What Comes With Justification?

Notes for the Ekklesia Meeting
Sundays @ 10:00 a.m. Info: (651) 283-0568 Discipleship Training Ministries, Inc www.dtminc.org Today’s Date: April 22, 2007

What Comes With Justification?
by Dan Trygg

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our access by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Romans 5:1-5

The first half of the first verse sets the stage for this entire paragraph, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have…” Paul begins to describe the benefits that accompany the new standing we have before God. The foremost and most important benefit is that now we have peace with God. We were once considered children of wrath by Him, because of our sin (Eph. 2:1-3). Now, because we have claimed the redemption price of the Lamb, Jesus’ death for our sin, we are no longer objects of His wrath. The debt and offense of sin has been removed, so God does not perceive us as enemies any longer. Instead, we are His friends (Jn. 15:13-15), and He actually delights in us, because we have believed that Jesus came from God, and we have chosen to love Him (Jn. 16:26,27). Note that the peace we have with God is “through Jesus Christ”. We haven’t made the peace, Jesus did. Only He was able to offer a sacrifice that was satisfactory and sufficient to purchase peace (propitiation - Rom. 3:25). We have only aligned ourselves with Him, and have accepted Him as our Peace (Eph. 2:11-18).

By means of Jesus, and His sacrifice, we now have access to grace, and even to God the Father. Before, we did not. We were excluded from God’s presence and had no hope of finding acceptance with Him. Through Jesus, all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, can have access to the Father (Eph. 2:11-18). What does this mean? This word picture is taken from the royal court of most kings of that time. You could not just come to visit the king. Most people were never permitted into the king’s royal throne room. Only a matter of supreme importance to the interests of the king or the country would warrant being granted an audience with him. Kings were people of great power, so their time was very valuable. Their time and attention was preciously guarded. In the book of Esther, for anyone to come into the king’s presence without being invited was punishable by death, unless the king chose to spare you by lifting his scepter toward you. Even Esther the queen was afraid of entering into his chamber without being called for, because she was afraid that he might not acknowledge her (Est. 4:11), his own wife! With that background, we can appreciate better what Paul is saying here. In Christ, we have free access to the King of the Universe! He will always welcome and acknowledge us, and even be favorably inclined toward us, because of Jesus. Proverbs 3:32 tells us that God is intimate with the upright, and Psalm 25 indicates that He is willing to teach the humble, and even has secret counsel to share with those who revere Him. None of this would be possible if it were not for the sacrifice of Jesus’ life on our behalf. Just as the veil of the temple, which separated the most holy place from the common people, was torn from top to bottom at the time of Jesus’ death (Matt. 27:51), in the same way Jesus opened the heavenly throne room to all of us who trust in Him. By the blood of Jesus, we can come openly and boldly into God’s presence in prayer, knowing with full assurance that He will accept us and hear our concerns (Heb. 10:19-22). Once again, the offering of Jesus’ life was a free gift, an act of grace, which God freely gave to us. By faith we have obtained access to this grace, and it has become ours. The Greek verb tense indicates that the grace has become ours. We didn’t just get it at the point we believed, but we got it and still have it. We obtained it, and it remains ours. We are still covered by grace, and we stand and remain standing in this grace.

The next phrase is kind of interesting, “and we exult in hope of the glory of God”. I don’t know about you, but I don’t use the word, “exult”, very often. The NIV renders it as “rejoice”, but that doesn’t quite grasp the whole meaning, either. The word basically means to “boast”. In a context like this, it also takes on the flavor of joy and delight. In other words, we could translate it as, “we take delight in, and love to talk about, the hope of the glory of God”. What does this mean? Remember, this is the second time the word “glory” occurs in this book. The first time was in 3:23, “…for all have sinned, and lack the glory of God”. This gives us some context for understanding 5:2. What we were lacking, now we have an opportunity to partake of, once again. With justification comes a renewing of the influx of God’s glory into our lives, through the Holy Spirit. This is something to not only get excited about; it is something to crow about, to boast about! It is not something we have done, so we are not boasting in ourselves. We are boasting in God and His incredible salvation. Who else, besides followers of Jesus, actually have the abiding presence of God’s Spirit come to dwell in their hearts to fill them with His glory?

“But not only this, rather we can also boast in our difficult-circumstances.” Why can we boast? Because we know that God can use the testings and afflictions in our lives to produce perseverance, which can bring about proven character, which, in turn, works out the very hope we have been talking about, the glory of God established and made visible in our lives.

This is very similar to what James, the brother of the Lord Jesus, wrote about in his letter, “Consider every joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have a complete effect, so that you may be mature and whole, lacking in nothing” (Jas. 1:2-4).

Note the similarities:

(1.) we will experience trials or testings of our faith;

(2.) testing of our faith produces perseverance;

(3.) remaining steadfast under trial produces mature character, wholeness and equipping in our faith.

Note, too, that our response to the trial is critical. The temptations would be to

(a.) compromise our beliefs;

(b.) give in to the test and engage in sin; and

(c.) give up too soon, so that we do not get the full benefit from the test.

The man or woman of faith will look beyond the immediate test to see the eternal perspective. They will remember that God has permitted the test in order to strengthen them. They will rejoice that God can even bring growth and benefit out of such a difficult circumstance.

We also have the assurance that our hope is sure. We will not be disappointed or put to shame for believing in Jesus, or for remaining true to Him under trial. How can we know that? Because God has poured out His love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit which He has given to us. We have an internal witness of God’s love, the Spirit, who testifies to us that we are children of God (Rom. 8:15-17). He is given to us to be a seal of God’s ownership upon our lives, a down payment, or engagement promise that Christ will return to completely fulfill the salvation He has begun in us (II Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13,14; 4:30; Phil. 1:6). The reality of the presence of the Spirit in our lives is a guarantee that God will keep His promise to us.

Verses 6-10 serve as a further support that our hope is dependable. Paul reminds us of the contrast of God’s magnanimous grace in light of our absolute inability and unworthiness to deserve His love or concern.

Christ died for us

(1.) while we were powerless; and,

(2.) while we were undevoted to Him (vs. 6).

We had nothing whatever to offer God to motivate Him to action to save us, …nothing based upon any performance on our part, or even based upon a mindfulness toward Him. In verse 7, the apostle points out that a person may be willing to die for someone whose life was especially good or valuable. In our case, however, God demonstrated His love for us while we had done nothing good or valuable. In fact, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (vs. 8)! Verse 10 tells us that we were even God’s enemies when He sent Jesus into the world to die for us! Since God, at such great personal cost, showed His love toward us when we were so very unworthy, how much more will He be willing to do to save us, now that we have responded to Him? If He gave Himself for us totally when we wanted nothing to do with Him, how much more do you think He would be gracious to us, now that we have become His children? If He sent Jesus to save us when we were powerless and hostile in mind toward Him, how committed do you think He will be to those who show an interest in following Him? There can be no doubt about it. We can be certain that He will save us.

Finally, we take delight in, and love to talk about, God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ. Once we understand the incredible love and grace of God, we cannot help but glory and boast in Him. He is awesome, and His love is beyond our ability to fully comprehend (Eph. 3:14-19). How can we not boast in and take delight in our Father in heaven, who has loved us with such great love? How can we not brag on our Savior, who gave Himself totally for us, when we had done nothing for Him? In addition to what He has already done for us, we have the further promise from Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” There is nothing that He would withhold, …nothing that He will not do, …no length to which He will not go, …no price He would not pay, to ensure that those who have trusted in Christ Jesus will be saved to the uttermost, to the complete fulfillment of God’s salvation plan (Heb. 7:25). Nothing will stand in His way. How can we not love Him who first loved us with such love?

What this Blog is all about

Every week I prepare a teaching for our little Church called The Ekklesia Fellowship. Each week I post that weekly teaching. In our church gatherings, because they are purposely small, we provide and actually encourage dialogue about the topic on which I teach each week.

This space will be no different. I want to encourage you to post questions and make comments about what you read here. Wrap your arms around what is said and "try-on" the teaching to see how it fits you. Maybe you have a personal experience that demonstrates first hand what the teaching is about. Maybe you have an insight into the Word, that will ad to what the teaching says. Maybe you disagree with my conclusions or exegesis of the passage.

Please be free and encouraged to express all this, but please do so in a way that seeks to edify.

Speak the truth in love.

But SPEAK!!!!!

I look forward to reading your responses and insights, which I'm sure will minister to others as they read what you have to say.


God Bless,


Dan

Christ Our Savior And Our Life

Notes for the Ekklesia Meeting

Sundays @ 10:00 a.m. Info: Discipleship Training Ministries, Inc www.dtminc.org Today’s Date: April 8, 2007

Christ Our Savior And Our Life

by Dan Trygg

"…and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed." I Peter 2:24

The plan of God in dealing with sin centers upon the human child born to Mary in Bethlehem. We could explore the details of what God did through Jesus, and why He chose to do it as He did, for many pages. For our purposes here, however, I want to simply introduce four concepts for our discussion:

(1.) Christ for us; (2.) Christ as us; (3.) Christ together with us; and (4.) Christ in us.

(1.) Christ For Us -- Most of us are familiar with this concept. Basically, it means that Christ paid for our sins instead of us. It is like we owed a debt, and we had no ability to even begin to pay it back, so God sent Jesus to pay our debt. In the OT, if someone committed a crime against someone else's property, e.g., theft, robbery, vandalism, or abuse, the judgment of the law was that he/she had to make restitution. If he could not afford to do so in such a circumstance, he could be sold into slavery to repay the debt. In such cases, a close relative could step forward to pay the amount owed in order to free the debtor from his indenture. This person was called a "kinsman redeemer" (e.g., Lev. 25:23-55). Redemption means that a price had to be paid for the release of the debt and the debtor.

Jesus has come from God to be our Kinsman Redeemer. No human could ever pay for the sins of another, since we all have sinned, and the penalty for sin is death (Psa. 49:7,8; Rom. 3:23; 6:23). Anyone who had ever sinned, even one time, would only be able to pay for his/her own sin. It would do no good to offer to die for another. More than money was required to satisfy the debt of sin, it was life itself (I Pet. 1:18,19). From a legal standpoint, once we recognize and acknowledge that we are sinners, the question is, "How can my debt of sin ever be paid for?" Christ's death for us answers this question. Jesus, as a perfect sinless human, was able to offer Himself as a sacrificial payment for the sins of all people. As God the Son, His life was infinitely precious, worth much more than the lives of the entire human race. He paid our debt for us, by offering His very life in exchange for our freedom (Heb. 9:11-14,22-28). This was the meaning of His cry from the cross, “It is finished!”. The Greek word (tetelestai) was the word merchants of that day wrote on the bills of people who paid off their debts. It meant, “paid in full” or “account closed”. This is consistent with what Jesus Himself had said, "The Son of Man came ...to give His life a ransom for many" (Mk. 10:45). As Paul later observed, "…in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses" (Eph. 1:7; cf. I Pet. 3:18). Jesus’ life was the redemption price which God provided to buy us out of our hopeless debt of sin. All we must do in order to benefit from His provision is to accept His payment offered on our behalf by repentance and faith. Repentance is a change of perspective and purpose. Faith is trusting His provision and faithfulness to do for us what He has offered, and living as if this is true by choosing to follow Him. God expects us to follow (Matt. 28:19,20).

(2.) Christ As Us -- This second aspect of Jesus' work to deliver us from sin has to do with substitution. This idea of paying our debt would not be possible unless Jesus could somehow "stand in" for us. The idea of substitutionary atonement was solidly imbedded in the mind of the Jewish people. They clearly understood that when they offered up an animal on the altar, it was "standing in" for them. They would lay their hands upon the animal, signifying their identity with it and symbolically placing their sins upon it, ...and then they would slay it, signifying their own death. They were taught that the life of an animal or person was in its blood. They were made aware of this principle every day, because they had to butcher and prepare their meat in special ways to avoid eating any blood (Gen. 9:4). The entire OT sacrificial system was based upon this fact, “the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life within it that makes atonement” (Lev. 17:11). The word, “atonement” meant “covering”, so God permitted them to offer the blood of animals as a temporary covering for their sin, until a provision could be made to remove them (cf. Rom. 3:25). In a way similar to the OT sacrifices, Jesus voluntarily took our place. Like a lamb led to slaughter, His blood was shed, and the punishment that was meant for us was forever removed, because His sacrifice was of so much greater value than mere animal offerings (Heb. 9:22-10:10; Isa. 53:1-12; II Cor. 5:21; I Pet. 2:24; Rom. 5:6-11). Somehow He managed to take the punishment which God's wrath demanded, so that God has no more wrath to pour out on those Jesus represented. The death blow that was meant for the rest of us fell upon Him (Isa. 53:8).

(3.) Christ Together With Us -- This third concept is not as familiar to most people who have been exposed to Christian teaching, because it has not been well taught, and it is difficult for people from our cultural background to understand. The concept has been given fancy names by different theologians. Some refer to it as federal headship or corporate personality or as representative solidarity. Basically, the idea is that Jesus somehow represents humanity so perfectly and completely that when He acts, it is as though we also act, ...likewise, when something is done to Him, it is also done to all those He represents. To us, as individualistic-minded Westerners, this makes no sense. To the Eastern mind, however, -- where the group is the center of one's identity, not the individual -- this concept is not difficult to grasp. Paul discusses this in Rom. 5:12-21; I Cor. 15:21-23,45-49; and II Cor. 5:14-17. In his own conversion experience, the resurrected Jesus referred to this reality when He asked Paul, "...why do you persecute Me?" (Acts 9:4; cf. Mt. 25:40) This "in-your-face" encounter he had with this statement of Christ's solidarity with His people probably is why this apostle seems to appreciate and refer to this concept more than anyone else in the NT. It is the basis for most of his teaching about growing as a Christian in Romans 5-8.

As incredible as it may seem, what Paul teaches is that:

When Jesus was crucified, we also were crucified;

When Jesus died, we also died;

When Jesus was buried, we also were buried;

When Jesus rose from among the dead ones, we also rose from the dead ones to newness of life.

This is fundamental Christian doctrine. If we do not understand this, or at least learn to apply its reality on a practical level, we will not be able to move into maturity. The basis for freedom from bondage to the flesh, from the power of sin, and from the demands of the law are firmly established upon the reality of our union with Christ in His death, resurrection, and even His ascension (Eph. 2:5,6). The fact that there is a "new person" that we can "put on", as well as an "old person" that we can now "put off" is also founded upon this same principle.

(4.) Christ In Us – This fourth component of God’s provision deals with the power to live as Jesus would live. In Colossians 1:26-29, Paul speaks of a mystery that was unknown and hidden from past generations, but which has now been manifested to God’s people. This mystery is described by the apostle as “Christ in you, the hope of the glory”. What glory? The glory or radiance of God’s abiding presence within us (cf. Jn. 1:14; Heb. 1:2; II Cor. 3:4-4:6; Jn. 17:20-22). This is crucial. This is where the power for change in our lives comes from. It is Christ in us. In Galatians 2:20, Paul says, “I have been crucified in Christ. I (myself) no longer live, but Christ in me lives. But now what life I live in flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself up on my behalf.” Christ lives in me. How does He live in me, if He is sitting up in heaven at the Father’s right hand? Through the presence of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in each believer. Jesus spoke of this in Jn. 14:16-18. The Holy Spirit is sent to live within us, so that we would not be alone, desolate or friendless. He is sent to be our Helper, one who will empower and enable us to do what we cannot do on our own.

I still have the choice regarding how I want to live, …by my own self-understanding and self-strength, …or by the power, wisdom and leading of Jesus who lives in me. In either case, I will get the consequences, or resulting fruit, of my choices. If I choose to live by self-understanding and self-will, then I will get the same results I have been getting up until now in my life. My life will, at best, be ruled by human ingenuity and self-discipline. It will still be a very limited, human existence. At worst, it will be foolish, wasteful, self-centered and self-destructive. If I choose to live by the leading and power of the indwelling Christ, however, then the consequences and fruit of my life will be very different. People will see something in us that is hard to explain or relate to from their own experience. We will do things that sometimes don’t make sense to them. We will be willing and able to serve and help others joyfully, and seem to be refreshed by it. They will see a new joy in our lives, a new freedom. We will begin to grow and make changes in our lives. We will have a new motivation to put aside destructive patterns in our lives, and choose to establish healthy ones. We will become more gracious, kind and compassionate toward others. We will be willing to help others, with no strings attached. Our lives will be characterized by amazing love, incredible peace, overflowing joy, remarkable patience, abundant kindness, wonderful goodness, positive faith, consistent dependability and persistent self-control, the fruit of keeping in step with the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:16,22,23).