ROMANS 5:1-2
"Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand & rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
When you have the word "THEREFORE" in the Bible, you need to find out what it is there for. So we see that in the 1st three chapters, Paul proves to us just how depraved we really are. But then he also shows us how we are justified. The book of Romans is a book of theology.
This book IS the Gospel. Any scholar or great Bible teacher will concur with this view. The book of Romans proves to us just how we were reconciled to God. It shows us that we are all guilty of sin, from Jew to Gentile. Then, Paul shows us how we are freely justified by God's grace, how we have received redemption, how we've received propitiation.
"Therefore, having been, or being justified…"
What this is actually saying is that we are currently justified. The "having been" speaks of some thing that has been done. When Jesus went to the cross, He said, "It is finished", then He died. When he died, our sin was placed upon Jesus, therefore we have been declared righteous, we are justified. It is a finished work, it is done. "Therefore we are justified."
The word "Justified", means we are declared righteous. We are looked upon as a righteous person. Our sin is not counted against us. We are now holy & sinless in the eyes of God. The word justified, just & justification, all have the same root word, "JUST". The book of Romans is all about how we are justified. The just shall live by faith.
You can break the word JUSTIFICATION down to say this:
JUST AS IF I'D NEVER SINNED.
Therefore, in my current position as a believer, I have been declared righteous. One of the main themes in the book of Romans is, "The just shall live by faith". You can find scriptures relating to this in Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 & in Hebrews 10:38.
If you read the book of Romans, it will tell about the just. The book of Galatians tells you how you shall live & the book of Hebrews teaches by faith. So between the books of Romans, Galatians & Hebrews, you have the theme, "The just shall live by faith." If you read & follow those three books, you will have a very intimate & successful walk with God.
Now how am I justified? "By FAITH." The word Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1. What is faith? We are justified by faith, in what?
We are justified by faith in the finished work of Calvary. We are justified by the cross of Jesus Christ. That is the only way we are justified.
So we are justified as we, by faith, receive what Jesus did for us. When we believe that He died & rose again, when we see & comprehend that his death was an atonement for our sins. Not only did His death & resurrection cover our sins, but by that, we are forgiven, Sanctified, Justified & now we have peace with God. Funny that FAITH is a fruit of the Spirit, (1Corinthians 12:9) which means that FAITH is a gift from God, which means that God give's you the faith that you currently have. So we can't even boast in our great faith.
"We have" Who is this person? We? The word "WE" refers to people who are under the blood, believers. That means us! We have… not we had & no longer have, but rather, we have peace with God. We have the Lord Jesus Christ as our redeemer, as our Savior. Not only did He forgive us our sins, but he made a way for us to approach God the Father.
The word "peace", is the same Greek word that is used in Luke 14:32 & Acts 12:20. It speaks of peace from war; to bind together that, which had been separated; to reconcile. It speaks of appeasing relationships. Why would man, why would human beings need to have our relationship restored with God? When did our relationship with the Lord sever?
(Genesis chapter 3, read it) Notice that in verse 8 that Adam & Eve hid themselves from the Lord's presence. Also, because of this sin, man was cast out of the presence of God, out of the Garden of Eden (verse 24).
The Lord show's compassion on Adam & Eve & even hint's to the sacrifice of Jesus when He made tunics of skin. In Romans, we now are able to enter into the Lord's presence because we are justified, because of the sacrifice of Jesus. We now have peace with our Maker.
Ephesians 2:14-18, Jesus is our peace. (verse 18 shows the Trinity again).
The word "with" in the Greek means facing. So you can read this text, "we have peace facing God." This same word is in John 1:1 – 2. "The word was with God; The word was facing God; The word was face to face with God."
The phrase "Through our Lord Jesus Christ" means just what it says. Just like in John 14:6. The only way to the Father, to Heaven, the only way to be forgiven & cleansed is through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember the night before Jesus was to be killed. The night before He was murdered, He was in prayer. He asked God the Father to let this cup pass. He said that He really didn't desire to go through this. But He also said that this was the very reason that He came into the world. He said let Your will be done Father, not mine. He said this three different times. (Mark 14:32 – 42) So as we all know, Jesus went to the cross, so there must not have been any other way. So that means that everything that we do in the Spirit, must be done through Jesus Christ.
The word "have" is in the perfect tense in the Greek. Which means it's permanent. That is real important, the Greek language is really strong & detailed. I know the perfect tense doesn't mean anything to you, it doesn't mean much to me either. I just know that the "Perfect Tense" means Permanence. So what is the text saying?
"through whom also we permanently have continual unstoppable access into His presence."
It is never not there for us. You have continual free access into God's presence at all times because of the blood of Jesus Christ, because of the work of the cross, its continual, its permanent, it will not stop.
He will not change His mind tomorrow & say "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU, I'VE HEARD YOU CONFESS THAT SIN ENOUGH TIMES, YOU GET OUT OF HERE, THE ACCESS IS SHUT OFF TO YOU!"
The word of God declares that we have continual access to Him, regardless of how we feel, regardless of what we have done. Regardless if we have just sinned. Our feelings will lie to us, Satan will try to deceive us.
The word "access" in the Greek means to obtain access into the throne room of a King. Having authority to go somewhere where you normally wouldn't have authority to go. Like a peasant coming into the presence of a King. He didn't have access, there were things there that were stopping him. There were guards there.
Historically, the word "access" is speaking of a third party. There is the King on the throne, there is me the peasant & then there is the third party who would take me, who would clothe me, & would put royal garments on me & prepare me. The third party would clothe me & prepare me & then bring me & present me to the King.
That was my access. This guy who had access would come & take me off the street, give me a bath & clean me up. He would dress me properly for the Kings house. Then he would take me in there. That is exactly what we see here in this text. (Read Romans 5:1 – 2).
We see the throne of God. We see Jesus Christ coming as a man. We see Jesus Christ paying the price for us. We see Jesus Christ clothing us with His righteousness. We are justified & declared righteous in His sight. So this is what we have here, we have access through Jesus Christ.
So Jesus is saying here, "You have access through me, hold my hand, follow me, I am going to take you in there. I am going to present you as perfect too. I am going to present you to the King & now you have free permanent access to come in at any time."
Also, you can see a glimpse of the Trinity here. You can see, God the Father as the King. In order for us to get into His presence, we need to be washed by the blood of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He is the one who draws us to the Son, who in turn takes us to the Father. It is so amazing to see the work of the God Head. This is what you call the manifold grace of God. You have access by faith. By faith in forgiveness, in the blood, in Jesus. So you get to go by faith into this grace by which we stand (Zechariah 3:1-5).
Not only do we have access, but the Lord does something else to. He cleans us up. He removes our sin. When He went to the cross, ALL, I repeat, ALL of our sins were placed upon Him. Now the Holy Spirit will clean you up. You come to Jesus as you are & He forgives you. Jesus then places everyone of your sins upon Himself. The Holy Spirit then takes the blood of Jesus & starts to wash you. You are then able to go before the King. You have been not only cleansed from you sin, but you have also been delivered from your sin.
WE ARE NOT SO MUCH SINNERS BECAUSE WE SIN, BUT WE SIN BECAUSE WE ARE SINNERS!!!
Can you see the difference here? It is really important to realize the difference. Before you were a Christian, you had to sin, you were a sinner. Now that you are a believer, you are no longer bound to sin. You have been set free, by the Son of God. "Whoever the Son sets free is free indeed."
You don't have to sin anymore. You need to know this. God is not satisfied with you just being forgiven. He wants to have fellowship with you. He want's to present you as SINLESS, so we need to SIN-LESS.
As you start to mature in the things of God, you will start to be convicted of sin. Which means that after you have sinned, it will not be pleasurable. That is because you now have the living God living inside of you. He wants to keep you from sinning. Not only does He want to keep you from sinning, but He has given you the power to stop. Remember that Jesus said, "It is FINISHED".
The word "Grace" is like a diamond, it is pretty much salvation. There are many different assets different colors, to the word Grace. There are many facets to the grace of God. We have been saved by grace. When we say we have been saved by grace, we can automatically turn to the text found in Ephesians 2:8.
In that word GRACE, that manifold grace of God, there are different facets & sides to Grace. It all pours over into that word SALVATION. That deliverance from our present state. We have been DELIVERED!!!
The word "stand" is in the perfect tense. Again, this means that I don't just get to stand there once & not anymore. It means permanence. It's in the grace in which we permanently stand.
The word "stand" means, to stand fast, to remain, to abide, to continue. Which means you are not going nowhere. I'm not going nowhere. How do I stand as a man of God? How do I stand before the Lord? How am I going to make it through this life? By grace. Grace is what will keep you standing, it's grace. It is not about you. It is totally about Him, the Lord. It has nothing to do with you. Nothing at all. We stand by grace. It is His work that God Himself did. All that we do is receive it & say thank you.
The word "Rejoice" means to rejoice, to worship, to give thanks. It means that we can thank God for the Hope that He Himself gave to us. We can worship Him in song, in deeds, by our actions, through prayer. We can shout out loud to him in thanksgiving. We can raise our hands to him. We can rejoice that we are able to approach the Living God. We can enter into His presence, not because of who we are. Not because of what we did, but we can enter into His presence because of what He did for us. We can enter because of who He is. This just causes me to rejoice.
The word "Hope" is a real hope. It is not that we hope it will not rain, or we hope that we get a raise. That is more like a wish. We wish that we will get a raise. When we hope in eternal things, we will never be let down. When our hope, our faith is in Jesus, we are as good as there. Our hope to get to Heaven is by Jesus Christ. We WILL get there, it is a done deal. So hope means that it is going to happen. It is done. We have access into the Glory of God.
The word "Glory of God" means the presence of God. We can enter into the Glory of God. What a blessing that is.
"Who are we that God is mindful of us?"
So now as believers, we can & do, have that intimate relationship with God. He will speak with you, He will conform you into His image, into the likeness of His Son Jesus. Just sit back & let Him work in your Life. He will do things that you never even dreamed of. He did with me & now I am married. The Lord is just too good!!!
JESUS IS IN LOVE WITH YOU!!! LET US WORSHIP HIM IN OBEDIENCE! WORSHIP GOD BY OBEYING HIM.
"Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand & rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
When you have the word "THEREFORE" in the Bible, you need to find out what it is there for. So we see that in the 1st three chapters, Paul proves to us just how depraved we really are. But then he also shows us how we are justified. The book of Romans is a book of theology.
This book IS the Gospel. Any scholar or great Bible teacher will concur with this view. The book of Romans proves to us just how we were reconciled to God. It shows us that we are all guilty of sin, from Jew to Gentile. Then, Paul shows us how we are freely justified by God's grace, how we have received redemption, how we've received propitiation.
"Therefore, having been, or being justified…"
What this is actually saying is that we are currently justified. The "having been" speaks of some thing that has been done. When Jesus went to the cross, He said, "It is finished", then He died. When he died, our sin was placed upon Jesus, therefore we have been declared righteous, we are justified. It is a finished work, it is done. "Therefore we are justified."
The word "Justified", means we are declared righteous. We are looked upon as a righteous person. Our sin is not counted against us. We are now holy & sinless in the eyes of God. The word justified, just & justification, all have the same root word, "JUST". The book of Romans is all about how we are justified. The just shall live by faith.
You can break the word JUSTIFICATION down to say this:
JUST AS IF I'D NEVER SINNED.
Therefore, in my current position as a believer, I have been declared righteous. One of the main themes in the book of Romans is, "The just shall live by faith". You can find scriptures relating to this in Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 & in Hebrews 10:38.
If you read the book of Romans, it will tell about the just. The book of Galatians tells you how you shall live & the book of Hebrews teaches by faith. So between the books of Romans, Galatians & Hebrews, you have the theme, "The just shall live by faith." If you read & follow those three books, you will have a very intimate & successful walk with God.
Now how am I justified? "By FAITH." The word Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1. What is faith? We are justified by faith, in what?
We are justified by faith in the finished work of Calvary. We are justified by the cross of Jesus Christ. That is the only way we are justified.
So we are justified as we, by faith, receive what Jesus did for us. When we believe that He died & rose again, when we see & comprehend that his death was an atonement for our sins. Not only did His death & resurrection cover our sins, but by that, we are forgiven, Sanctified, Justified & now we have peace with God. Funny that FAITH is a fruit of the Spirit, (1Corinthians 12:9) which means that FAITH is a gift from God, which means that God give's you the faith that you currently have. So we can't even boast in our great faith.
"We have" Who is this person? We? The word "WE" refers to people who are under the blood, believers. That means us! We have… not we had & no longer have, but rather, we have peace with God. We have the Lord Jesus Christ as our redeemer, as our Savior. Not only did He forgive us our sins, but he made a way for us to approach God the Father.
The word "peace", is the same Greek word that is used in Luke 14:32 & Acts 12:20. It speaks of peace from war; to bind together that, which had been separated; to reconcile. It speaks of appeasing relationships. Why would man, why would human beings need to have our relationship restored with God? When did our relationship with the Lord sever?
(Genesis chapter 3, read it) Notice that in verse 8 that Adam & Eve hid themselves from the Lord's presence. Also, because of this sin, man was cast out of the presence of God, out of the Garden of Eden (verse 24).
The Lord show's compassion on Adam & Eve & even hint's to the sacrifice of Jesus when He made tunics of skin. In Romans, we now are able to enter into the Lord's presence because we are justified, because of the sacrifice of Jesus. We now have peace with our Maker.
Ephesians 2:14-18, Jesus is our peace. (verse 18 shows the Trinity again).
The word "with" in the Greek means facing. So you can read this text, "we have peace facing God." This same word is in John 1:1 – 2. "The word was with God; The word was facing God; The word was face to face with God."
The phrase "Through our Lord Jesus Christ" means just what it says. Just like in John 14:6. The only way to the Father, to Heaven, the only way to be forgiven & cleansed is through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember the night before Jesus was to be killed. The night before He was murdered, He was in prayer. He asked God the Father to let this cup pass. He said that He really didn't desire to go through this. But He also said that this was the very reason that He came into the world. He said let Your will be done Father, not mine. He said this three different times. (Mark 14:32 – 42) So as we all know, Jesus went to the cross, so there must not have been any other way. So that means that everything that we do in the Spirit, must be done through Jesus Christ.
The word "have" is in the perfect tense in the Greek. Which means it's permanent. That is real important, the Greek language is really strong & detailed. I know the perfect tense doesn't mean anything to you, it doesn't mean much to me either. I just know that the "Perfect Tense" means Permanence. So what is the text saying?
"through whom also we permanently have continual unstoppable access into His presence."
It is never not there for us. You have continual free access into God's presence at all times because of the blood of Jesus Christ, because of the work of the cross, its continual, its permanent, it will not stop.
He will not change His mind tomorrow & say "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU, I'VE HEARD YOU CONFESS THAT SIN ENOUGH TIMES, YOU GET OUT OF HERE, THE ACCESS IS SHUT OFF TO YOU!"
The word of God declares that we have continual access to Him, regardless of how we feel, regardless of what we have done. Regardless if we have just sinned. Our feelings will lie to us, Satan will try to deceive us.
The word "access" in the Greek means to obtain access into the throne room of a King. Having authority to go somewhere where you normally wouldn't have authority to go. Like a peasant coming into the presence of a King. He didn't have access, there were things there that were stopping him. There were guards there.
Historically, the word "access" is speaking of a third party. There is the King on the throne, there is me the peasant & then there is the third party who would take me, who would clothe me, & would put royal garments on me & prepare me. The third party would clothe me & prepare me & then bring me & present me to the King.
That was my access. This guy who had access would come & take me off the street, give me a bath & clean me up. He would dress me properly for the Kings house. Then he would take me in there. That is exactly what we see here in this text. (Read Romans 5:1 – 2).
We see the throne of God. We see Jesus Christ coming as a man. We see Jesus Christ paying the price for us. We see Jesus Christ clothing us with His righteousness. We are justified & declared righteous in His sight. So this is what we have here, we have access through Jesus Christ.
So Jesus is saying here, "You have access through me, hold my hand, follow me, I am going to take you in there. I am going to present you as perfect too. I am going to present you to the King & now you have free permanent access to come in at any time."
Also, you can see a glimpse of the Trinity here. You can see, God the Father as the King. In order for us to get into His presence, we need to be washed by the blood of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He is the one who draws us to the Son, who in turn takes us to the Father. It is so amazing to see the work of the God Head. This is what you call the manifold grace of God. You have access by faith. By faith in forgiveness, in the blood, in Jesus. So you get to go by faith into this grace by which we stand (Zechariah 3:1-5).
Not only do we have access, but the Lord does something else to. He cleans us up. He removes our sin. When He went to the cross, ALL, I repeat, ALL of our sins were placed upon Him. Now the Holy Spirit will clean you up. You come to Jesus as you are & He forgives you. Jesus then places everyone of your sins upon Himself. The Holy Spirit then takes the blood of Jesus & starts to wash you. You are then able to go before the King. You have been not only cleansed from you sin, but you have also been delivered from your sin.
WE ARE NOT SO MUCH SINNERS BECAUSE WE SIN, BUT WE SIN BECAUSE WE ARE SINNERS!!!
Can you see the difference here? It is really important to realize the difference. Before you were a Christian, you had to sin, you were a sinner. Now that you are a believer, you are no longer bound to sin. You have been set free, by the Son of God. "Whoever the Son sets free is free indeed."
You don't have to sin anymore. You need to know this. God is not satisfied with you just being forgiven. He wants to have fellowship with you. He want's to present you as SINLESS, so we need to SIN-LESS.
As you start to mature in the things of God, you will start to be convicted of sin. Which means that after you have sinned, it will not be pleasurable. That is because you now have the living God living inside of you. He wants to keep you from sinning. Not only does He want to keep you from sinning, but He has given you the power to stop. Remember that Jesus said, "It is FINISHED".
The word "Grace" is like a diamond, it is pretty much salvation. There are many different assets different colors, to the word Grace. There are many facets to the grace of God. We have been saved by grace. When we say we have been saved by grace, we can automatically turn to the text found in Ephesians 2:8.
In that word GRACE, that manifold grace of God, there are different facets & sides to Grace. It all pours over into that word SALVATION. That deliverance from our present state. We have been DELIVERED!!!
The word "stand" is in the perfect tense. Again, this means that I don't just get to stand there once & not anymore. It means permanence. It's in the grace in which we permanently stand.
The word "stand" means, to stand fast, to remain, to abide, to continue. Which means you are not going nowhere. I'm not going nowhere. How do I stand as a man of God? How do I stand before the Lord? How am I going to make it through this life? By grace. Grace is what will keep you standing, it's grace. It is not about you. It is totally about Him, the Lord. It has nothing to do with you. Nothing at all. We stand by grace. It is His work that God Himself did. All that we do is receive it & say thank you.
The word "Rejoice" means to rejoice, to worship, to give thanks. It means that we can thank God for the Hope that He Himself gave to us. We can worship Him in song, in deeds, by our actions, through prayer. We can shout out loud to him in thanksgiving. We can raise our hands to him. We can rejoice that we are able to approach the Living God. We can enter into His presence, not because of who we are. Not because of what we did, but we can enter into His presence because of what He did for us. We can enter because of who He is. This just causes me to rejoice.
The word "Hope" is a real hope. It is not that we hope it will not rain, or we hope that we get a raise. That is more like a wish. We wish that we will get a raise. When we hope in eternal things, we will never be let down. When our hope, our faith is in Jesus, we are as good as there. Our hope to get to Heaven is by Jesus Christ. We WILL get there, it is a done deal. So hope means that it is going to happen. It is done. We have access into the Glory of God.
The word "Glory of God" means the presence of God. We can enter into the Glory of God. What a blessing that is.
"Who are we that God is mindful of us?"
So now as believers, we can & do, have that intimate relationship with God. He will speak with you, He will conform you into His image, into the likeness of His Son Jesus. Just sit back & let Him work in your Life. He will do things that you never even dreamed of. He did with me & now I am married. The Lord is just too good!!!
JESUS IS IN LOVE WITH YOU!!! LET US WORSHIP HIM IN OBEDIENCE! WORSHIP GOD BY OBEYING HIM.
