Abraham believed God’s promise, Abraham believed specific things that God promised, and on account of that faith alone, and apart from works, Abraham was justified by grace. The act of God in justification is when God imputes His {God’s} righteousness to the sinner.
In our last study on Chapter 4:23-25 ... we saw that the record of Scripture regarding the imputation of righteousness to Abraham was not for Abraham’s sake alone, but was for the church of Jesus Christ. “...it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, ....”
Just this Friday {09/08/01}, Cora and I received a note from a dear friend who lives in another state. I send her video copies of these messages and this is what she wrote: “... I like the way you bring in historical events in the Bible that I have forgotten or did not know about. I remember one sermon you mentioned Moses’ brother - I’d forgotten about that incident - just like a lot of others....”
She will hear this message {D.V}, so that is one reason why I am stressing this point again. cf Romans 15:4 “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”
Now look back at 4:23-25: The church of Jesus Christ is here described:
“Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”
Follow the logic of the way the apostle uses words. Draw a circle arround “accounted, imputed” in v 22 and the same word in vs 23 & 24.
“Imputed” means “take an inventory.” God checks my inventory and finds me “short of the glory of God.” In infinite mercy, God imputes, or charges His own righteousness to my short account! Now, take an inventory!
Then make a connection from the word “justification” in 4:25 to the same word in 5:1. Justification means “acquittal.” I have been “tried and found wanting,” but God has justified me; He has acquitted me!
That’s one way to follow the logical arrangement in Scripture.
Every word is important. Cf. 2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture ....” “every part ....”
In chapters 1-4, Paul has presented the “... Gospel of God which He promised before through the prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, by the resurrection from the dead....” {1:1-4} {4:24-25 resurrection}
The Gospel, says the Apostle, involves the wrath of God and the condemnation of all men. If preachers are ashamed to preach the wrath of God, they are “ashamed of the Gospel of Christ!”
The opposite of justification is condemnation!
Justification means nothing to us if we are not condemned!
To say we have been declared righteous is shallow if we were not unrighteous! Are you justified?
No one realizes their need for a Substitute to take their punishment if they have not been convicted of their just condemnation!
Paul then answers every possible objection to justification by grace through faith. The possession of God’s Word; the rite of circumcision; the law; works of any kind are destroyed as far as trusting in those things for righteousness.
And Paul used the O.T. to do it, bringing in the historical examples of Abraham and David!
Chapter Five of Romans begins a new section.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached 26 sermons on Romans Five.
You have heard me refer to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones so often, perhaps I should tell you a little more about him. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was born in South Wales on December 20, 1899 and died March 1, 1981. I believe he was the greatest expositor and preacher of the 20th Century. He was trained as a physician and practiced medicine until 1927. He left medicine to become a minister of a Welsh Presbyterian Church in Aberton, South Wales and served there until 1938 when he moved to London to share the ministry of Westminster Chapel in Buckingham Gate with the late Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, who retired in 1943. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones labored for the cause of Christ for another 30 years until he retired in August 1968. He continues to preach and write until his death.
His expositions on Romans and Ephesians are excellent.
Lloyd-Jones says that the correct understanding of Chapter 5 is absolutely essential to the correct understanding of chapters 6-7-8.
Beginning in Chapter Five we will see the effects of being justified by God.
This section, beginning with Chapter 5, continues through Chapter Eight.
Notice that the final verse in Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8 each contains the phrase,
“through {or in} Jesus Christ {or Christ Jesus} our Lord.”
The fruit of justification is set forth in each chapter.
This fruit involves assurance: peace, access, and joy in the hope of glory.
Read Chapter 5:1-11
Seeing that we have been justified: what marvelous grace!
The great truth that having been justified, the fruits of justification are evident.
A quick scan of Chapters 5-8:
If someone asks you, “Are you saved?”
You should ask them what they mean by “saved?”
Notice in 5:1-11, that there are three aspects of “salvation”:
Justification {1-2}: 
We have been saved, a once and for all event!
We have been saved, a once and for all event!Sanctification {3-5}: We are being saved, a continuous process!
Glorification {9-11}: We shall be saved, eternity rolls on!
Chapter 5:12-21 is the Doctrine of Representation: Adam and Christ; The Two Representative Men in History.
Some commentators do not even write on vs 12-21, as though they wanted to ignore these verses, or they do not see why the apostle put them here.
This passage gives us the ground of our security!
This week I listened to a sermon I preached on 5:12-21 in this church in 1990. I said then that you cannot understand the Gospel if you don’t understand the Doctrine of Representation! I still believe that.
Our union with Christ is forever secure upon our justification.
Our confidence is “in Christ.”
Chapters 6 & 7 speaks of threats to our assurance; sin and the law. Paul answers the charge of antinomianism {presumption} and the place of the law.
Chapter 8 is, perhaps, the greatest passage on assurance, God the Holy Spirit overcomes even our sin and our propensity to doubt.
Rom 8:33 Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
Now, I want to call your attention to a remarkable thing in 5:1-2 and also in 8:30. The apostle moves directly from justification to glorification.The one who has been justified will be glorified! In the “mind of God” it is already done!
What happens to us in between {3-4}, the process of sanctification, cannot, does not, will not cause us to “quit God.” The person who “quits God,” has never been justified in the first place.
Matthew 13:18-23
18 "Therefore hear the parable of the sower:
19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.
20 But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;
21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."
The person who has been justified by God, based on faith in Jesus, will certainly be glorified. Between justification and glorification the believer in Jesus will be set apart {sanctified} for God’s use. If your life is not characterized by a heart’s desire to follow the commands of God in Scripture, you should question whether God has, in fact, given you repentance that comes with a new heart.
After the awful {explain ‘awful’} revelation of the truth that our condemnation by a Holy God is just, we can now see the peace and assurance of the believer.
God chose the believer in Christ before the foundation of the world;
God promised to provide an acceptable way to be reconciled through Christ;
in the fullness of time God sent His Son into the world to save sinners;
the propitious blood of Jesus has demonstrated that God, who in O.T. times passed over the sins that were previously committed, is just;
and even now God calls His own to faith in Jesus; and those who trust in Jesus and in Him alone have this assurance; that God is able to keep His promise.
***********In this study we will look at verses 1 & 2.
(Lloyd-Jones preached four sermons on these two verses.)
Vs 1“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”
“Therefore, having been justified by faith”
The reason that what Paul says in this next passage is true is based on what has been stated in the first four chapters, especially in 3:21-4:25. “Therefore...” ... we have peace with God
There is a difference between “peace with God,” and the “peace of God.”
Some translations read, “...let us have peace....” which would be an encouragement to realize the consequence of the justified state. The phrase “we have peace,” is closer to the context of this section where throughout Paul is speaking of the objective benefits of justification and not a subjective frame of mind. That does not mean that we do not have ease of conscience and endurance under hardship.
Philippians 4:7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
We are reconciled, God finds no fault with us! His wrath is propitiated!
Everyone seeks peace. Some people use drugs and drunkenness; some look to cults, who offer ‘peace’ without Christ; we all seek the peace that will allow us to go to sleep with no fear of not waking up.
Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die, before I wake; I pray the Lord my soul to take.
We all want peace!
Many of us are old enough to remember the “hippies” in the 1960s , holding up two fingers, and saying, “Peace brother.” What they meant was ‘peace at any cost,’ let communism overrun Asia and Europe and even America, but “Peace brother.” A compromised peace is a false peace.
Ah, but “peace with God,”
For one to have peace with God, something must be changed! God does not change. My position of condemnation has to change!
The word here translated “peace” is in the present or continuous tense, and is an objective reality, not a subjective feeling that may subside.
Peace here means “no more warfare.” cf verse 10
No one hates the god of their imagination. But let them begin to see God!
Notice that “peace” comes before blessings.
You will hear some preachers say, “Come to Jesus.”
They have not mentioned the wrath of God,
they have not called for repentance.
But, “Come to Jesus for blessings,” they say.
But “peace” comes before blessings.
The primary message of the Gospel is not to give us material blessings.
One of the students from Mt. Zion Bible Institute, who is in prison, wrote that his cell was burglarized and he asked, “Why did this happen to me?”
My answer was, “Why shouldn’t it happen to you?”
Last Wednesday in our Bible Study we were studying what the Lord is teaching on prayer. We discussed “The Prayer of Jabez.” The problem that I have with the premise of Bruce Wilkinson’s proposition on “The Prayer of Jabez,” is its emphasis on blessings and little or no commitment to a sanctified life.
He says this is “a prayer that God always answers.”
While I admire the genius of Bruce Wilkinson and the success of his book, do you really believe that God has hidden a well-spring of blessings in an obscure prayer, and that God is just waiting on you to offer some number of “vain repetitions” so that He may release what He has kept in reserve for you?
Compare how the Lord taught us to pray and what we are to pray for.
Why didn’t Jesus answer the request to be taught how to pray by simply referring His disciples to “The Prayer of Jabez?”
My assessment is that while this prayer of this obscure man, Jabez, was answered, it was not recorded as a secret formula that will unleash God’s blessing.
What can we learn from “The Prayer of Jabez?”
I have made copies of Charles Spurgeon’s sermon on “The Prayer of Jabez”
available and I encourage you to read a more accurate interpretation of
1 Chronicles 4:10
So I say again, the primary message of the Gospel is not to give us material and carnal blessings.
The primary purpose of the Gospel is to reconcile us to God. Peace.
Paul uses a Greek word for “peace” which is translated from the Hebrew “shalom.” Shalom has several nuances: safe, friendly, a cessation of hostilities between peoples, as when Joshua entered into a treaty with the Gibeonites {Joshua 9:15}.
The peace that comes when God’s wrath has been propitiated
“through our Lord Jesus Christ,”
Our peace, our access to God, our security is only
“through our Lord Jesus Christ,”
The blood of Jesus which bought our redemption is the only surety that the wrath of God is appeased.
Vs 2 “through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
We know that faith itself is a gift from God:
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
... access {by faith ?} not in some texts, but it does not change anything.
Would you appreciate an audience with the President of the U.S. ?
Wouldn’t you like to have a few private moments to talk with the president?
But how can you gain “access?”
Now the president is only a man, yet see how important it is to have access.
The believer in Jesus Christ has access to God! Lit. “has had access...”
What we did not have, now we have: access!
Hebrews 10:19
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,
In our Wednesday night exposition of the Gospel of Matthew we are at the first part of the Lord’s model prayer {Matthew 6:9}, where He taught His disciples to pray. The next time we study this passage, I will expand on some insight that I got from Kent Hughes on The Sermon of the Mount.
Jesus uses an astonishing word: Abba!
“Our Dearest Daddy {Father} in heaven.... ”
“Father” is only used 14 times in the O.T. and never by an individual.
The term is always applied to the corporate Israel.
But Jesus says the believer has this intimate “access,” Abba!
... in which we stand,
And this is not going to change, it is immutable, unchangeable:
Jude
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
25 To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,
Both now and forever.
Amen.
... in which we stand,
The ability to stand in the judgement proves that Christians are discharged from guilt.
Psalm 1
1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither;And whatever he does shall prosper.
4 The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
This is not a foolish boast based on works or our “decision,”
but “through our Lord Jesus Christ,”
Philippiasn 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
The results of being justified: peace; access; rejoicing.
“... and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
The primary purpose of our justification is the glory of God.
All that I have said this morning is to make this final point.
As our gratuitous justification gives us peace with God, our justification also secures our future glory. The prospect of the glory of God is as sure as if it were a present possession. God’s eternal purpose is to have an inheritance in His Son made up of those he chose in sovereign mercy, which culminates in the glorification of His people in Christ.
Philippians 3:20-21
20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
Colossians 3:4
When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
2 Thessalonnians 2:14
to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 John 3:1-2
1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
The redeemed of God are renewed in order that man’s chief end may be realized which is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ Question One of the Catechism.
1 Corinthians 10:31
Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Romans 11:36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Psalm 73:
25 Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
26 My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
The entire point of the message today is that because we are justified,
we have peace with God, we have access to God,
and the firm assurance that we shall be glorified.
This assurance is based on the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ which has been imputed to us by grace through faith.
If your hope is based on anything else, you are not justified and are still under the wrath of God.
“My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness....”
{The Solid Rock}
So I can say to you with confidence, “Come to Jesus,”
because I have not shunned to proclaim to you the whole counsel of God.
Benediction:
Revelation 21:1-8
1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.
2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
5 Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."
6 And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.
7 He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.
8 But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
Amen
