Justified

Intro

Up to this point, Paul has shared how one can be saved from sin

Now Paul switches to the believers’ standing with God

Peace with God

The war is over.

Not the war

Between right and wrong

Good and evil

Us and the flesh

But between us and God

We spoke of Luke 2, how the army host of angels came to the shepherds and told them Christ is come for peace, goodwill to men.

A troop of heavenly soldiers came with a strong presence declaring that their King had no desire to use his might to destroy our kingdom…at least not yet.

There will come a time where Christ will return as the Lion and as the King of Kings with a rod of iron and utterly destroy this world.

But the angels said that at this time the King is offering a peace treaty and the only way any human could have peace with the King is through this Child in Bethlehem.

This peace signifies acceptance

Paul is simply saying here that, in view of the finished work of Christ which he has just been presenting to us (4:24-25 ), we can be quite sure of our standing before God.

The believer is justified.

The word in the original is in the aorist tense "and indicates the definite time at which each believer, upon the exercise of faith, was justified in the sight of God."

He is at peace with God.

He is no longer striving to earn his salvation and no longer struggling in rebellion and self-will.

He is justified. He has something the world cannot give and cannot take away—peace with God.

Eternal security

The believer’s standing before God gives him even more than acceptance. It gives him (2) access.

Paul says: "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (v. 2).

The word "access" means "a bringing in, an introduction."

Illustration

A little boy once stood outside the gates of Buckingham palace in London. He wanted to talk to the king but was sternly repulsed by the guard at the gate. He rubbed a grimy hand to his cheek to wipe away a tear. Just then along came a well-dressed man who asked the little fellow to explain his trouble. When he heard the story, the man smiled and said, "Here, hold my hand, sonny. I’ll get you in. Just you never mind those soldiers." The little boy took the proffered hand and, to his surprise, saw the soldiers leap to attention and present arms as his new-found friend approached. Past the guard he was led, along carpeted halls, through wide-flung doors and on through a glittering throng right up to the throne of the king. He had taken the hand of the Prince of Wales, the king’s son! Through him he had gained access.

It is a glorious thing to have acceptance, to know that the war is over and that God no longer looks upon us with disfavor and wrath. It is far better to have access. And those who have taken the pierced hand of the King’s Son have access indeed. What a standing!

Although we see that the standing as a believer never changes, the condition (the state, the wellbeing) of the believer may change.

The believer who has peace with God will go through turbulent times

We not only rejoice in the hope of the glory of God but verse 3 says we glory in tribulations

Very similar to James chapter 1

Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations. Knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing.

Many believers were doing just that during the first century

The apostles in Acts 5:41 were said to have “departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.”

Paul is encouraging spiritual maturity.

The cross and the crown go together

The process of maturity is explained to us in verses 3-5

This is not just theory.

Remember who penned this…Paul. Someone who had gone and continued to go through tribulation after tribulation

He could give the process for he went through the process.

He states in 2 Corinthians 4:8-11 “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.”

John Phillips makes a great connection with these verses to the life of Job

The maturing power of tribulation is well illustrated in the case of Job. In the book of Job we see this righteous man first in the hands of Satan, then in the hands of men, and finally in the hands of God. At the hand of Satan, Job received tribulation and it wrought in him patience. At the hand of man his patience was sorely tried, but through it all he gained experience. It was far easier for Job, for example, to triumph over the calamities he received at the hand of Satan than to triumph over the criticisms he received from his friends. In the hands of God, Job came triumphantly through at last to that hope which maketh not ashamed. It is a far more righteous Job we meet at the end of the book than the one we meet at the beginning.

Tribulations works patience

And patience works experience

Those who go through hardships experience many things that others may not.

They experience the comfort that only God can give

Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted

All they experience turns out to be great educators for them and hopefully for those they can share it with down the road

Experience works hope

Those who are tried and go through this process come forth as gold

When you come out the other side of your trial and see how God worked it strengthens your hope in your rock.

As if to say He did it again

Why can we glory because the hope we have.

It doesn’t make us ashamed

No disappointment

Quite the opposite Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by none other than the Holy Ghost who is given to all those who have trusted Christ as savior.

After all this we too can be like the apostles who after suffering for His name rejoiced (were not ashamed) for they were counted worthy

Eternal security

Verse 6

For when we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

The proof of love is ever in its gift.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son" (John 3:16).

"Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it" (Eph. 5:25).

"He loved me, and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).

The gift of Christ is ever and always the proof of God’s love.

Paul shows us that (1) God’s love is unconditional. "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (v. 6).

Christ died for us when we could do nothing for Him in return

We were without strength

We were helpless and hopeless

Christ died for us when we were nasty and vile

He died for the ungodly

He did not die for the good and the righteous

He even mentioned that the whole need not a physician

If He died for us in our fallen state and was able to save a wretch like me then what makes us think that when we sin Christ will take back his gift of salvation

That sin is already paid for, why in the world we have to pay for it by giving back salvation

His love is unconditional

Not very many people are willing to die for a righteous man unjustly condemned

Not very many would be willing to give up their life for a good man.

Jaws would drop in utter amazement if one person took the death penalty for another.

It could and possibly has happened but not very often

That individual would be such an upstanding person to take the punishment of another on himself. Even if the person who was to die didn’t deserve the punishment

But God did not die for a righteous man or even a good man

He proved His love (for me when He died on Calvary) when he died for the ungodly

His Love is a Boundless Love

While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

Christ came to the world to save sinners

We deserve nothing but God’s undiluted wrath and punishment

Sin has outraged God and defiled both heaven and earth.

It has introduced rebellion and ruin where once He reigned supreme.

The world is haunted by demons, disease, and death, and dotted with graveyards, hospitals, prisons, and mental institutions.

It is ruined by vileness and squalor, misery and hatred, war and famine, blight and pestilence, death and decay—all products of sin.

When God sent forth His Son to be their Saviour, men spat into the face of Jesus, plowed His back with a scourge, spiked Him naked and thorn-crowned to a tree, sneered and mocked Him in His anguish until the sun hid its blushing noonday face in shame and the earth quaked in terror and the bedrock granite rent wide in protest.

Yet despite it all, God has "made peace through the blood of his cross" (Col. 1:20), surely one of the most astounding statements in the Word of God.

We could understand if it were to read that God had made war over that precious, outpoured blood and that cursed cross; but we read instead that He made peace through that very blood.

God’s love is incomparable.

Jesus taught us to love our enemies

This is exactly what Jesus did.

Verse 10

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled by the death of his son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

We were enemies but God showed his love by sending his son to die for us when we were dead in our sins

We not only rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, and in tribulations, but now we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement

The word atonement means exchange

Enemies to sons

Sins for righteousness

Death to life

Old to new

Praise God for atonement!