Romans 5:1 - 5:11

Romans — Steve Gregg

Next in this series

Romans 5:12 - 21 (Part 1)

00:00

Romans 5:1 - 5:11

RomansSteve Gregg

This passage delves into the doctrine of justification by faith, highlighting that access to grace is obtained by faith and enables Christians to endure trials and tribulations, leading to future glory. Reconciliation is also explored as the restoration of peace in a previously alienated relationship. Grace is not just God's unmerited favor but also His active assistance and blessing. The development of character, hope, and likeness of Jesus through the love of God and Holy Spirit is necessary for accessing grace, leading to spiritual growth and rewards.

Transcript

Alright, we're in Romans chapter 5. I mentioned that I personally believe that Romans chapters 1 through 5 contain the essential argument of the book of Romans. But there's much left unexplained which then is treated as clarifying chapters of unexplained or misunderstandable things. In the remainder of the book.

And so Paul has come to what appears to be a provisional conclusion in a way. Because he spent the whole time thus far arguing for a doctrine. The doctrine of justification by faith.

He now begins with that conclusion as the premise. That is, he made the arguments on other premises that lead to the conclusion that justification by faith. Now that conclusion is counted as established sufficiently to use that as the premise for further new ideas.

Because this is true, these other things are true. So he says, therefore, having been justified by faith, he no longer is treating that as something that needs to be demonstrated. That's something you now are tracking with me.

You've tracked with me thus far. You know we have been justified by faith. Because of that, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations.

Knowing that tribulation produces perseverance. And perseverance, character. And character, hope.

Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die.

Yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. This whole section is a unit to itself and it basically is the conclusion of the previous argument.

Beyond this point there is an entirely different subject and that is the comparison and contrast between Adam and Christ. But it takes an entirely different turn from where we have come so far. Here we can see a certain solidarity in this whole section because it mentions how we rejoice in verse 2, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God and also in tribulations in verse 3 and also in verse 11 in God.

Now the word is translated rejoice in verses 2 and 11. It is translated glory in verse 3 but they are the same Greek word and could be translated rejoice in every case or glory in every case or for that matter boast in every case because it is the same Greek word that was used to be translated as boast in chapter 3 and verse 27. Where is boasting? Now the Jews boasted in God.

The Jews boasted that they were better because of the law, because of circumcision but their boasting was empty because they were boasting in something they themselves did. We boast also but we don't boast in ourselves we boast in God, what he has done. And boasting is not here meant therefore to be taking credit for something when people boast they are usually taking credit for something the idea of boasting here has more to do this is our boast, this is our rejoicing, this is our confidence this is what we are counting on and rejoicing about and so this section talks about three things that we boast in or rejoice in or glory in we glory in the hope of the glory of God we also glory in our tribulations we glory in God himself being our God so he begins by saying this is all because we have been justified by faith because we have been justified regardless by what means we have faith with God and at the end of verse 11 he says we have now received peace with God we now have received the reconciliation reconciliation and peace are the same idea reconciliation is the restoration of peace between parties that were alienated reconciliation, people who are alienated are not at peace with each other when peace is restored to the relationship there is reconciliation so this whole section is bracketed by the fact that our justification with God results in peace that is peace with God a reconciled relationship with God suggesting that our previous relationship with God was anything but peace we were at war with God we might not have been so much aware of it but we were because God is a king God has made claims on his kingdom or on the things he has created we should say and anytime we are not submitted to his kingship we are resisting his kingship and asserting our own now when two kings are asserting their own kingship over the same domain this means war my life God has claims upon it, he is my king he insists upon it but as long as I am seeking to be my own king I am resisting his claim to be the king and therefore I am at war with God, there is tension now you don't want to go to war with somebody like God you want to pick your battles, remember Jesus said which king among you having 10,000 soldiers and hearing that an enemy is coming another king who has 20,000 will not first sit down and decide whether he has with his 10,000 what it takes to defeat the invader who has 20,000, if not he will send out an ambassage seeking conditions of peace this is in Luke 14, it is the section where Jesus is talking about counting the cost before becoming a disciple he gives the example of a king who hears that he is under attack he himself has 10,000 soldiers, the enemy has 20,000 ok, what are you going to do about that you have to sit down at the conference table with your counselors and say can we beat him, are our 10,000 guys better warriors than the 20,000 he has got, if so let's go out and engage, but if not we better send out someone and wave the white flag so we don't get ourselves wiped out let's just make conditions of peace, make a truce, let him have us surrender, that's what Jesus said is the case and in some ways I think what his meaning there in Luke 14 is when we contemplate being disciples, we are joining the king whose forces seem to be outnumbered and we are going to war with a king who seems to have more armies, the devil seems to have more loyalists in his army than God has God's army is smaller here, now if we include the angelic armies, then they who are with us are more than they who are against us, as Elisha said, but in terms of the natural vision, when a person is saying do I want to become a Christian, that means I am siding with this group, the church, these Christians here and the world is against us and they weigh out numbers do I want that? Do I want to be engaged in that kind of a battle? Do I want to be on the minority side? Well, you better count the cost before you join me because that's what you are going to be, but on the other hand one could say that you are the king with 10,000 soldiers and God is the one who has got you outnumbered do you want to fight him? Or do you want to make peace with him? That's the two options, if you decide you cannot defeat the one who is coming against you, you better surrender to the one who is coming against you, once you surrender that's what Jesus called conditions of peace even if this was not his main point in Luke 14 it illustrates what he is talking about here well enough that we if we are pitching battle against God over our lordship of our own lives and he says no I am the lord you submit to me and I say no I don't really want that I want to be my own lord then there is going to be a struggle I ought to be smart enough to sit down and say do I really have the resources to defeat God in a war not likely, I better seek conditions of peace I better be reconciled with him and Paul said of course, you want to have that peace you don't want to be at war with God God will always win and you will therefore lose unless you surrender, in which case you win and so does God it's a win-win because if you have peace with God we have all kinds of benefits God is a conqueror who once you submit to him just lavishes benefits on you that were not available when you are against him like what? well through Christ we have verse 2, access by faith into this grace in which we stand grace in which we stand access to this grace we can tap into that grace by faith faith is the access to grace but what is grace? Now Paul has mentioned grace previously as God's as it were bountiful provision and gift to us unwarranted by anything that would make it seem like we earned it so what Christians often simply refer to as unmerited favor, God favors us without us meriting it or warranting it or deserving it but favor doesn't really convey the whole idea of what grace is because favor is simply an attitude I favor you instead of disfavoring you yes God does favor us by grace and it is without merit on our part he favors us, but his grace is not limited to simply a passive attitude on his part grace is God's active assistance and blessing and bounty, how do I know that? well, I mean consider, look at 2nd Corinthians Paul uses the word grace lots of ways that might seem different to us if we've only come to think of grace as God's unmerited favor and nothing more well what about this? 2nd Corinthians 8 and verse 9 it says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that you through his poverty might become rich, his grace is not just his willingness to accept you but to enrich you and for that reason some people who speak of grace have come up with the acrostic based on the letters G-R-A-C-E and they refer to it as God's riches okay, God's enriching of us in all things and those are at Christ's expense, so God's riches at Christ's expense, not at ours, that's a pretty good, I've always thought that was a pretty good way of summarizing what grace is it's not just that God favors me but he favors me tangibly, he favors me palpably he favors me by enriching me in many ways, what kind of enriching? look at 2nd Corinthians 9, 8 just the next chapter over, 2nd Corinthians 9, 8 it says God is able to make all grace abound toward you so that what's the result of all grace abounding toward me so that you always having all sufficiency in all things may have an abundance for every good work now God's grace abounding to me means what? I have sufficiency, he enriches me to be sufficient for every good work I need to do it's an enabling thing it makes me sufficient to do what Christians are supposed to do Christianity is not a life lived by sheer willpower it's lived by supernatural assistance the grace of God is given to us to enable us to be sufficient for the task of being a Christian and if you'll even look a couple chapters over further in chapter 12, 2nd Corinthians 12 Paul talks of course about his thorn in the flesh and how he prayed three times that God would take away his thorn in the flesh and instead of taking away Paul's thorn, whatever trial that might have been Jesus gives him this answer, 2nd Corinthians 12, 9 he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in weakness Paul says, therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest on me Paul says, I'm weak, I'm afflicted, please help me please take this away, please relieve me Jesus says, no, I got a better idea, my grace is sufficient for you, it will empower you you have a burden to bear, but it's a burden that I will bear for you, I will give you the power through my grace you see, God's grace is his sufficiency God is able to make all grace abound to you, so you have all sufficiency in all things and abound to every good work so grace in Paul's mind is more than just God saying, you're cool, you're okay with me I favor you but it refers to manifest tokens of his favor in the form of giving us sufficiency for everything he wants us to do, you see the whole Christian life is a life of grace and lives through the enabling of grace, so that Paul if you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15 Paul is talking about comparing himself with the other apostles in this particular verse he says in verse 10, but by the grace of God I am what I am and his grace toward me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they, that is the other apostles in the context all, I've done more work than the other apostles did now that doesn't sound very humble so he says, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me, the grace of God that was with me, what? labored I accomplished more, I labored more than they but that wasn't me doing it, it was the grace of God with me doing it, I was enabled by the grace of God, if you look further back in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 Paul is reminding the Corinthians of how he had come and planted that church there when there was no church in Corinth, quite an accomplishment really in such a pagan town to go there there's not a single Christian in town and you plant a church and it grows and it becomes something, that's impressive and he's talking about what he did there in 1 Corinthians 3, he says in verse 10, according to the grace of God which was given to me as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, that is of the church and another one builds on it, now I got there first, I planted the church I laid the foundation, others come after I'm gone and they'll build the church after me on that foundation, but I did it according to the grace of God that was given to me as a wise master builder, that is God's grace made me a wise master builder, so that I could do what I had to do that is to serve God that way do you know that when the Bible talks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit the Greek word that it uses is charismata, that's the plural, charisma is the singular for gift, the gifts of the Holy Spirit what are they? well they include things like prophecy and word of wisdom, word of knowledge, even the working of miracles and healings are in that list there's supernatural stuff and there's other gifts too that don't have such an evident supernaturalness about them, but they are still gifts of the Holy Spirit like teaching and leading and some stuff like that encouraging, giving, helps, those are also listed as gifts of the Spirit, but the word charisma which is translated gifts in all these places is from the Greek word charis c-h-a-r-i-s, grace charis is the Greek word for grace charisma, charisma means a gift of grace, that is an endowment of grace do you have the gift of prophecy? that's an endowment of grace, God gives you the grace enabling you to prophesy, do you have the gift of working miracles? probably not, most of us don't but if you do, that's an endowment of grace, an enablement from God to do what you could not ordinarily do even the gift of teaching, which I suspect that is the gift I primarily operate in, is a gift of grace it's an endowment, it is possible of course for people without grace and without God even to teach but not to accomplish what is supposed to be accomplished through the teaching gift, because the teaching gift is supposed to impart more than information preaching the word of God and teaching the word of God is supposed to impart life you know, a college professor who is very good at what he does and is not a Christian, he may impart information brilliantly but the people who leave his class have not received any spiritual life through it, because it's not a work of the Holy Spirit it's just a human ability the gift of teaching or exhorting or helps or any other, or leading some of these activities can be done by people who aren't saved at all and don't have the Holy Spirit, but they aren't operating in a gift of the Spirit, they're just operating in flesh in human ability, and it does get something done and some may be very skilled at it in the natural without any gift from the Holy Spirit but a person whose gift of the Holy Spirit, whose endowment of grace is teaching or leading or helping is going to be, there's going to be another dimension to their activity, something that would not be there without the Holy Spirit's anointing upon it, something that imparts grace imparts life, imparts something of God imparts spiritual benefit to people you know, it says in Ephesians chapter 4 when it's talking about the standard for Christian conversation, Ephesians 4 verse 29 Paul said let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers.

Isn't that interesting that when we speak it should be that which edifies and imparts grace to the hearers. There's something an anointing of the spirit of grace involved in any spirit, in any gift of grace any charisma, it's the Holy Spirit's power giving grace or sufficiency to the possessor of that gift to perform what could not humanly be performed. A person could teach theology without knowing a thing about God and could even impart all the concepts that even Orthodox theologians believe from one mind to another mind.

But to minister to the heart and to the spirit and to impart life in the knowledge of God is something that a person who doesn't know God cannot do and not even every Christian would do it well but if someone has a gift in that area, a gift to the spirit then when they speak they'll impart grace to their hearers. It will impart something of God himself more than just so much information like a teacher might normally be thought to do. And so the Bible is full of these references to grace being almost a dynamic of enablement of God making people sufficient for what they would otherwise be insufficient for.

Paul says take away this thorn. He says no, my grace will be sufficient for you in this. My strength will be with you for that.

And in John chapter 1 when we read about Jesus coming to earth, John 1, 14 it says the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Jesus when we saw him he was just full of grace but verse 16 says and of his fullness what was he full of? He was full of grace and truth. Well that fullness of his fullness we have all received we have received to be full of grace and truth also.

Of his fullness we have all received and grace for grace or sometimes they say grace upon grace. Christ was full of grace and truth and he ministered in grace. In fact it says in Luke 4 when he was speaking in the synagogue of Nazareth they marveled at the words of grace that came out of his mouth.

Well he was full of grace and truth out of the abundance of the heart. The mouth speaks. When you're full of grace you're going to speak in grace.

You're going to have words of grace. You're going to impart grace to the hearers. Grace is something of the supernatural dimension that is part of the package of being in Christ and not only is it sufficiency to do ministry type things like Paul said I labored more than they all but not me it was the grace of God with me.

By the grace of God like a wise master I laid the foundation of the church but also to endure suffering. My grace is sufficient for you is in the context of your suffering I'm going to help you here. I'll give you the grace for it.

And so the Bible talks about people receiving grace in time of need. In Hebrews it says let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. At the throne of grace we receive two things mercy from God which is usually what we think grace is and nothing more.

But at the throne of grace we receive mercy but there's something else there's grace to help Hebrews says grace to help us in the time of need. So how do I access that grace? Well Romans 5 to our present verse. Through him we have access by faith into this grace.

There is a reservoir of grace in God. We have access to it. It's a treasure house of grace.

All sufficiency for all things is there. God doesn't just give us an assignment and expect us in our fleshly resources to somehow carry it out. That would be no different than any other religion or assignment of any kind that a worldly person might get.

Jesus wants us to minister his kingdom and his power through his grace and we have to have access that grace when we have it that access it says in verse 2 Romans 5 to through whom we have that is through Jesus. We have access into this grace how? By faith. That's why Paul elsewhere says by grace you've been saved through faith.

You have access to grace through faith. If you have faith you are drawing upon that grace. That grace not only to mean that if you die you go to heaven because God forgives you but the grace that enables you your trust in God provides grace to help in time of need.

That's a great benefit of having surrendered to God and having peace with God. We now have this benefit. This grace is available and by the way the grace is infinite.

We read of some of the great martyrs exhibiting the grace that was given to them in their martyrdom and we know they must have been in excruciating pain but they're raising their hands and singing and praising God because of supernatural support that God's given them. His grace is with them. Some of the Anabaptist martyrs had signaled that they would give as they were even burned at the stake they'd put their fingers together so that those in the crowd the Christians realize they're saying I'm receiving grace here and they had to do that because sometimes their tongues were cut out before they were burned at the stake because they were known to preach from the stake and convert people so their enemies who killed them first would tear their tongues out so they had an agreement if you are receiving grace because after all we're all watching you suffer it's scary to us but if God's given you the grace you communicate that to us so it'll encourage us that we can suffer that way by the same grace and the Anabaptist martyrs died again and again with their fingers pressed together saying God has given me the grace and when you've had your skin peeled off your tongue torn out and they're burning you slowly over green wood that's not an easy thing to endure and these were not superhuman beings these were real human beings these were flesh and blood like us people of like passions like us they were no different than us the day before they're martyred but while being martyred they were given grace and it's supernaturally made them able to endure what humans cannot otherwise endure Corrie ten Boom's mother died when she was a child she later lost her father and sister and so forth in Nazi concentration camps and had to endure for some years suffering in those camps herself in Ravensbruck I think one of the terrible torture camps that the Nazis had but as a child when her mother died she was somewhat fearful having faced death for the first time just theoretically not only theoretically but in the family she wasn't personally facing death herself but she was afraid and she told her father she said I'm afraid I don't how will I stand it when I have to die and her father was a clock maker clock repairer and she was a little girl at the time he said Corrie do you remember when I take you to Amsterdam and we sell our clocks there sell them to the merchants there and she said yes now we go by train when do I give you your train ticket she said you give me the ticket just as we're getting on the train he said well that's right because you're just a young girl if I gave you the ticket beforehand you might lose it but I hold it for you and when it is time I make sure you have it and he said that's how our heavenly father is to us he said we don't have the grace given to us now for things we're going to have to need it for later but when we need it I'm getting choked up partly because I see my wife getting emotional about this it's hard to watch somebody else cry and not start crying yourself she's crying because she knows I'm on the verge of it too it is very emotional to me when you need the grace God has it and there's enough in small trials you need small grace and that may be all you have in big trials you need more grace and it's available my former wife who was killed in an accident died I just sensed the grace of God given to me in a way that was so astonishing that all my friends thought I was in denial they thought I'm going through the five stages of grief you're in the first stage of grief you're in denial you're going to come out of this and it's going to hit you hard and I thought I'm not denying anything the Lord gives and the Lord takes away blessed be the name of the Lord that's not denial that's affirmation and I never came out of it there never was a time that that hit me as hard as I thought it would because I just had it was the grace of God there's no question about it now that grace we have access to because we believe if we're trusting God that grace comes like a child trusting your father when you need it he'll give it to you you don't have to worry about it he's got what it takes he's got all the grace necessary all sufficiency for all things is yours the life of the Christian is a life of grace and Paul says since we've been justified by God we have free access to this grace through faith and that is perhaps the most wonderful of benefits but it's not all he says in verse 2 and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God now we talked about the glory of God a little earlier the glory of God is our hope what is our hope our hope that we will be like Jesus in Colossians chapter 1 Paul is famous for having linked our hope to the glory of God also he says in Colossians 1 27 he says to them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory the hope of the Christian is glory we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God in Titus 2 13 Paul referred to the blessed hope which he identified as the appearing of the glory of our God and Savior Jesus Christ the hope of the Christian is the appearing of God's glory but where Paul said I believe that the right you know the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that should be revealed in us our hope is that the glory of God will be revealed in us that is that we will be seen and will be like Jesus we will have the character and the glory and the likeness in the image of Christ fully formed in us which is why John said we do not yet see what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we will be like him and then he says and everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure the hope of the Christian is to be like Jesus the hope is the glory of God we will share in the glory of God not without having first gone through some sufferings and receiving grace in our suffering so that Peter ties all those things together we've been talking about in one verse in first Peter chapter 5 and verse 10 Peter says but may the God of all grace who is called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus after you have suffered a while perfect establish strengthen and settle you God is going to perfect you and strengthen and settle you he's the God of grace and after you've suffered a while no doubt in you know bolstered and held up by his grace he has called us to his eternal glory there is no separating the grace from the glory because there's no separating the suffering from the glory remember on the road to Emmaus Jesus was talking to those too many says you foolish of heart slow to believe all that the prophets have said should not the Christ have suffered these things and entered into his glory if Christ enters into glory only after having suffered is there thought to be a safe a better way for us we we enter into glory without suffering how can we be like Christ if he was crowned in thorns and were crowned in roses you know how can how can we expect to be made perfect easier than he was and we saw earlier 2nd Corinthians 418 it says that our light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us and eternally weight of glory while we do not look at the things that are seen but the things are not seen afflictions work for us and eternal weight of glory the glory the likeness of Christ is carved into us sculpted into us through the chisel of suffering and trials endured by grace God gives us the grace for the process and the glory as the reward for having endured the process and so Paul says there and he has both of these in Romans 5 to through Christ we have actually by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God we now stand in grace we hope for a future glory that is to be like Christ and not only that as if that's not enough verse 3 not only that but we also glory in tribulations well why because that's what is we we hope in the glory of God we don't get there without the tribulations and explains that because we glory or hope in the glory of God we also glory in the process the tribulations it gives different meaning to our trials than we would have had otherwise without this hope these trials would simply be an annoyance or even torture something seemingly unjustifiable and something that's just wrong but we understand that we have a hope to be made like Jesus and that tribulation is that is the chisel by which this sculpture is being done and he says we glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation produces good things in us perseverance first of all and perseverance that works in us character and character works hope why would character have an impact on our hope well if our hope is that I'm going to be like Jesus if I hope is the glory of God that I'm gonna be like him and share his image then as I see my character developing exactly direction it encourages my hope hey this is not this is not a fool's hope I see the tribulations working perseverance working character this encourages my hope that I will indeed reach the goal of being like Jesus because that's the character is I can see it happening I can see it shaping in the right direction now hope does not disappoint that is what is not an empty hope if you're hoping that you'll be like Jesus you know you will not be disappointed because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit was given to us it's the love of God the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives that is the image of Christ you see what is the image of Christ but to be loving as he is loving this is my commandment you love one another as I have loved you that is Christ likeness now if the Holy Spirit is bringing forth the love of Christ in my heart that looks like Jesus and therefore when I've seen improvement in my character that would be seen in an increase in my loving as Christ loves this encourages my hope and the hope is not empty because the Holy Spirit is bringing to pass the fulfillment of hope by bringing forth the love of Christ in my heart for when we were still without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly for scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us now here he's basically saying that the love of God is he's just marveling at the fact that the love that was given there's and no greater love has any man than this they lay down his life for his friends Jesus said well he did lay down his life he laid on his son's life and Jesus laid on his life for us not while we were the kind of people that you would like to do a favor for people generally will not die for other people but if they will in those rare cases where people die for other people they're dying for people that they consider to be good people there are a lot more people that would step up to die in place of Billy Graham or Mother Teresa then in place of Adolf Hitler or Charles Manson because you figure well Billy Graham I mean I don't really want to die but he can accomplish more by living than I can Mother Teresa is more valuable than I am she's I'm the lesser I don't really like the idea of dying but I'd sacrifice me for someone like that it only makes sense that they should live and not me but say the same thing about dying for Adolf Hitler Charles Manson or some other horrible person who would do that he says for you seldom will find people willing to die for other people but once in a while for a good person you'll sometimes find someone who might be willing to do that but this is not what Jesus did he didn't die for good people he died for the best of people but also for the worst of people he died for all people and while we were yet sinners Christ died for us that's the demonstration of God's own love toward us now from that he says much more than and notice this much more because it's going to come up several times in the remainder of the chapter much more Paul is talking about something has already happened but there's much more that can be deduced from it he's arguing from the greater to the lesser the greater thing is that he died for sinners the lesser thing is that he provides for us and all things we need and he's much more likely to do that since he's done the greater he will much more be likely to do the lesser he says much more than having now been justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him if I've been justified then whatever wrath is due of course he's gonna say I'm on him I'm I'm his now being justified I'm one of his kids won't you do more things for your kids than for someone who isn't your kid wouldn't you do more for your children than for your enemies well when you're an enemy he died what won't he do for you now that your child he'll certainly save will be saved by from wrath through him for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by his life and saved means more than just go to heaven saved means that the salvation package as it were being reconciled to God receiving the Holy Spirit being given the grace to endure all things sufficiency and all these these are part of all of what salvation is salvation is a restoration of the right relationship between man and God that includes all these features it's not just going to heaven since Jesus died for us when we were his enemies now that we're not his enemies anymore how much more will all of the benefits of salvation be given to us because of his life and not only that but we also rejoicing God through our Lord Jesus Christ now actually the Jews said they Paul said that they rejoiced in God or boasting God same word is used in the Greek boast in chapter 2 verse 17 indeed you are called a Jew and you rest in the law and you make your boast in God well they make their boast in God in the sense that they are Jews and that they rest in the law that is they keep the law and that's their boast our boast in God is of a different sort our boast is in God alone not in anything we have done I can't boast of anything I've done but I can boast that I've got a great God it says we also rejoice or boast literally chapter 5 verse 11 in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received the reconciliation which reconciliation is what he mentioned the first verse peace with God we have received this peace through Jesus and these are the benefits we have so after having made his case for justification by faith in the earlier chapters he now sort of winds up that by telling all the great benefits that accrue to us because of that reconciliation that we've had with God the rest of chapter 5 will have to take in another session and it deserves another session all probably entirely to itself and so we'll wait till next time and we won't finish chapter 5 now