Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Series: Romans

Title: Three Blessings by Christ

Text: Romans 5: 1-2 

Date: October 7, 2018 

Place: SGBC, New Jersey 

  

  

God the Father sent his only begotten Son to be the Substitute of his people.  If you would understand how Christ is the substitute of God’s elect then think of a substitute ball player.  When the quarterback is injured the coach sends in a substitute.  The injured quarterback sits on the sideline.  He runs none of the plays.  The substitute quarterback does all the work.  Or think of a substitute teacher.  When a teacher gets sick, they call in a substitute teacher.  The sick teacher goes home.  She does no work.  The substitute teacher does all the work for the sick teacher.  So we see the substitute takes the place of another and does all the work for another.  

  

God sent his Son, Christ Jesus the Lord, to be the substitute of those God chose by his grace before the world was made. 

  

Therefore, the sinless Substitute gave himself to bear the sins of his people. When our Substitute was made sin for his people, it was “for our offences” that Christ was delivered to suffer the fierce fury of God’s judgment and wrath instead of us.  By paying the wages of sin, which is death, Christ made full satisfaction for each and every sinner for whom he died. 

  

  

Christ arose from the grave to testify unto those for whom he died that he justified his people by his one offering.  When Christ rose again, all his people arose in him justified.  Christ’s resurrection testifies that the sin of his people has been put away.  His resurrection declares that Christ justified us.  Christ’s resurrection is God testifying to his people that we are made the righteousness of God in him.  God justified his people, not we ourselves! “To declare at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and THE JUSTIFIER of him which believeth in Jesus.” (Rom 3: 26) “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? IT IS GOD THAT JUSTIFETH.  Who is he that condemneth? IT IS CHRIST THAT DIED, YEA, RATHER, THAT IS RISEN AGAIN, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” (Rom 8: 33-34) 

Romans 5: 1: Therefore being justified, by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

  

It can be read, “Therefore, having been justified, by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Faith itself does not justify us.  It is through faith that we receive justification already accomplished by God in Christ.  

  

Recently, I uprooted a few plants and moved them to another place in our flower bed.  When finished, I watered those plants.  The water flowed from our well, through the hose, to those plants. God-given faith is like a water-hose.  From Christ who already accomplished justification, through faith flows that justification, to the believer.  Therefore, having been justified, by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

  

Today, every believer here whose only hope is Christ alone will partake of the Lord’s Table.  Our Lord Jesus Christ commands us, “Do this in remembrance of me!”(Lu 19-20)  Christ taught us that the unleavened bread reminds us of his broken body which was broken under God’s wrath for us.  The wine reminds us of his blood poured out unto death under the justice of God for us. He called it “the new testament in my blood.”  It means by Christ’s blood justifying us all the promises of God in the new covenant of grace our guaranteed to us. So at his table, we remember Christ. We remember his broken body and his shed blood.  Every believer remembers that our Substitute justified us “from all things from which you could not have been justified by the law of Moses.” (Acts 13:39)

  

In order to understand the peace every believer has with God we need to understand what it is to be justified.  To be justified is to stand before God’s all-knowing eye with no record of ever transgressing God’s law past or present or future.  God our Father has fully, freely, forgiven those who believe on Christ of all our sins.  We are not talking about what believers see in ourselves.  If God has made us honest then we confess, “I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.” (Ps 51: 3) We are talking about how God sees his people in Christ.  In Christ, by his blood, God sees no record of his people ever having transgressed God’s law.  By Christ’s blood, in Christ, before God his saints are even incapable of transgressing God’s law in the future so as to come into condemnation.  Before God, in Christ, we have no sin.

  

Jeremiah 50: 20: In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve. 

  

Psalm 103: 12: As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. 

  

To be justified is to be viewed by the all-knowing eye of God to have perfectly established the law of God in righteousness.  We are not talking about any ability in us.  A believer still cannot keep the law ourselves in righteousness.  Our best works, were they not viewed by God in Christ, are so marred by sin that "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” (Is 64:6)  We established the law in righteousness in Christ because all God’s elect were in Christ when Christ established the law as our Head.  

  

When declaring that God’s saints are no longer under old covenant law but under the rule of faith which works by love, the Hebrew writer illustrated it with Levi and Abraham.  He said, “Levi payed tithes in Abraham for he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.” (Heb 7: 9-10) Abraham was Levi’s grandfather, four or five times removed.  Therefore, Levi was in Abraham.  Abraham was Levi’s head.   He was the father of whom Levi would be born years later.  When Abraham paid tithes to Melchisedec, Levi paid tithes to Melchisedec because Levi was in Abraham’s loins.  In the same way, all God’s elect were in Christ our Head so that when Christ established the law in perfect obedience, God’s elect established the law in perfect righteousness.  

  

The reason God will not impute sin to the believer is because by the blood of Christ justifying us from all our sins, before God, we have no sin to impute; the reason God imputes righteousness to the believer is because when Christ established the law in righteousness, before God, his elect established the law in righteousness.  

  

Therefore, having been justified, through faith believers have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1: 20: And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.  21: And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22: In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

  

2 Corinthians 5: 19: God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation…21: For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 

  

Isaiah 32: 17: And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. 18: And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places… 

  

Christ said to his saints, “My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” (Jn 14: 27)  Anything sinners get in this world that they call peace is not peace with God.  It is only a fleeting, momentary fleshly gratification which they call peace.  That is not the peace Christ gives his saints.  Christ gives peace with God which shall never end. 

  

Isaiah 54: 10: For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, NEITHER SHALL THE COVENANT OF MY PEACE BE REMOVED, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee. 

  

The peace Christ gives his saints is that “there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”  (Rom 8: 1-2) By this work, God’s saints are no longer at war with God nor he with us.  We are reconciled friends!  Believer, when you remember Christ at his table, remember the peace we have with God is the peace that Christ has given us through his blood. 

  

Believer, it was by Christ that we stood righteous before God, with no sin, complete and accepted as God’s reconciled friends even before we knew it.  Also, it is by Christ that we now have access into this grace wherein we stand in our experience of it, even access to the fountain of all grace, God our Father himself, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus…”  (Heb 10: 19-22)

  

Christ gives this access by filling all in all.  When Christ arose from the grave to the right hand of the Father, God gave him all power over all as the glorified GodMan, to be Head over all things to the church, that Christ might fill all in all. 

  

Ephesians 1: 20…when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21: Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 22: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23: Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. 

  

As the Son of God, Christ always had all power over all.  But Christ is now over all as the Man who is God.  He is Head over all for the benefit of the church.  The church (made up of each elect child Christ redeemed) is his body, the fulness of him.  His body will only be complete when each of his people are called to faith in him.  Therefore, being pleased with his Son who glorified him in the accomplished redemption of his people, as promised in the everlasting covenant, God the Father gave our Head the glory of filling all in all.  So how does Christ fill all in all? 

  

Scripture says that our access into this grace wherein we stand is given us through the preaching of the gospel—"For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it PLEASED GOD by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” (1 Cor 1:21; Rom 10: 13-15) But in a world full of false preachers, how is a pulpit filled with a pastor who preaches the truth according to the word of God?  The prophet Isaiah declared, “The PLEASURE of the LORD shall prosper IN CHRIST’S HAND.”  (Is 53: 10) Christ fills all in all!  He came to fill full the prophets.  Therefore, Christ alone fulfills the prophecy of Jeremiah, “I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.” (Jer 3:15) It means Christ alone gets the glory for filling his earthen vessel with the treasure of the gospel then filling his pulpit with that earthen vessel. 

  

Ephesians 4: 10: He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11: And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12: For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 

  

Yet, not only does scripture say it is through the preaching of the gospel that we are given access into this grace wherein we stand, Christ said we must be born-again by the water (the word) and the Holy Spirit. (Jn 3: 5) So how is a spiritually dead child of God filled with the Holy Spirit and filled with the word so that a new man is born within the body of this death?  Christ our Head filleth all in all!  On the day of Pentecost, as the apostle Peter preached the gospel of Christ and sinners began to be pricked in the heart, Peter declared, “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, HE HATH SHED FOR THIS, which ye now see and hear.” (Acts 2: 33) Through the preaching of the gospel, Christ alone gets the glory for filling his redeemed with the Holy Spirit and filling us with “the incorruptible seed”, “the word which by the gospel is preached unto you” so that we are born-again. (1 Pet 2: 23, 25) 

Still, if we would have access into this grace wherein we stand, scripture says it is only through faith in Christ.  So how is a regenerated child of God given repentance from dead works and faith in Christ?  Christ filleth all in all!  The apostle Peter declared, “HIM hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for TO GIVE REPENTANCE TO ISRAEL, and forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 5:31) 

1 Peter 1: 18: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19: But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21: Who BY HIM DO BELIEVE IN GOD, that raised him up from the dead, and GAVE HIM [THIS] GLORY; THAT YOUR FAITH AND HOPE MIGHT BE IN GOD. 

  

God gave the GodMan Mediator this glory to fill all in all in his church—to fill his pulpit with his pastor preaching him, to fill his people with the Holy Spirit and the incorruptible seed of the word, to fill his people with repentance and faith in God. Christ gives us access into this grace wherein you stand.  

  

Since our risen Head is God’s exalted Prince sovereign over all and since he is God’s exalted Savior who shall save his people from our sins, Christ is able to fill all in all with no one or no thing prohibiting him from doing so!  If Christ has a lost redeemed child on a backroad in the dessert reading the prophet Isaiah with no clue who it speaks of then Christ is able to send his Philip to that exact place at that exact time.  Through the Holy Spirit, Christ is able to speak into the heart of his preacher commanding, “Go near, and join thyself to this chariot” so that his preacher goes near and asks, “Understandeth what thou readest?” Christ is able to make his child teachable so that his child answers, “How can I, except some man should guide me?” Our Prince and Savior is able to preach the gospel through his preacher, give the Holy Spirit, plant the seed in his heart, give him faith to believe on him and thereby give his child access into this grace wherein we stand. (Acts 8: 26-39)  Or if our risen Head has a lost child on a riverside with a group of women, Christ is able to send the Spirit forbidding his preacher from preaching the word in Asia, turn him from Bithynia and give him assurance to go to Macedonia to that riverside, preach the gospel through his preacher and open the heart of that lost child, giving her access into this grace wherein we stand. (Acts 16: 6-15) 

  

One more thing, Christ is also able to keep us in this state of grace.  Our standing in grace does not depend upon our strength to abide in faithfulness but upon Christ’s strength making us abide in faithfulness.  Both the present peace and the permanent standing of God’s elect are secure by Christ himself because “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it” (1 Thess 5:24). 

  

Believer, when you remember him at his table, remember it is by Christ that we have access into this grace wherein we stand. 

  

"The hope of the glory of God" is the hope every true believer has of one day entering into heaven where we will dwell with God our Savior forever.  Christ justified us making us as righteous as he is before God so that we have peace with God.  Christ also gave us access into this grace wherein we stand.  Likewise, Christ also gives us this hope wherein we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

  

This hope is not a mere wish.  It is not a mere desire that might or might not come to pass.  This is the sure, certain, confident expectation given to us by the promise of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Christ is the triune God bodily who cannot lie.  As he went to accomplish our redemption on the cross, he promised, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (Joh 14:3)  

  

So what is our hope and what makes is so sure? 

  

One, our hope is “Christ in you, the hope of glory:” (Col 1:27) By Christ being formed in us in the new birth we have “the firstfruits of the Spirit”, the foretaste of heaven, so that “we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” (Rom 8:23)

  

Two, our hope is a living hope—"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath BEGOTTEN US AGAIN UNTO A LIVELY HOPE BY THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Pet 1: 3-5)  Our hope is a living hope because when Christ arose we arose in him begotten again.  By our risen Lord Jesus Christ, we hope for an inheritance that his resurrection testifies is reserved just for us who he justified.  Therefore, his resurrection assures us that we shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation which Christ has made ready to be revealed in that day our hope shall be realized.

  

Three, our hope is the anchor of our soul sure and stedfast—"Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” (Heb 6: 19-20)  Our hope is the anchor of our soul sure and stefast because it reaches into God’s presence where our forerunner is—for us—entered.  The Man, Jesus, who was in all points made like unto us his brethren, who was in all points tempted as we yet without sin, has now with his own blood entered—for us—and is made our eternal High Priest to represent us to God our Father.  The reason this makes hope the anchor of our soul is because our High Priest intercedes with our Father with this one desire, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” (Jn 17: 24)

  

So, brethren, be sure to get this!  We rejoice in the hope of eternal glory because: one, Christ in you has given us access into this grace wherein we stand, making us rejoice in the hope of eternal glory;  two, we rejoice in hope because of satisfied justice before a just God who shall do right which is testified to us by our risen Lord Jesus Christ; three, we rejoice in hope because of the intercession of our High Priest, the perfect Man Jesus, for whose sake God who cannot lie has promised us eternal glory with him! 

 

Some say this message will make believers sin.  Let me ask you who truly believe Christ is your only hope of salvation, does this message make you want to sin against Christ who did all this for us?  Absolutely not!  This is the only message that constrains true saints in the heart to live unto Christ because it declares his great love wherewith he loved us.  When accused of being fanatical and too serious because of the way he committed himself entirely to the preaching of the Lord Jesus and the service of his people, did the apostle Paul say it was the threats of law or the promise of reward that caused him to do so?  No, he said it was the gospel of Christ’s dying love for chosen sinners, “Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.  FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST CONSTRAINETH US; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” (2 Cor 5: 13-15)   It is not the message of works that makes God’s saints live unto Christ but the message of Christ’s great love and sacrifice for us.  Do the scriptures say it is law that motivates or this hope given by Christ? “Every man that HATH THIS HOPE IN HIM purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” (1 Jn 3:3)

  

So as we remember our Redeemer at his table, remember to thank him for peace with God by his free justification, for giving us access into this grace wherein we stand and for making us rejoice in the hope of eternal glory.  And, believer, as you show forth Christ’s death till he come, seeing how greatly we rejoice in this grace right now while as yet we see through a glass darkly, remember the best is yet to come!  “Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and HOPE TO THE END FOR THE GRACE THAT IS TO BE BROUGHT UNTO YOU AT THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST!”  (1 Pet 1:13)