Romans 5:5-6

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

V5 – Hope does not disappoint. God has poured out His love in our hearts by giving us the Holy Spirit. Again, the hope is sure and settled. It does not disappoint. How do we know? We have the Spirit. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit confirms our hope of glory. God has poured out His saving love into our hearts by giving us His Spirit. The Holy Spirit tells us that God has undeniable, undeserved, and intense saving love for us. Since we have been justified through faith by the saving works of Christ, we know (our hope is certain) that God’s saving love for us will not disappoint. The Holy Spirit’s presence confirms it.

Watch the spiraling nature of hope in Romans 15:13: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” How does hope work in the Christian life? It starts with the God of hope. He fills believers with joy and peace. In other words, our joy and peace rise with our belief that the God of hope is for us in Christ. Joy and peace are sustained by hope. But then the verse says that God fills us with joy and peace “so that you may overflow with hope.” So here we have more hope coming from the fruit of hope. Hope brings about our joy and peace. And our joy and peace bring about more and more hope. The first hope is a means to the last hope.

Notice also the parallel to Romans 5:5 in Ephesians 3:16-19: “I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Pray with all your heart the prayers of Paul. Like the one in Ephesians 1:18-19, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.” When the eyes of our hearts are opened to the greatness of God’s love, the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Who was given to us.

Notice finally the faith-hope-love trinity mentioned here. Paul loves to talk about faith, hope, and love, and he does it right here. V1-2: our faith; v2-5: our hope; v5-8: God’s love. Not our love for Him, but His love for us. Our justification means that God’s saving love is applied to us through faith.

V6 – At just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Paul confirms the unfailing love of God by declaring that Christ died for the ungodly in their powerlessness. He died for people who did not deserve it and who were unable to earn it or contribute anything to it. The Gospel declares God’s love, not for the godly, powerful, lovable folks, but for the unlovable, the weak, the powerless, the ungodly. Paul is bringing up an argument here. He says, “You want to see the love of God? Look at those for whom Christ died.” That’s the love of God. Then Paul illustrates his argument in v7-8, and we'll look at that after a Christmas blogging break…

Romans 5:2-4

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

V2-4 – Rejoice in the hope of the glory of God; rejoice in suffering which produces perseverance, which produces character, which produces hope. Another implication of justification, besides peace, is hope for the glory of God, in which believers get to share. The Israelites wanted Canaan; Moses wanted to see God’s glory. Do we just want to be in heaven, maybe sneak in by the skin of our teeth, or do we want to see God’s glory in the face of Christ? Who is the first person you want to see in heaven? It better be Christ. Yearning for God’s glory, we share in it. And it will be revealed like never before. God will glorify Himself by restoring creation into an eternal perfection, without the possibility of corruption, and we will share in it. Do you hope for the glory of God? Satan wants God’s people to think that God is not worth living for. But in the end God’s glory is going to be revealed. And everyone who has faith in Jesus Christ will know that God was worth living for, and that living for His glory is beyond question. Paul is saying, “If you’re justified, you will be there; God is worth living for.”

Paul says, “Rejoice in the glory of God to come and also in the sufferings you currently endure.” It’s easy to see why we rejoice about what’s coming, especially given that we are so confident in it. But it’s not easy to rejoice in suffering. Suffering is hard, especially ongoing suffering with no end in sight. Paul doesn’t say that we rejoice in spite of our sufferings; he says that we rejoice on account of our sufferings. How is it that you can rejoice in suffering and tribulation? The only way that you can rejoice in any and every tribulation is to know that in every tribulation you are seeing not God against you, but God for you. For the unbeliever, he may well feel that the trials and tribulations of life are the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. The traumas and difficulties of life may cause him to say, “This universe makes no sense. I loved that woman, and God took her away from me by cancer. I loved that job, and I was wrongfully taken from it. I loved my child. I devoted myself to my child, and God took my child away from me.” But Paul says trials and tribulations are not that way for believers. Why? Nothing in the universe is against God. If God is for you, who can be against you? And even in the universe which is warped by sin, God in His fatherly wisdom is ordering all things for your good. That’s why we are able to rejoice in present suffering. Nothing capable of our demise in this entire universe is against us.

Through grace, evil has lost the initiative in a believer’s life and can no longer lord it over him or her. Evil becomes an instrument in God’s hands of furthering His purposes in the believer’s life. It may be chastening, fatherly discipline. It is for perseverance and character. It is not for destruction. It is not for God’s amusement. He does not take suffering lightly. He desires to sanctify His people, to build them up for some great battle ahead or to glorify Himself. He will allow or cause suffering so that His people will persevere and grow in character. There will be a benefit, most likely in some way that they would never ever fathom. But in all of it, God has the design of the believer’s good. Rejoice in suffering; it leads to perseverance, which produces character, which produces a sure and settled hope. This is sanctification.

The idea is that when you put metal through a fiery testing and it comes out on the other side persevering and enduring, what you call that metal is “proven” or “authentic” or “genuine.” That’s the sense here. When you go through tribulation, and your faith is tested, and it perseveres, what you get is a wonderful sense of authenticity. You feel that your faith is real. It has been tested. It has stood the test with perseverance. And it is therefore real, authentic, proven, genuine. It persevered and developed character.

Have you ever said in the midst of suffering, amidst a trial or tribulation, “Thank you God for breaking me so that I could see again that Your love is better than any love that can exist in this world. Thank you Father, for showing me again that You care so much for me that You will wean me away from the affections of the world to trust in and love You only.”? Hebrews 5:8 says of Jesus, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered.” The same is true for us. God’s purpose in whatever trials we face is to teach us obedience and refine us into the image of Christ. Because of God’s purpose in our trials and tribulations and sufferings, we rejoice in them. He’s sanctifying us; He’s making us like Christ. What could be better?

Romans 5:1-2

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

V1 – Justification by faith = Peace with God. Paul, to this point, has shown that all people are sinners, that none are righteous, and that justification before God the Father is by faith alone in Jesus Christ. Those who believe Christ’s perfect life, His atoning, propitiatory sacrificial death, and His glorious bodily resurrection save them have received the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, credited to their account, through the channel of faith. Paul’s audience is silenced; their arguments against his gospel have proven fruitless; they accept what he says, that justification before God is by faith alone in Christ, not by any righteousness within one’s self, nor by any other way. Now Paul can move on to the consequences of the truth of justification by faith. In chapters 5 through 8 Paul works through successive implications of our being justified by faith. In chapter 5 he says that if we are justified, then we are free from the wrath of God. In chapter 6 he says that if we are justified, we are free from the dominion of sin. In chapter 7 he says that if we are justified, we are free from the domination and condemnation of the law. In chapter 8 he says that if we’re justified, we are free from the curse of death.

Paul begins with, “Therefore.” Remember the end of chapter 4 said that Christ died for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Because of this, since we are justified by faith in Christ, we have peace with God. What an amazing statement! Christ was raised for our justification, and since we have been justified, we are at peace with God. Peace, meaning not tranquility, but the end of hostility between two parties. It’s not a subjective change in feelings; it’s an objective change in the way these two parties relate. In this case, it’s God and believing individuals. No longer are there guilt and condemnation and wrath. We were guilty, deserving condemnation, by nature children of wrath. Now there’s peace and justification. We have peace with God through Christ, and it’s permanent. If you’ve been justified, you’re going to be glorified. It’s as good as done. What great assurance this is for the believer! What a waste of time this seems to be for the unbeliever who has suppressed the truth of their standing before God, thinking they are righteous in and of themselves.

V2 – We stand in grace through faith in Christ. Paul adds that we stand in grace, because we are justified by faith. What is this grace? It’s communion with God; it’s a new relationship with Him; instead of enemies, we are friends; instead of kept from His presence, we are welcomed into the Holy of Holies.

Grace is a sphere and reign of God’s infinite power working for us and not against us. And a few verses later in Romans 6:14 Paul puts it this way, “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” Grace is the power that masters us in Christ, working to free us from the dominion of sin and bring us to eternal life. We stand in this grace, and we stand by this grace. Romans 14:4 says of every Christian: “To his own master he stands or falls, and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” This is the sovereign sway of grace. If you’re under this grace, you cannot fall! Rejoice!

From Romans 4:16-17, we saw that grace is the guarantee of our inheritance. Recall these words: “The promise [justification and our inheritance of the world is] comes by faith, so that it may be by grace, and may be guaranteed . . .” Recall the faith-grace certainty connection. God’s grace guarantees our future inheritance. Why? It’s the power of the grace of “God, Who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” God’s grace fulfilled the promise; the dead-raising, creating-out-of-nothing power of the grace of God worked for Abraham and not against him. That is the grace we have, according to Romans 5:2.

Romans 4:23-25

The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness--for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

V23-24 — Abraham is an example for us all to know that justification is by faith. Now Paul moves on to answer B, the question: “What does the experience of Abraham have to do with me?” Think about it: What does Abraham’s experience, really unlike anything we’ve ever gone through, have to do with us? At this point, the Jews thought, “But we didn’t go through the circumstances that Abraham went through. God didn’t work with us like that. So how does his experience with God relate to mine?” And Paul’s answer may surprise us. He says, “The story of Abraham’s justification by faith was written for us.” This is not the only time Paul says something like that. In 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Paul says that the events and circumstances surrounding the Exodus happened to serve a purpose greater than themselves. What went on over the 40 year wanderings were for us, not merely for them. Considering that makes me feel small. The Exodus and its circumstances were to serve as warnings for us, not merely to teach and purify the Israelite people! Consider this statement: God’s eternal purpose to enter into an everlasting covenant of grace, of special blessing, with a man named Abram, whom God chose based on nothing in him, was recorded for us, so that we might see the glory of God in the fulfillment of His eternal purposes. Abraham’s justification by faith was to serve as an example for those who would come after him that we might know the glory of God in justification by faith. Does that make sense? Abraham wasn’t blessed just for him. He was blessed for us. The Exodus wasn’t just for those people. It was for all of God’s people. And I would argue that every event in all of history occurred not just randomly, not just by the natural course of the time-space continuum, but by design, for the unchanging eternal purpose of God in glorifying Himself, His Son as Savior, and—consider this—even us as recipients and sharers of His glory.

Now I just said that Abraham’s situation was not really much like ours. But in a way, it is. We have the same faith in God and we believe in His power and His promise just as Abraham did. Our faith is not in faith. We are not saved, because we have faith in our faith. If our faith is in our faith, then our faith is not faith. We have faith in God, in His power to resurrect the dead, and His promise to resurrect the dead. We have faith in Jesus Christ, that His work really did accomplish our redemption; and we have faith in the Holy Spirit, Who quickens us to life in the re-birth. It’s not faith that saves us; it’s God. But it’s by faith that God transfers His salvation, His saving grace, to us.

V25 — Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead for our justification. Finally, Paul moves on to answer C, the question: “Where specifically should my faith focus?” Here the Jews say, “Okay Paul, now I know what faith is, and I know why Abraham’s story is relevant to me, but what ought to be the focus of my faith? Where specifically, Paul, do you want me to look?” And Paul says, “Look to the cross and see the empty tomb.” Faith looks to the promise of God fulfilled in the Person of Jesus Christ through His death and resurrection. We don’t say, “It’s because I believe that I’m saved” or “It’s what I believe that saves me.” We say with Job, “My Redeemer lives. I know Whom I believe.” Or rather, “I am known by Him” (Galatians 4:9).

Romans 4:17-22

As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations" [Genesis 17:5]. He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed--the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be" [Genesis 15:5]. Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness."

V17 — God gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Paul first emphasizes God’s power to give life to the dead. I see two potential meanings here: Perhaps he’s alluding to the way that God opened the womb of Sarah, this woman who was barren and way past the days of child bearing. God opened that womb, which was a grave, and He brought forth life from Sarah. Then again, perhaps Paul is talking about the grace of God, which by the power of the Holy Spirit, quickens the spiritually dead to new life. Perhaps Paul is talking about the rebirth.

Then Paul emphasizes God’s power to call things that are not as though they were. Again, I see two potential meanings: This perhaps points to that multitude of descendants that Abraham would have. Abraham, a childless man, had a name that meant “great or exalted father.” And God, in mercy, granted him that which did not exist, a multitude of sons, when He came to him in a covenant relationship in Ur of the Chaldees. Then again, maybe Paul means that God calls His people righteous, though they are not. Those whom God calls to spiritual life, He justifies. Remember the golden chain of salvation: Those He foreknew, He predestined. Those He predestined, He called. Those He called, He justified. Those He justified, He glorified. He calls us righteous, though we aren’t.

So, God gave life to the dead when He opened up the womb of Sarah and when He quickened us to spiritual life, when He gave us eyes to see and ears to hear though we were blind and deaf. And He called things that are not as though they were when He gave multitudes of descendants (yet to exist) to Abraham and when He declared us righteous though we were not. Deadness must come to life and non-existence must exist. That is what grace does. Man cannot do this. Man cannot raise the dead. And man cannot create something out of nothing. But God can, and God does in order to guarantee the promises for His people. That is the meaning of grace. Grace not only gives us better than we deserve; grace gives us what we cannot produce: spiritual life, the sight of glory, the hearing of divine truth, the tasting of spiritual sweetness. It all comes into being by the grace of God. That is why the promise is certain. God’s almighty grace guarantees the promise: it brings spiritual life out of death and enables us to believe and keep on believing; and it overrides our demerit in the act of justification. The promise, just as Romans 9:16 says, is not finally dependent on our fickle will, but on God’s sovereign grace. It doesn’t depend on man’s desire or effort, on man who wills or runs, but on God Who shows mercy.

V18-22 — In hope, Abraham believed against all hope. He did not waver, but was strengthened in faith. He glorified God persuaded that He had power. The Jews in Paul’s audience finally give in to what Paul has said—justification is by faith alone. But now, what’s the next thing on their minds? Logically, if they think justification is by obedience and it’s not, and they finally concur that justification is by faith, then they’ll want to know what faith is. So picture them asking Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” They realized now, finally, that it wasn’t in them. So how was it possible? Remember what Jesus said: “With man this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible.” So Paul, in the rest of chapter 4, answers the question, “What must I do to be saved?” by answering 3 other questions; let’s call them A, B, and C. Here he begins by answering A, the question: “What is saving faith?”

He is talking about Abraham’s faith in the moments leading up to his planned sacrifice of Isaac. Many people think Abraham believed that God would provide a substitute in order to fulfill His promise, but Hebrews 11:19, in which Abraham represents a “type” of Christ, explains that Abraham did not expect a substitute. He was fully trusting in God to resurrect Isaac from the dead if necessary in order to fulfill His promise. That was the faith of Abraham. He persistently believed God’s Word despite all the evidence to the contrary. So Paul is telling us what faith is by giving us the example of Abraham. Faith is trust in God and His promises despite our circumstances and evidence to the contrary—in hope against hope. Do those two little phrases not go in the opposite direction: in hope against hope? Really, they don’t contradict one another. Abraham, in his thoughts, contemplated his human condition and saw no hope. Although there was no reason for him to hope at the human level, still he hoped in God, he believed in God and in His promise. So in hope against all hope, he believed. There was no human reason for him to expect a son or to be the father of many nations. He was almost 100 years old. He was childless by his wife, who was long past childbearing years. There was no reason for him to think that God’s promise would be fulfilled. But against hope in hope he still believed. And this is saving faith, according to Paul.

And we are in the same position. We have no hope of forgiveness from our sin, given the Holiness of God. We have no hope of being counted as righteous in His sight. Yet through faith, in hope against all hope, we are justified. We believe, like Abraham, that God will resurrect from the dead in order to fulfill His promise to us. And He did. Christ lives! Do you doubt this? 4000 years ago God spoke to a man who had no children, and who would not have children until he approached 100, and He said, “One day your spiritual descendants will be numberless.” Today, more than two billion people claim to worship the God of Abraham. Two billion people claim Abraham as their spiritual Father. What a confirmation that God can be taken at His Word! God is faithful. He fulfills what He promises. And we don’t doubt it. And we glorify God by not doubting, which is what Abraham did. By persevering in faith, we glorify God.