The Trinity; Father, Son, & Holy Spirit
A Sermon Series
“The Trinity Helps Us Understand Forgiveness”
Romans 5:1-11
Introduction
Prayer
God’s Gifts of Justification
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the previous chapters Paul has laid out his argument and addressed any arguments against how we are justified (made right) with God by faith in Jesus. Notice that it is a past action (you have already been justified); when a person places their faith in Jesus they are immediately made right with God. You don’t have to wait until some future day to see if your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds – by placing your faith in Christ that issue has already been resolved.
When I asked Kimberly to marry me, I had to travel from Alabama to Maryland where she was living. After my arrival I told her I had a gift for her and that I wanted her to open it where we first went on our first date (the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland). We sat down on the boardwalk and I handed her a large wrapped gift – that when it was opened was another smaller wrapped box – which progressively got smaller and smaller until there was a ring box, and by the time she got to that one I was on one knee ready to propose.
With God’s gift of justification, it is like my gift to Kimberly, one gift leads to another gift, and leads to another gift – but where Kimberly had worthless empty boxes until the end, each of God’s gifts are incredibly important.
The Gift of Peace with God (1b)
“we have peace with God.”
Now, he transitions, “therefore” – there is something that results from a person having placed their faith in Jesus, “we have peace with God.” In this world peace in only temporary.
As Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain is remembered for his support for the policy of appeasement towards Adolf Hitler over the annexation of Czechoslovakia and the signing Munich Agreement on 29 September 1938. Returning from Munich, Chamberlain delivered his “Peace with Honor – Peace for Our Time” speech. While he was holding up the paper Hitler was planning to invade more countries. In this world rarely is there peace, World War 1 led to World War 2, then Korea, then the Cold War, then Vietnam, then, and on we go, and on we go.
“This is why the central motif of the gospel in the New Testament is reconciliation. What is a necessary condition for reconciliation to take place? The most important – and necessary – ingredient for reconciliation is estrangement. Where there is no estrangement, there is no need for reconciliation. The New Testament repeatedly described the ministry of Jesus as a work of mediation, because the God-Man came into a hostile world estranged from God. The work of Christ is that of a mediator to bring the estranged parties together. He is the Prince of Peace, who came to end the warfare that is so real.”[1]
Jesus knowing that He is about to leave has no earthly possessions to give to the disciples (no houses, no lands, no earthly wealth). But look what He gives them, John 14:26-27 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” Peace is a cessation of fighting, freedom from hostilities – our fight with God is over.[2]
The Gift of Access to God (v. 2a)
2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand,
In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve had unlimited access to God, and they would run to Him when He would appear. But once sin came into the world when He would come to them, they ran away and hid because they were aware of their nakedness and were filled with shame. An angel with a flaming sword was placed at the entrance of the garden keeping them out. And since then, as Adam’s children, if our sin is not removed, and our shame taken away, we cannot be anything but rebels in God’s creation.
Later God introduced ways for His people to have access to Him. With the tabernacle God’s people encamped in a circle around it so no one tribe had more access to God than another. He would appear in a pillar of smoke and fire and would settle above the Tabernacle showing that He was among His people. But only on the Day of Atonement could one priest, the high priest, enter the Holy of Holies and perform the rites of purification. His presence was among them people, but the people could not have direct access to God Himself.
Then we fast forward to Jesus dying on the cross and we see these events happening while He is dying, Matthew 27:50-51 “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.” God the Father, gave His one and only Son to pay the penalty so that humanity may have direct access to God once more, and “no longer was there to be incense and ritual but now simple worship from the human heart, in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24).”[3]
“in which we stand,” When the law was given at Mt. Siani God’s people trembled with fear, and earth shook, and there were terrifying lightening strikes, and commands were given, “don’t touch the mountain!” Is this how we approach our God when we gather in worship?
Hebrews 12:22-24 “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
“We come to the presence of God. We have access to his presence. There is no more veil. The angel’s sword of flame has been doused with the blood of Christ, and God welcomes us into his presence.”[4]
The Gift of Hope that Leads to Rejoicing (2b)
“and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
If someone were to ask you, “do you think the Titans will win today?” Someone may say, “I hope so.” This is an answer where the person desires for the event to happen, but they are not certain that it will happen. This is not true for the promises of God – We have stability in this world of war; we have an anchor that helps us to stand in the face of difficulty. Hebrews 6:19 “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,” People want an anchor to hold them, and hope gives them purpose and value.
The words faith and hope are very similar in the New Testament – Faith looks at something that has already taken place, and we put our trust in it. Hope is merely faith looking forward. We rejoice in the sure reality that one day we will enter into the glory of God – we will see Him, and experience Him in all of His glory. Hope is the belief that God is going to do what He said He would do.
The Gift of Suffering that Leads to Rejoicing (vv. 3-5)
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Paul is not someone who enjoys pain and suffering. Instead, he knows that because of our relationship with God, our suffering produces something within us. This suffering will cause us to grow as a person. Christians build strength when they endure sufferings. Sufferings also cause us to look beyond our present situation of distress to God and His promises.
James 1:2-4 says something similar, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
One of the works of the Holy Spirit is to pour (not drip) God’s love into the Christian’s heart. When they are experiencing sufferings, and they are trying to endure, and hope – the Holy Spirit confirms with our spirit that God loves us. “That is what fuels our hope and gives us confidence that we will not be ashamed. It is what enables us to persevere and endure trials and tribulations.”[5]
God’s Timing of Justification (vv. 6-8)
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
(v. 6) In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and all of humanity fell into sin. This is what we call “original sin.” But the discussion throughout the ages is how much did sin affect humanity? Original sin does not refer to the sin committed by Adam and Eve, but to the consequences of the sin – how far and how deep did the corruption affect the entire human race.
Paul in this Romans passage refers to this corruption as a degree of strength. We are described as being “weak” and “still sinners.” “We have been plunged so deeply into sin that we do not have moral capacity to incline ourselves in any way to the things of God.”[6] We are totally depraved.[7]
Apart from Christ, “we are unable to understand spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:14). We were unable to see the kingdom of God or enter it (John 3:3,5). We were unable to seek God (Rom. 3:11).”[8] Paul later uses another image to explain this idea, Ephesians 2:4-5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” We are spiritually dead in our trespasses and totally moral corrupt that we will never choose God over the world – so the Holy Spirit moves in our souls and draws us to God.
We have rebelled and sinned against a holy God who is our Creator. This Father God, in His Love, Sent His One and Only Son (who also is God) to pay the price for our sin, to make the relationship right again. Then God the Holy Spirit in our complete moral depravity and spiritual death, allows us to be able to choose Jesus’ gift of salvation and to follow God. The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit are essential to our justification before God.
(v. 6) “Christ died for the ungodly,” and “while we were still sinners,” – The law of the OT was given to show us one thing (honor your father and mother, have no other gods before God, do not covet, etc.) All the festivals, celebrations, special meals, all should show us one thing – You cannot keep all the laws all the requirements – you cannot be perfect before God. The law was designed by God to alert people to their need for grace and a Savior.
Look what Jesus says on this topic, Matthew 5:17-18 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” The law pointed to the need for a Savior, Jesus fulfills the Scriptures by being that He died for the ungodly.
God’s Wrath and Our Reconciliation (vv. 9-10)[9]
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
Jesus, the Son, acted as our mediator between God and Us – He reconciled us back to God the Father, and Paul reminds us that because of that free gift of grace, we are avoiding the wrath of God. The wrath of God is His hatred of sin. The wrath of God is not just an OT teaching, John 3:36 says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Ephesians 2:3 talks about those apart from a relationship with God, “and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
Why would God pour out His wrath upon humanity? “God is sovereign, but the lost oppose him – they do not want anyone to rule over them. God is holy, yet they oppose his holiness. They do not accept His righteous moral standards; they do not want their sinful acts and desires to be called into question. God is omniscient, yet they are angry because God knows them perfectly, nothing is hidden from His sight.”[10] Humans oppose God, we are enemies of God.
God’s attribute of wrath and hatred of sin shows another reason why we should praise and worship Him. Imagine a god that did not hate the evils of this world, injustice and instead delighted in wrong doing, or was just tolerant of sin. A god who does not hate sin, is not worthy of worship, or honor, or praise. But humans do sin, we rebel against our Creator, we do not follow His ways. So, His wrath is justly aimed at everyone, and especially those who reject His Son as the only means of salvation.
Romans 3:25 uses the word propitiation with regards to Jesus; it is a word that means, “a sacrifice that bears God’s wrath to the end and in so doing changes God’s wrath toward us into favor.”[11] To propitiate is to make someone favorable toward you – What is required to make a holy God favorable toward a sinful mankind? His sin has to be dealt with – someone had to bear the full weight of God’s hated of sin. Once that was done, God no longer holds anything against the believer. The believer is seen by God as being as perfect as Jesus. We are accepted as Jesus is accepted.
But even with all that hatred toward sin, He is still patient and longsuffering toward sinners. But don’t think His mercy will he held out forever, 2 Peter 3:9-10 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, . . .” The Lord delays His wrath because He wants as many people to be saved, by faith in His Son, as possible before His return.
“God has made peace, and no other peace can be made except that which He has already made. To talk about making our peace with God is to reject His peace . . . If a man rejects the peace which God has provided through the Lord Jesus Christ, he remains at enmity with God.”[12]
11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
The result of these gifts from God (peace with God, access to God, a hope of being with God in glory, how we grow as a person in this life), how God came to us when we never would have chosen to do so, how we escaped the wrath of God, and Paul says, “more than that,” is joy, unspeakable joy. The Christian life, is meant to be a life of joy. We have so much to be happy about!
“We contemplate our state of affairs in this world and we see our bank accounts sliping away, our homes destroyed, our jobs lost, and our bodies torn by disease, and we have every reason to complain, whine, and weep. But if we lifted our eyes for one second to the cross and the resurrection, we see that Lord God omnipotent, who is too holy even to look at us, now looks at us and embraces us and adopts us as his children because he has reconciled us.”[13] This should bring us nothing but joy!
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[1] RC Sproul, The Righteous Shall Live By Faith, Romans, St. Andrews Expositional Commentary (Wheaton, Illinois; Crossway Publishing, 2009) 141.
[2] See also Matthew 11:28-30, with the fighting being over, now our soul can rest.
[3] Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s River, Expositions of Bible Doctrines Taking the Epistle to the Romans as a Point of Departure, Volume 2 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1973) 38.
[4] Sproul, 145.
[5] Sproul, 152.
[6] Sproul, 154.
[7] Here is a helpful video on the topic of Calvinism v. Arminianism, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q4Z66lF2CA
[8] James Montgomery Boice, Romans, Volume 2 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan Publishing, 1992) 537.
[9] Just as an aside, if a person doesn’t choose Christ, and they go to hell where there is torment and anguish – why is it eternal? Why after a period of time of this punishment would their sins not be paid for (by their suffering), eventually? Apart from Christ, there is no way for a person to be rid of their sin; they would eternally be sinful. It is their nature. So hypothetically if they paid for their sin from when they were on earth, they still would have continued to be under God’s wrath because they are “dead in their trespasses and sin.,” They have no way of giving themselves spiritual life again. Apart from Christ and the Holy Spirit, you have no way of changing your depraved nature. You are a sinner, and will eternally exist that way apart from salvation in Christ.
[10] Boice, 537.
[11] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan Publishing, 1994) 575.
[12] Barnhouse, 22. See also Hebrews 10:29.
[13] Sproul, 166.
