In depth study: Romans 5:1

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1, ESV)

My thoughts on Spurgeon's Bible meditation inspired me to get serious again with my study of the book of Romans. For several years, it has been my desire to memorize Romans 5 through 8 (and who knows, maybe one day the entire book!), and it has unfortunately been an on-again off-again ambition.

But Spurgeon inspired me to try again, so I pulled out Romans 5 and am giving it another go. This time, I'm going to try not to memorize, exactly, but rather to really get to know each verse - to take it apart, put it back together, kick the tires, and understand how it actually works.

One good thing that has already happened is that I got a chance to show the Darling Munchkin a glimpse into the fascinating and rewarding world of serious Bible study. I took her to the Blue Letter Bible site and demonstrated some of the wonderfully powerful study tools they have. The Blue Letter Bible's resources are what I use when I'm doing a down-and-dirty-serious study, so pretty much all of my citations here will be from them. It's a fantastic site, and I am grateful for all their hard work!

So, let's begin...

We Have Been Justified

First, I want to look at the phrase "we have been justified."  The King James (remember, I tend to use either the English Standard Version or the New King James) uses "being justified," and the NKJV uses "having been justified." This is the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance ("Strong's") Greek word 1344, δικαιόω, or "dikaioō," to transliterate. The root word means "righteous" as in, "approved by or acceptable to God." The verb form here means "to render, to declare, to pronounce, or to demonstrate one to be righteous."

So this phrase means that Christians have been rendered and declared to be approved by and acceptable to God - and that's all well and good, but there's a lot more gold to find if you continue on to examine at the "tense, voice and mood" of the Greek verb (yep, you ought to go check out that link!).

Now, this verb's "mood" is aorist. According to the information at the Blue Letter Bible site,

The aorist tense is characterized by its emphasis on punctiliar action; that is, the concept of the verb is considered without regard for past, present, or future time.

What that tells me is that we have been justified without regard to past, present or future. It is something that has been accomplished and that nothing in my past, present or future can change that fact. As I was studying this particular point, I was reminded of God's sovereign choice of those whom He would call to Himself -

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. (John 6:44)

For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:29)

...even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. (Ephesians 1:4)

For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you (1 Thessalonians 1:4)

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)

(NOTE: All Scripture quotes are from the English Standard Version)

All these quotes point to the fact that this particular verb in Romans 5:1 is also in the passive voice. The subject, "we," is not performing the action; rather the subject is acted upon. This tells me that I do not justify myself: nothing I can do, nothing I actually do has any effect on my justification and righteousness before God! I do not justify myself, but rather God in His mercy and grace, reaches down and is the One who justifies me and makes me righteous.

As a matter of fact, the Bible has some harsh words for those who think they can point to their own efforts as a worthy offering to God:

We have all become like one who is unclean,
   and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
   and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (Isaiah 64:6)

Many translations use "filthy rags," and the implication - at least that is what many pastors have said - is not just extremely dirty clothing, but also used menstrual supplies...! From what I saw in the Strong's translations of the Hebrew ( בגד עדה - "`ed beged" - "filthy, filthy stained rags of garments"), even if the bloody rags angle isn't quite accurate, the thought of offering God some disgusting, stained, filthy, stinky, smelly, foul rags and expecting Him to receive them as if they were perfect, clean, glorious and beautiful clothes of the highest quality, worthy of great admiration and praise... Well, that's pretty stupid, don't you think?

When you understand that all of our actions, words, motives and thoughts are all tainted by sin, you realize the truth that there is nothing we can do in our own power and effort that will be perfect and acceptable in God's sight. We do not have the capability in ourselves to be pure and holy in all aspects of our lives; it's an impossibility. God knows that, and in His love, He made a way for us to be perfect in His eyes - through His perfection, holiness and righteousness.

He Himself bestows this marvelous gift upon us - but how?

By Faith

So, we have been given this righteousness in God's sight as a gift from outside of ourselves, which brings me to my second focus: the word "faith." Faith in this context means a welcome conviction and belief that God is who He says He is. "Faith" here means you believe that He is Creator and Sustainer and Redeemer. It means that you are persuaded that God's Son, Jesus,  is the Messiah, and that He came to die for your sins, and that He rose again as proof that His sacrifice was acceptable to God and has secured your eternal salvation. It is this faith that is the active agent which makes you righteous before God.

Now, again, I want to remind you that even this faith is God's gift to His chosen people. Ephesians 2:1-10 is very clear on this:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Twice in this passage, the Holy Spirit calls us DEAD. Now, I ask you... What can a dead man do but lie there and rot? Both times, the Greek here is the word νεκρός, "nekros," which means

1) properly
     a) one that has breathed his last, lifeless
     b) deceased, departed, one whose soul is in heaven or hell
     c) destitute of life, without life, inanimate
2) metaph.
     a) spiritually dead
          1) destitute of a life that recognises and is devoted to God, because given up to trespasses and sins
          2) inactive as respects doing right
     b) destitute of force or power, inactive, inoperative

Dead, dead, DEAD!

But God reached down and gave us a living and effective faith. He knew us from before the foundation of the world, and planned to bring dead people to life so that we might do the works that He prepared for us. Note that, in this passage, God's love and mercy makes us alive with Christ and then we are ready to do the works He has planned for us.

Our faith, this wonderful gift from God, produces works - works that prove our faith to the unbelieving world - but it is the faith in God and in His Son, given as a gift of God, that is the proximate cause of our salvation. Now I may not have used that phrase quite correctly - I'm trying to remember a sermon series by R. C. Sproul which talked about this. What I mean by "proximate cause" is (and this still may be a bit confused, but bear with me) that God uses the gift of faith as the means by which He applies the sacrificial death of Christ to pay for and redeem us out of death and sin and transfer us into His Kingdom of light.

The main point I am trying to make is that our justification is from the faith that God has given us as a gift. God gives us this faith so that we can place our trust and hope in His Son Jesus. He gives us this faith so that we may believe and have confidence in the truth and reality that Jesus' death has paid for all our sins, and that - because of this - we have another, wonderful gift from God.

We have something else? What?

We Have

Now we come, thirdly, to the second verb in this verse: "we have" - ἔχω ("echō") - which means... "We HAVE." We possess, we own, we hold in our hands. This verb is in the present tense, indicating that it is a fact, a reality, occurring in the present time. Basically, this emphasizes that we are in actual, real, honest-to-God, certain possession of something. It is as certain as the laws of gravity, just as real as the chair you're sitting on, the air you breathe, the water you drink. It is something that is possessed at such a deep level that it is as intrinsic as the color of your eyes and the composition of your DNA.

You HAVE it - you can't lose it! There is nothing and no one that can take it away:

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one. (John 10:28-30)

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

This is a present, ongoing and unchanging FACT for a Christian. Just as no one can take away the DNA you were born with, we completely own and possess this next amazing gift and blessing from God. It is ours for now and the rest of eternity.

Now... What is it that we have?

Peace with God

"Peace," Strong's number 1515 (Greek word - εἰρήνη - "eirēnē", means peace and harmony between individuals, security, safety, and the calm assurance of a soul certain of the salvation of Christ and fearing (in the terror sense, not the "awed respect" sense) nothing from God.

"Peace with God" is the fourth point I want to make.

Peace is what we HAVE. We own it, we are holding it in our hands, we possess it! It. Is. OURS!

Well, what is so special about having peace with God? Consider the fact that unregenerate (unsaved, unbelieving) man is actually an enemy of God. Sinful man is in utter and complete rebellion against the Creator and Ruler of all the Universe... and that is an awfully scary position to be in. Our sin and stiff-necked rebellion has been condemned by the perfect Law of the Just and Holy God who has the right as our Creator to judge and sentence us to Hell.

Have you ever heard of Jonathan Edwards? He was arguably one of the world's finest theologians, and he lived in America before the Revolutionary War. In 1741, he preached a sermon titled "Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God," and it apparently scared the pants off many people - and rightly so! Here's a (lengthly) quote:

"There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God". By the mere pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God's mere will had in the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever, any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment. The truth of this observation may appear by the following considerations.

1. There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men's hands cannot be strong when God rises up. The strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands. He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty to subdue a rebel, who has found means to fortify himself, and has made himself strong by the numbers of his followers. But it is not so with God. There is no fortress that is any defence from the power of God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God's enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces. They are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to hell. What are we, that we should think to stand before him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down?

2. They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, "Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" (Luke 13:7). The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God's mere will, that holds it back.

3. They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. "He that believeth not is condemned already" (John 3:18). So that every unconverted man properly belongs to hell; that is his place; from thence he is. "Ye are from beneath" (John 8:23). And thither he is bound; it is the place that justice, and God's word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law assign to him.

4. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell. And the reason why they do not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as he is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell, who there feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth: yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, who it may be are at ease, than he is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell.

Scary stuff. Our sin, even the smallest sin, is rebellion against God and places us under the unrelenting, unwavering, unremitting and JUSTIFIED wrath of God. God is too pure to even look upon sin -

You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
   and cannot look at wrong,
why do You idly look at traitors
   and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
   the man more righteous than he? (Habakkuk 1:13)

- and His righteous anger against this rebellion and sin does not fade (check out Romans 1!) and cannot be appeased by our self-righteous attempts to be "good enough." God does not grade on a curve: anything less than 100% is a fail. Each and every day that we live and refuse to bow our knee is a day that we dangle by a thread over the pit of Hell, and our sure fate is stayed only by the merciful and patient hand of God.

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. (2 Peter 3:8-10)

Judgment IS coming, and God's wrath WILL one day be released upon this earth. Unrepentant people WILL be punished in Hell, and God's holiness and perfection WILL be displayed for all to see and no one will ever again contradict Him.

Judgment is certain - and who can bear the righteous and enduring wrath of God?

That is why having peace with God is so wonderful! Look at this passage from later on in Romans 5:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

God loves us so much that, even when His just wrath burned against our sin, He provided a way for us to become reconciled to Him, to have peace with Him, to rejoice in Him.We need no longer fear that the delicate thread will be cut and we will descend into eternal torment and punishment. Instead, we can look to God and rejoice that He has rescued us from that terrifying fate, that in His love and mercy He has adopted us into His family and that He will never leave us or forsake us.

We now HAVE the safety, security, confidence, blessedness, harmony, happiness, and joy of peace with God. We are relieved from the terror of a horrific fate, and we can rest in the love and grace our Father pours out over His beloved and cherished children.

1. Like a river glorious, is God’s perfect peace,
Over all victorious, in its bright increase;
Perfect, yet it floweth, fuller every day,
Perfect, yet it groweth, deeper all the way. 
    Refrain
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

2. Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.
     Refrain

3. Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love;
We may trust Him fully all for us to do.
They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.
     Refrain

Wow. Just... WOW!!! How can God do that?! If He is too holy to even look upon sin, how is it that He can just wipe it away and declare us to be righteous and perfect before Him?

He can do it on account of Jesus.

Through Our Lord Jesus Christ

Here is my fifth and final point: Because of what Jesus has done for us, we can be justified and we can have everlasting peace with God.

The word translated "through" also has the meanings of "on account of, by reason of, because of, by means of." But, biblically speaking, the word "through" is incredibly rich with theological gold. God brought Noah and his family through the Flood which destroyed the rest of humanity. God walked through the sacrificed animals to establish His covenant with Abram. God's provision brought Israel through the last Plague, through the Red Sea, through the wilderness. Shadrach, Mesach and Abednego were rescued through the fire, and God protected Daniel through the lions' den. God refines His people through trials and tribulations and brings them forth as pure gold.

And we are saved - we receive our justification - through the broken body and shed blood of Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)

Through Christ, and Christ alone. That last verse from Corinthians outlines the "Great Exchange" - all our sin was placed upon Jesus on the Cross. He voluntarily took upon Himself our sin, and paid the penalty for it in full. The pure, spotless Lamb of God was lifted up and sacrificed on our behalf so that God, in turn, would be able to give us the perfect merit of Christ and clothe us in His righteousness.

The book of Hebrews has another wonderful picture of what Christ did on our behalf:

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Therefore He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

Jesus acted - and is acting - as our Great High Priest, who offered Himself up and secured our redemption, our justification, by His own blood. We pass through the torn veil into the Holy Place because His blood has purified us so that we are able to stand before the Living God, clothed in the righteous perfection of His Son.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Because of the gracious and perfect sacrifice of the Son of God, the terrible wrath of God has been propitiated and removed so that we have perfect security and peace with Him, through the blessed faith and confidence He has given us so that we may receive His justification and righteousness. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes!

All glory and wisdom and power and praise be to our God and to the Lamb who sits upon the throne. I give thanks to the King of Kings for His abundant and infinite mercy and for the lavish grace He pours out upon us all. Ascribe honor to Him, all you people! Fall down before Him and worship the One True God who gave Himself for us and has authority in all things!

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive honor and glory and praise and worship, now and forevermore!

And all God's people shouted, AMEN!

Comments

[Denita TwoDragons]

1.

I'm going to take a while to read this, as I don't want to skim over it any more than I already have...but I can tell you that the ESV Study Bible is my favorite go-to bible for deep study. Any stuff I'm not clear on I usually either look up with the numerous online resources and programs Eric has installed on our computer / theological library, or I grab a couple of the many other Bible translations we have laying around the house to get a rounder feel for what's being said.

Of course, having friends to discuss one's findings with is indispensable, too! :-) Hope your dig into Romans turns up many wonderful treasures!

--TwoDragons

[James Atticus Bowden]

2.

Great job. Charles Stanley makes the point that justification means "just as if I never did it."

Also, I heard a version of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God in Sunday School when I was about 8. When I read it in high school, I laughed. The thread of that thought - almost verbatim - had carried through 200 years.

[Kat]

3.

Well, I confess that nothing even vaguely like this is going to emerge out of this ol' brain for several days, at least.

This was DEFINITELY the "monster, brain-exploding post from Hades (so to speak)" for me! I think I spent about 10 hours of intense research and writing, which is very not typical of me!

When I remember the pulling-wisdom-teeth agony of attempting to write papers in school, and then see this 8 page, NON-double-spaced opus, which I was driven to write...[headdesk]

I just hope God will take it a little easier on me for future verse studies - you know, maybe only FIVE pages???? ;-)

[Kat]

4.

Hey, Jim, could you expand a little more about the "Sinners" comment? I don't understand the laughter and which thought had carried through 200 years. (I'm assuming the thought that unrepentant sinners are only a breath away from God's judgment...)

I think it would be interesting to hear that "story" ;-)

[Denita TwoDragons]

5.

Eric and I listened to an INCREDIBLE version of Sinners that was read by Mark Dever. We played it during one of the many hour-long drives to my OBGYN while I was preggers with Tabi. It gave me goosebumps both of dread and of joy. Just...wow...

--TwoDragons

[Kat]

6.

Do you happen to have a link or a date for that, hun? I'm assuming this is Mark Dever of Capitol Hill Baptist, right?

[Anders Branderud]

7.

You wrote: ” Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1, ESV)”

I want to comment about those rows that are connected to atonement.

(le-havdil)

How to live in order to enable the Creator in His loving kindness to provide His kipur –atonement- is outlined in Tan’’kh ; and was also taught by Ribi Yehoshua. The first century Ribi Yehoshua from Nazareth (the Mashiakh; the Messiah) taught in accordance with Tan’’kh the only way to get connection with the Creator, This way is found both in Torah and in Ribi Yehoshuas teachings found in our website – http://www.netzarim.co.il

[Kat]

8.

Anders, I appreciate you stopping by and commenting!

However, if I understand your comment correctly - that we have to live a certain way before God can offer His atonement to us - you are gravely mistaken. Of ourselves, we can do NOTHING to earn forgiveness from God - that is why justification is a gift.

Once we are saved, then we become partners with God in our sanctification - becoming more like Him, being conformed to the image of His Son. Even then, it is God's power working in us...

Paul wrote in Galatians 3:1-6:

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"?

And again in Philippians 2:12-13:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

So, again, if you are saying that we first have to clean up our act before God will offer us His salvation, I would earnestly suggest you re-read this post carefully. If I misunderstood you, please forgive me.