Romans 5:1-11
Key Verse: 5:1
 

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace
with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ."

In the previous chapter we learned the faith of Abraham as an example
of justification.
He believed God against all hope and it was credited to him as
righteousness. Today, Paul talks
about a new life that all redeemed Christians must live. Since we have
been justified through
faith in Jesus, we began to enjoy many fruits that come from
justification. It is like entering into
the Garden of Eden and having a joyful fellowship with God. Let's have
access into the grace of
Jesus and a living hope in the glory of God. I pray that we all may
have the peace of God in this
troubled world and rejoice even in the midst of suffering. May God
bless us to remember his
grace so that we can maintain our relationship with him forever.

Part 1. THE RESULT OF JUSTIFICATION (5:1-5)

Since we have been justified through the blood of Jesus, we entered
into a new
relationship with God and began to enjoy many fruits of justification.
It is important to know the
result of justification.

First, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at
verse 1. "Therefore, since
we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ."
Paul began to apply the justification by faith to our practical
Christian life. What is the first and
most basic result of being justified through faith? Of course, it is
peace with God. In this verse
Paul exclaims that we have peace with God as an immediate result of
justification. The antonym
of  "peace" is war. Paul declared that we were at war with God. In
Genesis 3, Adam disobeyed
God in the Garden of Eden and broke his relationship with God. Since
the fall of Adam a hostile
relationship with God existed. As a result, we lived as the objects of
God's wrath. (1:18, 2:5)
However, through justification our status with God was changed from the
objects of wrath to the
objects of blessing. "Peace with God" means that we are no longer at
war with God. We are no
longer enemies of God. God's anger toward men subsided. Hostility with
God ended through
faith in Jesus and a new relationship as children of God started. God
began to look at us who are
justified through faith in Jesus with a smiling face. We began to enjoy
God's favor as people
belonging to God. "Peace with God" is different from "peace with
others." Leo Tolstoy, a
Russian novelist, thought that war was hostility among men or nations.
So he wrote a book called
"War and Peace" to bring peace among men. The book was so thick that
one time I attempted to
read it but finally gave up because I was going nowhere. Obviously, he
did not know the way of
peace and had to write a bulky book. There were four major wars in the
20th century alone. Often
times history is divided by major wars. Webster's Collegiate dictionary
defines "peace" as a state
of tranquillity or quiet, or freedom from disquieting or oppressive
thoughts or emotions. People
used to say at the end of the day, "Well, nothing happened to me today
and I guess I had a
peaceful day." It is easy for us to see peace in terms of having a
peaceful feeling or having peace
with ourselves. Therefore, people try to achieve peace by removing all
sources of trouble. But
this is not possible. This is not a right solution. When we remove one
trouble, another one comes
right away because we live in the troubled world. For example, we enjoy
peaceful driving when
we buy a new car. But soon a new car became an old car and starts to
make a noisy sound and
then we know that we got into a big trouble. We lose sleep and big
bucks. We don't like to pay
rent and we buy a dream house. Then trouble begins. But our broken
relationship with God is a
real source of trouble. Here we learn that peace is not found in a
trouble-free life but it comes
from a right relationship with God. Some people try to fix their
anxiety problem with drugs and
other people try to forget their guilty feelings with alcohol. Beer and
marihuana are popular
among people who want to get out of their troubles and anxiety.
However, people can not have
peace as long as they live as the enemies of God. Peace is not a mere
good feeling but a matter of
restored relationship with God. Feelings swing like a yo-yo. Some
people acts like an angel in
the day but turn into a small devil in the night. In history, many
people have proclaimed peace
when there was no peace. (Jer. 8:11, Eze. 13:10) Peace comes only from
God.  Therefore, there
is no peace apart from God. When we have a right relationship with God,
God keeps us in
perfect peace (Isa. 26:3), for the fruit of righteousness is peace.
(Isa. 32:17) Jesus promised this
kind of peace in John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give
you. I do not give to you
as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be
afraid. " If we have peace
with God, we can enjoy peace in our souls. If we have peace with God,
we can have peace with
others also. When I came to UBF in my college days, I was attracted to
the peaceful image of
UBF women with happy smiles not plastic ones. They looked like angels
because they had peace
with God. At that time I did not understand why UBF people laughed a
lot even someone shared
a tearful testimony. The secret was that they had peace with God.
Mahmia Richards smiles a lot
because she has peace with God. The ultimate goal of our salvation is
to have peace with God.
Peace with God is a sign of our justification that we all as Christians
enjoy from the present time
to the future. Peace is the greatest blessing God has given to those
who are justified by the blood
of Jesus. We can have real peace only when we have a right relationship
with God.

Second, we have gained access by faith into this grace. Look at verse
2a. "Through whom we
have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand." The
Greek verb for access is
"prosago" which means "bring someone to someone else", or "approach",
or "come near." In the
old Testament time people could not approach to God because of their
sins. Only priests were
allowed to enter the Holy Place to offer sacrifices for the sins of the
people.  If others attempted
to do so, they were destroyed immediately. Sinners did not have any
access to God. But in the
new Testament time Jesus became our access to God. We come to God in
Jesus' name. Through
justification we entered a grace relationship with God. The age of the
law and condemnation
ended and the new age of the grace and salvation began. By the grace of
God we stand as God's
favored children. As we know, father and son relationship is very
special. Though son makes
mistakes and breaks house windows with baseballs and brings many
parking tickets, his father
still loves his son because his son is his son no matter what happens.
When we become members
of Price Club, we can enter the store and buy all kinds of products
with discounted price. But
non-members cannot have any access to all privileges the Price Club
offers. When I joined
campus recreation center membership, I began to have access to all
kinds of fitness equipment.
In the same way we began to enjoy special relationship with God when we
have gained access
into the grace of God. This signals that we live no longer under law
but under grace. What a
great blessing it is! We feel imperfect and condemned when we live
under the law no matter how
hard we worked. But we are happy and satisfied when we live under grace
because we know that
God will forgive our sins as long as we come back to him with
repentance though we make
mistakes.

Third, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Look at verse 2b.
"And we rejoice in the hope
of the glory of God." Since we have peace with God and gained access to
God's grace, we have
hope in God. Peace and hope are related very closely. When we have a
right relationship with
God, we have a desire to seek God's glory not the worldly glory. God's
grace allowed us to
rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We know that the things of the
world, which all perish,
spoil and fade away, cannot be our real hope. (1 Pe. 1:3-4) From time
to time worldly hope
makes us look like a monkey, who put his hand in a bottle and grabbed a
banana and never let it
go, and thus was trapped. Worldly hopes demand endless labor and
sacrifice. People have to get
up early to beat the traffic after hitting their alarm clock several
times. People toil day and night
under the watchful eyes of their bosses to eat three meals a day. Many
companies installed a
software to watch their employees' web surfing activities secretly in
their PCs. Some
missionaries put hope in sheep and they despair when sheep run away and
their hope is gone.
Some parents put their hope in children and they despair when their
children do not meet their
expectations. Some people put their hope in career or husband. But we
know that worldly hopes
are temporal. It is true that worldly hopes only lead men to despair,
because after hope, despair
comes. It is a universal truth that after hope, despair comes. Why did
people put hope only in the
things that will spoil and perish. Romans 3:23 explains the reason,
"For all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God."  Sinful men could not see the glory of God
but only saw the worldly
glory diluted by depraved minds of selfish men. The glory of God was
blocked to all men due to
their rebellion and disobedience. But now we rejoice in the hope of the
glory of God. God
allowed us to have the glory of God as our eternal hope. The main theme
of the Bible is lost
paradise and the restoration of paradise. By the precious blood of
Jesus, the paradise is fully
reopened to those who are justified through their faith. Our real hope
is to enter into the glorious
kingdom of God and live there forever with our King Jesus.

Fourth, we rejoice in our sufferings. Look at verse 3a. "Not only so,
but we also rejoice in our
sufferings." When we are justified through faith, our level of joy has
been changed. When we try
to live by the word of God, suffering comes in the form of persecution.
The first century
Christians faced death when they had hope in the glory of God. Old
friends became their
enemies. Family members suddenly started to persecute them because they
did not follow the
world. But suffering brought joy to those who are justified because it
gave them an opportunity
to realize the hope of God. In reality, no one likes suffering. We
don't like suffering. As soon as
we hear the word "suffering,' we are ready to run away like a 100-meter
track runner. We are
happy to hear the word "blessing" but we close our ears when we hear
the word "cross" or
"suffering." If there is a hint of suffering, people are panic and even
some people suicide when
they suffer. If we protect children from suffering, we spoil them and
they give up easily when a
small suffering comes. At the same they develop a bad character.
Suffering provides an
opportunity to develop a true character. Before we were justified
freely through faith, sufferings
produced in us restlessness, sleeplessness, fear, misery, and
darkness-the character of Satan.
Sufferings made our lives meaningless. Sufferings snatched away what
little joy we found in
such things as eating and sleeping. To our chagrin, suffering never
ends.

But to those who are justified by the blood of Jesus, sufferings are
spiritual ingredients
for spiritual growth. Why? Look at verses 3 and 4. "Not only so, but we
rejoice in our sufferings,
because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance,
character; and character,
hope." In the past, sufferings made us negative in our view of man and
the world. But after we
are redeemed and justified, God makes us positive toward sufferings.
Not only do we have a
positive attitude toward sufferings, but also we can enjoy them. The
more we suffer, the more we
think of Jesus, who suffered and died for us, and we come to love Jesus
with many tears.
Suffering increases our perseverance level. The Greek word for
perseverance is "hupomone"
which means "remain to the end" or "endure" or "continue", or "wait."
Suffering does not make
us quitters but winners by remaining to the end. Sufferings do not make
us weak; they make us
strong and refined our faith. (1 Pe. 1:6,7) Sufferings produces the
immeasurable power of
perseverance in our inner person. Suffering also forges us the
character of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Not only this, but also we have a clear purpose in suffering. We do not
suffer anymore for doing
evil. We suffer for the glorious hope in the kingdom of God. Romans
8:18 says, "I consider that
our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will
be revealed in us."

Peter was a top disciple of Jesus. He was a man with a big mouth. But
the problem was
that Peter did not like suffering at all. He wanted to have an
easy-going life. He liked the glory of
Jesus and eating fellowship but did not like the suffering and cross.
He boldly rebuked Jesus not
to take up the cross of suffering. He became a coward when he did not
have a right attitude
toward suffering by disowning Jesus three times before a little girl.
He cried bitterly because he
betrayed his Master Jesus. After Jesus' death and resurrection, Peter
learned the meaning of
Jesus' suffering. Then he could have a positive attitude toward
sufferings. He said in 1 Peter
4:13, "But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ."
When he said this, he really
meant it. He encouraged early Christians to rejoice in the middle of
sufferings in the hope of
becoming like Christ.

In the past, Shep. David Brogi suffered a lot while living with five
brothers in a common
life house but suffering refined his character. Now he said
confidently, "Nothing bothers me now
and I can sleep with the light on and dishes piled in the kitchen." One
American shepherd failed
his CPA exam so many times and people thought that he would quit to
take the exam. But he
persevered and at the same remained faithful to God's mission. By faith
he declared that he
passed the exam even before he received the notice from the exam
authorities. God is building
character in Shannon Smith while he memorizes the book of Romans
faithfully. God will not
disappoint him in the end.

        How do we know that this hope of the heavenly kingdom is real? Look at
verse 5. "And
hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into
our hearts by the Holy
Spirit, whom he has given us." When we personally accept the blood of
Jesus, the love of God
sprouts in our hearts. It is a spiritual secret. At the same time, our
spiritual eyes are opened to
know that God is living and that his promises are true. Then the doubts
of Satan melt away like
snow in the early spring. This hope in God's love does not disappoint
us. We have thought about
the results of justification. They are peace, joy, hope and enjoying
sufferings.

Part II. GOD DEMONSTRATES HIS OWN LOVE FOR US IN THIS (6-11)

Look at verses 6-8. "You see, at just the right time, when we were
still powerless, Christ
died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man,
though for a good man
someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love
for us in this: While we
were still sinners, Christ died for us." Before we were justified, we
were totally powerless to do
anything to save ourselves or to overcome our sin. Paul reminds us our
sinful past so that we can
maintain our new life in God. Sin makes people helpless and powerless.
We were slaves of sin
and were powerless to save ourselves. We were ungodly and wicked and
were objects of God's
wrath. We had no way to make peace with God. The best way to maintain
our new relationship
with God is to remember about our lives before we were justified
through faith.

What did God do for such ungodly people? (6-8) Christ died for the
ungodly like us. God
poured out his love and God demonstrates his own love for us in this.
Paul used the present tense
by saying "demonstrates." In order to save sinners from their sins, God
gave his one and only
Son to die on the cross. There is no one who wants to die for others
even though there is a
righteous man. But God sacrificed his own son to save us from our
wretched sin. This is God's
love for us. If we remember God's grace and his love displayed on the
cross, we can maintain
our new life in Jesus and we can grow in faith. What is our assurance?
Look at verses 9 and 10.
"Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we
be saved from God's
wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were
reconciled to him through the
death of his Son, how much more, shall we be saved through his life!"
Paul put the exclamation
mark in this passage. He was moved by the love of God for us. The death
of Jesus is our
assurance of God's salvation. What should be our attitude toward God's
grace? Look at verse 11.
"Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God trough our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom we
have now received reconciliation." We must be thankful and rejoice in
God because God
reconciled himself with sinners through Jesus. God initiated his love
while we were still sinners
and gave us new life through his grace. May God bless us to have peace
of God and hope of the
glory of God through our faith in Jesus.