By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at verses 3-5 of chapter 5.
1.1.1. Paul dealt with the reality of trials, testings,
tribulations, and temptations that the Christian will experience in this life
as well as the attitude with which we ought to embrace them when they enter
into our lives.
1.2.
In our study today, we are
going to look at verses 6-9 of chapter 5.
1.2.1. In these verses, we see that Paul now begins to discuss the wonder of
God’s love and how that love has been demonstrated to us.
1.2.2. These verses present to us perhaps the apostle’s greatest statement of
personal gratitude and appreciation for the Lord because of the height, width,
depth, and breadth of His love for us as demonstrated in God’s sending of His
only begotten Son to die upon the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.
1.2.3. Following Paul’s reasoning in these verses, the greatness of God’s love
for us is seen in:
1.2.3.1.
Who it was that died upon
the cross for our sins.
1.2.3.2.
From observing our helpless,
hopeless, and deplorable condition as fallen and sinful mankind.
1.2.3.3.
Considering what Jesus went
through on
1.2.3.4.
In the fact of what it was
that procured for us, namely, it was eternal salvation that was purchased for
us.
2. VS 5:6 - “6 For while
we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” - Paul tells us that once we
were helpless and ungodly but that from God’s perspective it was at the right
time that Christ died for us
2.1.
In chapter 5 of the book of Romans, Paul is opening up
to us the results of being justified in Christ.
We saw in verses 1 and 2 how that believers are placed into the “state
of justification,” a position which guarantees for us that God will
continue the work He has begun in our life and therefore will one day complete
the work of glorification of us. Then,
we were told by Paul that more of the results of justification included the
fact that believers glory in the glory of God as well as in their tribulations,
knowing all of the benefits that God works in their lives through
tribulations. Now, in this verse Paul
begins to unfold how all of this has come about only because of the “love of
God” for men and women.
2.2.
As a reminder, “justification” means “to be
made righteous” or “made just as if we had never sinned.” This is what Jesus procured for us on
2.3.
In verses 6-9, Paul discusses how it is that God has
demonstrated his love for men.
2.4.
There is no greater passage in the Bible that unfolds
the depth of God’s love for man than Romans 5:6-9, thus one author has called
these verses “the exposition of John 3:16.”
2.5.
Paul says that concerning God giving His only begotten
Son for the sins of man, that this happened ‘at the right time.’ This phrase has to do with the sovereign will
of God in bringing things to pass according to His perfect timing. This phrase also reminds me of a verse that
is very interesting for a few reasons, and is found in Rev. 13:8 where it says,
“8And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not
written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” This verse states that Jesus Christ was slain
from the foundation of the world, and thus it reveals how that before God
created anything He knew exactly how He would handle every single thing that
will occur on this earth and in our lives, and, how that before creating
anything He would send His only begotten Son to die upon Calvary’s cross to
redeem a fallen mankind.
2.6.
That Jesus was to come and die on the cross for the
sins of the world was in God’s mind before He ever created anything upon the
earth. It was no afterthought that Jesus
should have to die on the cross. Some
theologians have made very grave errors in writing that Jesus on His own
decided to die on the cross for the sins of the world, and that as a result of
what Jesus did that God chose not to unleash His wrath upon all mankind. That would be as bad as saying that after
mankind sinned that God the Father, The Holy Spirit, and Jesus, each drew
straws and Jesus lost when He picked the short straw so He had to come to the
earth and die for our sins. No, quite
the contrary is true. God planned
everything from the beginning. God knows
the end from the beginning and thus knew that man would fall into sin. So, from the beginning He knew His plan to
send His Son to be the sin-bearer for all of mankind. It is very important to understand this because
only when men understand this truth is the “love of God” truly going to
come into focus for them. Knowing ahead
of time that we would sin, it was because of God’s great love for men that He
chose to have to send His only-begotten Son to die upon the cross for men’s
sins. Man’s salvation was totally God’s
idea! We already saw in chapter 1 of
Romans that it is God who reaches out to men with salvation, and this would
have to be the case if any were ever to be saved since Paul has already told
us, ‘there are none who seek after God’ (Rom. 3:11).
2.7.
There has been much speculation about what it was
about that specific moment in time in which Christ came that was viewed by God
as the “perfect time.”
2.7.1. Mankind had
been upon the earth for at least a few thousand years at that time.
2.7.2. God had
given the Mosaic law about 1,400 years before Christ came, and during that
period of time mankind had proven over and over again that it was not possible
to keep God’s Law in and of his own efforts.
2.7.3. At the
moment when Christ came there had already been several major civilizations and
world governments such as the Medio-Persian Empire,
the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and of course,
China. All of these civilizations had
failed miserably to provide for mankind the things that truly meet man’s
greatest needs and transform his basic sinful nature, and most of these do not
even exist even as countries today.
2.7.4. Likewise,
the Greek philosophers had each come and gone, and they had not changed the
sinful nature of man through their wisdom.
2.8.
When Paul writes in this verse ‘For while we were
still helpless,’ he is referring to the fact that men are unable to change
their own life because of the crippling and paralyzing power of sin in
them. People are ‘helpless’ in
their sin. They are slaves of sin and
not able to have victory over it by their own will power. Sin also cripples people and keeps them from
being able to come to God under their own strength. If God did not seek men out and give them the
very faith needed to cry out to Him for help and salvation, then man would
never come to God. Also, it is not the case that man asked God to come and redeem him from
his sin, since no man seeks after God of himself. Rather, it was God who because of His great love for man did what He
did for man through the cross,
without even being asked.
2.9.
In Romans 7:18, Paul wrote the following concerning
his own righteousness in the flesh apart from Christ, “18 For I know that
nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in
me, but the doing of the good is not.”
While man was in this state of being sinful and unable to cease from
sinning and unable to come to God for
help, Paul declares that ‘Christ died for the ungodly.’ There was no innate good quality in man that
so warranted God’s love to cause Him to send His only-begotten Son to die on
the cross for man’s sins. In Romans Paul
tells us that God is totally holy and righteous and mankind is utterly given
over to sin.
2.10.
To be ‘ungodly’ means to be unlike God, and all
men before coming to Christ are ‘ungodly’ in that they have made sinful
choices instead of acting in the way that God Himself would act in situations.
2.11.
One man has written that if God only loved man because
he loved God, then God would only continue to love man as long as he
continually loved God. Then, man’s
salvation would be earned and deserved by man because of his great love for
God, however this is not at all what has in reality occurred.
2.12.
When man had nothing of value in God’s eyes to give to
Him in return, and when man was actually in moral terms “detestable at best”
from God’s righteous and holy perspective, it was then that God because of His
great love for man planned to send His Son to die on the cross in his
place. God had no selfish interests in
mind either in sending His Son to die for men, for men could not offer anything
to God of value, that is, except for their love and appreciation of Him.
2.13.
There is no more powerful testimony in scripture to
the depth of God’s love for man than verses 6-9 in Romans chapter 5.
2.14.
The one over-arching application that we Christians
must make for our life based upon verses 6-9 of this chapter is that if God
loved us when we were in the worst state that we could ever be in as
unregenerate sinners helpless in our sin, then we must believe that He will
keep us in our salvation, not turning away from us, but deliver us to glory
when He returns for His church. Since
men can never be worse than they were as unsaved, they can only improve and get
better.
2.15.
If God loved you enough to send His only-begotten Son
of His love to die for you, will He not also do what Paul wrote to Timothy in 2
Tim. 1:12, “12For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I
am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
3.
VS 5:7 - “7 For one will hardly die for a
righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.” - Paul tells us that a person
will rarely be willing to give up and sacrifice his own life for a righteous or
even a good man
3.1.
In this verse, Paul argues from man’s point of view in
order to give a proper perspective as to the greatness and majesty of God’s
love for mankind.
3.2.
It is rare in this life that someone will lay his life
down for another person. We do hear and
read of it happening occasionally. Paul
says in this verse that when a person is willing to lay his life down for
someone it would be someone who is ‘righteous’ or ‘good.’ For instance, in our world a secret service
agent might take a bullet in order to protect the president of the
4. VS 5:8 - “8 But God
demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” - Paul tells us that God’s love
for us is demonstrated by the fact that though we were all sinners that Christ
died for us
4.1.
For all of eternity, in Jesus Christ God has given
mankind the ultimate of all demonstrations concerning His love (agape in the
original Greek). He has shown to mankind
truly how great is His love for them.
God did not demonstrate His love for mankind by writing to us eloquent
and beautiful words of poetry, nor did He demonstrate His love for us by
telling us philosophically and with absolute clarity how great His love is for
men. Rather, God demonstrated His love
for us by “deeds.” He gave us the most tangible and material
demonstration of His love that He could give to us in that He gave us His
only-begotten Son to die upon the cross for our sins.
4.1.1. By the way, true love is always expressed by an individual’s deeds not
be their sentiment, emotions, etc. We
Christians must demonstrate to others God’s love by the way we act and the things
that we do to and for others.
4.1.2. If we as
Christians are to win people to the Lord, then we must work at demonstrating
God’s love to them through our “deeds”
in a tangible way, not just with words, in the same way that God has
demonstrated His love toward us.
4.2.
Further, God’s love is demonstrated to us because of
who it was who was given to us. It was
the Eternal Son of God’s love, it was ‘Christ,’ the holy and innocent
One who came to us in love and spoke only words of truth and love to us. For God to have given His Son to be born of a
woman and live among us as the incarnation was incredible enough in and of
itself. Christ came and loved us and
taught us about God, Himself being the full and complete example and image of
God in the flesh. However, it is much
greater still that God gave His only-begotten Son to die for us upon the cross
of
4.3.
Spurgeon in one of his sermons talks about a scene
which I believe must have occurred in heaven when God gathered all His
creatures together and broke the news to these angels that He planned to create
a race called mankind from dust, and that He was going to create him in His own
image. Imagine this scene, Almighty God
telling all of the angels that He is planning to create man, and yet man was
going to rebel and break His Law and therefore man would have to die and suffer
eternally for the sins which he had committed.
Then, imagine God asking the angels what they thought could or should be
done to somehow make atonement for man’s sins.
Spurgeon imagines that no angel could have thought that his own
suffering of death for man could ever accomplish man’s redemption. Then, God tells the angels the news that
causes such shock and curiosity that we find in the scriptures that even today
that angels are in wonder and awe desiring to see what God is doing in bringing
mankind to salvation. God the Son, the third
person of the Trinity, would leave all of His awesome glory, splendor and
majesty to take on the form of man, and then in the most humble and shameful of
ways take upon Himself the full fury of God’s wrath against sin in order to
accomplish mankind’s eternal redemption.
4.4.
When we look at the cross, the place where Christ
died, we see that due to its extreme brutality that crucifixion was used by the
Romans only for the worst of criminals.
The cross was the implement of ultimate torture and shame for putting
anyone to death. On the cross, Christ
was stripped naked and lifted up for public spectacle. Christ had the nails placed into his hands
and feet, both major nerve centers, which caused Him fierce and burning
pain. As He was placed on and then hung
on the cross, He faced the scorn of many who were hurling insults at Him and
spitting at Him. The pain and horror of
crucifixion went on for hours for Christ.
Many times we know that a person would hang on a cross for days, with
the victim eventually succumbing to asphyxiation and dehydration. In the book of Psalms 22:12-15, David wrote
concerning Christ, “12 Many bulls have surrounded me; Strong bulls of
4.5.
Having experienced the agony and pain of having had
one of my own knees go badly out of joint, I can’t imagine the depth of pain
and agony caused by all of Christ’s
bones being out of joint. Before being
crucified, Christ was scourged with perhaps 39 lashes with a cat-of-9-tails
whip which had pieces of bone which tore out pieces of muscle, tendon,
ligament, and blood vessels with each lash, then He was beaten in the head with
rods, and then they tried to make Him carry His own cross to crucifixion. However, He had been beaten so badly by this
point that He was not even able to pick it up by Himself and another man had to
carry His cross. All of this was done so
that God could demonstrate His love tangibly to mankind.
4.6.
Paul writes in this verse that God’s love is demonstrated
‘in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ Before God sent His only-begotten Son into
this world, mankind was “helpless,” lost in their sin, and, we already
saw Paul’s quote from the Old Testament in Rom. 3:10-18 which detailed man’s
sinful state, “10 as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even
one; 11 There is none who
understands, There is none who seeks for
God; 12 All have turned aside, together
they have become useless; There is none
who does good, There is not even
one.” 13 “Their throat is an open
grave, With their tongues they keep
deceiving,” “The poison of asps is under
their lips” ; 14 “Whose mouth is full of
cursing and bitterness” ; 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood, 16
Destruction and misery are in their paths, 17 And the path of peace have they
not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God
before their eyes”.”
4.6.1. When we see
that we are ‘sinners’ by nature and that in spite of that God loved us
enough to send Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, then we should come to
truly appreciate His love, grace, and mercy in our lives. We must see that the giving of His
only-begotten Son for us is the greatest demonstration of God’s love for us
that He could ever make.
4.7.
To commit sins means that one is a rebel against God
and that one misses the mark that God would have us hit in living
righteously. Not only does man have a
sin nature, but man sins, and sin is the transgression of God’s Laws that He
has given to man, as the apostle John wrote in 1 John 3: 4, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also
the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” We can look at the 10 commandments that God
gave to man, which are an expression of His holiness (Paul wrote that the Law
is “holy, righteous, and good”), and we can see that we have all broken
all of these laws. We may not however
have literally committed adultery, for instance, however because of the
principle of the spirituality of the Law, Jesus said that if a man looked upon
a woman to lust after her that he had committed adultery with her in his
heart. These ten commandments are not
options, but those which the Lord gave to us and to which He requires that we
keep. Unless men receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, God is going
to judge the world in wrath against those who are transgressors of His holy
law, for our God is a consuming fire of the passion of holiness. When we look at the following ten
commandments given to us by God, we can see that we have all transgressed all
of them, whether in deed or in spirit.
10 Commandments:
1) You
shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, soul and might - (Deut.
6:5). Likewise, You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself - (Lev.
19:18).
(2) You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol or
any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water
under the earth.
(3) You
shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
(4) Remember
the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
(5) Honor
your father and mother.
(6) You
shall not murder.
(7) You
shall not commit adultery.
(8) You
shall not steal.
(9) You
shall not bear false witness.
(10) You shall not covet.
4.8.
It is not that man has sinned breaking God’s laws once
or twice, but most have been continual sinners for many years, sinning in
breaking each of these commandments tens of thousands of times. Each man and woman has sinned against the
wooing of God’s love, the conviction of his/her conscience, the plain written
Word of God in his/her heart, and the warnings from God’s people, However, God was still willing to demonstrate
His love to each and every person by sending His Son to die for them. Christ died for His enemies, He paid the
penalty for the sins of hate that they committed against Him and Him
alone.
4.9.
Spurgeon once said, “If we were not so sinful as we
are, there is not one of us here this morning who would not weep at the thought
of the Savior’s love, and I believe there is not a solitary man, woman, or
child here, who would not say, “I love Thee, O my God! because thou has done so
much for me”. It is the highest proof of
our depravity that we do not at once love the Christ who died for us.”
4.10.
The knowledge of God’s law keeps man from being able
to justify himself and his sin. Paul
wrote in Rom. 3:19-20, “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to
those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world
may become accountable to God; because
by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”
Paul wrote in Gal. 3:24, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might
be justified by faith.” The wrath of
God for our breaking of God’s holy laws was fully poured out upon Jesus upon
the cross. And, if men and women do not
accept His death as full payment for their sin, then they shall bear the wrath
of God for eternity for each of their transgressions.
4.11.
After we have seen God’s commandments and how we
justly deserve God’s punishment of wrath for eternity in hell for them, then
and only then can we truly appreciate God’s wisdom found in the gospel, and we
are found wanting to flee from the wrath to come through the gospel. God has not given us what we deserve for our
sins if we are willing to repent of our sins, believe in His Son and accept Him
into our life as our Lord and Savior. He
Himself fully paid the debt which we owed to God and therefore if we simply
will repent, turn our lives over to His lordship, and believe in Him we shall
be saved for eternity. Paul preached in
Acts 17:30-31, “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is
now declaring to men that all men everywhere should repent, because He has fixed
a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man He has
appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
4.12.
With mankind in the despicable and hideous state that
he is in with his sin, with eternal forethought and planning God decided to
send the very best that He had, His only-begotten Son of His love and joy to be
slaughtered on Calvary’s Cross and pay the only payment that could satisfy His
righteousness and atone for the great sins of all mankind for all of eternity.
5. VS 5:9 - “9 Much more then, having now
been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through
Him.” - Paul tells that having been
justified by Christ’s blood that we shall be saved from the wrath of God through
Christ
5.1.
In verses 9 through 11 of this chapter, Paul completes
his compilation of the results of justification. As we recall from our exegesis of chapter 5,
the results of justification given by Paul have been:
5.1.1. #1: Peace with God (verse 1).
5.1.2. #2: Access to God (verse 2).
5.1.3. #3: To glory in the glory of God (verse 2).
5.1.4. #4: To glory in tribulations (verse 3).
5.1.5. #5: The love of God is poured out within our
hearts (verse 5).
5.2.
To those results of justification, Paul will add the
following in verses 9-11:
5.2.1. #1: We’re justified by His blood (verse 9).
5.2.2. #2: We’re saved from the wrath of God through Him
(verse 9).
5.2.3. #8: We’re reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.
5.2.4. #9: He guarantees the completion of our salvation
through the life of Christ (Christ lives within us, He is our high priest, and
He has sent the Holy Spirit to walk alongside of us as our advocate and
comforter).
5.3.
Paul had said in verse 1 of this chapter that a person
becomes ‘justified’ by his faith in Christ, his “faith being reckoned
as righteousness,” and now he mentions in verse 9 the means by which a
person may become ‘justified’ before God. It is not based upon his own good works, his
faith, his sanctification, his progressive victory over sin, the genuineness of
his commitment, or any other external thing that he might do, rather, it is
only by the ‘blood’ of Christ as the means by which he may become ‘justified’
before God.
5.4.
Paul says in verse 9 ‘much more then’ because
he is about to introduce a particular result of justification which he wants to
place particular stress upon. The most
important result of being ‘justified’ that Paul wants to mention is that
of escaping the ‘wrath of God’ which is to come upon all unbelievers on
the future coming day of judgment which scripture talks about. In chapter 1 of Romans, beginning with verse
18, Paul revealed as we saw that God’s wrath is “revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness.” The ‘wrath of
God’ revealed in chapter 1 referred primarily to effects received from
God’s hand in this life. However, in
Romans Paul begins building up the theme that there is a coming day of wrath in
which He will judge all those on earth who have rejected His offer of
salvation. For instance, as we saw, Paul
wrote to unbelievers in Rom. 2:5-8, “5 But
because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for
yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6
who will render to every man according to his deeds: 7 to those who by
perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal
life; 8 but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but
obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.”
5.5.
Paul wrote in 1 Thess. 1:8-9 about the fact that
Christians will be delivered from the coming day of wrath of God upon the
world, “9 For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we
had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true
God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that
is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.”
5.6.
Likewise, Paul wrote in 1 Thess. 5:9-11, “9 For God
has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord
Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may
live together with Him. 11 Therefore encourage one another, and build up one
another, just as you also are doing.”
5.7.
What Paul is saying to those who call themselves
Christian in this verse is that by far the greatest result of a Christian’s
being ‘justified’ is that he has assurance that he will spend eternity
in heaven with God and not face the punishment of eternal damnation which the
Bible teaches that all those who do not know Jesus Christ shall
experience. The words ‘shall be’
reveal the ground of assurance that a believer in Jesus Christ can have of
possessing eternal life.
5.8.
It is also worth mentioning in this context that the “only”
way that God could have redeemed men was through the death of His Son upon the
cross. God gave the very best that He
had in giving His only-begotten Son to suffer His wrath against men’s sin. If there had been any other way for God to
have forgiven and had men’s sins atoned for, God would have to have used
it. However, God’s justice had to be
fully satisfied, for God not only is “love,” He is also “just”
and “righteous.” When man sinned,
God had to act in the fullness of His being, not only as “love,” but
also as “justice” and “Righteousness.” His “justice” had to be fully
satisfied, and the only way that could have been accomplished was by sending
the only one who was worthy to pay the price of the debt caused by men’s sins.
5.9.
When we read the apostle Paul’s writings we have to
see that he was one whose mind was very logical. In the book of Acts we see Paul going into
the synagogues and “reasoning” with them from the scriptures, proving
and alleging this and that, and, we can see from the book of Romans how that Paul
was very methodical in the way that he communicated. Each thought is logically built upon all of
his previous thoughts, and we see that he was truly the consummate teacher and
preacher. Repetition was often used by
Paul in his writings. He would say the
same thing a few different ways so that his readers would be able to comprehend
what he was writing. We see Paul using
repetition in verse 10 and 11 of this chapter.
5.9.1. We who teach
God’s Word must never think that we are being unspiritual in any way if we
teach in a very logical and systematic way.
At the outset we teachers should tell people what we are going to tell
them. Then tell them what we are telling
them, forging it a few slightly different ways, and utilizing good
illustrations to bring out the points where possible. Then, we should tell them what we told
them. We should also follow Paul’s
example in our teachings and make deductions and reasonings
from what the scriptures say.
5.9.2. We must not
be people who live upon our feelings, rather we should make deductions and reasonings from the scriptures.
5.10.
It is interesting as we read through the book of
Romans because we see that Paul is laying the absolute foundation for
everything in the Christian life, including every doctrine. We see that from the beginning of Romans
through chapter 3 that Paul established that all men are under sin. Then, we see beginning in the later part of
chapter 3 through chapter 4 how that Paul established that a person is “justified”
before God based upon his faith in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Having established salvation to be by faith
in Christ, we notice that Paul has not laid one single external observance that
a person must perform in order to have that assurance of salvation. It is by faith in Christ plus nothing that a
man or woman receives salvation in Christ.
5.10.1.
I have often run into those who would say to me, “Wait
a minute, what about observing baptism?
You’re not truly saved until you are baptized!” Of course, those who say this always believe
that you must be baptized only by those who have the proper authority, or
belong to the proper denomination, and it must be done in the proper manner or
with the proper terminology used when performed. However, if anything external were required,
Paul would have told us about it by now in Romans.
5.10.2.
Another person may come up and say that not only must
you have faith in Christ, but you must belong to the proper church. They believe they belong to the “true”
church, and only those with membership to their church will be saved. However, if any of this would have been
important, Paul would have stated it by now in Romans.
5.10.3.
Yet another person may come up and say that not only
must you have faith in Christ, but you must observe certain rites such as the
Lord’s Supper, Baptism, Last Rites, etc., in order to be saved, however if any
of this would have been important, the apostle Paul would have mentioned it by
now in Romans.
5.10.4.
I have had people say that if I didn’t exercise a
certain spiritual gift (tongues) in a certain way, that I was not saved.
5.11.
Whenever we meet someone who says to us that we must
add anything to our faith in Christ in order to be saved, this should raise a
big red flag in our minds since God’s Word does not teach any of these
things. In the book of Galatians, the
apostle Paul was refuting those who were known as Judaisers
who were teaching that one must add something to their faith in Christ in order
to be saved, namely circumcision and the keeping of the Old Testament Law. However, Paul refutes and rebukes these
teachers as being completely false when he writes such things as that found in
Gal. 1:6-9, “6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called
you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not
another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the
gospel of Christ. 8 But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach
to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be
accursed. 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching
to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.”
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5.12.
All of these people who are telling us that we must
add something to our faith in Christ for salvation are really trying themselves
to be justified by their works before God, and they should take heed to what
Paul wrote in Gal. 2:16, “16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not
justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we
have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and
not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be
justified.”
5.13.
We as Christians must reject any teaching that is
contrary to our being ‘justified’ before God based only upon what Jesus
Christ has accomplished for us upon the cross.
We are ‘justified by His blood’ not by any works which we may
perform in and of ourselves.
5.14.
We Christians must believe Jesus’ words as recorded in
John 5:24, “24Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my
word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not
come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.””
6. CONCLUSIONS:
6.1.
Having considered Paul’s reasonings
here about how that God has demonstrated to us so clearly His love, do you
understand now how much the Lord loves you?
6.2.
Following Paul’s reasonings in these verses, do you understand the greatness
of God’s love for us as seen in :
6.2.1. Who it was that died upon the cross for our sins.
6.2.2. From observing our helpless, hopeless, and deplorable condition as
fallen and sinful mankind.
6.2.3. What Jesus went through for us on the cross.
6.2.4. From the fact that it was eternal salvation that we purchased for us.
6.3.
Can you take as fact the
assurance that Paul gives us that we are saved based only upon our faith in
Christ and the work He performed upon the cross for us?
6.4.
Do you understand now that
you are justified before God based only upon the blood of Christ?