The Goodness of Good Friday

Romans 5:1–11 ESV

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 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. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 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. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 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. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Paul has been arguing throughout Romans 1-4 that we are not justified by the law but by God’s grace through our faith in Jesus Christ. The reason that God can justify us through Jesus Christ is because of the very reason why we are meeting right now: Good Friday. Two thousand years ago, Jesus died on the cross. He did so to bear our sins under the wrath of God in our place. And what results from that, according to the book of Romans as one pastor coined, God righteously righteouses the unrighteous. We are unrighteous and are hopelessly so. When we stand before God at judgment day, we will be hopeless. But God, in his grace and kindness towards us did not leave us to ourselves. God the Son came, took on flesh, went to the cross and bore our sin and punishment. But while doing it, he merited righteousness. And on the cross, we have the great exchange. Our sin and guilt are laid on Jesus and his righteousness is laid on us. And on Sunday we will celebrate the victory that Jesus demonstrated over sin and death by raising from the dead. Now, those of us who place our faith in Christ are declared just before the Father. That is what Good Friday accomplished. What was due to us because of our sin was laid on Jesus and he died in our place so that now, we might be declared righteous before the Father and live unto him.

That is what it accomplished for us positionally and that is what Paul argues in Romans 1-4. But there is also a progressive benefit that we gain from the death of Christ, and this is what Paul argues for in Romans 5:1-11. This is the nub of the conclusion to his argument: We can grow in maturity through Christ because God demonstrated his love for us by reconciling us to himself through the death of Jesus Christ. I am going to unpack that through our passage. First, let’s look at us growing in maturity.

We Can Grow in Maturity Through Christ

Romans 5:1–4 ESV

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 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. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,

Positionally, we have peace with God through Jesus. This is significant when you consider what Paul is arguing in Romans. Back in the last half of chapter 1, Paul explains that apart from Christ, God’s wrath is revealed against us. This in chapter 3, Paul argues that we all fall short of his glory and are held accountable by him because of our sinfulness. But because of our faith as believers in Jesus, we are at peace with God. Paul will go on later to say that there is no now condemnation for us in chapter 8. This is all due to Jesus Christ and those things are positionally applied to us when we exercise faith in Christ. Now only that, but we have obtained access to that same grace through our faith in Jesus. This is similar to what Paul says in Ephesians 2 we who were dead in our sins, he made us alive and seated us with Christ to show blessings on us for billions of years. Through our faith in Christ, we have access to God’s grace for us. And if you are a believer in here, you probably know what I mean. God just showers his grace on us as Christians. True, he gives common grace to all people, but there is assurance of our salvation, growth in our sanctification, unity in the body, bold witnessing of the gospel, comfort and hope in trials and on and on we could go. We have access to the grace of God through faith in Jesus. Third, we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory and in our sufferings.