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Back to the Bible Let it be our plea. God's word alone are authority Every word, every step in the name of Christ Back to the Bible for the way
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of life welcome to this period of Bible study. We are so thankful that we have an opportunity to spend a few minutes in a consideration of God's Word with you and hope that your time with us is well spent and that you find us to be faithful in our consideration of God's Word and you find us to be clear as we seek to explain it. If you have questions or even disagreements with what we have to say on the program, we would invite you to reach out to us@backtothebiblepodcast.com we would love to hear your questions. We'd love to. We would love to hear whatever you might have to say regarding how we can be more faithful in our teaching or more clear in the way that we say it. And we invite you to reach out to us. We are engaged in a study of the Book of Romans and we're going to start in this lesson in chapter five. But it may be that you have questions about what we've said over the previous few lessons. And if you want to go back and listen to those, you can find those on our website or you can find them on our YouTube channel at back to the Bible podcast, or you can just look them up on Apple itunes or Spotify or wherever you find your podcasts. We would love to hear from you and hope that our work is helpful to you, but most of all that it's glorifying to God as we seek to go back to the Bible for it all. We're going to go into the Book of Romans chapter 5 during this lesson and remember that in the first chapter, Paul introduces the letter to the Romans as expressing a desire to come and be with them in order to carry out and to continue his work as an apostle and as an apostle. In preaching the Gospel message, we see in Romans chapter one that he is eager to preach the Gospel because he's not ashamed of it, because he recognizes that in the Gospel is revealed the righteousness of God and that it makes salvation available for Jew and Greek to all of those who believe or who give their faithfulness to the Lord. But we see that the great problem is sin. In chapter one we see that the Gentile world stood condemned. And in chapter two, at least in my reading of it, I think we see Paul create a conversation partner that would represent Gentiles who have either gone under the process of Judaism or who are being tempted by that. And what he is showing is, is that in so many cases, those Gentiles who are being put under this Judaizing, it's not reaching them in the heart, it's not striking them. What it takes to be God's person is to be transformed from the inside out. And they have approached this in a very hypocritical way. They want to be one of God's people, but they don't want to make the changes that are necessary. But it goes further than that. For every Gentile who thinks that they have to submit to the law of Moses, or that they have to go through circumcision or keeping the Sabbath day, or other rules and laws that come from the law of Moses, for them to think that that is necessary in order to be one of God's people misses the grand theme of the Old Testament, which says that it's not about physical circumcision, it's about heart circumcision. And was there value to being a Jew? Absolutely right. Chapter three. There is great benefit to being a Jew. However, the law ended up being a spotlight on their sin more than something that was going to bless them and give them life, not because it was out of reach, not because it was never intended to strike them to the heart, but because they did not receive the blessing and the life that it offered because of disobedience. And so now the grand conclusion is that all are in sin, but God's righteousness is being demonstrated. God's righteousness, his faithfulness to his promises had been pointed to and had been testified to throughout the Scriptures. The law and the prophets had pointed to it. But now it has been revealed in a special way. It has been revealed in the sacrificial and death and the resurrection life of Jesus Christ. And it is because of Jesus faithfulness in the cross and because of the propitiation or because of the mercy that's made available at the cross, that God can be righteous and he can make righteous those who are not righteous. And so we see in chapter four that the better model for thinking about how one is put in a right condition with the Lord is not in submitting to the law of Moses, certainly not for a Gentile, but rather Abraham. Abraham is the great model, really, he's the great model for Gentile and for Jew, because Genesis chapter 15, he is declared to be right with God before he is circumcised in Genesis 17. And we're talking about thousand years, 500 years, 600 years before the law of Moses is going to be given. He lives around 2000 BC. The law of Moses isn't going to be given until between 1450 and 1400 BC. And yet we read Genesis chapter 15 that God justified him, that his righteousness, his faith was counted as righteousness. And we say, okay, how is Abraham justified? Well, he's not justified by circumcision. He's not justified by the keeping of the law of Moses. He is justified by his faithfulness. Now, of course he is circumcised. And of course the law of Moses will come along for the Jewish people. However, what Abraham shows is that for Gentile and for Jew, the key element is faithfulness to the Lord. So a Gentile would not need to be circumcised. They can still be like Father Abraham in that they can be justified by faithfulness and a Jew. If they're going to really be the seed of Abraham, they're going to have to recognize that circumcision goes more than skin deep and that the law of Moses does not automatically make a Jewish person right with God, but faithfulness to him does. Now, having said all of that, we come to chapter 5, beginning at verse 1. And there Paul says Romans 5:1. 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 in. Into this grace in which we stand. And we boast in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction brings about perseverance and perseverance, proven character and proven character hope. And hope does not put to shame, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who was given to us through. For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. For if, while 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. And not only this, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Paul begins here in five, verse one, with a therefore. A therefore is drawing the conclusion from what he has just said because of God's faithfulness. And because of God's faithfulness demonstrated in Jesus. Faithfulness connected to by our faithfulness to. Just like Abraham connected to God through his faithfulness. We now, therefore, we now are right with God. We now are justified. We are in covenant relationship with Him. Paul says now as he's speaking to these Gentiles, he's drawing the conclusion and saying, if you have the faith of Abraham, the faith of Abraham was that God could bring life from the dead. If you have that faith of Abraham regarding Jesus Christ that God could bring life from from death, then we have been justified. The text there says, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The idea there of peace is covenant relationship with God. This is not just inner peace, right? This is not just a good feeling inside of ourselves. This is the peace that comes from being reconciled to God so that we are no longer on the receiving end of his wrath. You remember that from chapter one and verse 18 that the gospel needed to be proclaimed because the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness. But now Paul says, we have been justified. We have peace, not wrath from God. Not only do we have peace, but we have access. We have obtained our introduction by faith. We have access to God in a way that we did not have as Gentiles. I think about what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 18. That because we have been reconciled to God through Christ, that we now have access in him in one body. So Jew and Gentile reconciled together and then together being reconciled to God. So that Paul would say in Ephesians 2, 18, for through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father down in chapter three in verse 12, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Do you see that Paul is saying because of God's righteousness demonstrated in Jesus, we now through faith have peace and we have access. We have their access to God's grace. We have that introduction by faith into this grace, this gift, this relationship in which we stand. And not only that, but we have the hope of seeing God's glory in hope of the glory of God. That is what we have. If we have faith in Christ, if we have given him our faithfulness. And he says, because of that, we can, verse three, excuse me, can boast in our afflictions, knowing that our afflictions bring forth patience or perseverance or endurance. And if we have perseverance, then we can have proven character. And if we have that proven character, Then we can have hope. And what Paul is saying here is that we can view afflictions as a gift of God in order to shape us into who we ought to be and to stir up hope in our hearts. Of course, we don't want to have to face afflictions. We don't want to have to face terrible things. But the wonderful thing about being in Christ, having been justified, having this access, having this grace, and having this hope is that now afflictions don't only have to be bad things. They don't only have to be things that are suffered first. They can be things that are endured, which then shapes us to be the kind of people God has long desired us to be. And it provokes within us to long for what is coming. What a blessing, even in things that don't seem like blessings. Now, I want you to note the use of the word boasting in this passage. So your text may say rejoicing in some of these places, but it's the same root word connection to the words that we have seen as boasting earlier in the book. Now remember, in chapter two and verse 17, this conversation partner that Paul is engaging with had been boasting, chapter 2, verse 17, bearing the name Jew, relying on the law and boasting in the name of God. Then we come to chapter three. And when Paul talks about this idea of being justified by faithfulness. Now the interlocutor, the conversation partner wonders, where is the room for boasting? Verse 27? Where's the glory? Where's the value in that? Now Paul is going to say, there's no boasting there. We're not boasting because we have submitted to these rules and regulations in this man made way. Rather we get to boast. Notice chapter five, he says, in chapter five and verse two, we can boast not in the law of Moses, but we can boast in hope, in the glory of God. So I don't have anything personally to boast about, but I can be proud of the hope. I can celebrate that there is value, there is glory, there is joy in that. In verse three, he says, and we can even boast in our afflictions. Boast in your afflictions? Is that something to be celebrated? Is that something to boast in? Yes, because God can use those things to shape us and to stir up hope in us. I think all of this is going to be concluded in verse 11 where he says, we can boast in God. And so a type of boasting is eliminated, a pride that would come from a Gentile's submission to the law, which missed the point would be a boasting that is eliminated. But that doesn't mean that there isn't room for some type of boasting like look at what God has done for us by grace. And as a result of that, we can boast in hope. We can even boast in our afflictions, because we can boast in God. Now, I think that what we see in all of this is Paul's explanation. How can I know that the hope that I have is going to come to fruition? How can I know that what I have in mind, what I have in view is going to be fulfilled? And the answer here is because of the love of God. Romans chapter 5 says, we have been introduced into this relationship with God and we have hope and we can even endure afflictions because we have our minds and our eyes set on what's coming. And the way that we know that what is coming is actually coming is because of God's love. We have God's love poured out by the Spirit who dwells in us. Now, how does the Holy Spirit. How is it poured out through the Spirit? I take it to be that it is revealed a revelation of God's love through the revelation of his faithfulness in Jesus Christ. I think this connects over to Titus chapter 3 and verse 4, where there Paul says, the kindness and affection of God, our Savior appeared. He saved us not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to his mercy, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by his grace, we would become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. There is some sense in which through Jesus and what he did, that the Holy Spirit is poured out. And that is a great explanation or demonstration or means by which God's love is made known. Now, specifically, God's love is demonstrated in Jesus death for those of us who were hostile to God's purposes. If God will provide all of that when we were his enemies, certainly now that we are at peace with him, he will do all we need to bring us to ultimate salvation. We can boast on the basis of what God has done in Jesus. I'm putting up a chart on the screen. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see this. But I want to explain what's going on. And even if you're listening, I hope that this makes good sense. Imagine on one side you have the Past record. How are these people that he's writing to? And let me say as well, how are we being described? I want you to notice verse 6 especially we were weak, we were ungodly. Look at verse eight, we were sinners. And then we also notice down in verse 10 we were enemies. Now I want you to consider where we were and now where by faith in Christ Paul says we are. Look at the present. Look at verse one, Justified, we have peace. We also see that we in verse two that we are in grace. Notice there that we can have rejoicing, that we have joy or boasting as a result, that we have access verse five to God's love, verse nine, that we have access to his blood and that we were reconciled. Verses 10 and, and 11. So just think about that in the past, weak, ungodly sinners, enemies now justified, at peace in grace, boasting or rejoicing God's love, Christ's blood reconciled. If God could move them from where they were to where they are in. If God can take us from where we were to where we are, then look at what he says we can have expectations of. In verse two you could look forward to God's glory. You could be saved from the wrath. Now notice in verse 9 we have been justified. We shall be saved from the wrath of God. And verse 10, if we were his enemies through the death of his Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved. I think the point here is that the distance from standing in grace as friends to glory was a shorter distance than the move from under God's wrath as his enemies to being his friends. If God is going to move us from weak, ungodly sinners and enemies to be in Christ, reconciled, forgiven, in grace with hope, then the move to the next phase, eternal life, salvation from the wrath of God is not near as much of a move. The faithfulness of Christ, notice this down in verse nine has saved us from the wrath of God. I think again that echoes back in chapter one, verses 16 and 17, where he says, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, who to the Jew first and also to the Greek for therein the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written. But the just will live by faith, for the wrath of God is revealed. So in chapter one we see God's wrath revealed. I think we see that again in chapter two as this person, this interlocutor, this conversation partner, being on the receiving end of God's wrath. And I think we see that in chapter three with the record of the Old Testament scriptures of wrath. And yet now in chapter five, we see that the faithfulness of Christ saves us from the wrath of God. I want you to also notice in verse 10 that we were reconciled by death and we shall be saved by his life. Now maybe there's a connection to chapter 4 and verse 25. Notice this with regards to Jesus. He was delivered over on account of our transgressions and was raised on account of our justification. Do you see that? He died for transgressions, raised for justification. Now we come to chapter 5 and we look at verse 10. We were reconciled through his death, and we shall be saved by his life. I think the idea is that Jesus death is the sacrifice that takes care of our sin through forgiveness, and that his life is a promise of our own resurrection, life in the future. And all of this is going to introduce us to a new theme of life and death. Through the letter, we're going to look at that. At the end of chapter five, he will talk about Adam's death, death and the life that is in Christ. And then chapter six, he'll talk about us dying with hope of resurrection. And in chapter seven, he will talk about death and life. And we will see that again in chapter eight. And so we kind of have had a boasting theme at the end of chapter three. Well, what could Abraham boast in? Well, not in anything that the conversation partner would have wanted to boast in, but he could stand before God justified. What can we boast in hope and affliction and in God? And now we have this theme of life and death, that Jesus died for our transgressions, that he was raised for our life, and that we can die with him chapter six and be raised to live with him now in hope of eternal resurrection life after a while. Now we come to this end of Romans chapter 5. And I do not think that we will be able to make our way all the way through this section, but there are a few things I want to say in order to kind of set ourselves up for that and prepare our minds to understand what's happening here. In chapter 5 and verse 12, he says, and I'm going to read all the way through the end of the chapter, and we will do this again in our next program. He says, Romans 5:12. Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. For until the law was in the world but sin. Until the law, sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the trespass of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come. But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one, the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who had sinned. For on the one hand, the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation. But on the other hand, the gracious gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one death reign through the one much more, those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. So then, as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so, through one act of righteousness, there resulted life to all men. For as through the one man's disobedience, the many were appointed sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, the many will be appointed righteous. Now the law came in so that the transgression would increase. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now let's begin here with the first word in verse 12, therefore. Now what's the connection he's making? Chapter 5, 1, 11. Remember, we have been reconciled to God. We have hope of eternal life because God has demonstrated his love towards us in Jesus. Now, verse 12, therefore. I think the therefore is if while we were enemies, God would reconcile us, then what's the conclusion he's going to draw? I really think 12 through 17 is kind of setting the stage for. For the conclusion he's going to draw down in verse 18 where he says, through one transgression resulted condemnation. Through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men. Paul is saying is if God would demonstrate his love to us in Christ so that we could be saved. Therefore, based on that, just like through one sin, Adam's sin, death spread to all men. So as through that one act of righteousness, the death of Jesus, we now have access to eternal life. Do you see what he's saying? That's how we can have the confidence of resurrection, of life. Because just like death has spread because of Adam's sin, so then life will come, eternal life will come as a result of Jesus death. I think that is the one act that he's talking about. He talks about the one act of righteousness. And we will see more about that when we look at chapter five more carefully later. I will say that I think that there is a disagreement among good Bible students about what kind of death Paul is talking about spreading here in Romans 5. And I'm going to make the case, and I'll start now that this death is the spread of physical death. Now, for a long time I held to the view that this was spiritual death that was spreading. But I want you to think about this, that the physical death is spreading regardless of whether somebody has sinned or not. We think about little babies that die. He's talking about physical sin. Now, spiritual death does spread because of sin. We are only separated from God, spiritually dead when we sin. But physical death has spread because of Adam's sin. And the hope here is of eternal life, not just spiritual life, though that is absolutely essential. But it's looking even beyond that to the eternal life that comes when we are reconciled with Christ. That's where we'll leave off for this time. Until then, we bid you a pleasant good day.
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Back to the Bible. Let it be our plea. God's word alone, our authority, every word, every step in the name of Christ. Back to the Bible for the way of life.