Romans 5:1-11

1-5 6-11

1-5

1

Chapter 5 marks a turning point in Romans, it begins with Therefore, which could be referring to the section just before in chapter 4 where Paul talked about Abraham’s faith being counted as righteousness as being the model for us to be justified, declared legally forgiven for our sin, especially since right after the therefore he says since we have been justified by faith, but it could also be referring back to the whole letter from 1:18 to here. In chapter one and two Paul lays out that all are unrighteous under God and there is no excuse as God has revealed himself in His creation and through writing His law on everyone’s heart so every Gentile has no excuse, but also all who God has revealed his law to, the Jews are also under condemnation because the law was not meant for salvation but to reveal sin and neither was the circumcision as it was the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham and not the means for salvation. In chapter 3 for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God but there is a way for justification by God’s gift of grace through Jesus Christ. Then chapter 4 using Abraham as the model for faith in God that is counted as righteousness, all of what came before the beginning of chapter 5 building up and up to this point where we turn and in the light of having being justified by faith we now have peace with God through Jesus Christ. Paul needed to start at the beginning and tell us the bad news and make sure we knew that we are all under condemnation, at enmity, we were all at war with God and God was at war with us, Paul makes crystal clear we know of our fallen state before he gives us the good new that we are now at peace with God through Christ.

2

And it is through Christ that we obtained access by the faith in Christ to the grace that we now have with God, we can now rejoice in hope, this hope is not an uncertain hope, like I hope it doesn't rain this weekend, but this hope is a certainty its a definite thing that we know but it just has not come to pass yet, we rejoice in the future certainty of the glory of God, and it is not the glory of God specifically that has not come to pass yet, it is our sharing in the glory of God that will happen we have our resurrected sinless bodies and can once again be in the presence of the thrice holy God.

3

But we don’t only rejoice in the future of our resurrected glory, we rejoice in the sufferings we will face, while this may not seem like a thing we should rejoice in, especially if you listen to what comes out of the prosperity gospel, but Jesus himself said that since the world hated him that the world will hate us, the slave is not better than the master. John 15:18 ““If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” John 15:20 “Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.” We can rejoice in our sufferings because we belong to Christ and he has given us a helper in the Holy Spirit, the suffering we will endure produces and strengthens our endurance. The word translated suffering or tribulations is used meaning pressure, like the squeezing or pressing of olives for their oil, the world will squeeze and pressure us because of our relationship with Christ but this pressure will not provide the world’s desired affect, it will do the contrary, bring about greater perseverance, or patience, or endurance to remain strong in our faith.

4

This perseverance or endurance to remain strong in the faith will produce character, the Greek word translated character means proof, as in to test metals to determine their proof or purity, our perseverance through the tribulations we will face because we belong to Jesus Christ will show our proof, our Christian character and that Christian character produces hope, again this hope not an uncertain hope that is more like a wish, but a sure, certain knowledge of something that has not happened yet, the certain hope of the glory of God, and our victory of being in God’s glory.

5

This hope will not put us to shame, or this certain, sure hope in the glory of God will not disappoint us, it will not fail, because we have already received the helper, the Holy Spirit through which God has poured His love into our hearts.

6-11

6

While verses 1-5 are celebrating the peace we now have with God, through grace in faith of Jesus Christ, verses 6-11 shows us of the depth and breadth of God’s love for us. For while we were still weak, while we were helpless, spiritually dead in sin and incapable of doing anything to help ourselves, at the right time, Christ died for us, the ungodly, the sinners, the very ones who were at war with God. At the right time, at the chosen predestined time on God’s time table Jesus was offered as a perfect sinless sacrifice and received the wrath of God intended for us and he died, yielding up his spirit when He said it is finished.

7

Verse seven shows the contrast of Jesus dying for the very people who hated him, hated God, contrasting that level of love God showed us with a hypothetical man, who would only on a very rare occasion lay down his life to spare a righteous person, a person of good standing that they love or greatly respect, or sometimes a good person will dare to die for their wife, children, family or brother in combat.

8

But God loves us so much that he sent his only son Jesus Christ to die on a cross for us while we were still sinners, still angry and shaking our puny fists at God, hating God totally in our hearts.

9

Since therefore referring back to verse 8 and that God loved us so much that he sent his only son Jesus to die for us while we were God hating sinners and we have been justified, declared not guilty by the blood, the literal shedding of Jesus’ blood and the figurative reference to blood meaning the whole act of his substitutionary death, by this blood we have been bought and paid for, again while we were at war with God. Now that we are covered under the blood of Jesus our salvation is assured from the wrath of God that used to be aimed at us but was taken by Christ.

10

If God sent Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins while we were still enemies, how much more is our assurance of God keeping us until the end, the end of our lives or the end of the age when God’s holy wrath will be poured out on the earth. How much more is our assurance until the end now that we are reconciled, at peace with God with a risen living Christ mediating for us at the right hand of the Father. The gap between sinner and saved is so much greater than the gap between saved and completely sanctified, so if God had that much love for us to bridge the greater gap, he most assuredly loves us more that enough to bridge the smaller gap.

11

Paul concludes this section with a reminder that we are to thank God and rejoice through our Lord Jesus Christ because of Him, because of His sinless life and substitutionary death, and His triumph over death and the grave we now have been reconciled to God, and this should bring joy to us for all of our days.