is at war with us. We might be so hard and in our hearts, so stiff in our necks, that we think, “surely God could not be at war with us.”- RC. Sproul- Romans
As I began to read over the text and re read over the text, themes began to emerge for us this morning.
If fact if you came here this morning feeling a little down, pushed by all the struggles that happened to you this week, this passage this morning is one for you once understood, it will give you great reasons to rejoice.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore,
Paul has just spent the last four chapters of his book outlining to the people reading of our standing before a holy God.
If you try to stand on your own merit, you quite honestly don’t stand a chance.
You can’t even come close enough to see what is going on
But Paul says therefore.
If you have accepted this morning God free gift of salvation.
If you have come to know God and what He has done for each one of us
Sending Son, Jesus Christ who came to this world, left Heaven, took on the form of us, His creation, so that He, the good news can go to the cross, die, be buried, rise again, triumph over Death,
He Defeat the work of Satan on the cross, so those who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
and with that Paul says,
Therefore.
Because of all of what God had done for you there are three things we see,
When you accept God, there are three benefits of the process.
Justification by God
Justification by God
First you are justified.
The other Sunday, we talked about speeding on the hwy and what speed over the speed limit are you guilty.
Well, going just 1 km per hour, you are a law breaker.
You could, if they choose, you could receive a ticket.
Imagine this scene
After getting a ticket for going 1 km over the speed limit?
You decide to fight the charge and stand before a judge,
As you are standing waiting for your turn to stand before the judge, another person appears and is his turn.
He was there on a charge of travelling 100 km down Coldwater ave and was caught just at the highschool around 3:00 as all the students were leaving the school.
He started at the city yard, a few blocks from my house and by the time he had reached my house he was at 100 km per hour, by the way, a few doors down from me there is a sign posted for a school zone of 30 KM during school hours.
I would be outraged,
I would be shocked.
I would be cheering the judge on to give him the hardest penalty that he could by the law for the reckless behaviour and risking the lives of the students who would be out walking across the road.
Imagine the scene,
The judge looks at the man and says you are guilty, but before I render my judgement, I want to deal with this next guy and looks at you.
He looks at your speed ticket and say, oh a 1 km over the speed limit.
You are guilty.
Then the judge says, this is the punishment for the both of you. You are both guilty of breaking the law, the punishment is the same.
What would you do? How would you feel?
Paul told us in the previous chapters that All are guilty before God.
If we stand in front of a holy God on our merit, the Judge would pronounce judgement,
Christ then stand up and says, I will stand in their place.
I will take all the wrath or penalty of their sin on me.
He stands in the place of us wanting to justify the wrath held against us, should be ours, but it won’t be.
When We accept what Christ has done for us, Paul states we are Justified.
The greek word and definition in this passages
DIKAIOO (De kay oh)
To become judicially vindicated as have complied with the requirements of the Law of God.
This justification is a verb in a tense called Aorist form. Showing an ongoing, yet pointing to a time.
A snapshot of the event as a whole
We are justified, we have been vindicated, charges removed, When we step out in Faith of what God has done for us.
Christ stands in the gap and His work on the Cross, The gospel or Good news is that he had done if for all and when we by faith accept this we are Justified.
Back to the court, there stands you, guilty beside the other who you would feel is more guilty, and the Judge,
looks at the redeemer of you and says, the charges have been paid in full.
You both are free.
The guilt is the same, but so is the payment.
Both are free.
You have just been Justified by the actions of the third person in this courtroom.
Here is what changes.
The Judge that once held the gavel to present judgement, Calls you forward, and welcomes you into his chambers as a long lost close and intimate friend.
I am at peace with you.
The first is that we are justified, being justified, so that we can have peace with God.
The Holy and almighty powerful God, is now your closest and dearest friend because of your faith in Christ and only through Christ.
Without Christ work in your life, you are guilty, but with Christ and faith in Christ your are right with God.
and with that, you will have Peace with God.
Paul moves on
Romans 5:2 (ESV)
2 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.
Entrance into Grace
Entrance into Grace
The second benefit is that we are no longer at war with God, but we enter into His Grace
What does Grace mean to you?
In a different ministry, we ran a summer urban camping ministry where we had children come from various faith backgrounds.
At lunch, we made it a habit to pray for the food we ate at lunch. We would tell them we are having Grace.
Many never knew the term and we would say it is a way of thanking God for His provisions.
Grace.
This is not the Grace Paul is referring to in this passage.
Before we can truly understand grace, we need to understand the process into grace.
Obtained access.
Have you ever been a part of a large event and you were given access to go to various places.
The other week, Kamloops held the curling tournament, and you could see the various coaches and players when they were not curling were given lanyards with their credentials hanging on the lanyard.
That was their access to the event, the changerooms, the meal rooms and depending on the credentials, they had access to various parts of the venue.
As a believer of Christ, when you give you life over to Him, it is like you carry a lanyard with the Words,
A Child of God, entrance to God’s loving Grace
Access to stand before an almighty God who has Justified us,
Who had given me peace with Him
Grace
Grace
You see for the Jews listening to these words, they completely understood the entrance theme.
They had been raised that only a few would have access into the holy of holy in the temple.
They realized the Holiness of God and feared what would happen to them standing before Him.
Paul is now telling them, they can stand in front of God because of the work of Christ.
The Roman believers also knew what this Entrance meant to them.
They had served a King, a king with limited access. Only those whom the King would summon would enter.
Folks, When you give your life to God, He doesn’t summon you as a way to punish you, but calls you into His presence as a Child coming to their father.
That is why Paul says rejoice.
Rejoice that you have an entrance into the Greatest relationship one can have.
A relationship with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords,
The one that created you and will sustain you.
Look at the following verses
18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.
We rejoice because we can enter with boldness
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
This is much to rejoice over, but Paul mentions another type of rejoicing.
Many have preached that when you come to Christ, all you troubles will be gone.
With God on your side, nothing will happen to you and prosperity will fill your life,
But look at Paul’s words.
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
We are to rejoice not in the fact that troubles or sufferings are a part of our lives, but we rejoice knowing that the outcomes of those trouble will be a life filled with Character and hope in the one who sustains us.
Christ’s Finished Work (5:6-8)
Christ’s Finished Work (5:6-8)
The next section is about the finished work of Christ.
One person commented and said,
The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 29: Romans (Rejoice in Your Spiritual Possessions)
The love of God is shown in sharp contrast to man’s love by the reminder that mankind is very reticent to lay down its life even for good causes and law-abiding people, but God’s Son accepted the death of the Cross for those who are totally unworthy. Paul uses strong words to describe those whom God loves and for whom Christ died. Three of the words express the deficiencies of human beings; we are “without strength,” “ungodly,” and “sinners.” We lack the power to live as we ought even though we may have the power to live as we wish because our standards are so low. We lack the attitude of reverence and holy awe which a correct understanding of God’s person requires and demands, and we lack the capability to hit the mark or achieve the divine expectations. This pitiful description would hardly move mankind to love such failures, but God’s love is demonstrated in the supreme sacrifice of the Son for such people.
Paul points out once again what we have been reconciled from.
And our peace with God is not like any other peace.
When the world has conflict and wars, there comes a time of peace.
I remember when were were on holidays a few years back and we had the opportunity to visit the various locations in France that showed the result of the WW1
I was told that the moment the peace treaty was signed, two things happened. The soldiers turned into restorers to make the land that was devastated by the war and to attempt to restore it back to its former self. They also set out making museums of the land as a reminder of what the war did to the land and the people. Museums that you can visit today. It’s a reminder of what is the result of the lack of peace.
The second thing that happened is the change in country borders. That is what the war was all about.
But after WW1, nothing changed.
The fight for land supremacy only amounted to devastation and loss of life, but the countries boarders never changed.
Land was lost and gained throughout the war, but in the end, it was back to the way it was.
Man never learned as only a few years later, that peace once again turned into war, and even today, war is a constant in the world as we see in many lands that we have been praying for.
Man’s wars is different than the God’s war with our soul’s.
God did something man could never do.
He gave his life for us while we were still enemies.
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
While we were at war with God, Christ finished work on the cross has made a way for each one of us to stand in God’s presence and be reconciled with Him
We are justified, entrance to God’s Grace, We are at peace with God
Look at the next set of verses,
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
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.
11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Future Hope (5:9-11)
Future Hope (5:9-11)
This is the future hope that we have.
Peace with God knowing that we stand redeemed by Him
There is a sense in these verses that we not only look to the present that we are saved, we also look forward with a hope that we will be saved from the coming wrath of God.
It is a state of already but also not fully realized yet.
It is like taking an old rusted out car that in its original form was a beauty.
Over the years rust and wear and tear has taken its told and it now stands worthless.
But the restoration team picks up the car and begins to restore it to its former self, a thing of beauty.
But like the old car, Mankind was first created to be a thing of beauty, but sin entered into the scene causing much decay and becoming an enemy of God,
But God, through the reconciliation process has made that man and his soul restored once again. A process of now and not fully until we stand in the God’s presence .
That is our hope
That is our peace
Folks maybe this morning, you came with a sense of unrest.
you came with a lack of peace in the way the world is today or your life.
If you haven’t come to the throne of Grace you will never experience God’s peace.
God is calling each one of you today to come to Him, Come to be reconciled with Him
Our current peace with God is knowing that there is one day, when all this will change.
It will change for you and me if we give our lives over to him
In Summary
In Summary
As the worship team comes forward, let me read to you the words from a song Called one day
Verse 1
One day You'll make ev'rything new Jesus
One day You will bind ev'ry wound
The former things shall all pass away
No more tears
Verse 2
One day You'll make sense of it all Jesus
One day ev'ry question resolved
Ev'ry anxious thought left behind
No more fear
Chorus
(Yes) When we all get to heaven
What a day of rejoicing that will be
When we all see Jesus
We'll sing and shout the victory
Verse 3
One day we will see face to face Jesus
Is there a greater vision of grace
And in a moment we shall be changed
On that day
Verse 4
And one day we'll be free free indeed Jesus
One day all this struggle will cease
And we will see Your glory revealed
On that day
Verse 5
Yes one day we will see face to face Jesus
Is there a greater vision of grace
And in a moment we shall be changed
Yes in a moment we shall be changed
In a moment we shall be changed
On that day
Ending
We'll sing and shout the victory
Let’s stand and sing as a response to worship with the song
And can it be
Benediction
Benediction