Romans 5.2a-The Believer Has A Relationship with God Because He Has Been Justified By Faith in Jesus Christ
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday March 13, 2008
Romans: Romans 5:2a-The Believer has a Relationship with God Because He Has Been Justified Through Faith in Jesus Christ
Lesson # 143
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 5:1.
Yesterday we noted Romans 5:1, which teaches that since the believer has been justified by faith in Jesus Christ, he has peace in the presence God through the Lord Jesus Christ whose spiritual death on the Cross reconciled them to God, implying that the believer now has a relationship with God.
This evening we will begin a study Romans 5:2, which teaches that because the believer has been justified by faith in Jesus Christ, he also has as a permanent possession access to this gracious benefit of a relationship with God, in which he stands forever, thus implying the believer has eternal security.
A week from next Tuesday, we will complete Romans 5:2 by noting that in addition Paul rejoiced in the confident expectation of receiving a resurrection body.
Romans 5:1-2, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 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.”
“Through whom” denotes that the Lord Jesus Christ who is the personal intermediate agent who enables the believer to have a relationship and fellowship with the Trinity since He is the mediator between sinful mankind and a holy God.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the one and only mediator between sinful mankind and a holy God since His spiritual death on the Cross propitiated the demands of God’s holiness that required that sin and sinners be judged.
Consequently, His spiritual death fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law, redeemed sinful mankind out of the slave market of sin and the cosmic system of Satan, destroying the works of the devil, and reconciled sinful mankind to a holy God or in other words, established a peace treaty between sinful man and a holy God.
1 Timothy 2:5-6, “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.”
“Also” is the “adjunctive” use of the conjunction kai (kaiV), which introduces a statement that presents an additional benefit that the believer receives because he has been justified by faith in Jesus Christ.
This additional benefit is connected to the previous benefit presented by Paul in Romans 5:1 that the believer has peace with God and thus a relationship with God since he has been reconciled through the spiritual death of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
Paul states in Romans 5:2 that because the believer has been justified by faith, he also has as a permanent possession access to this gracious benefit of a relationship with God in which he stands forever.
This additional benefit also completes the idea of having peace with God as a result of being reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:2, “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.”
“We have obtained” is the verb echo (e&xw) (ekh-o), which means that since the believer has been justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ, he “possesses” access to a relationship with God.
The perfect tense is an “intensive” perfect emphasizing a present state produced by a past action.
Therefore, it is emphasizing the present state of the believer possessing permanent access to a relationship with the Father, and which relationship he forever stands eternally secure.
The intensive perfect says that the believer gained access into the presence of God for a relationship with God the moment they trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and that this access continues into the present moment and on into eternity!
It emphasizes the permanent state of this access to a relationship to the Father for fellowship and prayer, thus signifies the believer has eternal security.
Romans 5:2, “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.”
“Introduction” is the noun prosagoge (prosagwgh) (pros-ag-ogue-ay), which is composed of the preposition pros, “face to face” and the verb ago, “to lead,” thus the word denotes “the act of leading a person into the presence of another” who it is implied of a higher status.
Therefore, in Romans 5:2, the noun prosagoge denotes that because the sinner has been declared justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ, he always has access to the presence of the Father in the sense that he always possesses an eternal relationship with the Father.
Ephesians 2:18, “for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.”
Ephesians 3:12, “in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.”
In these passages prosagoge is used in relation to God, thus the word denotes the sinner being led into the presence of the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ in order to experience an eternal relationship and fellowship with the Father.
He gains permanent access into the presence of the Father for an eternal relationship and fellowship through the Lord Jesus Christ whose spiritual death on the Cross propitiated the Father’s holiness that demanded that sin be judged.
The noun prosagoge and the perfect tense of echo emphasize the continued availability of the privilege of having access to the presence of the Father.
The Lord Jesus Christ’s spiritual death opened the way for the sinner to approach God and gain access to the Father and which access is gained by the sinner through faith in Jesus Christ as his or her Savior.
John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
This word prosagoge is also related to prayer.
Hebrews 4:14-16, “Therefore, since we have a Great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
The throne of judgment was transformed to a throne of grace because the Lord Jesus Christ propitiated God the Father with His substitutionary spiritual death on the cross.
Romans 5:2, “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.”
“By faith” does not appear in the original Greek text.
This is indicated by the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, which signifies in Romans 5:2 an additional benefit that is received by the sinner the moment they are declared justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, it would be redundant to include pistis when this additional benefit is received the moment the sinner is declared justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ.
“Into this grace” is composed of the preposition eis (ei)$) (ice), “into,” which is followed by the demonstrative pronoun houtos (ou!to$) (hoo-tos), “this” and the noun charis (xavri$) (khar-ece), “grace.”
In Romans 5:2, the noun charis means, “gracious benefit” since it refers to the believer having peace in the presence of God or in other words being reconciled to God and thus having an eternal relationship with God.
This is indicated by the immediate demonstrative houtos, “this,” which points back to Romans 5:1 and the expression eirenen echomen pros ton theon, “we, as an eternal spiritual truth, always have peace in the presence of God.”
The demonstrative pronoun refers to the reconciliation of the believer with God through the death of Christ since Paul’s statement in Romans 5:1 indicates that the believer’s reconciliation with God is the nearest antecedent in his mind.
Further indicating that charis, “grace” refers to the believer having peace with God is the meaning of the noun prosagoge, “introduction,” denotes access to the presence of God.
Peace with God is the result of God’s grace policy in which He imparts to the sinner unmerited benefits, both temporal and spiritual, as a result of the sinner being declared justified by a holy God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, in Romans 5:1-2, Paul is saying that the sinner always has peace in relation to God because he has been justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ through whom also he has as a permanent possession gained access to this gracious benefit, i.e. his restored relationship with God in which he stands forever.
So not only does the believer have as a permanent possession peace in the presence of God, i.e. he has been reconciled to God but also he always has as a permanent possession access to this gracious benefit as well.
The fact that the sinner has been reconciled to God by the death of Christ not only gives the sinner peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ but also it also gives him permanent access to this new relationship with God in which he will remain standing in forever.
Romans 5:2, “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.”
“We stand” is the verb histemi (i%sthmi) (his-tay-mee), which means, “to stand” and refers to the sinner “standing” in the presence of God because he has been declared justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ whose spiritual death reconciled the sinner to a holy God.
The intensive perfect of the verb histemi in Romans 5:2 expresses the fact that the believer is eternally secure as a result of being declared justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The intensive perfect denotes that the past act of the believer being declared justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ has results that go on forever.
It thus emphasizes the believer having eternal security.
Romans 8:28-39, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, ‘FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.’ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
John 10:27-30, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given {them} to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch {them} out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.”
1 Peter 1:1-5, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”