Paul begins chapter 5 writing: “therefore, since we have been justified by faith”. He wrote this because he used chapters 3 and 4 to establish that we are justified by faith and not by works. Having established that doctrine, he now wants to show believers what this means to them.
Justified means to be made right with God. We are not right with God in our natural state because we are sinners and sin separates us from the Holy God. (Isaiah 59:2) We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (3:20, 23) Verse 10 even calls sinners enemies of God.
But, having come to Jesus Christ in faith, placing our trust in him alone for forgiveness and eternal life, we have be justified by God’s grace through faith.
Having established that we have been justified by grace through faith, Paul tells us that we have blessings that arise from our justification.
The first blessing is peace with God, which we have though the Lord Jesus Christ. (1) Before coming to Christ, we did not have peace with the Holy God. Our sin separated us from him. We followed the world opposed to God and the prince of the power of the air. We were not righteous. We were objects of God’s wrath. (Ephesians 2:1-5)
But now, that has all changed because of the work of Christ on our behalf. We have peace with God. This is not a matter of subjective feelings. It is an objective fact. God is not our enemy. He is not out to get us. He sees us in Jesus his Son, whom he loves. And he loves those who believe in him.
I was a legalist as a young believer. In my defense, I heard many more sermons about law than about grace. Although I was a pretty good kid, I always felt that I could not measure up to God’s standards. I was right about that.
But I was ignorant of the full effect of grace. I did not understand that the work of Christ brought peace with God, that I could live in the love of God rather than the wrath of God. When I learned I had peace with God, I also learned to have peace of mind, resting in his grace and love. My subjective feelings followed my understanding of the objective truth.
In verse 2, Paul wrote of the second blessing we have as a result of being made right with God. We obtained access to this grace through faith. This grace includes our justification, our being made right with God.
This grace is not a one time event. It is a grace that continues forever. It includes eternal life and the ability to stand before God at the final judgment without condemnation. We are eternally saved by God’s grace, which we come to through faith in Christ.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God (grace), not a result of works, so that no one may boast”.
Although this grace is an objective fact, it should result in subjective feelings of peace. We no longer worry about God’s wrath. We want to please God, but we do not see God as angry with us or out to get us.
It is important that we do not project our feelings for our earthly fathers upon our Heavenly Father. Your father may have been abusive. He may have been absent.
God is for us. Romans 8:32 says as he gave us his Son, he will also graciously give us all the things we need. He wants what is best for us. He works for our sanctification, making us more like Christ, because that is what is best for us.
This grace makes us rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. (2) Glory comes from God. It is his nature and character. When we are with God in eternity, we will get to fully experience the glory of God. Jesus said he will return in the glory of the Father. (Matthew 16:27) Jude 24 says we will be in the presence of his glory.
Think about this: If the glory of angels made men and women fall to the ground, if the transfigured Christ made Peter want to stay on the mountain forever, imagine how great it will be to experience the glory of God for eternity.
We who once scorned God’s glory and fell short of it will get to participate in it. While we have received many blessings from Christ, all of the promises have not been realized. Some will only be realized at the end of this age.
We also wait now for our future glorification. At the resurrection, we will receive glorified bodies. 1 Corinthians 15:43 says our body was sown in dishonor, but is raised in glory. We will be morally perfect. Our new body will be a spiritual body.
We have borne the image of sinful Adam, but we will bear the image of the sinless Christ. 1 John 3:2 says “when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is”.
The word “hope” here does not mean a wish. In the New Testament, “hope” means a sure confidence. We are not uncertain about our future glory. We are certain that believers will be restored.
The glory that Adam lost by sinning will be restored, but in a greater sense, since we will be fully and finally conformed to image of Christ. As Romans 8:29-30 says, those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. Those whom he justified, he will also glorify.
Once glorified, we will not know suffering. But, at present, we do. Yet, because we presently rejoice in the hope of future glory, we can rejoice in our present sufferings. (3) It is an interesting contrast, since one reason we rejoice in our hope of glory is that there will be no suffering at the time.
Paul knew about suffering. He had been beaten, stoned, and imprisoned. He was shipwrecked, spending a night and day in the sea. Yet, he did not indulge in self pity. Instead he rejoiced in his sufferings.
It makes me think of Paul and Silas in Philippi. They were beaten with rods, put in prison, their feet fasted into the stocks. They did not sit around moaning and complaining. Rather, they spent the night praying and singing hymns to God. (Acts 16:25)
One reason we can rejoice is that suffering, or affliction, accomplishes much in our lives. Paul gives us a list of things that come to us as we suffer. It is a “chain of reasoning” as John Murray says, to prove that we may rejoice in suffering.
First, suffering produces endurance. Sometimes, when we are afflicted, we cannot fix it. We have to endure it. It might be sickness or grief or financial stress. Sometimes we have to wait patiently for the suffering to end (or at least get better).
That produces endurance. Suffering makes us tougher. When you have endured a trial and kept the faith, you get tougher and you endure the next trial better than the last. That is why you often see people who have suffered showing great faith and even joy in the Lord.
Paul tells us that endurance produces character. As you endure, you focus on what is important and you grow stronger in faith. Some of the greatest Christians you will meet have endured much suffering and grown in character as a result.
Finally, character produces hope. When we endure suffering, we grow in hope because we see the faithfulness of God to get us through difficulties. We develop hope that God will see us through anything. And we have even more hope in glory, knowing how great it will be to be delivered from all suffering when we get to heaven.
In addition, this transformation that occurs in us through suffering is evidence that we have been changed by God, that we are the “new creations” of 2 Corinthians 5:17.
That changing further strengthens our hope of future glory. We know that God is indeed working in us as Philippians 1:6 says, and that he will continue working until he brings it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ.
As further evidence of our hope, God poured his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit he gave to us. (5) Every believer has the Holy Spirit. He is God dwelling with us.
His presence in us shows that we will be spared from God’s wrath at the final judgment. As Ephesians 1:14 tells us, he is the guarantee of our full inheritance, which is eternal life in the presence of God. We know that we will not experience God’s wrath later because we experience God’s love now, through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit bears witness that we are the children of God.
So, we will have hope in suffering and as a result of suffering. And we will not be shamed in our hope; we will be vindicated.
When Jesus returns, when we are resurrected, we are vindicated in our hope as we are raised to be with him for all eternity, an eternity where there is no sin or suffering, only joy and worship in the presence of the Lord Jesus who gave himself so that we can enjoy eternity with him.
All of these blessings and benefits belong to those who are in Christ. If you have not come to Christ in faith, I urge you to start this New Year by coming to Jesus and being saved.
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