Romans 5: Stanly Community Church

Transcription

1 There is only one reason unworthy sinners can be reconciled to God: The life of Jesus Christ serves as the sinner s substitute. It is an amazing exchange, which absolutely secures eternal life for all who completely trust in Him as God s only righteous Son. Paul teaches in his letter to the Roman Christians that God promises forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus (Rom. 4:13-25). Faith in God s Son ensures that we fully inherit the promise, have peace with God and complete access to His grace, and a certain hope of the glory of heaven (Rom. 5:1-5). All of this He provides even though none of us deserves anything but hell (Rom. 1:18-3:31). Romans 5:6-11 illuminates the truth that Christ is the sinner s substitute a gift of grace and mercy to reconcile us to the Father. The Substitute (5:6-11) A Gift of Grace (vv. 6-8) No one can truly be forgiven unless they are in Christ, and no one can be so identified with Him unless they trust Him by faith (Rom. 10:4-17). However, to believe in Him, you must first realize just how much you need God s forgiveness, and that requires a change of heart that only God can provide. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches that only those who are poor in spirit and sorrowful over sin will enter God s kingdom and know the comfort that His forgiveness brings (Matt. 5:3-4).! 1

2 As Paul has already explained in no uncertain terms, everyone is a depraved sinner with no natural desire for God (3:9-31). Unless the Lord intervenes on our behalf, we truly have no hope of eternal life. That is why the promise of God must be received by faith. Faith requires total dependence on God for salvation a change of heart that we cannot generate ourselves. The truth is that we bring nothing to the table. It is His grace, which moves God to redeem the sinner. Not only does He provide Christ as our substitute to suffer the curse of sin under the Law, but He also inclines our hearts toward Christ as Lord and Savior (Eph. 2:8-10). This makes the substitution of Christ for the sinner all the more astounding. Only those with a regenerated heart could be humbled by this truth and believe it. Thus Paul begins to describe the substitution of Christ for the sinner in terms of grace: For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly (v. 6). Paul s point is that those who come to faith in Christ were without the capacity to believe in Him when He died for them. In fact, the phrase, without strength (Gr. asthenes) essentially means that we were absolutely weak and feeble. We had nothing which deserved salvation and certainly no heart to desire or appreciate it. We had sin and guilt which necessitates judgment, but we were not even willing in the least to seek His forgiveness.! 2

3 When Paul says, in due time Christ died for us, he is stressing how Jesus substitutionary death was a deliberate and predetermined act of God unrelated to our actions. God gave His Son to die on His terms and in His time (cf. Gal. 4:4, 5). It was a grace gift to the ungodly those who were not even remotely righteous but whom God nonetheless chose to save. To be ungodly is as rebellious, sinful and unrighteous as you can possibly be. It is a fixed and determined condition of the heart. This is what we were when God chose to give His Son to die for our sins, and it is what we are until we are born again and drawn to Jesus in faith (Jn. 3:3; 6:44). God does not offer forgiveness to people who deserve it (Mk. 2:17). All anyone deserves is judgment (1:18-3:8). Such grace is so foreign to our thinking that, apart from God s assistance, we cannot even begin to appreciate it much less be the beneficiaries. As Paul taught the Corinthian believers: we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God (1 Cor. 2:12; cf. 2:13-16). Paul now begins to reason from the greater to the lesser: For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die (v. 7). In other words, people have, at times, been moved to die for someone they consider to be righteous. And on more rare occasions, some have even died for a person that is better than average.! 3

4 However, the reality is that God does not consider us to be good much less righteous, and that is what makes Christ s sacrifice for the sinner an act of pure grace. Though we were at enmity with Him guilty and condemned sinners -- He loved His elect so much that He gave His unique, sinless Son to die the death His holy law demands (Jn. 3:16-18; cf. Matt. 5:17-20; Eph. 1:3-14). And so Paul says in verse eight, But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He did not wait for us to make ourselves presentable. He did not issue any prerequisites for salvation other than faith. When He offered His Son as our substitute to bear the dreadful curse of sin, He offered Him for unworthy sinners who truly deserved eternal death in hell. A Gift of Mercy (vv. 9-11) God also offers His Son to be our substitute as a gift of mercy. As much as we do not deserve forgiveness, we absolutely deserve judgment. If grace is receiving what we in no way deserve from God, then mercy is not receiving what we certainly deserve, which is His wrath. Thus Paul says in verse nine: Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. The gracious gift of the righteous Son who kept the law and likewise suffered its curse is the very reason God withholds His deserved wrath toward us who are all transgressors.! 4

5 Christ the Son was given by God the Father to experience the whole judgment of the sinner. And having experienced it fully, the sinner who looks to Christ in faith can be declared no longer guilty or worthy of death, since the penalty has been paid in full. That is why the apostle will later say, There is, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (8:1). Paul s mention of Jesus blood is a graphic reference to the violent death the Lord died as our substitute. It conveys the outpouring of God s wrath while Christ was on the cross. Jesus physical suffering mirrored the spiritual anguish of His soul as He endured death in its fullest sense (i.e. the complete absence of the goodness of God as the sinner suffers His wrath forever). As He hung on the cross, the eternal Person of the incarnate Son absorbed an eternity of the Almighty s wrath, which is very much what we should receive. Everything Jesus endured was an expression of God s anger toward our sin, and we cannot even begin to fully comprehend it. Paul is saying that, if God has graciously declared the believer no longer guilty ( justified ) based on Jesus sacrifice, He will also spare them His wrath in judgment. If God is gracious, then He most certainly is merciful ( much more ). Grace and mercy are the opposite sides of the same coin so to speak. You cannot exercise one without the other. God s grace is the result of His mercy and vice versa.! 5

6 Paul further elaborates on this point in verse 10: For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. That is to say, if God was willing to reconcile us when we were His rebellious creatures, then He is certainly willing to be merciful and save us from His eternal wrath now that we are reconciled by faith. The life of Christ to which Paul refers is His resurrection life as the only truly righteous Son of God. His righteousness is His own, and He deserves life with the Father because He kept His commands perfectly from the heart (cf. Deut. 6:5; 10:12-13; Ps. 119:34; Ezek. 20:11). So if His substitutionary death brings reconciliation for the Christian, then His righteous life of which we also partake can certainly preserve us from wrath (Rom. 5:18-21; cf. Jn. 14:19). In Christ, the Christian keeps the law from the heart and any transgressions are covered by His atoning sacrifice. Paul is telling us that the LORD s demonstration of grace proves His willingness to be merciful in the Day of Judgment. The living Savior stands always as our Advocate (1 Jn. 2:1; cf. Heb. 4:14-16). His presence in heaven is a constant representation of the justification His sacrificial death provides for the believer and of His eternal life imputed to them. For this reason He was raised from the dead (Rom. 4:24-25).! 6

7 This reconciled position is our source of joy if we are Christians. The apostle concludes by saying, And not only [is God merciful and gracious], but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation (v. 11). In Christ, the enmity between God and the sinner is removed. What greater reason is there to rejoice? God Himself has intervened and made a way for us to have everlasting fellowship with Him in true righteousness. We do not possess our own righteousness nor can we do anything to obtain it, but God provides it through Christ. And that is why we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ and not in ourselves. In 2 Corinthians 5:18 Paul also says, Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ. God has given His only begotten Son as the only acceptable Substitute for the sinner. He is a gift of God s grace and mercy for the purpose of reconciliation. Are you reconciled to God through faith in Jesus? If not, God s grace and mercy today is only to allow you time to repent. Do not consider His patience to be reconciliation. Unless you have received the forgiveness of sin provided only through Christ, you will receive no mercy in the day of judgment.! 7