We can have peace with God because we have been justified through faith in Christ.
Suffering produces endurance.
The sin of Adam brought condemnation to all of mankind.
The righteous of Christ brings hope to all of mankind.
Summary:
Picture it: you’re seated in front of God the Father on judgment day. It’s time for Him to determine your eternal fate – heaven or hell? All of the world watches and waits as God considers all the deeds you’ve done while on earth. The Prosecutor, Satan, has made a good case against you. He has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are a sinner. In your earthly life, you sinned every single day – you were and are totally depraved! You most definitely deserve the maximum punishment: eternity in hell. God shakes His head; the evidence against you is too great. And just as He’s about to bang His gavel and make your fate in hell official, Jesus Christ enters the courtroom. He approaches the Father with blood stained hands and feet. He humbly reminds the Father of His blood that was shed, just for you! He willingly takes the punishment in your place. The Father accepts Christ’s act of sacrifice as atonement for your sin, and you go free into heaven, the weight of sin no longer upon your shoulders.
As shown in this analogy, Paul makes it very clear through the book of Romans that the only reason we can approach the Father, the only reason we can spend eternity in heaven, is because of the shed blood of Christ. The term “justified through faith” is used often in this book and simply means that if we truly believe that Christ’s death paid the penalty for our sins, we can be cleansed of all unrighteousness. As we have learned in our study of Romans, this free gift was given to us, we did not seek it out and we did nothing to deserve it. We were simply chosen by the grace of God as one of His elect. This is possibly the most humbling realization of all. This is exactly the reminder given in the first few verses of Romans 5. In the midst of this reminder, Paul also touches on the role that trials play in our lives. They are important because “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame” (vs. 4-5). These hardships are ordained by God and invaluable for our growth and development. We need them so we can have an unshakable faith in Christ, for it’s that faith that saves us.
The later part of Romans 5 talks about how the sin of Adam condemned us to a life apart of God, but the righteous sacrifice of Christ restored us. If Christ has not laid down His life for us, the wages of our sins would be death (Romans 6:23), but praise God that we can have eternal life if we have faith in His son’s blood.
Discussion Questions:
In the New Covenant we are saved through faith in Jesus’ Christ, what saved people in the Old Covenant?
How has the suffering in your life allowed you to grow in your faith?
Living Word:
About Trials:
Matthew 5:10-12
James 1:12
John 16:33
Job 2:10
About Jesus Saving Us:
1 John 2:2
Romans 6:23
2 Corinthians 5:21
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