We Have Now Received the Reconciliation

Sermon transcript

We come now to the reading of God’s inspired and infallible word as we turn together this evening to the book of Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5, we’ll read verses 1 through 11 and remember And in the reading of the scripture, here it is, God speaking most directly to us by his inspired word given to the apostle of old. Romans chapter five, beginning with verse one here, these things.

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 into this grace in which we stand and we exalt in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exalt in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance. And perseverance, proven character. And proven character, hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

For while we were still helpless, 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 exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Thus far, the reading of God inspired an infallible word. Let’s pray together one more time. Father, we do ask. that this very wonderful passage, this very important message of the New Testament gospel would be ours tonight. And may you apply it to our hearts and minds with power and that we would turn from unbelief to faith and that we would be transformed to more and more seek after and follow after the Lord Jesus Christ. We do ask, Lord, your blessing upon the one who preaches, But also upon those who hear together tonight, we pray for the power of the spirit. The same spirit who moved Paul to write of old would be that spirit who now illumines our minds, our hearts, and applies these things to our own understanding. Fill us with your grace, for we do pray together in Jesus’ name. Amen. To be justified by faith is to have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me repeat that very simple, important statement. To be justified by faith is to have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, having set out God’s way of justifying sinners and established it on the basis of Old Testament revelation and Old Testament precedent, Paul now here in chapter five enumerates the blessings which accrue to those whose faith has been so counted unto them for righteousness. The first of these benefits or blessings applied to the believer is peace with God.

Men and women who were formerly in a state of rebellion against God and under his wrath and curse have now been reconciled to him by the death of Jesus Christ. It was the purpose of God, as Paul tells us in another one of his letters, to, quote, reconcile all things unto himself, unquote, by Christ. but preeminently to reconcile those who were formerly alienated and enemies to him at heart. I’m thinking of Colossians chapter 1 verses 20 through 22. and to recognize in what Paul was writing that, in fact, the death of Christ has accomplished this reconciliation and that it has been a matter of real practical experience in the lives of many believers to know peace with God. The reconciliation is something which God has already affected through the death of Jesus Christ.

And now men everywhere are being called through the gospel to accept it, to enter into the goodness of it, to be at peace with God. This piece of which we speak carries with it free access to God. Free access to God for those who were once far off. Those who were once far off have been brought near through the blood of Jesus. to be a people not only forgiven, but as those accepted by God, as those beloved and those made graciously to stand in a place of high favor with God. And it is through Christ that we have entered into this state of grace. And it is through him, too, that believers now rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Citation from Romans five, verse two of our text this evening. Rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Peace and joy are twin blessings of the gospel. Indeed, three objects of joy are specifically mentioned in this opening paragraph of Romans 5 that we read tonight. And I’m speaking specifically here of verses 2, 3 and 11. You may want to trace along to see these three objects of joy that are mentioned by Paul as blessings of the gospel for those who believe. The first Paul says in verse 2, we exult in our new American standard or we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Look at verse 2. That’s our first blessing, the object of joy. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. The second object of joy is found in verse three, and it is an unexpected one. Paul says we also exalt, rejoice in our tribulations.

If this seems strange to us to find joy in our tribulations, let us remind ourselves tonight and always that in the New Testament, tribulation is viewed as the normal experience of a Christian. Remember how the apostles warned their converts that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. I’m quoting Acts chapter 14 verse 22. Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

But affliction and tribulation were not merely regarded as necessary or inevitable in the apostolic church. They were also regarded as a token of true Christianity. Tribulation and affliction together were a sign that God counted those who endured them worthy of his own kingdom.

Second Thessalonians one and verse five. So not only are such tribulations necessary and purposeful in the Christian life, but such tribulations also serve a very good and helpful purpose on those who suffer them. For they, that is these afflictions, help to cultivate endurance and steadfastness of character in believers. Paul says the same here in Romans 5. Making believers hope in God even more sure as they go through trials and affliction and seeing God’s steadfastness.

So that’s the second joy. Joy in tribulation. Joy in the hope of the glory of God. Joy in tribulation. But now we come to the third and what we might call the supreme object of joy. And that supreme object for Paul is found in verse 11 of our text, where he says that same phrase, For the third time, we also exalt, or we also rejoice in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. The hope of glory, the first of the joys, is a joyful hope, and those who know why they are suffering trial and persecution can rejoice, have joy, even in the midst of their troubles, and not only through them, but because of them, knowing that they serve a good purpose. But there is no joy comparable to the joy that is found in this third joy, the joy that is found in God himself.

The psalmist says in Psalm 43, verses 3 and 4, and we say and sing with him. Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling places. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy. And I, as your pastor, would ask you very pointedly tonight, is God your exceeding joy? I ask you, is God your exceeding joy? The psalmist says so, Psalm 43, 3 and 4. But similarly, the psalmist David sings in Psalm 21, verse 6. For you, Lord, he says, make him, that is the king, most blessed forever. You make him joyful with gladness in your presence.

The justified believer has peace with God, access to God’s grace and hope for the future. He or she, whomever the believer may be, is saved from the wrath of God and has been reconciled to God. God’s righteousness has appeared through Jesus Christ. The accomplished mission of Jesus Christ in the world, in his death and in his resurrection, is the accomplished justification. By grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we have now received the reconciliation. It is by grace, through faith in Him, our present possession. That is, the reconciliation is our present possession.

His death is sufficient for us. While we were still helpless, at just the right time, Christ died for the ungodly, Paul says. God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Indeed, our sin debt has been paid in full. As Jesus says from the cross, indeed, it is finished. It is paid for.

But we know also that Jesus Christ is coming again, don’t we? And he is coming again to judge the living and the dead. How shall we stand in that day? Since Jesus Christ, the one who came and who is coming again, is the revelation of the righteousness of God, the justifying pronouncement of the divine righteousness is both the present possession of the believers, and it is also their desired and anticipated goal. Christ is both present and future. Already known and yet concealed as He is in the heavenly places, He is both our present surety and He is also our future hope.

Paul says in verse 9, much more than, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. Here is the now and what we call the not yet of the gospel. Having now been justified by his blood, past tense, present tense, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved, future tense, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God, Paul writes, through the death of his son, much more now, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

By grace through faith, we have been joined to Jesus in his death for our sins. By grace through faith, likewise, his perfect righteousness has been reckoned to our accounts. But more than that, much more than that, we remain joined by grace through faith to the now resurrected Jesus who is coming again to receive those who are his. In this, by faith, we rejoice with joy inexpressible. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more now, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his resurrection life. And not only this, but we also exult in God. We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received, present tense, the reconciliation.

And here I would offer a quotation from a German Tübingen University professor by the name of Adolf Schlatter. He’s not a well-known theologian because of his being of German descent, but he offers a very important commentary on the book of Romans. And I’d like to offer an extended section from his writings for you here tonight. And so listen to Adolf Schlatter as he comments on Romans chapter five.

The work of righteousness is peace. because justification is brought about by God’s grace and frees the believer from wrath. It brings peace in relationship to God. God is no longer against him, that is the believer, but God is for him. And he does not suffer, that is the believer, does not suffer God’s resistance, but experiences God’s endowing work. Justification is God’s reconciliation. With the believers, they no longer have God as their enemy. Instead, they are accepted into communion with him. This puts an end to their being afraid of God and to their inward resistance against him.

Since God grants the individual peace through faith, peace is not the work of the individual, but it is the work of Christ with the emphasis upon the assertion that he, that is, Jesus Christ, is our Lord. God’s opposition to the individual ceases, therefore, because the believer is now under the dominion of Jesus and belongs to him. The divine wrath does not affect those who belong to Christ, for it is God’s intention to give his son, that is Jesus, many brothers who are like him.

End of quotation from Adolf Schlatter. And he ends with that many brothers to be given to Jesus. a citation or reference to the book of Romans chapter 8 and verse 29 for his God’s perfect purpose to conform us to the likeness of his son. And so God will give many sons, many brothers to the Lord Jesus Christ.

That’s his good pleasure. And so we rejoice in the hope of such things. Paul is yet to address what such sons of God want and what they ought to do. But he can only do this if the community, that is the church community, fully understands what it is they have received and what they have become.

That the peace of God is our present possession and is brought about through the lordship of Jesus Christ is further elucidated by stating that through Jesus we have gained, we have received access to this grace in which we now stand This grace, as Paul speaks of it, is the one mentioned in verses one and two of our text. Namely, this grace that we have received is the relationship to God that we have received, such that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have received in this peace an approach that we might come now near to God. both Jew and Gentile, circumcision and uncircumcision, male and female, slave and free, as many as believe the good news. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the power of God for salvation, has brought us near, has brought us peace, has brought us acceptance in the presence of God.

What we could not do, Jesus Christ, friends, has done for us. He has brought us near to God. It is faith that lays hold of this joy, this superlative joy, and that is not of ourselves. It is indeed the gift of God. To him be the glory and the praise and the power and the dominion forever and ever. Amen and amen.

Let’s pray together, shall we? Our Father, we are thankful. that we now have the reconciliation, we have peace with God, we have acceptance in the presence of God, and we have the surety of our resurrected Savior, who is our possession and we are His. And if He has died for us, how much more His life is now at work in us that we might find acceptance in the favor of our God. Oh, Father, bless these things to our hearing tonight. Bless us as a church that we would press on in that surety which is ours, in the joy of the Lord, the joy of grace in which we now stand, rejoicing in the hope of glory, rejoicing even in tribulation and suffering, rejoicing in our God who has done these things for us. Hear our prayers. Apply these things to us. We pray together tonight in Jesus’ name. Amen. I ask you then, in response to the Word of God, to turn with me to hymn number 223, Arise, My Soul, Arise.

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