Romans 5:1-11
There are 3 parts to this section: Fruits of justification, God’s purpose in suffering and the perfect love of God.
In the previous chapter, we learnt that God justified by grace through faith. As a result, we are now at peace with God. The opposite meaning of “at peace” would be “at war”. Therefore, we were living under his wrath, when we were at war with God. Like Adam and Eve who were banished from the Garden of Eden, we were banished from salvation.
But through Jesus, whom we believe and have faith in, we now stand under grace. We have gained salvation; we stand in the grace of God. And faith is believing that Jesus has the power to change our status of being at war to the status of being at peace with God. Faith is believing that we now live under God’s grace. We are under God’s unmerited favour. Once you are firmly grounded in this believe, you will naturally not take your own works into account of salvation because God is the perfect atonement that brought us favour that we do not deserve. There is no room for works or rituals or what-nots.
From gaining access to the riches of God, we now live with the hope of the glory of God. Christians will see God and this hope to see God is the climax of our faith. And such is only given to those who are justified. The word “hope” in today’s language culture and usage pretty much undermines its meaning. Take for example; someone says “I hope I’ll do well for my exams.” The word hope can easily be replaced with the word “wish”. This makes the meaning of “hope” something that is uncertain, or wishing for something not guaranteed to happen. But the hope we have in Christ is sure. It is believing with full assurance that it will happen. If we do not have this hope, then are you sure your faith is placed in Christ? Or do you even believe that Christ is the perfect means to God’s grace?
So we rejoice in hope and we are also called to rejoice in sufferings. We have touched on this many times. A Christian is to hold a different view from the world about sufferings. Pagans believe that sufferings are the punishments for sins or the result of bad luck. These are foolish beliefs. We know from Isaiah 53:5 that the “punishment that brought us peace was upon Him”. Therefore, Jesus has paid the full price for us to be forgiven. There is no need for us to endure punishment because earlier on we already learn that we are justified by faith and not by works. Nothing we do can buy us salvation. Also, if we have to be punished to appease God, then Jesus’ death and resurrection is rendered imperfect. It is insufficient to propitiate so we need to be punished as well. So if someone were to tell you that we must suffer punishment for sin or we won’t be forgiven, be warned. That is false teaching.
Paul gave us God’s purpose in making us grow spiritually through suffering. Suffering produces character and hope. While suffering, we cling to God for security because he is firm pillar that never falls. If we do not face suffering, we miss opportunities to cling on to God. We may perhaps forget that he is the firm foundation. We start to take our day-to-day walk for granted and become complacent. We may even forget the true meaning of rejoicing and hoping. Since all is well, what is there to rejoice about? I’m living well now, do I need hope? God simply puts us through not-so-bright days so that we are being drawn to depend on Him. So before you turn and run from your trial, think of what you will miss out not going through it.
And now we come to God’s love. Paul says that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This is love from God, undeserved. To fully appreciate the meaning of his love, we have to look at ourselves in God’s eyes. We are “powerless”, “ungodly”, “sinners” and “enemies” of God. If we think of ourselves desirable, lovely or worthy (which we are not), then perhaps God’s love isn’t so great anymore because it’s easy to love those who are lovely. But yet God chose to love us when we are sinners, those who fall short of His glory. We were enemies at war with him but he chose to make peace with us. In Ps 103:4, God “redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion”. In Jude 1:1, we are called, loved and kept by God.
If you haven’t realised by now, God does all the work. He paid the atonement for our sin. He justified and reconciled us to him. He allowed us to go through sufferings and cling on to him. He loved us first. All we are called to do in this passage is rejoice (v2,3,11). Are you rejoicing?
