THE BENEFITS OF BEING JUSTIFIED - ROMANS 5:1-11

Peace With God

5:1-2

Having established that we can only be justified by faith, Paul tells us some of the benefits of our justification. You can see the transition better if you start reading in 4:24. 

First, we have peace with God. This is about the status of your relationship with God, not your feelings. Before we came to Christ, we did not have peace with God. We were at enmity (opposed or hostile) with him. We followed the “prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience”. (Ephesians 2:2) This prince is the devil, God’s adversary. (1Timothy 5:14-15) We were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. (Colossians 1:21) 

But, having been justified, we are no longer at enmity with God. We are at peace with him. This peace only comes through Jesus Christ. (1) By his death, Christ has reconciled us to God. God, through Christ, reconciled us to himself. (2 Corinthians 5:18

By faith in Christ we have access to God’s grace. We stand in his grace. (2) Grace is God’s undeserved favor toward us. God saves us by his grace. But, we also continue our lives in grace. We continue to live in his favor. 

Jesus himself proclaimed this message of favor. At the beginning of his ministry, after his temptation, he read scripture in the synagogue at Nazareth. (Luke 4:16-19) The passage he read was Isaiah 61:2-3, which says:

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,

because the LORD has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor;

he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor…”

“The former rebels (non-believers) are not merely forgiven by having their due punishment remitted; they are brought into a place of high favour with God – this grace in which we stand.” (Bruce)

Some people see God as someone who is always ready to pounce and punish us every time we mess up. But, we live in favor. He certainly hates sin and desires holiness, but confession and repentance always leads to forgiveness and restoration.

Standing in grace also refutes the idea that we are saved by grace but only keep our salvation by works, the idea that we can lose our salvation. The Baptists have a short hand expression for this, saying “once saved always saved”. Once we are justified by grace, we stay in a state of grace with God, reconciled to him permanently. 

This state of grace causes us to rejoice in hope of the glory of God. This means both the inward feeling of joy and the outward expression of it. I would love to see more rejoicing among Christians! 

We rejoice in hope. The word “hope” in our times usually means to wish for something. But, in the Bible, it means a confident expectation or anticipation. 

Our hope is of the glory of God. It is the confident anticipation of our final glorification, when God shares his glory with believers by glorifying our bodies, our minds, and our spirits. 1 Corinthians 15:42-43 says:

So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body…we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”

Hope In Suffering

5:3-5

Not only to we rejoice in the future hope of the glory of God, we rejoice in present suffering. That sounds counter intuitive, doesn’t it? But, Paul gives us a chain of character traits that result from the experience of suffering.

First, suffering produces endurance. Second, endurance produces character and, third, character produces hope. Those who keep a strong faith while suffering learn to endure. They do not give up. They keep pressing on.

Endurance produces character that reflects the character of Christ, having the fruits of the Spirit set out in Galatians 5:22. That character produces hope. As the Spirit works in us, maturing us, strengthening us, and encouraging us, we look forward to the return of Jesus in confident anticipation. 

Final Salvation

5:6-11

These verses expand on the hope mentioned in verses 4 and 5. Paul wanted to give us assurance of that hope. It is hope of resurrection to eternal life, escaping the wrathful judgment of God on sinners. 

Paul stressed God’s love for believers. That love is shown in Christ’s death for us. He died for us while we were still sinners in rebellion against him. He argued from the greater to the lesser: if we are justified by the blood (death) of Christ, we will certainly be saved from God’s wrath at the final judgment. Present justification leads to future and final salvation. Now that we are reconciled by his death, we will certainly be saved by his life in us.

All of this again leads us to rejoice through Christ!