Why would anyone want to be a
Christian? Why would you want to be a Christian? What can I say or do to persuade
you to desire that which I have in Christ? If you'll open your
Bibles to Romans chapter 5 again and just hold them open on your
lap, I want to persuade you by the word of God as Paul persuaded
Agrippa of old, only I want truly to persuade you to become a Christian,
a disciple, a follower of Christ, a believer, one who trusts the
Son of God. May God the Holy Ghost speak
by his word to your soul to that end. My subject this morning
is being now justified. Being now justified. As God will enable me, I want
to talk to you about what it means to be justified by the
grace of God. You will not need to look at
any other passage this morning except these 21 verses here in
Romans chapter 5. As I try God the Holy Ghost will
teach you what it is to be justified. Having stated and proved beyond
any question the doctrine of justification by grace, justification
by the righteousness of Christ, the righteousness of God in Christ
Jesus, justification by the precious blood of God's darling Son, Paul,
in this chapter, shows us the blessings that belong to you
and me who are in Christ. The blessings of God that belong
to all who are now justified by his grace. The apostle understood,
as it is written by his own pen, godliness is profitable unto
all things. Nothing else is. Everything else
that is profitable is profitable only to certain specific things. Godliness is profitable unto
all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of
that which is to come. Oh, the blessedness of being
justified. The first blessing belonging
to sinners saved by the grace of God, redeemed by the blood
of Christ and born again by His Spirit. The first blessing belonging
to those now being justified by His blood is described in
verse 1. Therefore being justified by
faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peace. Peace. What a rare, rare thing. It's rarely known even among
the multitudes who profess to be believers. Rarely known even
among the multitudes who claim to be Christians. Peace. I'm
talking about real peace with God. Peace with God. Multitudes talk about peace and
sing about peace and they write songs about peace and they tell
others about peace, and they pretend to have peace. But when
the chips are down, when the chips are down, when they face
reality, when they consider eternity, when they consider God in all
his glorious, holy, righteous, and just character, and they
know themselves, few there are in this world who know anything
about peace. Is that the case with you? Do
you profess faith in Christ but have no peace with God? Do you
lack the full satisfaction of perfect justification before
God? Are you still in a state of uncertainty
and anxiety about your immortal soul? Do you crave the enjoyment
of that sweet, holy calm which the apostle here calls peace
with God? I call on you then right where
you are now to believe on the Son of God. Trust the Lord Jesus
Christ, lean your soul upon the crucified Savior, and find the
joy of peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. When God
the Holy Ghost graciously applies the blood of atonement to the
hearts of a guilty sinner, to the conscience of a guilty sinner,
enabling that sinner to trust Christ. By faith in Christ, we
lay hold on eternal life. And believing Christ, we appropriate
to ourselves the precious blood and righteousness of Christ,
bathing ourselves in His righteousness, putting on, as it were, by the
hand of faith, the perfect robe of Christ's righteousness. I
love the story that Barnard used to tell he and his wife, driven
across the country in various meetings, and they stopped by
Yellowstone National Park and stopped at an old faithful that
had some trouble along the way and Barnard had to work on the
old car. He knelt down and just took his handkerchief that had
soiled and washed it and washed his hands and pulled it out.
And as he did, he began to sing, there is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Sinners plunge beneath that blood,
lose all their guilty stains. And he didn't know it, someone
had come up behind him. And he said to the preacher,
can we join you in the next verse? Oh, sinner, come now and bathe
your filthy soul in the precious blood of Christ and find peace
with God. Peace with God through the blood
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Trust in Christ. Being justified
freely by His grace, we have peace with God by faith in Him. What does that mean? The perfections
of God no longer terrify us. I see God today as I've never
seen Him before, in the majesty of His holiness. his righteousness,
his justice, his truth. I see God today as I have never
seen him before in the majesty of his total sovereignty and
his glorious being and I have absolutely no dread of God. No fear of God because I trust
his son. I have peace with God. Now this
man, this sinner, who once was terrified at the thought of God,
lifts his heart to heaven and says, my father, my father, the
law of God holds no curse against me. I'm justified, freed from
sin, freed from guilt, freed from the curse of God's law.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Justice is satisfied. The sword of justice is sheathed
in the side of our crucified Savior. Reconciliation is ours
by the blood of Christ. All this peace, faith receives
and accepts with joy. Our souls have now been brought
into perfect agreement with God with regard to His plan and purpose
of salvation. But more than that, Souls have
been brought into perfect agreement with God in all things. Oh The joy of being one with
God One with God Agreeing with all he is and all he does and
the way he does it We who believe have peace with God for we are
in agreement with God reconciled to him through Christ Jesus the
Lord that same faith accepts and puts on the righteousness
of Christ, brings the whole into holy intimacy with the persons
and perfections of deity himself. By the gift of grace, all the blessings of the covenant,
by the gift of grace, by God working faith in us, All the
blessings of the covenant, every promise of God given to sinners
throughout this book are sealed to our hearts by the Spirit of
God. When God gives a sinner faith
in Christ, He says to that sinner, read what God promises to His
people. That's yours. That's yours. Everything God promised in the
covenant, forgiveness, remission of sin, acceptance with God,
permanent salvation, certain security. All the promises of
God are ours in Christ, the one mediator between God and man.
Oh, may God give you faith in His Son and give you peace in
Him. Now, the next blessing resulting
from this free, full justification known and felt in the heart is
a firm standing. a firm standing in the state
of grace, a standing in which we have access to God all the
time. Look at verse 2. By whom also,
that is by Christ also, we have access by faith into this grace
wherein we stand, quite literally, wherein we have stood. We stood
here from everlasting. We stood here in Christ before
the world was. We stood here long before we
knew him, but we didn't know it. We thought we were on sinking
sand, but now we know we have access to God and we stand in
this grace wherein we have stood and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. He who brings poor sinners into
a state of grace keeps them in grace. I recall when, I don't
know how to express it, I was struggling with this matter of
faith in Christ. Struggling with guilt and unbelief.
And I had, like most people, made a profession of faith when
I was just a boy and I had gone to church from time to time and
rededicated up and rededicated up and rededicated up until I
realized there wasn't anything dedicated to begin with. And
Satan whispered in my ear, you dare not. make another profession
of faith. You dare not make another pretense
at being a follower of Christ. And I came upon a text of scripture
just by God's good providence. I'm convinced by the direction
of his spirit. Faithful is he that calleth you
who also will do it. Our security, our standing, our
Blessed permanent salvation does not in any way depend upon our
faithfulness to God. Oh, I can tell you how I rejoice
to know that. It depends entirely on God's
faithfulness to us. We have now access to God permanently
by this grace wherein we have stood and are standing. They
that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion which cannot
be moved but abideth forever. What? Cannot be moved? Cannot be moved? Cannot be moved
by Satan? cannot be moved by hell, cannot
be moved by their own flesh, cannot be moved by anything in
this world. They cannot be moved from this
standing in God's grace. The righteous shall hold on his
way. He that has clean hands shall
be stronger and stronger. Kept in eternal life by God's
grace. This grace is God's incorruptible
seed of life in us. It must therefore live and abide
forever. Our Savior said, I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Oh, do you mean
to say, preacher, that it's possible for a sinner in the conscious awareness of
his sin to lift his heart to heaven, look God in the face
and have peace, and stand secure in grace. Not only possible, absolutely
certain for every sinner who trusts the Lord Jesus. Next,
being now justified by his blood, God's saints standing in grace,
look at this, rejoice in hope of the glory of God. The Lord
will give grace and glory. And where He gives the one, He
gives the other. It is not possible to separate
God's grace from God's salvation. It is not possible to separate
God's salvation from everlasting glory in Christ Jesus. We who
are the recipients of grace have every reason to be assured of
everlasting glory, eternal salvation in and with Christ Jesus. It
is pledged to us by the oath and promise of God. The hope
of glory is the standing, steadying stay of our souls in this pilgrimage. Justification opens the door
to peace. Peace gives us access to the
grace of God and the God of grace. that access to God gains us a
firm standing and indulges us with holy joy. And that holy
joy is filled with the expectation of glory. What a great name for
heaven, for life eternal, glory. I fully expect, I fully expect when I have taken
my last breath to step into glory. The expectation of glory. In verses 3 through 5, we see
that being justified by His blood, God's people in this world, glory
in tribulations. How can you say that? Count it all joy when you fall
into divers temptations, James says. Paul says we glory in tribulations. How can anyone glory in trouble? How can anyone boast in, rest
in, trust God in, in the midst of trouble? How can you deal
with it and not glory in it? How can you endure darkness and
not glory in light? How can you endure sorrow and
not glory in the prospect of eternity? How? God's people glory
in tribulations because, now listen, because right here and
now, right here and now, every sinner believing Christ is assured
of something nobody else can possibly know. Every sinner who
trusts Christ, Every saved sinner is assured of something other
people only talk about but they know nothing about. We are assured
of the love of God for our souls. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts. Look at verse 3. And not only
so, but we glory in tribulations also. As we expect glory, we
glory in tribulations. Knowing this, that tribulation
worketh patience. Tribulation works perseverance. Tribulation works endurance. And patience, endurance, perseverance,
experience. And experience only increases
hope. And hope maketh not ashamed. How come? Because the love of
God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given
unto us. There's a chorus that goes, I
know that Jesus loves me and that's enough for me. Is it? Is it? Is it really? I thought,
I thought Jesus loved everybody. If he loves everybody, that's
nothing to me. That's nothing to me. Oh no,
no, no. The only way any sinner knows the love of God is believing
on the Son of God and believing Him. God the Holy Spirit speaks
peace to the heart and declares, you are the object of God's eternal
love. I've loved you with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness have I called you. God's love
shed abroad in our hearts. When God the Spirit gives us
faith in Christ, he assures us of this love of God for us. Grace keeps us relying upon and
communing with God in Christ under the sweet sense of free,
full justification and acceptance in Jesus Christ the Lord. When trouble comes, and it will come. When sorrow
comes, and it will come. When darkness comes, and it will
come. When bereavement comes, and it
will come. When difficulties come, and they
shall come. When falls come, and come they
shall. This sustains me. God loves me. And it is the love of God that
has sent this into my life. Because he loves me, this is
what he's doing. Understand this, child of God.
Whatever it is that you experience, be it pleasant or painful, be
it prosperous or adverse, be it darkness or light, it is that
you now experience, you who are God's, the Lord God Himself has
performed this for you. He performeth all things for
me. You understand that? He performeth all things for
me because of His love for me. Now that is so difficult for
us to apprehend. because of our flesh, because
of our proneness to judge everything by sight and not by faith, by
sight and not by revelation. When our daughter Faith was a
little girl, if I told her to do something twice, she felt
the second command on her rear. If I told her to do it twice,
she got paddled for it. And if she was disobedient, I
bent her across my knee and administered pain to her backside on purpose,
on purpose. And all the while, I fully expected
her to know that I was doing what I was doing because of my
love for her. And more difficult as it must
have been for that little girl to understand, I don't think
she ever questioned it. I don't think she ever questioned
it. I never saw her retaliate. I never saw her look at me with
anger. I've never seen that. I never saw that in her. Why
would you do that? Oh, do you know my daughter?
That's why I did it. Look at her. To make her what
she is now. And the Lord God Almighty sends
trials and tribulations to His people. in which we ought to
glory, knowing these are tokens of our Father's love for us to
bring us at last into glory. Now, look at verses 6, 7, and
8. Here the apostle returns to his
favorite subject, substitution, the substitutionary sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ, arising out of God's love. For when we
were yet without strength, In due time Christ died for the
ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. Yet peradventure for a good man
some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Christ died. Who can contemplate that? and
not be overwhelmed. He who is life died. He who is God died. He who is the only holy man that's
ever been died. Christ died. And Christ died
for the ungodly. the ungodly. Find me somebody
who's ungodly. Oh, I'd like to meet somebody
who's ungodly. Ungodly. I'm talking about somebody who
knows he's ungodly. Are you ungodly? Ungodly. Are you ungodly? Find me somebody who's ungodly.
I'll tell him in a heartbeat, Christ died for you. Christ died,
Christ died for the ungodly. He died in the room instead of
the ungodly. That's what we are by nature.
Paul says, in due time, He died for us, the ungodly. Christ died
for sinners. He died in the room instead of
ungodly, hell-bent, hell-deserving sinners that we might never die. And He did this in due time,
at exactly the time ordained of God before the world was,
for which Christ came into this world in due time, at precisely
the hour when His hour was come, Christ died for the ungodly. And by this, God commends His
love to us. God says, now behold my love. Behold my love. See my love. Christ died for the ungodly. What a commendation of love.
Who can resist such love? Who can despise such love? Could
we with ink the oceans fill and we're happy to go? Could we with ink the oceans
fill and The skies of parchment made were every stalk on earth
a quill, and every man a scribe by trade to write the love of
God above would drain the oceans dry, nor could the scroll contain
the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. Now, look at verses
9 and 10. Being now justified by His blood,
every believing sinner is assured of that glory in which we hope. Every believing sinner assured
of everlasting salvation with Christ. Much more then, being
now justified by His blood we shall be saved from wrath through
Him. No question about that. No question. Don't you know there
is a judgment to come? Yeah, but not for me. Judgment
is over for me. Don't you know that there's a
great white throne yet to be set? Yes, I'm aware of that.
And in that great white throne, God's going to declare, I have
no sin. There's no record of any transgression
because Christ put it away. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of Christ, Christ did
this work of reconciling before ever we knew Him. Much more. Much more. being reconciled, we shall be
saved by his life. What does that mean? That means
that he who died to redeem us, he who died as our sacrifice,
our substitute, he who died to make reconciliation for our souls
to God, lives today and sits upon the throne of heaven to
save every sinner for whom he died. He lives to execute that
which He purposed from eternity. Now, look at verse 11. Being now justified by His blood,
we who were once terrified by God, joy in God through the atonement
we've now received. Not only so, but we also joy
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have received
the atonement, the reconciliation, the atonement. So which is it?
That's what it is, the reconciliation, the atonement. We have been made
at one with God, reconciled to God through the blood of his
darling son. The knowledge, the assurance
of this atonement produces joy in God. In Christ's atonement,
looking on God in all his glorious being through the blood of the
cross, I see deity smiling upon this sinner all the time. Oh, how sweet to have God's smile. Looking on God, Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost through the blood atonement of Jesus Christ, I
hear God speak to me. and speak of me and say concerning
me, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Well
pleased? God well pleased with me? I can't tell you how displeased
I am with me, but God's well pleased. Well, please, how can
that be? How can that be? I'm one with
Christ. Redeemed by His blood, I have
no sin. One with Him, I'm perfectly righteous. And God's pleased with me. He's
not pleased with all the evil I do. The thing that David did
displeased the Lord. But David was still accepted
of God. accepted in the beloved, just as he was before he was
born. We often have the idea that somehow our acceptance with
God changes with our experience. It changes with our behavior.
Our acceptance with God is constant, unvarying, eternal. everlasting. It changes not. We were and are and forever shall
be accepted in the beloved. The beginning of this holy fellowship
with the persons of the Holy Trinity so that we are one with
God and God one with us begins on this earth. Oh what shall
the consummation and the everlasting perpetuation of it be in heaven's
glory. Now, look at verses 12 through
19. Here, this great chapter is taken
up with a comparison. I should say a contrast between
two men, two representatives, two covenant heads, Adam and
Christ. These two men the whole human
race, either Adam represents you or Christ represents you. If this one thing were understood
it would put an end to all Arminian free will works religion. God
deals with all men by two men, just two men. He deals with all
the human race in the representative man, Adam, the father of us all. And He deals with all His chosen
race, all His elect, in the representative man, Christ Jesus, the last Adam,
our Redeemer, the one mediator between God and men. Look at
Romans 5 verse 12, Wherefore as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless,
death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
at the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that
was to come." Now, the similitude of Adam's transgression, the
likeness of Adam's transgression, is any willful, deliberate act
of evil. Adam did what he did, his eyes
wide open. Scripture tells us plainly, the
woman was deceived, not the man. Adam knew exactly what he was
doing. He said, God, you've got no right
to tell me what to do. Get out of my way. And all sin
that we perform is performed just that way, knowing exactly
what we're doing. But those babies who are born
liars, deceivers, corrupt, evil. That baby who cries to get attention
when there's nothing wrong with it. That baby who just acts like
it does because it's a baby. It's just a depraved baby. Not
making a conscious choice. Not deliberately doing something
evil because it wants to do something evil. That baby hadn't seen the
similitude of Adam's transgression. That's what it's talking about.
But Adam was the figure of Him that was to come. The figure
of that One who is coming, our Savior. but not as the offense,
so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of
one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by
grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded to many.
And not as the gift, not as it was by the one that sinned, so
is the gift. For the judgment was by one to
condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense. Death reigned by one. Much more,
they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the
offense of one, by the offense of Adam, by Adam's one transgression,
judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Judgment came upon all those
men represented in Adam, the whole human race. Even so, by
the righteousness of one, this other, this second, this last
representative man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the last Adam,
the free gift came upon all men under justification of life.
Now Paul is not saying, as everybody in the world became sinners and
Adam, everybody in the world is made righteous and saved by
Christ. That's just not so. There's a man called Judas who's
in hell. Sons of Korah who are in hell.
Multitudes who are in hell. Obviously, that's not what Paul's
talking about. He's talking about all men in Christ. All those
represented by Christ. All His chosen race. The seed
of Abraham which He took hold of to save. For as by one man's
disobedience, the many represented by Him were made sinners. So
by the obedience of one, the Lord Jesus, shall thee many,
the many represented by him, be made righteous. It is impossible by any fair
reasoning, based upon Scripture especially, but it is impossible
by any fair reasoning period to separate salvation from redemption. God condemned the world, and
you and I became sinners by what Adam did in the garden. And I'm
so thankful that's the way it was. I'm so thankful. Somebody said, well, that's not
fair. God did with me, of course, what Adam does. Well, if it hadn't
been that way, there's no possibility of any salvation for anybody.
The angels Each one fell, leaving his first estate, leaving God,
leaving glory, leaving his habitation, willfully choosing each one to
fall. And for them, they're reserved
in chains of darkness to the day of judgment with no hope.
So it would have been with each of us had we stood as Adam stood
individually. But we fell in a representative
man. We fell in a covenant head. We died in a covenant head. We
became sinners in a covenant head. That means maybe, maybe,
maybe there's another covenant head. Maybe there's another representative
man, one yet to come, in whom men might be saved. Bless God
there he is. His name is Jesus Christ, the
Son of God. And we who are his, we who believe
him, you who this moment begin to believe him, are made the
righteousness of God by the doing and dying of Jesus Christ. without
you doing anything. Without you contributing anything. Adam is here said to be the figure
of him that was to come. So the Apostle's doctrine is
this. All the seed of Adam are implicated in his one offense.
By virtue of our union with him, all became sinners. And all the
seed of Christ interested in His one righteousness. By virtue
of our union with Him all become righteous. Look at verse 14 for just a moment
again and let me state just two things. I'll come back to this
I promise if God will let me very soon. But understand just
two things here. Nevertheless death reigns from
Adam to Moses. even over them that had not sinned
at the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that
was to come." Understand this first. Infants, those who have
not sinned at the similitude of Adam's transgression, dying
in infancy, are God's elect. I have no question at all concerning
that. David said concerning his son,
He can't come to me, but I'll return to Him. I'll go to Him.
And we recognize, we recognize that babies are born sinners. They must be redeemed, they must
be justified, they must be regenerated, they must be sanctified, or they
can't enter into glory. But those things don't depend
on you making a decision for Jesus. Those are sovereign works
of God, done for all His elect, even for infants dying and infants
sick. I had a friend wrote to me several
years ago, very concerned. She and her husband got married
late in life, and they were expecting their first child, and she carried
it for several months before she lost it. And she wrote to
me, very concerned. Folks had told her no way to
know whether the child was saved or not. And I sat down and wrote
a rather lengthy letter to her. Trying to give her the teaching
of scripture in this regard Now you stop and consider this The vast innumerable multitudes Seated around the throne of God
today The vast majority of them David never grew past infancy
The vast majority of them God has mercy on whom He will when
He will, in the way He will through Jesus Christ our Redeemer. But
all who are saved are saved just like infants without doing a
thing. Now here's the second thing in
verse 14. Adam was a type of Christ. What did Adam do in the garden?
He saw Eve being deceived and knowing the judgment of God upon
sin. Rather than be separated from
Eve, his wife, who is bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh,
to whom he is married, to whom he is totally committed, Adam
willfully took the fruit from her hand and plunged himself
into sin and death under the wrath of God because of his love
for Eve. So the Son of God being married
to our souls, being totally committed to us bone of his bone and flesh
of his flesh. Deliberately, willfully took
our sin and made it his own and plunged himself into death under
the wrath of God that we might never be separated from him because
of our sin. It's called grace, free grace. being justified through his blood. Now, look at verses 20 and 21
for just a second, I'll be done. Being now justified by his blood,
saved sinners rejoice and give thanks to God for his abounding
grace in Christ Jesus. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. God shine the light of his law
into our souls and cause us to know our sin. Oh, may God do that for you. Oh, may God do that for you. The law entered that the offense
might abound, but wherever God shines the light of his law into
your soul, causing you to know your sin. Where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. Right here, right here. Look
here, look here. Look this way, look here, look
here. Oh, wouldn't you, God? I could show you a little bit
about what's inside me. Here where sin abounds, Oh, how
sin abounds here. Oh, how sin abounds here. Christ has come in. And there's one thing more abundant
in my heart than sin itself. It's called grace. Grace now
much more abounds that as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so now grace reigns right here through righteousness,
through the blood of Jesus Christ, my Savior, unto eternal life. Oh, may God make that yours,
giving you faith in his darling Son. Amen.