This passage is etched in my mem­ory. It was the ‘text’ for my first at­tempt at preaching. I had never preached before and I was no ‘boy Spurgeon.’ I had no idea how to go about preparing a sermon, nor any idea how much material I needed. I was afraid I might run out of things to say. What was I to do? So I copied swathes from Martyn Lloyd Jones’ exposition of Romans (unacknowledged of course). I ended up with far too much material and went on far too long (some will say I haven’t learned much since!). I some­times wondered why I wasn’t invited back. Many years later however, they did invite me back. I was delighted, and to my great relief no one even remembered my debut.

The passage is memorable for an­other reason. I have attempted to preach from it occasionally over the years — and the difficulty is that there is such an embarrassment of riches. How can a preacher deal with it ade­quately? Martyn Lloyd Jones preached 12 sermons on this pas­sage. James Boice preached 6 ser­mons. I am going to attempt to cover the passage in 1 article! All I am offer­ing, therefore, is a mere skeleton. The chapter begins with a ‘therefore.’ That’s the clue to the purpose of this section. Paul is explaining what is in­volved as a result of being justified by faith in Christ — which he has been writing about since Romans 3:21. What are some of these results?

We Have Peace with God (v. 1)⤒🔗

When we think of what we were in our unsaved state, it should make the hair stand on the back of our neck; it should make our flesh creep; it should make us shudder. Why? Because we were enemies of God. We were under His wrath. We were under His con­demnation. We were alienated from God. Our relationship with God was broken. Why? Because of our sin and unrighteousness.

But everything has changed since we believed. We now have peace with God. The issue has been settled. The cause of enmity has been removed.

The relationship is restored. How? ‘Through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (v. 1). ‘We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation’ (v. 11). ‘God presented Him as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith’ (Rom. 3:25). ‘In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Him­self’ (2 Cor. 5: 19).

We need to understand the nature of this peace. It’s a real objective peace. It’s not a mere feeling. It’s not some emotional high that grips us now and again; it’s not some warm, fuzzy happy feeling that lifts us of our feet. Paul is emphasising an objective real­ity. We have peace with (or ‘toward’) God, because of what Christ has done.

Let me illustrate it this way. It’s the night of the Exodus. The Israelites had their door posts sprinkled with blood. The Lord had promised, ‘when I see the blood I will pass over’ (Ex. 12:12-13). It didn’t matter how the Israelites felt that night — whether they were afraid, or nervous, or anxious, or doubting. Their safety was guaran­teed by the promise of God. When the Angel of death passed through the land and saw the blood, he passed over. All were safe inside. Paul says we have peace with God when we are justified through faith in Christ. This is a fact. When He sees us protected by the righteousness of Christ, we are safe. We should there­fore enjoy the security we have. There are some Christians who are troubled souls, who live in fear and doubt. Perhaps they have trouble accepting the fact that God could love them and accept them because of their particular past. They need to read verse 1 again — slowly. We HAVE peace! Faith must keep its eyes on the facts of our faith.

The Heidelberg Catechism Q/A 60 gives a brilliant answer to the question, ‘How are you made right with God?’ It states:

Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against God’s command­ments and never having kept any of them, even though I am still inclined toward evil, nevertheless, without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits me the perfect satisfaction, righteous­ness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been as perfectly obedi­ent as Christ was obedient for me. All I need to do is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart.

We Have Access to God (v. 2a)←⤒🔗

We are used to seeing ‘No Entry’ signs in many different places: e.g. on the road, in the bank, and in many public buildings. The ancient Jew was very familiar with ‘No En­try’ signs in the Temple. There were areas accessible only to the priests. There was one area only accessible by the High Priest once a year: the Holy of Holies — where God dwelt. But now that is all changed since the death of Jesus. The veil has been torn. The way to God has been opened for all. ‘Through Him (Christ) we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.’ The Message gets the idea across, ‘He has thrown open His door to us.’ Now that we have peace with God, we also have ac­cess into God’s gracious presence. Remember the story of Mephi­bosheth? David showed unusual kindness to this man despite his lameness and pedigree (he was a grandson of Saul). David invited Mephibosheth to share his home and table. Mephibosheth thought there must be a trick — it was too good to be true (see 2 Sam.9). But David had him there ‘for Jonathan’s sake.’ Likewise, we are the Lord’s Mephibosheths — and there is no reason in us why we should be part of the King’s family, eating at His table. But we have this privilege for ‘Christ’s sake.’

There is a famous photograph of President John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office of the Whitehouse with his son John Jr. at his feet under the desk. How did he get there? We might have liked a photograph of the President with one of our children. That’s not possible, of course. We will never have access to the Oval Office. John Jr. was there because of his special relationship with the President — he was his father. We as justified believers have an even greater privilege — we have access to God because He is now our Father.

John Stott writes,

Justified believers enjoy a blessing far greater than a periodic approach to God or an occa­sional audience with the King ... Our relationship with God, into which jus­tification has brought us, is not spo­radic, but continuous; not precarious, but secure. We don’t fall in and out of grace like courtiers who find them­selves in and out of favour with their master.

As believers, we don’t come cringing or crawling into the presence of God. We come with confidence because Jesus has intro­duced us to the Father and we are always welcome (Heb. 4:16).

We Have Hope from God (vv 2b and 5)←⤒🔗

‘We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.’ The blessings of justification include not only the past (we have peace); the present (we have access by faith into this grace); but also the future (we rejoice in hope). Gospel hope is not mere wishful thinking. It’s not the power of positive thinking. Gospel hope is what is certain but has not yet come to pass.

Paul speaks further about the hope we have in chapter 8. We are hoping for the renewal and transformation of this fallen world. We have the sure and certain hope of the resurrection when our bodies shall be raised in glory. We are hoping for the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We shall see His glory and we shall reflect His glory. That will be heaven — our ultimate hope and final destiny. Our hope then is not the grave. Neither is it that our souls go to be with Christ.

Our hope is that we shall have a new body and we shall dwell in the new heaven and the new earth with all the redeemed and with the Lord, where we shall see His glory. We there must be a therefore (now) rejoice in hope of the glory of God. The psalmist ex­horts us, ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.’

We Have Purpose under Pres­sure (vv 3-5)←⤒🔗

Paul drops a bombshell. He says, ‘more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings.’ What a paradox. We groan under our suffering — yes. We complain under our suffering — yes. We hurt under our suffering — yes. We despair under our suffer­ing — yes. We grin and bear our suffering — yes. But, we rejoice in our suffering? Can this be real? Yes. Remember who is writing these words — a man who was no stranger to suffering — one who has suffered far more for the Gospel than you or I ever will. His body was flogged, he was imprisoned, he was shipwrecked, he endured much opposition, he was deserted by friends, and he was often disap­pointed in the churches that he founded. (See 2 Cor. 11:23-28). Yet he says, ‘we rejoice in our suf­ferings.’ In fact, he puts it even more strongly. The verb means to boast or exult. (It’s the same verb used in verses 2, 3 and 11). How can this be? How can we pos­sibly rejoice in sufferings and find joy in what causes pain? Are we some kind of masochists who en­joy being hurt? Are we some kind of Stoics who grit their teeth and endure? Have we done something to deserve punishment? No. We are justified Christians who see in our sufferings the working out of a gracious divine purpose. The para­dox is explained in verse 3-5. It is not the sufferings themselves that we rejoice in, so much as the beneficial results. We rejoice be­cause sufferings produce some­thing good in the life of the justified. Suffering is not good in itself — but it produces something beneficial. Note: he does not say that we re­joice after them or in spite of them but in them and because of them. What is the good produced? ‘Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces charac­ter, and character produces hope’. We could not learn endurance or perseverance without suffering. The value of perseverance is that it produces character. Job sensed its worth when he said in the midst of troubles, ‘When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.’ (Job 23:10). The value of character is that it brings hope of future glory. What Paul means surely is that our developing, ripening Christian character is evi­dence that God is at work within us. And He who is maturing us through suffering will surely bring us to glory. The psalmist could say, ‘It is good for me that I was afflicted’ (Ps. 119:71). I have the permanent scar of a knife wound on my body. I bear no resent­ment toward the man who did it. In fact the same man has scarred many others, too, with His knife. You see He was a surgeon, and what He did was for my good. Our Heavenly Father is a skilful surgeon and we know that if He inflicts any wounds upon us — it is not because He hates us or wants to pun­ish us — it’s rather because He loves us and cares for us — and wants to see us grow.

We Have Absolute Assurance of God’s Love (vv 6-8)←⤒🔗

The apostle knows how we think. When suffering and pressure and op­position come, we are tempted to doubt God’s love toward us. He also knows that of all people, Christians have a sensitive conscience. We are sensitive to our failures and our sins. He will expand on this in chapter 7. Each of us may wonder how God could possibly love someone as crappy as we are. He writes here to assure us of God’s absolute love for His saints.

Paul uses four descriptive terms to describe our position before God in our unsaved state: we were ‘weak, ungodly, sinners and enemies.’ It is imperative that we recognise the sig­nificance of the chronology here. When did God demonstrate His love toward us? What kind of people did He love? What did He do to demon­strate His love? The answer: God loved us when we did not love Him. God loved us when we were weak, ungodly, sinners and enemies. ‘God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (v. 8). Paul takes us to the cross: the ultimate expression of God’s love. The cross was God’s love in action. Is it not remarkable that God provided ‘so great salvation’ while we were still in that totally depraved condition? If God loved us then — ‘when we were still weak’ — does He love us any less now? Of course not! Justification by faith in Christ gives us the assurance we need when tempted to doubt the love of God for us.

We Have Confidence to Face the Judgement Day (vv 9-11)←⤒🔗

What about the future? Will I be able to endure to the end? Will I be able to stand in the day of judgement? Yes! If we understand the beauty of this doc­trine of justification, we can face the future will calmness and confidence. The apostle reasons, ‘Since therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.’ Justifi­cation is God’s declaration of judg­ment about us brought forward or ‘fast-tracked.’ We don’t have to wait until the Last Day to know what His verdict will be regarding our future. Jesus said, ‘Whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life, and will not be con­demned; he has crossed over from death to life’ (Jn. 5:24). Being justi­fied by faith in Christ is the declara­tion of the Righteous Judge that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Another reason for confidence is that we have a living, resurrected Saviour (10). Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for us (v.8:34). Our future is guaranteed be­cause our lives are inextricably bound up with the risen life of Christ. ‘We shall be saved by His life.’

This is reason for rejoicing now: ‘we have received the reconciliation’ — and reason for rejoicing on the Last Great Day — when the Lord will pub­licly vindicate all His justified ones. As we’ve considered some of the blessings and results of justification we can understand what prompted John Stott to say,

Nobody has un­derstood Christianity who does not understand ... the word justified.