Welcome to Life Group. We invite you to join
us in this verse -by -verse study through the
Word of God. In the first four chapters of Romans,
Paul convinced us that the only way of salvation
is to be justified by grace through faith. Now,
in chapter 5, he begins to tell us about some
of the practical benefits, explaining how it's
more than just an interesting idea or concept.
Let's begin in Romans 5, verse 1. Therefore,
since we have been made right in God's sight
by faith, we have peace with God because of what
Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Since
we have been made right with God, and other translations
say, since we have been justified by faith. You
see, the... Understanding of the word justified
or being made right, it's a legal term. So we
could put it this way. By God's legal decree,
our guilty sentence has been expunged. Now, when
a guilty sentence is expunged, it's erased and
removed completely. And that's what happens when
we've been justified. It's just as if we have
never sinned. when we put our faith in Christ.
This verse tells us one of those benefits that
I was talking about. Benefit number one, we could
say is that we have peace with God. I want you
to think about what it is to have peace with
another person. When we're at peace with someone,
there's nothing in the way to hinder our relationship.
So now we have peace with God. There's Nothing
in the way. Our sin is no longer separating us
from our holy God. Verse 2. Because of our faith,
Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved
privilege where we now stand. And we confidently
and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory.
Here's benefit number two, we could call it.
We now stand, when we're in Christ, we stand
in a place of undeserved privilege. We stand
in the place of grace. What is grace? Grace is
God's acts of kindness and favor. And we need
to understand that God's acts of kindness and
favor not only made our salvation possible, it
is where we have the opportunity to live. We
have the opportunity to live our lives in the
presence and in the experience of God's acts
of kindness and favor towards us. We stand now
in the place. of grace. Standing in grace means
that you don't have to prove that you're worthy
of God's love. It means that God is actually
your friend. Standing in grace means that the
door of access to God is permanently opened to
you. It means that you are free from any kind
of score sheet. In Jesus. And standing in grace
means that you can spend more time praising God
instead of condemning or hating yourself. You
can live in God's favor. Standing in God's grace
means that his promises are yes and amen for
you. So our response to having peace with God.
and having the opportunity to live in the continual
flow of his acts of kindness and favor towards
us, our response should naturally be joy and
rejoicing. Verse 3. We can rejoice too when we
run into problems and trials, for we know that
they help us develop endurance, and endurance
develops strength of character. and character
strengthens our confident hope of salvation.
And this hope will not lead to disappointment,
for we know how dearly God loves us, because
He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts
with His love. So when we are confidently standing
in the place of grace, we do not lose our joy
when we encounter troubles. We endure, we keep
standing, and we... Develop a character of standing.
Each time we stand, we develop a character of
standing. It's actually who you become, who you
are. We develop hope. Hope is often looked at
as a confident expectation, a hope in salvation
and rescue and our deliverance and our breakthrough
when we encounter troubles. So you will never
be disappointed when you hold on to a confident
expectation of seeing the goodness, kindness,
and favor of God. And when you stand in faith
without wavering. His goodness is always pursuing
you and running after you. The Bible communicates
this in Psalms 23, 6. David writes, Surely your
goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all
the days of my life, and I will live in the house
of the Lord forever. So when we have that mental
image of God's goodness is coming after us, is
running after us, that gives us hope. It gives
us encouragement when we face trouble that we
can stand in. Because God loves us, he has taken
up residence in us by the power of the Holy Spirit
being in us. He empowers us to endure. So therefore,
when we face trouble, we're not alone. We realize
we're not standing by ourselves in our own power.
But God has empowered us to stand, to endure
trouble. And when we constantly acknowledge this
fact, when we acknowledge him being with us,
we can become a person who stands in confident
hope, in faith, and in love. Verse 6. When we
were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the
right time and died for us sinners. It's important
to realize that Jesus came into the world at
just the right time. The world was prepared spiritually,
economically, linguistically, politically, philosophically,
and even geographically for the coming of Jesus
and the spreading of the gospel. That particular
culture allowed the gospel and allowed his coming
to be of the most impact that it possibly could
over any other time in history. it would have
not seen as much impact as it did if he didn't
come at just the right time. And that's what
Paul is communicating here. Verse 7, Now most
people would not be willing to die for an upright
person, though someone might perhaps be willing
to die for a person who is especially good. But
God showed his great love for us by sending Christ
to die for us while we were still sinners. So
Paul presents the idea of Christ's substitutionary
sacrifice with the word propitiation in Romans
chapter 3, as we've seen before. But here, he
continues that thought by saying Christ died
for us while we were still sinners. That Greek
word translated for is the word huper, which
means for the sake of, on behalf of, and instead
of. Communicating the idea that Jesus died in
our place for us. And in that way, God's love
is far beyond the greatest love humans are even
capable of. You know, a good man might die for
the right kind of person, someone that they deem
as especially good. But Jesus, he died for those
who were neither righteous nor good. Verse 9.
And since we have been made right in God's sight
by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save
us from God's condemnation. For since our friendship
with God was restored by the death of His Son
while we were still His enemies, we will certainly
be saved through the life of His Son. So now
we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship
with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made
us friends of God. You see, our natural response
to understanding what Jesus has done for us should
be rejoicing. That word rejoicing literally translated
means to hold your head up high. We're not supposed
to be hanging our heads in shame or defeat from
the condemnation of sin. There's no condemnation.
for us in Christ, we should be bragging. Rejoicing
conveys the idea of us always bragging about
the goodness of God, what God has done for us,
what he does every single day, and what he has
done for us on the cross, right? And we should
live with this. We should stand in this with
this God -given confidence, or you could even
say swagger, right? You live with that intentional
acknowledgement of who he is and what he's done
for you causes you to rejoice and live with your
head held high. And this brings us three more
benefits, right? We see this in the passage.
Benefit three would be that we have been made
right with him. God has made us right with himself,
has restored us. And benefit four would be that
we have been relieved of all condemnation. There's
no condemnation for the believer, right? And
then benefit five is that it says that we are
friends with God. We're not just servants, but
he has called us friends. We are friends with
him, and we share that relationship with God.
Verse 12. When Adam sinned, sin entered the world.
Adam's sin brought death. So death spread to
everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, people sinned
even before the law was given. But it was not
counted as sin, because there was not yet any
law to break. Still, everyone died, from the
time of Adam to the time of Moses. even those
who did not disobey an explicit commandment of
God, as Adam did. Now, Adam is a symbol. God's
Word tells us that Adam is symbolic of humanity.
As the first human, Adam is considered the federal
head, the leader, the representative of humanity.
And through his actions, he is the one who legally
defined and established our connection to God,
who's our creator. Now, through his actions,
Adam is responsible for the fall of the human
race. Death was introduced into the world when
Adam sinned, and death has reigned on earth ever
since. In the garden, God told Adam if he ate
of the fruit of that tree, he would surely die,
and that's when death entered the world, and
it was through Adam's actions. Now, this may
seem unfair to our individualistic ears, but
Paul clearly teaches that we all sinned in Adam.
Adam is the common father of every person on
earth. Every human who has ever lived was in
Adam's genetic makeup. Therefore, all mankind
actually sinned in Adam. Adam's rebellion, his
sin, established an unreparable separation, a
schism, a rip between mankind. and a holy God.
Picking back up with verse 14. Now, Adam is a
symbol, a representation of Christ who is yet
to come. But there's a great difference between
Adam's sin and God's gracious gift. For the sin
of this one man, Adam, brought death to many.
But even greater is God's wonderful grace and
his gift of forgiveness to many through this
other man, Jesus Christ. The verse tells us that
there's a difference between Adam's offense and
Jesus' gift. The free gift of Jesus is not like
the offense of Adam. As a matter of fact, they're
not identical in their result or in their application.
You see, without you and I making a personal
choice, every person after Adam received the
curse of Adam's offense, which is death. However,
Jesus' gift requires a personal choice or a personal
decision. for a person to receive that gift.
Verse 16. And the result of God's gracious gift
is very different from the result of that one
man's sin. For Adam's sin led to condemnation,
but God's free gift leads to our being made right
with God, even though we are guilty of many sins.
For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death
to rule over many. But even greater is God's
wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness,
for all who receive it will live in triumph over
sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
Yes, Adam's one sin brings condemnation for everyone,
but Christ's one act of righteousness brings
a right relationship with God and new life for
everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many
became sinners. But because one other person
obeyed God, many will be made righteous. We need
to understand that both Adam and Jesus were completely
sinless men from the beginning, and both of them
did things that had consequences for all mankind.
Adam's work or actions brought death, but Jesus'
work and actions brings grace. We could put it
this way. Both Adam and Jesus are kings, and
each king instituted their reign or their kingdom.
Now, under Adam, Sin and death reigns. But under
Jesus, grace and life reigns. Everyone is identified
as either in Adam or in Jesus. See, all of us
are born in Adam or identified with Adam. But
we have the opportunity to be born again. into
identification with Jesus or in Christ. And since
we all became sinners in Adam, we can all become
righteous in Christ. In Christ, we move out from
under Adam, and Jesus becomes our new federal
head, our representative. Through his actions,
his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus legally
redefined and re -established our connection
to God. Verse 20. God's law was given so that
all people could see how sinful they were. But
as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful
grace became more abundant. You see, the law
was too late to prevent sin and death, and it
is too weak to save from sin and death. The law
is good but lacks the power to bring salvation
to humanity. But God's grace is more powerful
than sin, and there is no sin that the blood
of Jesus cannot cleanse. And this reminds us
of a hymn that says, There is a fountain filled
with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. and sinners
plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty
stains. Picking up in verse 21, So just as sin
ruled over all people and brought them to death,
now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving
us right standing with God and resulting in eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So benefit
six is sin no longer rules over us. It used to
be our master, but not anymore when we are in
Christ. If we're in Christ, we're no longer a
slave to sin. It has no power over us. We are
under the rule of God's wonderful grace. Thank
you for joining us for Life Group. Allow God's
Word to build your faith and transform your life.