Sermon Notes: Peace with God, Hope of Glory, Joy in Trials (Rom. 5:1-5)
Intro: Here we see how intensely practical the truth of God’s justification of the sinner by faith is. It
provides a foundation for our walk with God which enables us to experience peace with God, hope of
glory, and joy in our trials.
#1: Peace with God (1). Look at verse 1. How does Paul refer to the believer’s justification by God?
In the past tense. As an act and verdict of God the Judge which is complete. Over and done with! The
believer is not in the process of being justified so that he might be accepted by God as righteous at
some future point! No. We are perfectly justified by God the moment we embrace Christ as Savior by
faith. How important this truth is! Justification is not subject to degrees! Yes, God’s work in us is. We
differ from one another to the extent that we allow God’s Spirit to make us like Christ. It is possible to
be more or less like Christ. But it’s not possible to be more or less justified. Paul was not more
justified than you are as a Christian. God’s act of declaring you righteous is perfect and complete the
moment you believe. God’s justification of the believer is the judgment of the Last Day spoken into
the present. God will never reverse it even though the Devil may appeal against God’s verdict
continually. Remember what Paul said in chapter 4 verse 25 that Christ was delivered up for our
trespasses and raised for our justification. God’s resurrection of Christ is the proof for all time that
God has accepted his death as a full and perfect payment for sin for all who trust in him. What’s the
first practical blessing that follows from this? Peace with God. How important peace with God was to
Paul. He refers to it over forty times in his N.T. letters. Subjective Peace. Paul is referring to a
subjective assurance that God perfectly accepts me sinner though I am. Is there anything more
precious than the assurance that nothing can make God accept me more than he already does? Or that
nothing can make him accept me less than he already does? God’s perfect acceptance of me brings
peace. Objective Peace. Objective peace with God is actually Paul’s most basic concern. Grasping this
truth will enable me to know peace whether my circumstances are happy or not. What do we mean?
This: peace with God means that until I have received salvation from God through faith in Christ, I am
at war with God. When I sin, I am declaring autonomy from God. Independence from God. I am
saying I will be lord of my life and my world. I am defying my Creator who has a rightful claim over
me. But second, our disobedience of God means that God has a problem with us too. It’s not just that
we are hostile toward him. It’s that we are also under his wrath. We are in danger of his eternal
condemnation. But if we have received Christ as Savior, God’s wrath has been propitiated—that is
removed by the sacrifice of Christ’s blood. And because God’s wrath has been propitiated I have been
redeemed—Christ’s blood has delivered me forever from the threat of God’s judgment (cf. Rom.
3:23-25). What’s this objective peace mean? It means that all of God’s divine attributes are now
directed to my eternal good! And they always will be (cf. Rom. 8:32ff.). This assurance that Christ’s
propitiatory-redemptive sacrifice has achieved objective peace with God for me enables me to
experience subjective peace regardless of my unhappy circumstances!
#2: Hope of Glory. Paul always has his eye on the goal of our salvation which is sharing in the glory
of God? Do we have this perspective? Do we only think of salvation merely as forgiveness? Or merely
as propitiation or redemption of justification? These are great blessings but the greatest is being
glorified with God! We must keep on remembering that ultimately, home is where God and all his
people have gathered. Paul says in verse 2 that Christ has given us access to God who in turn has
given us the hope of sharing his glory. What’s the practical significance of this? God is with us. The
Greek word for “access” is prosogoge. This term has the sense of bringing a person near. In this
world, you and I can have access to the great and powerful only by their initiative. Unless they choose
us to be their friends and gather us into their confidence, we have no access to them at all. But God
has done this for us in Christ! He has brought us into his throne room of his heavenly residence.
Where ever we go in this world, we are always, in a sense, in the heavenly throne room of God’s
presence. We are with him and he is with us, whether we feel him to be or not. We shall be with God.
This is the flipside. We have this hope of glory. The English word “hope” doesn’t capture the certainty
of Paul’s Greek word. According to our customary usage, “hope” refers to something that is not
absolutely certain. But the Christian hope is not a kind of hopeful wish—it’s absolutely certain.
Because we have peace with God through Christ’s sacrifice, we will be with him in glory. How does
this hope build on peace with God and access to God? In this way: the more we experience peace with
God and access to our Father because of our confidence in Christ’s sacrifice, the more we look
forward to being with him in glory and seeing him face to face. Without this emphasis, heaven can
seem gray and ethereal. But if we remember that it involves the closest possible fellowship with our
heavenly Father who loved us so much that he gave his Son to judgment to make us his own, then we
anticipate it. We will know the closest possible fellowship with him and his people.
#3; Joy in Trial. Note how Paul brings up the subject of suffering right here. Suffering, not as a
possibility but as a given. A certainty. But our relationship with God through Christ enables us to face
suffering with confidence and hope and courage. Why? Because God will not allow it to work against
us. Instead he will use it to work for us. He will not permit a second of it to be wasted! Instead, he will
work all together for our good. Thus, “we rejoice in our sufferings.” Not that we rejoice for our
suffering but we rejoice in it knowing that God will use it for our good. Note the process: Suffering
produces endurance. It causes us to focus. To realign our priorities. To drive us more deeply to God,
his Word, his gospel, his promises for help. Endurance produces character. Character, like a muscle,
grows and strengthens through testing and exercise. As I exercise my privileges of having peace with
God and access to my Father in Jesus’ name, my character becomes mature. Character produces hope.
Why? I know from experience that God has stood with me, supported me, and will continue to
faithfully work all for good. If God is for us who can be against us? This is where the rubber meets the
road! If you face suffering with a clear assurance that you are justified and accepted by God by his
grace alone through faith alone, your joy in the Lord will deepen instead of diminish. If, however, you
face suffering with the mindset of justification by your works and performance, your suffering will
break you, rather than make you. It will make you bitter rather than grateful. Dour rather than joyful.
Think how suffering affects people who always trying to work their way into God’s acceptance of
them. They are always striving after self-justification by their works rather than resting in God’s
perfect justification of them the moment they believe. Because of this, self-justifiers are always
insecure at a deep level because they know they aren’t living up to their standards and they can’t
admit it to themselves! Thus, when suffering comes, they are undone by it. They believe they are
being punished for their sins! They can’t take refuge in God’s love. They can’t rejoice as Paul urges us
to here. Their belief that God accepts them conditionally is shattering! They are driven from him
rather than drawn nearer to him. How we suffer is the acid test of where we put our hope—God’s
grace or our works. Does God use suffering to awaken us to sin, indifference, etc.? Yes. But if you are
a Christian, God deals with you as his child rather than as an orphan. Because you are objectively at
peace with God through Christ’s sacrifice, all God’s dealings with you are restorative rather than
retributive! Yes, God may discipline you for your disobedience but he will never punish you for your
sins. Why? Jesus endured the punishment you deserve to make you his child. How must you, then,
view your sufferings? Not as God crushing you but as God drawing you into deeper appreciation of
the blessings which follow from his justification of you by faith. What must we do in suffering?
Rejoice by faith! In obedient faith rejoice that God will work all for good! The payment of Christ’s
blood guarantees this to you, believer!