Romans 22: What Justification Brings (2) (Rom 5:1-2)

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God” (Rm 5:1-2)

2) Grace
Today, I’m going to talk about the second and third consequences. Let’s read Romans 5:2 together again. 
 
“Through whom [Jesus] we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.” (Rom 5:2)
 
The second result is gaining access to grace in Christ. Here, Paul uses two verbs in regard to grace. The first verb is ‘gain’ and the second one is ‘stand.’
 
a) Access to Grace
The meaning of us gaining access to grace is that we receive God’s grace by faith. When we talked about Romans 3, the most important subject in the chapter was God’s righteousness. Paul introduced three important concepts related to it—grace, redemption, and faith.
 
Grace is one of the best words that shows God’s righteousness because the word grace explains that God’s righteousness is freely given to us. God gave us His righteousness not because we deserved it, but because He loves us. The only thing God requires of us is to have faith in Jesus Christ. As Paul said, 
 
““All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Rom 3:24)
 
The only way for us to gain access to God’s grace and His righteousness that justifies the ungodly is to have faith in Jesus Christ.
 
b) Stand in Grace
The second verb Paul used when it comes to God’s grace is ‘stand.’ Paul said that Christians not only enter grace but also stand in it.
 
Standing in grace is on a deeper level than gaining access to it. A result of justification is for us to continue standing in God’s grace, beyond merely entering it.  This means that we have the privilege of living in the kingdom of God.
 
What we should keep in mind about grace is that Christians don’t just receive grace temporarily. From the moment we entered God’s grace by faith in Christ, we’ve remained in it. We never leave God’s grace because He holds us tightly in it.
 
No matter what we do, and no matter where we are, we’re in God’s grace. Even when we turn away from the Lord, God doesn’t take His grace away from us. Instead, God faithfully watches over us and takes care of us, waiting for us to come back to Him.
 
The truth that we’re always in His grace is comforting to us because we often find ourselves straying from God and doing wrong before Him. Without God’s grace, we can’t keep our faith.
 
So, Christians often acknowledge that everything is done through God’s grace. We can’t even do something small without it. God’s grace doesn’t leave us. It will always be with us and protect our minds and souls and continue to lead us to God.
 
That’s the strong foundation of our relationship with God. Our relationship with God, which has been established by justification, is not occasional but continuous, and not unstable, but stable. We can’t lose God’s grace after we receive it. Whoever enters God’s grace stands in it forever. There’s nothing in this world that can separate us from God’s amazing grace.
 
However, what makes me afraid is that even though there’s nothing that can separate us from God’s grace, we ourselves can leave it. If we deny God’s grace and start to follow the ways of the world, rejecting the redemption of Jesus Christ and following our sinful nature, God won’t stop us. In other words, even if we intentionally decide to renounce God’s grace, He still honors our free will. God doesn’t force us to do anything.
 
The author of Hebrews said,
“It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.” (Heb 6:4-6)
 
When we believe in Jesus, we’re saved and justified. However, that salvation is only the beginning. It will be completed when we see Jesus face to face. So, what’s really important is that we keep our salvation by continuing to choose to remain and stand in God’s grace. So, I want to urge you today to stay in His grace. I hope that every one of us will stand firmly in God’s grace by faith in Christ to the very end.
 
3) The Hope of the Glory of God
Now, let’s move on to the third one. 
 
“Through whom [Jesus] we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.” (Rom 5:2)
 
The third blessing we have in Christ is that we’ve come to have the hope of the glory of God. One of the amazing gifts we receive from God when we’re justified by faith is ‘hope’ for the future.
 
In the world, we put our hope in many things. We don’t hope for things that we’ve already accomplished in our lives. Hope is something that we desire and expect to happen in the future.
 
For us to have hope is very significant in our lives because it’s what motivates us to move forward without being frustrated about where we are now. Without hope, we lose meaning in our lives.
 
So, it’s really good news that God gives us hope in Christ. The hope God gives us is different from the kind of hope we have in the world in that the former is eternal while the latter is temporary.
 
The hope God gives us is hope for the glory of God. All the things people desire in the world are limited to this world, but the hope for the glory of God is about the world to come—the eternal kingdom of God that can never perish, spoil, or fade.
 
The apostle Peter said, 
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you” (1Pt 1:3-4)
 
 God promised us to let us into His eternal kingdom. Now, we live not for things in the world, but for eternal things God allows us to know about by opening our spiritual eyes. We put our hope only in God and His promise, not in things of this world.
 
The reason this hope for the glory of God is perfectly secure is that the One who promised this is God who never lies but is faithful to His promises and has almighty power with which He can accomplish what he says.
 
The hope of the glory of God was best revealed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through this event, we know that there’s eternal life in Him after this world.
 
When this world is finished and the new heaven and earth come to fruition, God’s glory will be fully revealed throughout the world. We live in the world with this heavenly hope for the glory of God and His eternal kingdom.
 
Then, how should we live with this hope? 
 
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” (1Jn 3:2-3)
 
Christians are those who put their hope in the glory of God, not in the glory of the world. When God’s glory is fully revealed on earth and when Jesus comes back, we’ll be resurrected with Jesus and transformed to be like Him. That’s the real hope God gives us in Jesus Christ.
 
With this hope, we’re to live holy lives, following in the steps of Jesus and purifying ourselves. We should prepare for the world to come. We should live for the kingdom of God and His righteousness.