The Blessed Results of Righteousness Obtained - Romans 5:1-5

Introduction to Romans 5:1-5

As we enter into a new chapter in Romans, we have entered into the third major section of the book. Let’s do a quick recap of what we have covered.

The book of Romans is divided into two major sections:

I. Righteousness Obtained (Rom 1-11)

II. Righteousness Practiced (Rom 12-16)

Under the first section of Righteousness Obtained, we have covered the first two section:

I. The Need for God’s Righteousness (1:18-3:20): Condemnation for Unrighteousness

A. The Gentiles Are Unrighteous (1:18-32)

B. The Jews Are Unrighteous (2:1-3:8)

C. All are Unrighteous (3:9-20)

II. The Means of Obtaining God’s Righteousness (3:21-4:25): Justification

A. The Righteous God Righteously Justifies the Unrighteous (3:21-26)

B. The Means of Obtaining God’s Righteousness is by Faith Alone (3:27-31)

C. Abraham as an Illustration of Obtaining God’s Righteousness by Faith Alone (4:1-25)

III. The Glorious Results of Obtaining God’s Righteousness (5:1-8:39): Sanctification as the Glorious Transformation for Believers

So we are beginning the third major section in ch 5 that is going to run all the way to ch. 8.

So today we begin to look at The Blessed Results of Righteousness Obtained in Romans 5:1-5.

All The Blessed Results From Justification by Faith (5:1a)

This opening phrase summarizes the central theme of the previous section.

The first word “therefore” shows continuity from the previous discussion by Paul regarding how we obtain God’s righteousness.

The word “since” means that justification by faith is the condition necessary for us to receive these glorious results. The condition is that we have been justified (declared righteous), and God can only declare us righteous if we put our faith in Him.

The kind of faith that is necessary for us to be declared righteous was explained to us in the previous section.

The only way we can be declared righteous is by faith in Christ alone.

Following this biggest of all blessings that anyone can receive, Paul now is going to describe other resulting blessings from God.

These results are God’s saving promises that can be accessed only by faith.

In fact, the four blessed results of having obtained God’s righteousness that we see in vv. 1-5 all come from the fact that we have been justified by faith.

But noticed the centrality of Christ in our justification in vv. 1-2.

It is faith in Christ that results in these blessed consequences.

I. We Obtain Peace with God (5:1b)

Do you want peace?

The world certainly desires peace, but as we have seen, throughout the ages, there has been an absence of peace.

In fact, it seems to get worse over time.

In the last century, we have experienced two world wars, among many other smaller scale wars. As I speak, there is still a war raging between Russia and Ukraine, between Israel and Gaza, Hezbollah, Iran and its proxies.

There is a civil war in Myanmar.

However, the lack of peace is not merely evidenced by war, and now trade wars, but there are also conflicts large and small.

People can’t get along with one another, and sometimes, the conflict is within ourselves.

But among all the broken relationships, the most significant one is man’s broken relationship with God.

A. Peace with God Comes from Reconciliation

That relationship was broken by sin.

When the first man and woman sinned against God, we observed the fracturing of their relationship with God when they were too afraid of God to participate in the evening walk they normally had with Him.

Subsequently, they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. Since then, man’s relationship with God has been broken.

This status is clearly mentioned in Isa 57:20-21 “But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. 21 There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”

We see that even in this book, the wrath of God poured down from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (Rom 1:18).

For those who are self-seeking, who do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, there is wrath and fury. There is tribulation and distress for everyone who does evil (Rom 2:10-11).

This is a result of an unreconciled relationship caused by sin.

But the Jewish understanding of peace is “shalom,” which denotes a broader context of general wellbeing.

But in the NT, the main focus is on a restored relationship with God. The term used to describe this is reconciliation.

To be reconciled is for a right relationship to be restored.

But this process of reconciliation cannot be apart from the finished work of Christ.

B. Reconciliation Comes Through Jesus

Notice that Paul says that this peace comes through Jesus Christ.

In Col 1, Paul speaks of the preeminence of the person and work of Christ. We can pick up from vv. 18-22. It is through Jesus Christ that God reconciles all things to Himself.

Notice the hostility is with us; we were the ones who were hostile to God.

God was the One who initiated the process of reconciliation with us while we had no desire whatsoever to do so.

Similarly 2 Cor 5:18-21 also speaks of God reconciling us to Himself through Christ and as such, God has given us a ministry of reconciliation.

Now that we have peace with God, we are to spread the Good News of the Gospel so that others might have the opportunity to be reconciled to God as well.

We do this by being God’s ambassadors here on earth, and as representatives of heaven, we have the opportunity to represent our king and present His message that, because of our Lord Jesus’ finished work on the cross, we who have a broken relationship with God are able to make peace with God.

We are to implore people in this lost and dying world to be reconciled to God.

This first result of our obtaining righteousness is really a blessing of salvation.

II. We Obtain Grace from God (5:2a)

A. The Blessing of Unmerited Favour from God

Once again, grace is the unmerited and undeserved favor of God. Everything we receive from God is undeserved.

All of us as sinners deserve nothing good from God.

Yet God showered us with His goodness. We receive it with open hands and can only respond with gratitude to God.

Once again, the only way we can access this grace of God is by faith.

The word access speaks of having an entrance and actually alludes back to the OT temple.

The most sacred place in the temple is the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant is located and where the glory of God came down to reside. You may remember reading about it in Exo 40.

Nobody has access to this most holy place, except for the high priest, who, once a year, on the day of atonement, would enter with fear and trembling to offer sacrifice at the mercy seat on behalf of himself and the people of Israel.

Separating the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place was a curtain.

There was another curtain that separated the Holy Place from the temple court.

We are told in Matt 27:51 that when Jesus died, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.”

While Matthew did not specify which curtain it is, theologically speaking, if the curtain is to limit access to one particular man, who can enter only once a year into it to make atonement, and with the death of Christ, that access to God has been ripped right open, that now, anyone can have access to God through the atoning work of Christ on the cross.

There is no more need for the OT sacrificial system now that Christ has made the once and for all sacrifice.

What specifically does this grace refer to?

Rather than referring to a specific gift from God, Paul is referring to the realm of grace into which believers are transferred into by God’s redemptive work.

The domain of grace is contrasted to the domain of the law (6:14, 15).

B. Grace Comes Through Jesus

Once again, this access comes through Jesus.

Notice what Heb 9:11-14; 10:19-22 says.

The perfect tense in the Greek “We have also obtained access” reflects a past action that still has ongoing results. We can say, we have been obtaining access.

So we have ongoing access to this grace.

III. Boasting in Future Glorification (5:2b)

A. Future Hope

The verb “rejoice” appears twice here in vv. 2-3, 11.

Actually, the word means to boast.

But this is boasting in what God does and so it is a good kind of boasting.

Actually, because this is boasting in God, we can have confidence that God will carry out his promises and so there is an element of joyful confidence, hence the choice of word from the ESV translators for “rejoice.”

The word hope, as we shall see, features quite prominently in this section.

The results from righteousness obtained are rooted in hope.

We have already talked about this word and how divine hope is the confident expectation we have in God to do what He had promised.

Here, we see the blessed benefits of having received righteousness and what God promised His children, He will certainly deliver.

B. Glory from God

Here, we can rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Our immediate understanding of the phrase “glory of God,” is that this is glory that is due God’s name, as in glory to God.

But that is not what this phrase means in the context because Paul is talking about the results, the blessed benefits for God’s children.

Rather, he is talking about “glory from God.”

Paul is talking about glory that believers will inherit from God. This glory, that is sourced in God and that reflects God’s nature and character, is shared by believers in the future.

Paul is going to explain more about this glory that we get to share in, in Rom 8:17, 18, 21, 30.

For that, we can rejoice, or boast.

That speaks of the confident expectation we have in what God promised to do for us. We can boast in this because this is all of God’s doing, not our own.

IV. Growth Through Suffering (5:3-5)

The same word meaning “boast” in v. 2 is used here also.

We can boast in our sufferings.

This idea of rejoicing in suffering is not a natural response to suffering, but for Christians, it is not a new concept. Perhaps James 1 comes to your mind as a cross reference.

But suffering is never a meaningless exercise for a Christian.

What are the reasons for a Christian to suffer?

A. Reasons to Rejoice in Suffering

There are some things we need to know about suffering. Paul will describe a chain process, a sequence of events but we want to note that the end product of suffering is hope.

How does suffering get us to hope?

1. Suffering Produces Endurance

This word translated endurance is also translated as “patience” elsewhere, even in the book of Romans.

For example, back in Rom 2:7 Paul says, “to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.”

Then notice how Paul connects endurance with eventual hope in 8:24-25, “Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

15:4-5 “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus.”

Those who experience affliction are toughened up to be able to withstand the storms of life.

As the saying goes, no pain, no gain.

If you are going to train to run a marathon, you have to build endurance.

That comes as you subject yourself to the physical stresses that come with the training. There is no way to get around it if you are going to go from couch potato to a marathon athlete.

Therefore, the only way for our endurance to be built up is through afflictions.

2. Endurances Produces Character

The word translated “character,” actually refers to the experience of going through a test with special reference to the result (i.e., tested character).

So the term refers to going through a test to validate or prove one’s character.

This term appears 7x in the NT and one example is in 2 Cor 8:2, “for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.”

The test of generosity is the extreme poverty the Macedonians were experiencing.

They passed the test when they gave out of their extreme poverty in a wealth of generosity.

Character, like muscle, will not grow strong if it is unused.

When you endure these tests of suffering, you gradually develop a strength of character.

3. Character Produces Hope

Why does character produce hope?

Because if you go through trials and you endure, you pass the test and your character is strengthened, these are evidence that God’s grace is at work in your life, that your faith is strengthened, that there is transformation of your life by God.

The sanctifying effect of suffering gives assurance to the believer that the hope of future glory will certainly come to pass; it is not an empty promise from God.

The evidence of patterns of growth here and now, however imperfect or minor, show that God will complete the process of glorification. It is as Paul says in Phil 1:6, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

What you notice is that suffering is not an optional accessory to the Christian life.

One of the best ways by which Christians grow is to undergo suffering.

Therefore, you can expect God to use suffering to grow you.

How should we then respond to suffering?

Rather than thinking it is some kind of mistake by God, which it most certainly is not, view your suffering as an opportunity for accelerated spiritual growth.

If you have ever prayed for God to accelerate your spiritual growth, be careful what you ask for, because some of the quickest ways by which we grow is through suffering.

4. Hope Will Be Vindicated

The hope you have in God will not be put to shame.

You will not be disappointed.

Those who trust in God will certainly be vindicated for placing their confidence in Him. The proof of that is the love of God poured into their hearts by the Holy Spirit.

The verb “poured out” conveys an abundant, extravagant, effusion that the vessel overflows.

In other words, it is not simply that God gives us His love, but He pours it into our hearts without measure.

That is actually quite remarkable.

Sometimes we say that we would never be able to love like Jesus loved, or at least we are not there yet. But if God has abundantly poured his love into our hearts, can we really use that excuse?

Maybe it’s because God has already done this, that Christ can give us a new command: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn 13:34–35).

But secondly, there is another way by which we can understand what Paul is saying here.

The phrase “love of God” can also mean that God loves us so much that He gives to us the Holy Spirit.

It is not simply that God, in His love for us, gave us His Holy Spirit, but He poured the Spirit into our hearts without measure.

It is as Paul said to Titus in 3:5-6, “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

The fact that the Holy Spirit comes in to reside in each believer is a demonstration of God’s love for us.

But the Holy Spirit that lives in us is what enables us to be filled with the love of God. That is why love is a fruit of the Spirit.

So Paul is referring to the dynamic experience of the Spirit in one’s life.

Conclusion

If we have salvation from God, we are of all men most blessed.

But God has given to us peace with Him, grace from Him, hope to rejoice in, as well as opportunity to grow in suffering. Are you going through a difficult time right now?

Allow the Word of God to renew your mind regarding what you are going through now.

For Personal Reflection

1. What implications does it have for us now that we are at peace with God?

2. How does this passage change the way you view and respond to suffering?

3. How does this passage about the love of God change the way we view and act in love?