The Great Salvation
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. God's story of sin. The fifth chapter of Romans is God's great climactic of the theme of redemption. Earlier Chapter s of the Book of Romans set forth the story of sin in all its heinousness. The Gentile world is declared unto sin. The Jewish world is then set forth under the same flaring headlines. Following is a conclusion in chapter 3 that "all have sinned" and every mouth is stopped. The whole world stands guilty before God. God proclaims that "there is none righteous, no, not one." All have turned out of the way, and together they have become filthy.
2. God's story of righteousness. After sin in all its heinousness has been discussed, the Lord begins to develop the second stage of redemption which is the discussion of the righteousness of God, made possible apart from the Law. This righteousness is declared to be manifested by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all who believe. It is possible to all who believe because Christ died for all, and became a propitiation, or mercy seat, through faith in His Blood, to declare His righteousness by the remission of sins. God thus becomes a Justifier of the ungodly, through the Blood of the Cross, and upon the faith of the believer in Jesus Christ. The accomplishing of this righteousness of God is set forth as being apart from works. For this cause all boasting on the part of man is forever excluded, and grace is forever enthroned.
3. The Book of Romans continues to take up the discussion of salvation by grace and through faith. This is a marvelous message, and one that needs to be thoroughly understood. Abraham and David are both used as examples, showing how we are saved without works and through grace, but according to faith. It is this salvation that brings glory to God.
As a great conclusion of the message of redemption, it is stated in Romans 4:1-25 that God delivered Christ for our offenses, and raised Him again because of our justification. Having thus considered a few of the outstanding features of redemption we come to the study of today, which is a discussion of the first eleven verses of Romans 5:1-21. We might suggest that the fifth chapter is the great resume of redemption. Today's study opens with a great statement as to the cause and first results of reconciliation; this is followed (beginning with the 12th verse) by the marvelous vision of the superabounding grace of God through Jesus Christ in preponderance over sin and its effects.
I. A THREEFOLD STATEMENT RELATIVE TO THE UNSAVED (Romans 5:6 the ungodly; 5:8 sinners; 5:9 enemies)
We have selected three different verses, three distinctive and illuminating statements concerning the wicked: they are ungodly, they are sinners, and they are enemies. Let us notice these one at a time.
1. The ungodly. The word ungodly means apart from God, or without God. There is a verse in Titus which tells us that we should live soberly, righteously, and godly. Soberly, suggests our attitude within ourselves; righteously, suggests our attitude toward our fellow men; and godly, our attitude toward God, A godly man is one who has God. He recognizes God's supremacy, God's place and power in redemption, God's part in his life. He walks and talks with God. He lives out God. An ungodly man is one who repudiates God; one who does not hold God in his thoughts; who will not acknowledge God in his life.
You remember how Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?" He said he would not have "this man" to reign over him.
Every ungodly man takes the attitude toward God which is described in the first chapter of Romans. They do not like to retain God in their knowledge. The ungodly are those who deny God and who change the Truth of God into a He. They worship and serve the creation more than the Creator.
2. Sinners. Sinners are the ungodly in action. They not only leave God out of their thoughts, but they are given over to lasciviousness and to all uncleanness. They are implacable and unmerciful. They are full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, inventors of evil things. God's portraiture of the human heart shows it to be deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. A sinner is a man who sins. "Sinner" is a word which suggests sin in action.
3. Enemies. Enemies are the ungodly fighting God. There are many sinners who are not enemies in the aggressive sense. When sin has ripened in the life, men will not only be ungodly, but they will be against God, They will join battle, saying, "Let us break Their bands asunder, and cast away Their cords from us." They will set themselves together against the Lord and against His anointed. We remember the expression, "Jericho was shut up." That is the. picture of an enemy in resistance, refusing to allow God to enter or to rule his life.
II. A STATEMENT RELATIVE TO GOD (Romans 5:8)
One of the beautiful things in Romans 5:1-21 is summed up in two words: "But God." "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Did you ever go into a jeweler's store to purchase a diamond? That jeweler threw the diamonds down on a dark velvet cloth in order that their luster might shine forth the more. Thus it is that God in our verses has thrown down the dark background which we have just been discussing: the ungodly, the sinners, the enemies. Then, against this background He throws the statement we now have before us: "But God." It seems as though the Spirit would thus give us God's marvelous love to shine forth. You remember how the second chapter of Ephesians has a similar statement. First, there are six things said about the sinner: he is dead, walking according to the course of this age; he is under the power of the spirit who rules among the ungodly; he is energized by Satan; he has his conversation in the lusts of the flesh and the mind; and he is a child of wrath. After this has been stated we read, "But God." God then is described under three words: His love, His mercy, and His grace.
In Romans 5:1-21 we find the same marvelous conception laid before us. We were sinners, ungodly, and enemies, but God commended His love toward us.
We walked in a Southern city one day and discovered a beautiful flower as white as snow which had sprung out of an old decayed root where filth abounded. Thus, God seemed to pass by where pollution reigned. He spoke, and lo, a flower! God also passed by a human heart which was full of sin and iniquity. He spoke, and lo, a new life created in righteousness and true holiness sprang forth.
III. THE STATEMENT OF CHRIST'S CALVARY SACRIFICE (Vs. 6, Christ died for the ungodly; Vs. 8, While we were sinners He died for us; Vs. 10, When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son)
Three times we have the statement of Christ's death. In each of these statements one of the threefold conditions of the wicked is met. Let us look at them separately.
1. Christ died for the ungodly. Here we might use the word propitiation, which suggests mercy seat. God in His great mercy made a way through which the ungodly might be restored to fellowship with God. The prodigal in the far country finds a way through which he can return to the father. That way is the way of the shed Blood.
2. Christ died for sinners. Here we might use the word "substitution." A sinner is one who sins. One who sins, sins because he is sinful. God is a holy God, and He cannot receive into His presence the unholy. God is just, and He cannot receive the guilty. It was for this cause that Christ was made sin for us. He took our place, suffered in our stead. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. The result of this substitution is briefly expressed in this way. God put our guilt over on Christ, and made Him to be sin for us. God put Christ's righteousness over on us, and we were made the righteousness of God in Christ. Thus there is the exchange. There is an exchange of places, because He died in our stead. There is an exchange of conditions, for our sins were on Him, and His righteousness was upon us.
3. Christ died for enemies. The word here which we might use is "reconciliation." We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. An enemy is a man who is aggressively at odds against the Almighty. The Lord God becomes aggressive in His reconciliation. We read that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Thank God that this ministry of reconciliation has been committed unto us.
IV. WE HAVE THE STATEMENT OF GOD'S THREEFOLD WORK IN BEHALF OF THE WICKED (Romans 5:9-10)
We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son; we shall be saved by His life; we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
1. Through Christ's salvation work we are reconciled. Our mind now goes to the Cross, because it was there that our reconciliation took place. In Ephesians 1:7 we have this statement: "In whom we have redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of sins." It is this which makes us accepted in the Beloved.
When you think of reconciliation you must not think that Christ was on earth seeking to pacify, on the one hand, the wrath of God, and the wrath of man on the other hand. That there were two enemies: God and man, that these two enemies were each fighting the other, that God was trying to down the sinner, and the sinner was trying to curse God such a conception is altogether at variance to the message of Scripture.
God could not save the sinner because He was a just God. However, God loved the sinner. This, we have already considered. God commended His love toward us while we were yet sinners.
God was not fighting to down the sinner, because God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God wants every man to be saved. The sinner was fighting God the Father, and God the Son, and They, together, were seeking to save that which was lost.
God's love was held in check by God's justice. God's love fully sustained God's justice when God reconciled the sinner through the Cross of Christ, In other words, Christ was given to die under the determinate counsel of the Father in order that God through the Cross might reach down and save and reconcile the lost.
2. Kept safe in His life. We are using the literal translation. We are reconciled through His Blood. We are kept safe, or made secure, by His life. Thank God for this picture. We are not only reconciled and saved; we are secure and safe. We have not space to dwell on this, but we suggest that you read John 10:27; John 10:28
3. We are saved from wrath. This salvation awaits us because the wrath of God will be revealed from Heaven when Christ returns, and also at the great white throne judgment. Reconciled by His Blood, secured in His life, and now saved from the day of wrath through His power.
V. THE STATEMENT OF WHAT THE BELIEVER OBTAINS (Romans 5:1-2)
1. We have the peace of God. This word suggests that the fight is now over. An old Scottish woman when dying was asked if she had made her peace with God. She replied, "I never made any peace with God. God made my peace, and I accepted it." It was through the Blood of the Cross that peace was made. God now receives us into His own presence and fellowship.
It is not something that we should have, but it is something that we do have and must have when we are justified by faith. I would not tell a sinner who has just received Christ as his Saviour that he ought to have peace. I would tell him that he has it. We are not talking of peace and rest which we may have in a world of trouble and sorrow. We are talking of peace with God which we have when our sins are washed away through the Blood.
2. We have access to God. This is the result of peace. If Jesus Christ has made peace by the Blood of the Cross, we have a perfect right of approach now. A sinner in his sin has no method by which he can come to God, but a sinner washed in the Blood of Christ can enter in. The veil of the Temple has been rent. He can come to God through Christ, and God can come to him through Christ. The Book, indeed, tells us that God will come in and make His abode with us.
3. We have hope in God. This word can reach into the future. Our verse says that we "rejoice in hope of the glory of God." What a far-flung, and all-radiant vision! There is a verse which describes the Second Coming of Christ as a coming of glory and power. This is included in our hope. Another verse tells of the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven, and "the City will have the glory of God." This, too, is our hope. Thank God for these three things; peace with God, access to God, and hope in God.
VI. THE STATEMENT OF SOME THINGS WHICH THE BELIEVER HAS DONE (Romans 5:11)
1. We have received the atonement. This is set forth in the last statement of our verse. "By Him we have now received the atonement." The word, atonement, in this verse, is the same word which we have in Romans 5:10, and it should be translated "reconciliation." This brings before us our part as sinners.
God gave Christ to die, thereby making the reconciliation possible. We receive the atonement. We do not make it. Sinners could not reconcile themselves unto God. You remember the hymn:
"Could my tears forever flow,
Could my zeal no respite know?
All for sin could not atone,
Thou must save, and Thou alone."
There is nothing in us and there is nothing to be done by us which would make us worthy of reconciliation with God. However, Jesus Christ was worthy, and in Him the reconciliation was made. This we receive; that is, we accept. John 1:12 puts it this way: "But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name."
2. We joy in God. Here is a vision of a life that is redeemed. If we have been saved we are not joying, boasting, or glorying in ourselves. We are giving the glory to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. All of this is set forth in Romans 4:1-25 where we are told that boasting is excluded. We have nothing whereof to glory,
3. When we have redemption and reconciliation to God we may expect to have tribulation. The world in which we walked, and out of which we have now come is a world which is without God, which is at enmity to Him. This world which hates our Lord, hates us. When we gain friendship and fellowship with the Lord, we lose friendship and fellowship with all who hate the Lord and set Him at nought.
The place of the redeemed is by the side of the Redeemer. We are called to walk with Him. We are not only to believe on His Name, but also to suffer for His sake. Our place as Christians is outside the camp with our Lord, bearing His reproach. It is in this that we glory. We suffer not complainingly. The Apostle Paul, in the jail at Philippi was suffering for Christ's sake. He sang as he suffered. The Lord Jesus Christ said on one occasion, "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad." Let this be our part.
AN ILLUSTRATION
"THE GREAT SALVATION"
"Salvation, by a Person, Not a Plan. We are not saved by a plan, but by a Man, the Man Christ Jesus, 'God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into Glory.' This is not true of any plan, even though God be the Designer of it. The plan of salvation did not die for us. It was the Son of God Himself, 'the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person,' who loved us and gave Himself for us. A man may backslide for an acquaintance, however accurate, with a plan or a system; but did any one ever backslide from a true heart-love to God in Christ? 'This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only True God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent'