Peace with God

Mosaic Boston - Sermons

Audio Transcript:
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of life. And I pray, Lord, help us be a church that puts love of life into practice. Help us be a people that love babies, children, support families. Mothers are vital, not just valuable. And help us be a counterculture here in Boston, where we love children more than we love pets or plants. And Lord, we do thank you that we are having conversation about abortion now in our country. We thank you that Roe v. Wade might potentially be overturned. I never thought I'd see that in my lifetime, but, Lord, thank you for that.
We pray it does get overturned. We pray that abortion just stops, just pray the need for it is removed. We pray for a great awakening in this nation where people do fear you, they submit to Christ and they accept his grace and they follow the moral law, which would prevent so much bloodshed. And we do pray now, Lord, that you bless our time the Holy Scriptures or at least, Spirit, we welcome you. We ask for your presence. That's what we need to keep going. Pray that you bless our souls today.
We pray that you encourage ourselves with the gifts that come by justification through faith what a gift that is. But with that gift, we have many other gifts, we have access to the throne room of God, the Holy of Holies. And that's where our souls long to be now, Lord. We pray God the Father, that you, by the power of the Spirit, take us there, transcend us into your presence. Whatever our worries, anxieties, burdens, remove it all. Whatever sins are in the way of the Holy Spirit coursing through this room, I pray remove those sins, remove shame, guilt, all of it.
Help us focus on you through the scriptures. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. We're in a sermon series through the book of Romans, where in 5:1 through 11 today, the title of the sermon is Peace with God. We've been talking about the fact that when you repent of your sin and trust yourself to Jesus Christ, believe God, that all of your sins are forgiven. You're justified by grace through faith as if you've never sinned. It happens in a moment. The very second you give yourself to Lord, you are forgiven, your debts, trespasses are forgiven.
And when we talk about debts, we're not talking about monetary debts, we're talking about moral debt. Jesus Christ didn't pay finances to save us. He absorbed the wrath of God for our moral law breaking. I'll tell you the difference between a monetary debt and a moral debt. Monetary debt, I'll just give you an example from ice cream trucks because ice cream trucks, I have a love-hate relationship with them. Because I love the fact that there's ice cream, I hate the fact that they practice predatory tactics. They go to the park. They go to the soccer practices.
They wait when kids come home from school. School is ending they're right outside. So imagine I am with one of my daughters buying ice cream, it's overpriced, always overpriced, inflation, and a little boy in front of me, the ice cream is $5, he only has $4. He wants the ice cream, he's missing $1. And every kind hearted human being is going to say, let me pay the debt, let me pay the difference between what he owes and what he has. It's a monetary debt. A moral debt is different.
If the little boy has no money and he's like, you know what, forget this, I really want my ice cream, and breaks into the ice cream truck and steals an ice cream and runs. And then the Brookline police, they find him and they bring him back to the ice cream truck guy, and ice cream truck guy has to make a decision. What are you going to do? You're going to press charges against this little kid? And I'm there and I'm like, I'm going to buy this ice cream. Let me pay the debt. And the ice cream truck doesn't have to accept the payment. It's a moral debt now.
It just gives you an example of the difference. Well, we've broken the moral law of God which flows from the character of God, so it's a personal offense against God. Therefore we need someone to not just pay the debt, but actually live a perfect moral life on our behalf. And that's what Jesus Christ did. And that's why when we repent of our sins, we're justified by grace through faith. Because not just of his death, but of his life and then also his intercession now for us.
And the other thing I just want to mention about justification by grace through faith, it's a gift, but it's a gift that keeps on giving. My daughter Elizabeth, her 11th birthday recently, end of March, she was given a family gift. We do gift from our family, but then our extended family gets together. And one of my sister got her a massive bag, and in it was just gift after gift, after gift, after gift. And I was doing a video and it was a minute plus and I was like, all right, that's enough. I'm never going to watch this anyway.
But because I'm in the moment, I'm present, and it's a gift that just keeps on giving. That's what justification by grace through faith is. And this is our text today, he pulls out gift after gift, after gift, from this text today, with Romans 5:1 through 11. Would you look at the texts with me? Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 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. This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word, may write these eternal truths upon our hearts.
Five points to frame up our time, each one of them is a gift that flows from the ultimate gift of justification by faith. First, peace with God, access to God, hope in God, joy in suffering, and God's love poured out. First, peace with God, Romans 5:1, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been justified by faith, eres tense, something has already taken place in the past, it doesn't need to happen again. And it's been accomplished, it is finished. That's what he's talking about.
That when you repent of your sin, believe in Jesus Christ, that's it. You're justified by grace through faith, all of your sins. No matter what you've done, no matter what you will do, all of your sins are forgiven. Therefore communicates this tremendous truth that you can be justified right now. At this very second, if you're not a Christian, if you turn from your sin, repent before God, heartfelt, contrite, humble repentance, and trust yourself to Jesus Christ that he is my only hope.
Immediately, there's no trial period, there's no 30 days try on Christianity, see if it works out for you. If you're good enough, God keeps it, the justification by faith. If you messed up within 30 days, that's it. No, no, no, no, no. The very second that you believe, you're either justified or not. Do you trust in Jesus Christ? If not, what are you waiting for? What's keeping you from today being justified by grace through faith? Repent of sin and turn to Christ. If yes, if you have been justified, you're declared just. It is finished.
Therefore we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the agent of peace. He's the prince of peace. He's the peacemaker. He's the means by which we get that peace. He's the channel. He's the medium by which the peace is given. If you study world history, you remember, the jubilation in the world, global jubilation when World War II ended. There was peace. Paul isn't talking about the end of war between people, he's talking about the end of the worst of all wars possible, the war between us and God on a cosmic level, of cosmic proportions because there's an enmity between us and God.
There's hostility. Because by nature, we regard God as an enemy. We don't really want God. Some people pretend they're religious. Some people pretend they're indifferent to God. They're not indifferent. Hearts are hard toward God, recalcitrant, stubborn. Hearts don't pulsate with love toward God. And our natural thinking, if we're honest, we don't want God to tell us what to do. Who is God to tell me what to do? We want to be independent, autonomous. We want to be gods of our own lives. We're at war with God. Okay, I get it. We're at war with God.
But surely, God isn't at war with us, right? Surely, God is the God of patience and love and kindness and mercy and grace. Well, scripture is absolutely clear, God is at war with us. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven for all ungodliness and unrighteousness, against people who suppress the truth of God, that he's put in our hearts. We suppress it with our sin. God is soul, you can't bear to look at iniquity. So therefore we need to be reconciled with God because we're estranged from God. And this is why the work of Jesus Christ is so important. It is the work of mediation.
That the God man, Jesus Christ stands in the chasm between God and man. He's the mediator. He brings these strange parties together. He comes into hostile world estranged from God, loves God, loves people does it perfectly, the only one to do it perfectly. And we killed him. That's the hostility. You want proof of the hostility, our hostility against God? We killed him. Hours before Jesus' crucifixion, he gathers his frightened disciples in the upper room, before the Lord's Supper. He knows he's about to die. He's got nothing to give to them, of worldly possessions.
He's got nothing to bequeath to them. What does he give them? Gives them something infinitely better, he gives them peace. John 14:27, peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. What stands in the way of peace versus our hostility? It's our sin. That's what stands in the way of peace. We need a peace with God. That's what Jesus Christ offers, a peace with God.
And once you get the peace with God, you can enjoy the peace of God. And it's a peace that counters our fear. Jesus says, don't let your hearts be afraid. It counters our troubled souls. Don't let your hearts be troubled. He says, I am leaving my peace with you. And the only way that we can access that peace experience, that peace, and peace that transcends all understanding, it's not on a physical level, it's on the spiritual. It's on soul level. The only way we can experience that peace, peace of God, is if we have peace with God.
So many people don't understand, the world don't understand life because they think the body is all there is, the material is all there is. And when you're going through pain and when going through trouble, you think, oh, all I need is just ... I need a pill, I need to go to the doctor, I need something to make me feel better. The whole time, not realizing it a soul pain. It's pain at the level of the soul and only a soul doctor can help, and that's Jesus Christ. Only peace with God can settle the soul and Christ is our peace.
The objective fact of peace with God makes it possible to have the subjective peace of God. Philippians 4:4 through 7, rejoice in the Lord when? Always. That's a commandment, always. Again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Do you know this peace?
When everything around you feels like it's falling apart, it doesn't make sense to have peace. You need something that transcends understanding. It's a soul level peace. That's what Jesus Christ offers, by justification through faith. The second gift that we get that flows out of justification through faith is access to God. Verse 2, through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Access. If someone famous gives you their phone number and they're like, hey, text me anytime, call me anytime.
All of a sudden, you have access to them. It's the same concept, but we have access to the God of the universe. The greatest blessing in the Garden of Eden was paradise. The greatest blessing about it, the thing that made it paradise was unlimited access to God. I mean, you could just go for a stroll with God. "Hey, God, you want to go for a prayer walk?" Just going to have a conversation. Anytime they can enter the unlimited access, the beautiful presence of God, immediate presence of God, but they sinned.
They lost God's presence and they suffered a spiritual death, and they were expelled from the garden. They were expelled from the very presence of God. And God puts an angel with a flaming sword at the entrance. That's it, it's blocked. You can't enter the presence of God, you're banished. And God chooses Abraham and gives him the gift of faith, counts him as righteous through him, promises that I'm going to make you a great nation and through you, bless the nations of the world. And through him, the Messiah would come.
And in this, God was creating people for himself, a remnant for himself. And then Israel comes from Abraham, and Israel is in captivity for 400 years and slaved in Egypt. God brings them out through his servant, Moses, and God brings his presence with them. And he gives them the plan of the tabernacle that manifested the presence of God, the God is in their midst. And at the core of the tabernacle in the center of the camp was the Holy of Holies. This is where the immediate presence of God was.
And then the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant and a chest on which was the mercy seat. And in the chest was a copy of the Decalogue, the 10 Commandments, the manna from the wilderness, and Aaron's rod that had blossomed. And on top of the mercy seat was a blood of the offering that was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement. From the whole nation of Israel, all of them, only one person, the high priest only once a year was allowed into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of God. Everyone else had to stand in the holy place or the outer core.
You can't come close to God because he's holy, and he will have to kill you for your sin if you come that close. And even the high priest, before he went in, he had to prepare himself, prayer, fasting, repentance, consecration. And then he would go in with fear and trembling. They'll tie a rope to his ankle as he walks in, with bells, just in case he dies in the presence of a holy God. And they've learned this from experience. Oh, the high priest died, you hear the bells, and then they pull them out by his leg. Why? Because God is holy.
And one of the most intricately designed parts of the tabernacle that was the curtain or the veil, later became the veil in the temple, that separate the holy place from the Holy of Holies. And the veil was thick. It was a thick drape, it couldn't be broken. And it was to communicate, but there's a barrier between us and God. And it wasn't until Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived that perfect life, and then goes to a cross on Golgotha. He's been crucified. He's bearing the penalty for our sins. Cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
God's wrath is boring down on his soul going through literal hell. And then when his life was blotted out, the sun was blotted out in the middle of the day, became pitch black as night and earthquake and the veil was ripped like paper. Matthew 27:51 through 54, and behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!" Jesus Christ on that cross, you know what he took for us? Yes, he absorbed the wrath of God. Yes, he paid debt for us. He took the age of sword, the sword, the flaming sword that was there to ban us, to keep us from the presence of God. Jesus Christ took that sword himself through his heart, dies of a broken heart in order to give us access to God.
The wall of separation was destroyed because of the mediator, Jesus Christ. And after Jesus rose, he ascended to heaven, he entered the heavenly Holy of Holies. And right now, Jesus Christ is making intercession. He's interceding for us before the Father for our current sin. The greatest human experiences, the overwhelming sense of being in the presence of God because you get a taste of heaven, you taste the presence of the divine glory that Christ has opened for us. Along with access to God, we have a hope in God, and this is second part of Verse 2.
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Sometimes in the Christian walk, all you need to do is keep standing, just stand. Oftentimes, we think, all right, spiritual warfare, I got to charge the gates of hell, let's go. And then you read Ephesians 6, in Ephesians 6, he's talking about spiritual warfare. And he says, stand firm in the Lord and in the strength of his might. And over and over, stand, stand, stand, stand, stand. Meaning just stand. Before sin, get up, just keep standing, keep standing.
It's like in a boxing match. And I think perhaps this is what St. Paul was alluding to, because he often uses sports metaphors. I don't know if he enjoyed sports. I think he did. And by the way, all the beatings he went through, he had to be in shape to do that. I think he liked boxing. And boxing in one round, you can get knocked down twice. But if you get up before the bell, you're good, you're good. So in life, you can get knocked down, just get up. Even if you get knocked out, if you get knocked out. All right. We'll give you 30 seconds on ... Ay. We'll give you a minute.
We'll give you ... Just get up. Stand. Stand in the grace. And when we stand in that grace, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. What is this hope? It's a gift that God gives to every single justified person. With normal hope, we talked about this last week, there's no assurance that this thing that you hope for will happen. I hope the economy gets better. I hope someone else gets elected. I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope. It's wishful thinking for the most part or desire. But God's gift of hope is different.
The metaphor used for hope in Hebrews is that hope is an anchor for our soul. Meaning, our soul without hope does not have stability. We're tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. He says this hope is an assured hope, that when we hope in God, it's true. It will happen. God will come through. What's the difference between faith and hope? I don't know if you've ever thought about that. What's the difference between faith and hope? Faith looks to what has already taken place. The historic work of Jesus Christ on the cross, we look back, we believe in it.
We trust ourselves to Christ and we're saved, and we believe God. We believe his word, but it's all things that happen in the past. Hope is merely faith looking forward. This is all happened. I believe that's true and I know that what God has promised will happen. I hope in God, in the glory of God. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. The word for rejoice here is different word than just usually rejoicing. And joy is the word for boasting. We boast in the glory of God. We glory in the glory of God. There's a celebration. There's an ecstasy beyond normal levels of joy.
When you experience the glory of God and you focus on the glory of God, the Greek word for glory is doxa, we get the word doxology. We love seeing the doxology at the end of the services. We're glorifying God because he's worthy of the glory. The Hebrew word for glory is kabod, which means a heaviness, a weakness. Meaning there's nothing light or insignificant about God. There's a gravitas to God. When someone says something profound, what do we say? We say, oof. That's heavy. Everything God says is heavy, because God is heavy.
And a lot of our problems in life is we take ourselves too seriously, and God not seriously enough. Everything God says is heavy and we're to take his word. The word says, this is the one to whom I will look, the one who was humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. God said it, I tremble at it. The purpose of worship is to describe glory to God, honor, revere him, fear him, adore him in the excellence of his being. Sometimes when you talk about glory, it's abstract. What does it mean glory with ... Because we don't really use that word.
And glory, what are we talking about? Michael Jordan has glory, he's the greatest of all time, Tom Brady. We talk about in sports like, that's a glorious person, glory days, if you're a high school athlete or things like that. What's he talking? He's talking about a glory that is part of the Godhead. Jesus Christ once actually revealed his glory to the disciples. This is on the Mount of Transfiguration. Matthew 17, after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as snow. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." I always laugh at that part, because Peter's kind of a moron. In that, he doesn't really have filters. He just says whatever comes to mind. He sees God's glory. He sees the glory of Jesus Christ. He feels it.
I'm in the presence of God, I never want to leave. How can we stay here forever? I got an idea, Jesus. I'll make some tents. I'll make some tents. Let's just live up here. This is awesome. By the way, the craziest part of this is the guy was married. It is three tents, all right. Moses and John, hey, you guys bunk. I made the tents. Jacob and Elijah and Jesus, come here, come here. Come here. He doesn't want to leave, because he's experiencing the glory of God. If you study church history, you study the saints.
The saints will tell you there are times where God, he does reveal his immediate presence in a way that just satisfies the soul like nothing else. And I've experienced that several times in life. I have key moments and I'm like, yup, God is in the room. And I want to change a thing. And I just want this to keep going for all of eternity. But then you got work to do, responsibilities, and God's like, all right, enjoy. I encouraged you. Now do what I said, and then God speaks.
Peter said to Jesus, he was still speaking when behold, a bright cloud overshadow them and a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased, listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came up and touched them saying, rise and have no fear. When they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one, but Jesus only. What I get from that is Peter felt tremendous in basking in the glory of God. But then God the Father speaks. He's like, hey, man, you also got to do the stuff I've said.
I said it because a lot of people chase the presence of God, feelings about God, and it's awesome. And they don't really think about, am I doing what God said? We want more of the Holy Spirit, and then God's like, yeah, but I spoke and I gave you my will. Look at the Holy Scriptures. Rejoice in the glory of God. The fourth gift that we get from justification by faith is joy and suffering. Verse 3, not only that, that's the we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance.
The clear connection here is, if you want to rejoice in the glory of God, you need to understand that there will be suffering. That if you want to experience more of God, it comes by way of suffering. If you want to level up, spiritually speaking, and you're honest about it and you put the work in, there is suffering that comes. And we are called to ... As much as we rejoice in the glory of God, we are to rejoice in our sufferings. Now here, I need a little caveat.
Sometimes when I master a text and I get up here and I present the text to you, it can come off as if I've mastered the concept. This concept, I have not mastered. I am a novice when it comes to rejoicing and suffering. Because when I suffer, I, well, the last thing in the world, want to do is rejoice. I want to fight people. I want to just sit and just be despondent, just ... Or I truncate it, meaning I pretend there's nothing wrong and I just keep going. We all suffer, says our suffering. Doesn't say your suffering. He's including himself in this, our suffering. We all suffer.
We have, we do, we will. We all have seasons like this, valley of the shadow of death seasons, where discouragement lurks around every corner, emails, texts, a phone call, conversation. Seasons where prayer is no longer just a contemplative luxury, it's the only way you stay alive. Seasons like that, rejoice in suffering, enjoy affliction and tribulation. Is that what he's saying? Like a stoic grin and bear. What he's saying is justification by grace, it changes your perspective on everything in life because your eternity is guaranteed.
Once you've been justified, you trust that God is good and God is loving and God is sovereign. And that there is a purpose in your pain, if God is allowing you to go through a season of pain. Whatever the suffering is, could be physical suffering, because of health ailments, it could be God's discipline because of consequences of our sin. It could be demonic oppression, it could be challenges in relationship. Whatever the suffering he say, once we are justified, even our pain can be occasion for joy. Suffering isn't inherently joyful. It's not inherently pleasant.
It's not pleasurable. You don't get the joy from the suffering. You get the joy despite the suffering. Why? Because we found the greatest treasure that there is. The great pearl of great price, no matter how much pain we go through, all of this pain can be engulfed with the joy. You have God. You're at peace with God, we have this great treasure. Also, my wife is from Ukraine, and I say that as context for the following, whenever I go through suffering, honestly, it sounds savage, but this is super helpful. My wife just says, at least you are not in hell. And you know what?
She's right. She's right. I'm not in hell. Actually, your worst suffering is the closest to hell, dear Christian, that you'll ever get. You'll get through it's just a day, it's just a week, it's just a month, it's just 100 year. Who cares? If in comparison to all of eternity, and I say that because hell is the worst kind of suffering. It's called torment. Revelation 14:9 through 11, and another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever, they have no rest, day or night, these worshippers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name." From the perspective of heaven, dear saint, if you look back at your darkest seasons, you will say it was nothing compared to what God saved me from. How do you suffer without your spirit breaking, without falling into despair, without abandoning hope? You do it by the power of the Holy Spirit with the eternal perspective, but also with focus on the fruit that suffering yields.
This is where Paul focuses our attention. Suffering increases your pain tolerance. That's Verse 4, it produces endurance, and endurance produces character. So suffering produces endurance, meaning what is endurance? Endurance, you keep going when everything is painful. Every athlete knows this, every musician knows this. Anyone who's done anything of significance, which is really ... You know there are moments where you just want to quit and just keep going, endurance.
Suffering increases your spiritual pain tolerance, physical pain tolerance, and it puts muscle on your soul. It teaches you to keep going when you just want to give up. Endurance then produces character. An easy life does nothing to produce character. One of my goals in life, one of my job as a father, is to make my daughter's life hard. That's one of my jobs. Just suck it up. Life is hard. We work out together. We lift weights, deadlifts. We're doing deadlifts. Millana does deadlifts. I want them strong. I want the ... Yes, adversity. This world is hard. You got to be strong.
He says, the word character, the word character is the word for tested. It's the difference between a soldier who is in bootcamp, excited about the ... I'm in the military. You just started boot camp. And a hardened battle veteran, a combat veteran, they come back and they don't even talk. You just look at the person, you look at their face and you've seen some stuff. It's character. It's built when we have no choice but to keep going. Why can you keep going? Because of the hope that's produced by the character. Verse 5, and hope does not put us to shame.
There's a hope that God gives us, and then that hope deepens with suffering, with endurance, with character, and there's more hope. Once you get through that season, your hope is built up. And it doesn't put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Hope doesn't put us to shame because hope in Christ is the only hope ultimately, that will not embarrass us, that will not disappoint us. Life disappoints us, people disappoints us, circumstances disappoint us, but God never will.
If you put your ultimate trust than anything else, you're destined for shame and embarrassment. Hope in Christ is the only one that won't. And point five, the gift that he hear ends with and elaborates on is that God's love is poured into our hearts. That's Verse 5, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. He's not talking about our love for God. It's like when we meditate on God and then all of a sudden, in our hearts, there's a love that wells up.
That's not what he's ... He's talking about a love that God pours into your heart lavishly. It's an outpouring of divine love, where God just takes himself in his fullness. God is love. God's Spirit is in your heart, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit. The more Holy Spirit you have, the more of the love of God that you have. And if you have the love of God, you can get through any amount of suffering, even if the world hates you and Jesus loves you, you've got everything you need. Why can we have all these gifts? Who bought them for us, who purchased them for us was Jesus Christ.
Verse 6, for while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. The Apostle Paul here grounds God's love in the atonement, that Jesus Christ died for the ungodly. That's who we are. We are not godly in and of ourselves in a natural state. We have nothing to do with God. Because of the original sin, a lot of people think original sin is just the sin that Adam and Eve committed, that lead to the fall. Original Sin isn't just that. It includes all of the consequences of that sin, the corruption upon the entire human race.
And because of that sin, all the progeny of Adam and Eve were born spiritually dead. That's a spiritual death, the moral corruption. We're not just spiritually ill, meaning we need a little medicine from God. No, we are spiritually dead if you didn't do and you were dead in your sins and trespass. We need a spiritual resurrection. There's nothing a dead person can do. Dead. Spiritually, scripture says that we are dead. There's a moral inability. We don't want God. We don't want to do his will. We don't think about God. There's a moral deadness. And he says, at the right time.
Because of this moral deadness, it has to be a work of God that even initiates interest in God. John 6:44 says, no one can come to me, the words of Jesus. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. Just think through that. No one can come to God, unless God draws them first. God is the one that initiates salvation. You do not. Even if you have any interest in God, even if you have any desire of the things of God, to read scripture, to be with Christian, even any of that.
And I said it because there are unbelievers that come to Mosaic. They just come and they ... You're welcome. I welcome all the unbelievers. Welcome. And then we just tell them, you can't save yourself, unless God the Father, by the power of spirit, draws you to Jesus Christ the cross of grace. We are dead in our sins. Christ died for us, the ungodly while we're still weak, we're lacking any kind of spiritual vitality. We have no strength in and of ourselves to affect our salvation. He says, at the right time, Christ died, in the fullness of time, according to God's plan.
Jesus Christ really did come in history. Luke 2:1 through 2, in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Historic figures, all can be verified, this is true. Jesus was born at the exact date in the exact place the father decreed. When you read the gospels, the narratives of the death of Jesus Christ, you see political machinations. You see power grabs, you see Kaiafas, and you see Pilate, and you see Herod, all conspiring, the Sanhedrin gets involved.
They bribe Judas to betray his rabbi. And you think everything's just out of control, where's God? God is orchestrating the whole thing. He's sovereign over the whole thing. Every detail is under his sovereign control. Christ's death and suffering all had the purpose to save the ungodly. Here, we got to pause and say, did God sent Jesus Christ? Did Jesus die for all of the ungodly people? Well, everyone that goes to heaven was, at one point, ungodly. Jesus died for the people that go to heaven. But Jesus didn't die for everyone's sin. Jesus doesn't pay for everyone's sin.
If that were the case, then there would be no one in hell, which isn't true. Jesus died for the sheep of his fold, for the elect. Before the foundation of the world, God predestined those who are to be saved. John 6:39, and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. If God determined to save everybody in the world, everybody would be saved. Everybody in the world is not saved. Everyone that has ever existed will not be saved, therefore God doesn't save everybody.
God has not decreed from all eternity to save everybody. Therefore, dear Christian, rejoice in the unspeakable grace of God that he has poured out on you. Before the foundation of the world, he chose you. He chose to create you, he chose to recreate you, he chose to regenerate you, he chose to make you his own. That's what we mean when we talk about the grace of God. Verse 7, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. Here, there's a difference between a righteous person a good person.
Apparently, Paul thinks the good person is better than a righteous person, because the righteous person does the right things according to the moral law. You just do the right things. But there's a difference between the righteous person and the good person. The good person does the right things, but also for the right reasons. You have a heart that's motivated by love, love for God and love for people, a good person. One will scarcely die even for a good person. Are there people in your life that you would die for? Trying to make a list the other day.
People I'm like, all right, I'll take a bullet. It also depends what kind of death. Are there any people in your life that you would be crucified for? That you would take a crucifixion for? Well, Jesus didn't take the crucifixion for righteous people and he didn't take crucifixion for good people. By the way, Jesus could have just wiped everyone out and be like, you know what, I'm done with this. Before they nailed him to the cross, I'm like, all right, I did the scorching, I'm done. Just kill everybody, just pow! Everyone's dead. And then he starts over. He could have done that.
It would have been faster and cheaper. It wouldn't have cost him his own blood. But, no, he died for the ungodly. He dies for us while we were still sinners. That's verse 8, for God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died on the cross knowing all of the sins that you would commit, all of them. Because he took all of them upon himself, all of them. And he was still willing to do it. That's how he proves his love. He moves from ungodly to us here in the text. But God shows his love for us. He's talking about Christians.
God manifests his love for the elect through the death of his son, Verse 9, since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. The death of Jesus Christ, when Jesus died on the cross, he didn't just die to save us from sin or from Satan. Jesus Christ died on the cross to save us from God. Jesus died on the cross to save us from the wrath of God. Verse 10, 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.
While we are enemies, hating God, and even if you say, I don't hate God, I don't hate God, I just never think about it. He's out there doing thing. I don't hate him, not an enemy of God. But if you're indifferent to the Lord God Almighty, your creator and your sustainer, the giver of common grace to all, what is that except hatred? It's like telling your mom, hey, Mom, I don't hate you. I just don't celebrate Mother's Day. It's a fake holiday. Hallmark made it up. But it's worse than that. It's like, mom, I don't hate you, I just never want to talk to you. Never want to talk to me?
I gave you life. Indifferent are God. That is the hatred. And God offers us reconciliation through Christ's death. But here, the emphasis is on his life now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life? What's he talking about his life? How so? How is Christ's life connected to our justification, our salvation? Well, Christ's life of perfect obedience to the law that was imputed to us, that's the righteousness, justification by grace through faith. God's righteousness is then impunity.
But in a sense also, Jesus Christ's life changes us because he's sitting at the right hand of God the Father right now interceding for us. Because he lives, we live. This is John 14:19, yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. He currently lives. He's currently interceding for us because he's a great mediator, who not only died for us, but was also raised from the dead and continues to make intercession.
And then in Verse 11, more than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. The only way that you can rejoice in suffering is to rejoice in God. That's the only way, the only way, we just enjoy God, the presence of God, the person of God. And we do that through the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we rejoice in Christ through Christ, we meditate upon Christ's sufferings on the cross. And St. Paul actually said, he said, I wish to be a partaker of the sufferings of Christ.
Because when we suffer, all of a sudden, we meditate on the sufferings of Christ like never before. And as we meditate on the sufferings of Christ like never before, all of a sudden, we realize, oh my, my suffering as bad and as hard as difficult as it is. Oh my, it's nothing compared to the suffering of Christ on my behalf. He did that for me. And the result is unspeakable joy. No matter what, unspeakable joy. By the way, one comment about joy for summary.
And I think it's mostly American culture, Americans just expect everyone to wear all of their emotions on their face all the time. Which that doesn't work in other cultures, nor is it expected. If you go to a Slavic culture and walk around with a smile all the time, everyone would think you're an idiot. This is true. They're going to look at you like, why are you smiling? I say that to say, I have a resting face. That does not necessarily communicate joy. But the joy is deeper. It's on the soul level. It's not just the physical.
It's not like you're going to put a mask on and pretend your joy. In your soul, you know you're at peace with God, you have access to the Holy of Holies. There's an iron clad hope that God gives, which allows you to experience joy and suffering. Job 13:15, though he slay me, I will hope in him. Though he slay me, I will hope in Him. And then he says, yet I will argue my ways to his face. That wasn't wise. Because then at the end of the vote, God shows up and he's like, all right, gird up your loins [inaudible 00:48:43]. He's like, Job's like, yeah, I'm going to shut my mouth.
What is he thinking in the whole book? But all he needed was the presence of God. That's all he wanted. That's all he wanted and that's all he needed. And he got it, and he got God and everything changed. No affliction so dire, no sorrow so deep, no pain so excruciating is worthy to be compared to the glory of being reconciled with God. I'll close with a hymn. A mind at perfect peace with God; O what a word is this! A sinner reconciled through blood; this indeed peace.
By nature and by practice far, how very far from God; Yet now by grace brought nigh to Him, through faith in Jesus' blood. So nigh, so very nigh to God, I cannot nearer be; for in the person of His Son I am as near as He. So dear, so very dear to God, more dear I cannot be; the love wherewith He loves the Son, such is His love to me. Why should I ever anxious be, since such a God is mine? He watches over night and day, and tells me "Mine is thine." Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for your sacrifice on the cross.
We thank you for the fact that you absorbed that sword, that fiery sword that kept us from the presence of God. A sword went through your heart as you lost the presence of God on the cross, the presence of the Father. And now you give us that presence by faith, we can be justified by grace through faith. Lord, I pray for anyone who is suffering now, I pray that you give a supernatural joy, a joy that transcends all understanding and a peace that supersedes all understanding. And continue, Lord, minister us by the power of the Holy Spirit as we now worship you. And I pray that you give us grace and move our hearts and stir us to worship from the depths of our soul. And we pray all this in the name of Father, and of the Son, of the Holy Spirit. Amen.