The Results of Justification

Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 5:1.

In Romans 5:1, Paul teaches that since the believer has been justified by faith in Jesus Christ, he has peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. (NASB95)

“Therefore” is the “inferential” use of the conjunction oun, which denotes that what is introduced at this point is the result of an inference from Paul’s teaching that is contained in Romans 1:18-4:25.

In Romans 1:18-4:24, Paul has presented his case in exhaustive detail that the sinner, whether Jew or Gentile can only be justified by means of faith in Jesus Christ and not by observing the Law or circumcision.

“Having been justified” is the verb dikaioo, which means, “to declare or pronounce righteous.”

The participle form of the verb dikaioo in Romans 5:1 is a “causal” participle indicating that the Christian has peace with God “because” he has been declared justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ.

The aorist tense signifies that this judicial act of God in declaring the sinner justified through faith in Jesus Christ is a once and for all declaration, which never changes or can never be rescinded since God is a perfect Judge who because He is immutable, always makes perfect decisions.

This indicates that to believe in Jesus Christ as one’s Savior is a one shot decision since justification is a once and for all declaration!

Therefore, the believer has eternal security.

The passive voice means that the sinner who trusts in Jesus Christ as their Savior as the subject received the action of being declared justified by the unexpressed agency of God the Father.

Although the Father is not explicitly mentioned as the agency in declaring the sinner justified through faith in His Son Jesus Christ, Romans 3:21-26 makes clear that He was the member of the Trinity that performed this act.

This passage also makes clear that His Son Jesus Christ was the agency and His spiritual death on the Cross the means, which made this possible.

“By faith” teaches that faith in Jesus Christ is “the means constituting the source by which” God the Father justifies the sinner.

“Peace” is the noun eirene, which refers to peace with God in an objective sense.

This noun signifies the eternal condition of the sinner who is no longer the object of God’s righteous indignation since he has been declared justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ whose death on the Cross propitiated God’s holiness that required that human sin be judged.

This word implies that the believer now possesses a relationship with God.

In Romans 5:1, the noun eirene, “peace” refers to the permanent and eternal peace treaty between God and the sinner who has been declared justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ.

The word refers to the reconciliation between the sinner and God through faith alone in Christ alone (Acts 10:36; Rm. 5:1; Eph. 2:14, 15, 17).

This reconciliation is presented in the gospel message that God has made a peace treaty with the entire human race and the terms of that peace treaty is accepting the Gospel message through faith alone in Christ alone.

In relation to the unbeliever, the gospel is God’s victorious proclamation of God’s love in delivering the entire human race from sin, Satan, his cosmic system and eternal condemnation and has reconciled them to Himself through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This reconciliation with God and deliverance and victory over sin, Satan, his cosmic system and eternal condemnation that God accomplished through His Son’s crucifixion, burial, death, resurrection and session is received as a gift and appropriated through faith in Christ (John 3:16-18; Acts 16:31; Romans 5:1-2).

The peace treaty is the direct result of the spiritual and physical deaths of Christ on the Cross since they propitiated the holiness of God that expresses itself in righteous indignation against sin and sinners.

The Author and thus Initiator of the peace treaty is God the Father (2 Cor. 5:18a; Eph. 1:3-7; 2:14-16).

Man was totally helpless to make peace with God (Rom. 3:10, 23; 8:5-8; Eph. 2:1) since he was the enemy of God because of his sin and rebellion but God reconciled man to Himself through the death of His Son (Rom. 5:6-10; Eph. 2:1-5).

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Mediator of the Peace Treaty.

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. (NASB95)

God offers the entire world a full pardon of their sin through faith in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:19b; Acts 13:38; Eph. 1:7; 4:32b; Col. 1:14; 2:13; 1 John 2:12).

Therefore, the terms of the Peace Treaty is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31; John 3:16, 36).

At the moment of their conversion, the church age believer was given a royal ambassadorship in which he is to represent the absent Christ who sits as the right hand of the Father and presents the gospel message of peace with God to the unsaved through faith alone in Christ alone (2 Cor. 5:20a).

Romans 5:1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“With God” indicates that because the sinner has been declared justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ, he always has peace “in the presence of” God.

It denotes that the sinner can be in the presence of a holy God and have peace in His presence in contrast to being the object of His righteous indignation because he has been declared justified by a holy God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Through” is the preposition dia, which is used with the genitive expression tou kuriou hemon Iesou Christou, “our Lord Jesus Christ” to denote that the Lord Jesus Christ is the personal intermediate agent who is the mediator between sinful mankind and a holy God.

So in Romans 5:1, Paul teaches that since the believer has been justified by faith in Jesus Christ, he has peace in the presence of God through the Lord Jesus Christ whose spiritual and physical deaths reconciled them to God, thus implying the believer has an eternal relationship with God.

The apostle Paul in Romans 5:9 writes that if Christ died as a substitute for sinners, how much more then, will He deliver the sinner justified by faith in Jesus Christ from the wrath of God.

In this passage, Paul uses the logical argument of a fortiori.

Romans 5:9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. (NASB95)

In Romans 5:9, “then” denotes that what is introduced at this point is the result of an inference from Paul’s teaching that is contained in Romans 5:1-8.

Paul employs the principle of a fortiori to emphasize with the reader that if God has done the most “difficult” or “greater” thing for the believer in sending His Son to die as a substitute for them while they were His enemies, how much more can God be depended upon to accomplish the “easier” thing, namely, deliver them from the wrath of God now that they are reconciled to Him.

The expression pollo mallon introduces the argument that if Christ had done the “greater” work of providing the basis for the justification of sinners by dying for them as their substitute, He will certainly then perform the comparatively “lesser” or simple task of delivering them from the Lake of Fire, now that they are reconciled to Him.

So the logical argument of a fortiori as expressed by the words pollo mallon emphasizes that if Christ died for His enemies, it follows that He will deliver His friends or those who have been reconciled to His Father through faith in Him.

“Having been justified” is the verb dikaioo, which means, “to declare or pronounce righteous.”

The participle form of the verb dikaioo in Romans 5:9 is a “causal” participle and answers the question as to “why” the believer will certainly be delivered from wrath of God.

The believer will be delivered from the wrath of God “because” he has been declared justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ.

“Now” is adverb of time nun, which emphasizes the present state of Paul and his fellow Christians who were declared justified by God the Father in the past when they exercised faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

“By His blood” teaches that the sinner is justified on the basis of the merits of Jesus Christ and the merits of His spiritual and physical deaths on the Cross.

The perfection of Christ’s Person and Work are the foundation of the imputation of divine righteousness and resultant justification.

“We shall be saved” indicates that the believer’s deliverance from eternal condemnation in the eternal Lake of Fire “will take place” in the future.

“From the wrath of God” teaches that because the believer has been declared justified by means of faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior, he is “totally and completely separated from” experiencing God’s righteous indignation forever in the eternal Lake of Fire.

“Through Him” teaches that the Lord Jesus Christ is the personal intermediate agent who delivers the believer from eternal condemnation since He is the mediator between sinful mankind and a holy God.