Romans Chapter 5:1-21
Memory verses for this week: 1 Cor 15:19
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all
men most miserable.
Introduction:
Last week, in the
chapter 4 , Paul reviewed the faith of Abraham and showed its
importance and significance in regards to salvation.
He went on to show how that his works also justified him, but
only after he had been saved some 41 years earlier by his faith. While God commands and expects us to the works of God, He
wants us to clearly understand that salvation is wholly of God by
grace. Just as Abraham
could not boast before God in what he did, neither can we.
We work because of what He did for us.
I.
Believers are Justified
Rom 5:1 Therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ:
Rom 5:2 By whom
also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and
rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
All who receive Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior are justified.
And being justified, we now have peace with God.
If the world only knew the kind of peace that the child of
God has, they would come to Christ for salvation without waiting
another moment. That
is why it is important that we let others know what God has done for
us.
John 14:27
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the
world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid.
John 14:28
Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again
unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go
unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
John 14:29
And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it
is come to pass, ye might believe.
John 14:30
Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of
this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
John 14:31
But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as
the
Father gave me commandment,
even so I do. Arise, let us go
hence.
The wicked do
not have peace at all. They
are like the wind tossed seas.
Isa 57:20
But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot
rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
Isa 57:21
There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
Why does the
Christian have peace? It
is because of what Christ has done for us.
We are no longer under the condemnation of sin, but have been
brought up to walk in newness of life.
Col 1:20
And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him
to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be
things in earth, or things in heaven.
Col 1:21
And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
Eph 2:14
For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken
down the middle wall of partition between us;
Eph 2:15
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of
commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of
twain one new man, so making peace;
Eph 2:16
And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the
cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
Eph 2:17
And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and
to them that were nigh.
Eph 2:18
For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the
Father.
We have access (a way in) to the
Father now because of Jesus. It
is only there for those who are admitted by Christ into His grace.
John
10:9 I am the door: by
me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out,
and find pasture.
Rom 5:3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing
that tribulation worketh patience;
Rom 5:4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
Rom 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
One of the
biggest differences that Christ makes in a believer’s life is the
ability to glory not only in the good things that come unto us, but
also to glory in the tribulations when they come.
Christ gives us the ability to see good even through the bad,
and to know that every step we take is ordered by the Lord.
The tribulation we go through is there to teach us patience.
We learn to wait on God instead of going faster than the Lord
has ordered our steps. And
as we gain experience, we have renewed hope because of what God has
done and is doing in our lives.
Believers have the love of God in our hearts, and that love
is shed abroad by the Holy Spirit.
Love is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and every true
believer has the Holy Spirit living inside them.
Gal 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Rom 8:9
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that
the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his.
Rom 8:10
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but
the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Rom
8:11 But if the Spirit
of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
1 Cor 6:19
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your
own?
1 Cor 6:20
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your
body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
Rom 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ
died for the ungodly.
Rom 5:7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet
peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Rom 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be
saved from wrath through him.
Rom 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
by his life.
Rom 5:11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
What great love that God has
for us. When we were
without strength and still the enemies of God, Christ came and died
for us. And how
true verse 7 is in that we might ourselves die for a righteous
person, but would die for a vile sinner.
That is what Christ did for us.
Why we were God’s enemy, vicious and unloving in our
hearts, God sent His only Begotten Son to die in our place.
If we got what we deserved, every one of us would have to
spend eternity in hell for our sins.
But God laid all the sins of this world on Christ that day on
the hill of Golgotha, there as he suffered for all mankind.
What agony that must have been when it was all placed on
Christ, and God in His righteousness had to turn his back as Jesus
suffered and died. Christ
cried out at that moment and said “My God, my God, why hath thou
forsaken me?” He
did it all for you and me.
In the study on Romans by J. I.
Packer, he quoted several theologians on what they considered these
verses to mean. F. B.
Meyer said “The death of Christ does not remove the enmity of men
towards God, but as it secures the favor of God, it removes his
enmity towards men, from which the removal of our enmity towards him
follows as a consequence.” The
Theologian Rueckert was credited with saying “The reconciled here
can only be God, whose wrath towards sinners is appeased by the
death of His Son. On
man’s part nothing has happened, no internal change, no step
towards God. All this follows as the consequence of the reconciliation
spoken about here. Reconcile
must mean the removal of the wrath of God to man, and consequently
the reconciliation is of God to men.”
Because we are reconciled to God,
this brings great joy to man. Atonement
could be broken into three words explaining what it does.
“At one ment”. By the death of Christ, we are brought back into fellowship
with God. It is
interesting to note that the words “Much more” are mentioned
again and again inverse 9 – 20.
When things are repeated, I believe it has special
significance.
II.
Death and Sin Entered through Adam
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned:
Rom 5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not
imputed when there is no law.
Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them
that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression,
who is the figure of him that was to come.
God put Adam and Eve in the
garden with perfect fellowship with Him.
There was no sin dividing man and God.
But when they partook of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge,
they died a spiritual death which is separation from God.
We may be good people at heart, but each of us have entered
into this life with a fallen nature inherited by God.
Because of this, we sin and are under the condemnation of
sin. The law was our
schoolmaster to show us where we stood before God.
From Adam to Moses’ time, there was no written law.
But all those born during this time still sinned although the
rules had not been written down.
And all who sin die after the similitude of Adam’s
transgression. God had spoken the law concerning the tree of knowledge of
good and evil and how they were to not eat of that fruit. Verse 14 says that Adam was a figure of Christ.
Adam was the first one, Christ was the second Adam that
sinned not.
1 Cor 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living
soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1 Cor 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which
is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1 Cor 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the
Lord from heaven.
J. Vernon McGee had an unusual
example in his commentary on these verses.
“You and I belong to a lost race, and we need to be
redeemed. Even the very
thought life of man is alienated from God.
Somebody may say, “Then
I think God is obligated to save all of us.”
No, He is not. Suppose
that you could go down to an old marshy lake covered with scum where
there are hundreds of turtles, and you take a turtle out of there.
And you teach this turtle to fly.
Then this turtle goes back to the lake and says to the other
turtles, “Would you like to learn to fly?”
I think they’d laugh at the turtle.
They’d say, “No! We
like it down here. We
don’t want to learn to fly.”
And that is the condition of lost mankind today.
People don’t want to be saved.
People are lost, alienated from God.
Now, that’s a great truth that does not soak into our minds
easily, because we have that lost nature.
We just love to think that we’re wonderful people.
But we are not, my friend.”
III.
Righteousness Came through Jesus Christ
Rom 5:15 But not
as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence
of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by
grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
Rom 5:16 And not
as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was
by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto
justification.
The grace of
God, through the righteousness of Christ, has more power to bring
salvation, than Adam's sin had to bring misery,
If by one man’s offense, many were brought under
condemnation, HOW MUCH MORE could we be justified by one, Jesus
Christ. By Christ’s
one act, His death on the Cross, he brought justification to all
true believers. Truly
it was just one sin that brought the sin curse upon us all, and by
Christ’s one sacrifice (His death), we are saved.
Gen 2:17
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die.
Gen 3:6
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and
that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make
one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also
unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Gen 3:7
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that
they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made
themselves aprons.
The free gift in verse 16 is the
salvation given to us through Christ.
Rom 5:17 For if by
one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive
abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in
life by one, Jesus Christ.)
Rom 5:18 Therefore
as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation;
even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men
unto justification of life.
Rom 5:19 For as by
one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous.
Through Adam’s sin, death
reigned. As we
read earlier in our study, “Sin brings forth death.”
Because of this, some one must pay the penalty of sin.
By Christ, we who believe shall live.
The grave has no power over the true child of God.
By Adam’s disobedience, we all were made sinners.
And by Christ’s pure and perfect life of obedience to the
Will of God, many shall be made righteous.
1 Cor 15:53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this
mortal must put on immortality.
1 Cor 15:54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and
this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to
pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
1 Cor 15:55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
1 Cor 15:56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the
law.
1 Cor 15:57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
Rom 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our
Lord.
Verse
20 says that where sin abounded, grace (the unmerited favor of God)
has surpassed it. The
righteousness which God gives believers through our faith in Jesus
Christ is what verse 21 is saying.
Because of Christ, we can have eternal life.
There is no way to obtain this righteousness except through
faith in Christ.
Titus 3:5
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration,
and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Titus 3:6
Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our
Saviour;
Titus 3:7
That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs
according to the hope of eternal life.
Rom 5:1
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ:
Rom 5:2
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
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Prov 4:18 But the
path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more
unto the perfect day.
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