One thing I love about my home church is that each month Pastor Travis focuses on a new idea. The monthly move from one concept to another keeps things fresh and allows us to really focus on an idea over a short period of time. Today was the first Sunday of March so he began his sermon series, Friends With Benefits. It was so nice to be united with my church family as the past several weeks we have been traveling with Sam’s basketball ministry. February and March are his busy season as a majority of his bookings come from Upward and other basketball awards nights. Anyway, here are some notes from today’s service.
Romans 5:1-2: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
Throughout the entirety of today’s message we unpacked the verses above. In the beginning of the dissection of this passage we looked at justification. Verse one of Romans 5 explains that we have been justified by our faith. That is a theme in Romans as a whole. The entire book discusses the fact that we are saved by our faith and not by our actions. In fact, I even wrote about that in my blog post, Sola Fide.
So what is justification? Justification is the action of God declaring us righteous in His eyes. It’s the point where God no longer sees our sin and our mistakes, but rather the blood of Christ when He looks at us. Justification is an action which results from a decision to follow Christ.
And once we are justified we obtain benefits from that justification which are outlined in the remainder of the passage above.
Benefits of Justification:
- Peace with God-(Romans 5:1)
- Philippians 4:7 says, “And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
- The peace of God mentioned in Philippians 4:7 is a subjective peace. It’s a peace tied to emotions and the way that you feel. Although this is a promise of God it is not the kind of peace that Paul is talking about in Romans.
- Peace with God is an objective peace.
- Peace with God is the end of all hostility between God and yourself. It is not attached to emotion, but rather it becomes truth once you are justified.
- A benefit to being justified is that in that moment, the war between us and God ends and we are made righteous. God wipes the slate and you are new.
2. There is access to grace in which we now stand- (Romans 5:2)
- The access discussed here in this verse is referring to our favorable position with God because of Christ.
- We are no longer separated by God once we are justified.
- In many religions they believe that we do not have access to God on our own. Those religions preach the idea of a man (or image) who must come between us and God.
- But scripture says here that there is no need for a man to approach God on our behalf. We have 24/7 access to God through prayer once we are justified.
- This is made possible because Jesus became our High Priest (Hebrews 4:14). When he died the veil separating us from God was torn (Matthew 27:51).
3. The hope of the glory of God- (Romans 5:2)
- The Greek word for hope used here in this passage does not have a strong equivalent in the English language. We use the word hope as a conditional term when this verse is conveying a conviction or certainty.
- Our hope-filled certainty is heaven.
- In our moment of justification we are granted the promise of heaven and an eternity with God.
In closing, these three benefits of justification are available to all who have accepted Christ. And poetically, these three benefits illustrate our walk with Christ:
- Peace=Past
- Grace=Present
- Hope=Future
If you aren’t quite to the point of justification in your own life know that your story isn’t over yet. The simple act of accepting a God who loves you and gifts you with peace, grace, and hope is the beginning to a wonderful journey.
The Ameri Brit Mom
The Ameri Brit Mom 