Well, I invite you to turn to Romans 5 tonight. We continue our study in this book, and we come to verses 6 through 11 of Romans 5 tonight, and we will be continuing this progression of thought that we looked at last time. And there was a sort of shift at a new section at 5:1, really thinking about now how to apply the doctrine of justification, what it means for the Christian and how he thinks and how he lives and assurance. And so we're continuing that thought beginning at verse 6 tonight.
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.
There is the reading of God's word. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word tonight.
Well, I have tried to emphasize over and over in our study of the book of Romans how pastoral Paul's approach is to encourage these Christians in the Christian gospel to understand the gospel, to know why they believe the gospel, to know what it means for them, and to treasure the gospel. And this great truth that has been at the heart of the book of Romans is God's great act, God's great initiative to provide a Savior and then by faith justify us, justify us before his tribunal, before his justice seat.
He doesn't want us to think of this just abstractly, though. He doesn't want us to see the doctrine of justification as we've been looking at this legal declaration that we have imputed to us the righteousness of Christ, that he's covered our sins, that he's given to us what we need in Christ. He doesn't want us to go forward thinking that doesn't affect life. That doesn't affect how we think or what we do. This affects everything.
That's why it's somewhat irritating to say when people criticize a sort of Paul for having a justification-only message, Paul didn't see that that way. He understood that the doctrine of justification from that springs an entirely new perspective on everything. That's what we've been seeing in the book of Romans.
So we looked at last time him beginning to apply this great truth to them, having us think of the fruits of this wonderful news that he's declared us righteous in Christ. And it really does, if you're asking me for some sort of theme of chapter 5, it really does have the aim of assurance here for us. He wants the Christian to have assurance. That's not something that scares him. It's not something that Paul stood back and said, "Well, I don't know if they should be too assured. Because then they might go out and live any way they want to live." No, I mean, that anticipates chapter 6. Where he says, "Shall we go on sinning that grace may abound?" He knows that's how some people are going to think. But he is not afraid to give assurance to you. He believes we should have assurance. That's the great benefit of justification.
And the summary of it can be said tonight that his purpose is so that you would get to enjoy a relationship, notice last time essentially, even though the language makes us nervous, of friendship with God. There's no more enmity, if you will, that happened because of the fall. Having been justified by faith, we have peace with him. We have peace with God. War is over. And Paul said, because of that peace, you have access. You have access to the throne of grace. Everyone asks throughout history, "How shall anyone stand before the holy God of Israel?" And it was just answered, "Having been justified by faith. That's how. That's how we stand."
And Paul says, consider the fruit of this then. Because of this, you get to stand, and then you live in the hope of the glory of God. There's a hope that is set out for us, which he's developing more tonight. God is committed to bless us with certainty of where we are going and the heavenly inheritance that awaits us. And that changes our outlook on life, Paul said last time. See, that changes how you look at life. We now learn to glory in tribulation because, you remember what he said there in verse 3, we rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame. So this is, these are wonderful things he has said to us here to want to encourage us in the great truth of justification by faith alone.
Now I left off last time in verse 5, everything he's promised to you will not fail. Why? Well, he gives another beautiful truth. Because the love of God has been poured out into your hearts through the Holy Spirit, which he has given to us, whom he has given to us.
So, these aren't abstract truths. These are the truths the Holy Spirit is taking and bearing witness, he'll say in chapter 8, with our spirits, that we are children of God, that the Father loves us, that God loves us. The love of God has been shown to us. The love of God has been revealed to us, and that's poured into our hearts by the Spirit.
Now, we say this, we speak of the love of God, but Paul really wants to impress on us how deep this love is of the Father, why it matters, and as he would pray in the book of Ephesians that we'd be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the height, width, and depth of the love of God that surpasses knowledge.
What's confusing about the Christian life? Well, what is? Well, it's this presence of sin. That's what's confusing. Sometimes it seems like we start out well, and then we don't do so well in the course of it, of life. And sometimes you may even feel like we're going backward. Sin ravishes life. Sin, when it happens, doesn't just hit one person. It splatters everywhere. He's going to address this in chapter 7, the warfare of sin, the difficulty of sin.
I think Paul, anticipating all of this, knows there's going to be a question mark. Having been justified by faith, thinking about the fruits of justification in one's life, the question mark about God's love. Does God still love? Does God still uphold with the presence of sin? It's an experience that we go through that doesn't always seem to say it. The Christian life is very up and down. The Christian life at times is very discouraging. The Christian life is very hard. Is God still loving me? Does God still love?
And I think Paul's answering this. I believe he's answering this by showing and using an argument that when you understand the argument, it puts that question to rest once and for all. The question is this: When did he show his love to you? And why would that matter? When did he decide to do it? What does that mean for us? And how would that change everything then?
So that's sort of the brief outline there. When did he meet your greatest need? What does that mean for you? And how does that change everything? That's what he's doing here.
So the apostle Paul is attempting now from the doctrine of justification to prove the love of God to you. That's what he's doing. How do we know? How do I really know that? That's verses 6 through 11.
Look at verse 6. "For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly."
I like some of the older translations that use helpless. I think that communicates it better. Weak is good, but helpless is very good. What is he saying to us here? If you stop and ponder, it's a remarkable statement, isn't it? When did the Lord demonstrate his love for us? Well, the answer is powerful. When you were at your most helpless moment. And I'll come back to this. Not just helpless, but sinful moment. That's a very powerful argument that doesn't often fit how we think as Christians. At the moment you had your greatest need, then he showed it.
Nowhere do the scriptures show God helping those who don't need it. Nowhere does it show God loving and helping those who first straightened out their lives. Nowhere does it show God helping those who first made the decision. What did he already say in Romans 3? No one seeks after God. I mean, just if you struggle with any of this, go back and read Romans 3 and the diagnosis. Nowhere does it say God first decided then to love us when we got our acts together. Or when we showed just a little strength.
When was the love shown? When you and I, when we were at our moment of deepest need, when there was absolutely no strength, and when we were helpless, then, now if you cannot appreciate this, it's going to solve a lot of problems in your life. God didn't wait around for you and then think, "You know, I figured he'd get his life together and then I'd love him."
He develops this by having us think about who we might die for in this life. Who might you die for? Well, he says in the next verses, for verse 7, "For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare to die." So someone might lay down their life for a good man in this life? Might. Would you? You can kind of think of maybe someone in the military, Pat Tillman kind of guy. That was a noble thing. Paul seems hesitant that that might happen. Rarely does it happen. For a good man, someone might do this, right? Someone might go out and lay down their life.
Who would you die for? I'm sure most fathers here would say, because of this affectionate filial love that we have, you would die for your children if you were put in that situation. Pretty sure you would. If it came to something like that, we would die for our children. If we were put in that case, us or them, I don't think it'd be a question. I'd go tonight for my children. I love them that much. But what if it were a son or daughter who despised you, who hated you, who never talked to you, who ruined your inheritance, who spit in your face, who shamed your family? What a remarkable act of love if a father would be willing to die for a prodigal son. Well, that's a problem among equals, isn't it?
See what's being said? The love that is shown to us from God all the way through. God showed his love for you when? When you were totally without strength. That's the whole diagnosis that's ever been given about what you've done to him. And not just that. Notice verse 8. While you were a sinner. When you missed the mark of His holiness. When you offended someone who is absolutely perfect. Holy, holy, holy. Who cannot tolerate sin. Who has to punish sin. Who has to be just. Who is just. And exercise that just judgment. He loved you so much as his children, adopted children.
When did he do it? This is the marvel. This is the marvel. At your lowest moment in life. When you didn't acknowledge him, when you did not respond to him, when you were at your greatest need.
Here's my answer. If you were to look at it in life terms, in breathing life terms, when is your lowest moment in life? When is your weakest moment in life as a sinner? When is it? When you were born as an infant. That's a thought, isn't it? You were conceived and born in sin. And as a helpless little baby, when you were brought out of your mother's womb, you could say, he loved you then.
In terms of time, a baby is most helpless when? This is why this matters. Do you understand this? The baptismal font. When was the sign called to be administered? By all of God's covenant people all throughout history, children of believers were to receive it. Precisely because from the beginning, God wanted parents to teach their children that he claimed them when they were most helpless. Now for the non-believer, who was never raised in this, he believes and then is baptized because he knows the point of his helplessness. Believers are to teach their children this from birth because of all this blessing. That's why infant baptism matters Here's the marvel: "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us."
If we look at this in broader terms then, as humanity in its fallen state, when did God consider you? When did he help you? When did he lay down his life? In AD 30, at the month of Nisan, at about the sixth hour of the day. He said, "It's finished."
At this point, Paul, the point he's making here is that we could do nothing to bring it about. He acted when we were totally not even asking for it. Or in this case, before any of us were born.
What Paul's been saying about human nature the whole time is that we're dead. No one is righteous, no, not one. No one has the ability to seek God, blinded by sin, children of wrath. He's not so much here even thinking about of our right now, receiving it in time. He mentions justified by his blood. He's thinking about objectively the work of Christ for us. And when he hung on the cross, when he died, when did he die? It's AD 30. That's as pastoral as you could get at this point.
When you're without strength, he did this surely out of sovereign love. He decided to give his son to die for you. That's how much he loved you.
You see, this is why Paul would say in 2 Timothy, "Grace, now listen to this, grace was given to us through Christ before time began. But now it is shown to us by the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ." God loved you from the foundation of the world. God predestined you. And he decided to love you knowing everything about you and everything you'd ever do. Jesus had no delusions when he was laying down his life about you. He didn't say, "I'm shocked about the kind of sin that that sinner would commit." He did it when we were bad. It was the good pleasure of his will because he decided to love us.
Now, that's all received by faith in time. You understand? That's all received. This is why Paul said, "In due time, I was born again. But he really had called me before my mother's, in my mother's womb." Paul would say that in Galatians. This is the kind of faith, why am I making this great point tonight? This is the kind of faith he's calling us to here. The love is so certain, it's been poured in your heart. It's grounded in the death of Christ for you so that that death pleased God when none of you were even yet breathing. Let that love get into your hearts. Think on it.
We kind of think, "Well, God's love gets activated when we finally get around to accept Him in life." What a terrible, weak view of God and an exalted view of humanity. He showed his love at the pinnacle of history when Christ died. He wants us to think about that when you were children of wrath.
Now, what does that mean for us then? What does that mean? What is the thing we struggle with? Well, I'll tell you what it is. It's inside there's this fear as we go through life because of sin of judgment day. And there's that lingering concern that when it's all said and done, I may have to face God's wrath so long as I've been good enough. People dread this day and live in fear of this day, but what they're really living fear of every day is a lack of assurance that God loves them right now.
And the question he's asking is, how does the death of Christ affect the future? That's the question he's asking. What does it mean for us? So verse 9 becomes one of the most beautiful statements in all of the Bible.
Notice verse 9. "Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God."
Saved by God from God. That's the heart of the Christian message, isn't it? Saved by God from God. You really won't know any progress or growth in the faith until this truth sets you free. This is the truth that must set you free. You must be free to die. You must be set free to die.
One of the things I was so shocked at when I first went into the ministry was up north, a group, and I used them because I think it's just interesting. It's in our tradition. And it was the Netherlands Reformed. And they had a big, beautiful building in Linden. And they would bring in ministers from over the border. They didn't have a pastor. And there was a whole bunch of people in that church. The young people were constantly leaving that church. It was really a sad deal. And they would come over. And the issue was, one of the issues was, nobody could partake of the supper. Only a couple people in the church could go forward if they were holy enough and had been deemed to have a proof of being born again. So it became this heavy-handed, just like this morning, gloomy, fasting environment where people were waiting for some kind of response from God that they were truly loved by Him. So no one made it to the table.
And so when these young people would come out of that and come to the church, we'd have to sit down when they were joining the church. "Now you're going to partake of the supper. Do you believe that Christ's blood is for you?" So sad. There were one young man says, "I just don't know." And I said, and he said to him, "Brother, believe. He loves you. Faith is about believing these promises." I can't begin to tell you the oppression that I saw.
What I'm so moved with here is what I said earlier. God desires we have this kind of assurance. He's not scared to give it to you. That you're going to go out and wreck it. Verse 2, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Coming hope of glory. The blessing of peace with God means that the believer gets the overwhelming blessing of living in certainty that he belongs, that he's loved by God, and that God's going to fulfill what he started. That's what's said here. It's the Philippians' way of saying it in Romans.
So here's what he's saying. If God would actually accomplish reconciliation when we were helpless and dead in sin by the great sacrifice of the suffering of his son and death of his son in AD 30, he absolutely, without question, will not fail to withhold salvation that he chose to give you when you were helpless. He's not going to fail to give you that salvation. He's not going to hold it back. He did it here. That means he has to fulfill it. He has to follow through on it.
When Christ went through that death and took the mockings and the beatings and the shame, and they put him under trial, and Pilate found him guilty, and you know what all that means for us. A greater court was in session. God had put his son on trial for us, and at Golgotha, he bore the curse, and he became the curse, and he was nailed to the cross, and the wrath of God was poured out on him in body and in soul, and then he said, "I thirst," and then he said, "It's finished."
Paul is saying, that means it's finished. He will finish the work for you. In other words, he's committed to keep his justified saints. He's going to follow through on the initial purpose and decision to love you when you were enemies. That's not going to change. Judgment Day is not going to take that away from you. That's what he's saying. See? See what he says when he says, "There for, if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death, much more now that we're reconciled shall we be saved by his life." He's kind of followed through on that. And that anticipates Romans 5, where we're going to now look at his life.
So he doesn't want us to live believing that we're going to stand before the judgment seat to have to give an account and pay for our sins. That's the important point. The Reformers call this double justice. God doesn't do double justice. Does he understand that? He doesn't say, "I require it here, and then I'm going to make you pay again later if you don't do your part." That's double justice. See how horrible the teaching is that Jesus then laid down his life and actually atoned for everyone and then a large mass of those whom he actually atoned for will not make it. Definite atonement matters. Limited atonement matters because that's what it's safeguarding: every single one he paid for is not going to be lost. Every single one he died for will not be lost. And you say, "Well, how do I know?" Believe this gospel and you will be justified by his blood.
The blessing of justification is wonderful. Christ is committed to keep you to the end. He desires to make you know this love. He desires to assure your hearts by the spirit of that love poured out in your hearts.
And so he concludes tonight with this. Think of the last verse here: "More than that, we got more more than that it, just keeps adding it? doesn't he We also do what now? Let's bring both sermons together today. We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation."
What, what did we talk about this morning? Why should we sing? Well, because he wants a life of rejoicing. And you can't get up tomorrow and wallow around in sin and continue in sin and live in sin and run around thinking God is angry at you and continue to do live that way and think there's going to be any real fruit in the Christian life. You get up tomorrow and you rejoice that you are loved and you go forward trusting those promises and you go forward now rejoicing. You can't rejoice by still living in sin. That's why we turn from it.
We have peace. We have access. We stand in his grace. We have the hope of glory. We have assurance in suffering. We have his love of the spirit that's being poured out in our heart. The Lord wants us to glory in that. That's what he wants.
Thank you, Lord. Glory in this. Everything he just said is your joy is complete. Enjoy the new relationship. Enjoy the new covenant. Enjoy the forgiveness of your sins. Enjoy that you have hope awaiting. So whether you live or die, you belong to the Lord. Enjoy whatever he has for you. He told us the whole way through, "Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God." The joy of the Lord is your strength every day. So go forward in that strength. And don't doubt that He loves His children. He gave His Son to prove it, who died on a cross for you. Receive that by faith. That's what pleases God.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank You for such a gift. Thank you for such steadfast love. Thank you, Lord, for your favor. Thank you for giving your son while we were helpless. It was trusting, believing hearts, O Lord. And let us live in that love because what we tend to do is constantly focus on failure and not enough on the success of the death of Christ for us. Let us think on that this week and let us live in the joy of discomfort and the peace that has been spoken to us, having been justified by his blood, with a confidence that we shall, when we stand before the Lord, be saved and delivered, not facing wrath, but open reception of that love that we've already known in this life.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.