From Wrath to Glory: A Thematic Overview of Romans part 2

Pastor-Teacher
John Farley
Wednesday,
September 09, 2009

ROM 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith
[ROM 3:21 - Rom 4], we have peace with God [reconciliation] through our Lord Jesus Christ,

ROM 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith
[ROM 3:21 - Rom 4], we have peace with God [reconciliation] through our Lord Jesus Christ,

ROM 5:2 through whom [our Lord Jesus Christ] also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult [JOY!] in hope [confident expectation of a certain future outcome] of the glory of God.

Past event -
justification by faith, reconciliation -
peace with God.

Present reality -
standing in the grace of God. With joy inexpressible and full of glory! 1PE 1:8

Future certain expectation -
our glorification. Eternity face to face with the glory of God.

The great subject of the book of Romans =
justification.

What is needed is an all out no holds barred encounter with the truth of the book of Romans about justification by faith in the blood of Christ. You must get all your insecurities out on the table and wrestle with the facts and logic of this book.

Justification refers to the judicial act of God whereby He declares someone perfectly righteous forever in God’s sight.

The depth of the joy you have when you realize you have been forgiven is directly proportional to the extent of your recognized need for forgiveness!

LUK 7:47 “For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

God knows how rotten you really are.
He declares that for all the world to hear, and that as a matter of first importance, occurring first, in the book of Romans.

ROM 1:18 - 3:20 =
God first condemned every human being, pronouncing the whole world guilty.

The only ground or basis for God justifying a man or a woman is the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

ROM 4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,

God has been propitiated or satisfied by one thing and one thing only - the blood of Christ, the saving work of Christ in His death on the cross.

That ungodly sinner who is convinced of his guilt and helplessness to save himself,

and believes the Good News that Christ’s sacrificial work on the Cross applies to him, accepting the grace gift of redemption and expiation and propitiation and reconciliation,

courtesy of the justice of God as revealed in the convicting ministry of God the Holy Spirit -

That ungodly sinner who is convinced of his guilt and helplessness to save himself,

and believes the Good News that Christ’s sacrificial work on the Cross applies to him, accepting the grace gift of redemption and expiation and propitiation and reconciliation,

courtesy of the justice of God as revealed in the convicting ministry of God the Holy Spirit -

this one has imputed to his account the righteousness of God as a gift of God’s grace.

So God makes a judicial pronouncement that such a believing person stands perfectly righteous in His sight because of the blood of Christ - His redemptive death on the cross as a substitute for the human race.

2CO 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Believers in Jesus Christ in this Church-age are in union with our Lord Jesus Christ!

“In Him”!
This is the key to the whole Christian way of life, to all that we are or ever will be.

Paul was a master of logic. And nowhere is logic used with more force and regularity, or for a more profound purpose, than in the book of Romans.

And so if you want to have a firm foundation in Christ... if you want to be more joyful in your walk...
You need to let the logic in Romans do its work on your soul!

Logic includes facts taken by faith that lead to conclusions that are inescapable.

It is to have matters settled forever in your soul, in your understanding, in such a solid airtight way that the gates of hell and all the projections of the kingdom of darkness cannot shake the faith you have in the truth.

The wrath of God is that part of the justice of God that deals with unbelief, unrighteousness, sin, evil, disobedience, and idolatry.

The wrath of God exists, and it is directed against ungodliness and unrighteousness - but NOT against you if you are a believer, not ever, because you are declared by God to be perfectly righteous forever by virtue of the blood of Christ that you believed in for your redemption.

ROM 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness [rebellion against and rejection of God - status quo of the unbeliever] and unrighteousness [status quo lacking righteousness] of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

JOH 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

It is only after we learn and accept how serious and solemn the issue of the wrath of God really is, against sin, against rebellion, against unrighteousness...
that we rejoice in the inescapable logic of ROM 5:9

ROM 5:9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

The wrath of God did not judge Jesus. The wrath of God, the justice of God, judged sin.

It is not until we are convinced how utterly bad we (the human race in our natural, unregenerate state) really were that we see clearly how gratuitously good God is at the Cross of Jesus Christ.