‘Benefits of Justification’
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Romans 5:1-11)
Sammy Davis Jr. died in mid-May 1990. He was only 64, a victim of throat cancer. For years he drew the applause of packed houses as he sang and danced and cracked jokes. According to a May 17, 1990 Los Angeles Times article he buried his pain in alcohol and cocaine, chasing the delusion that his ‘swinging’ lifestyle somehow compensated for his two divorces, his estrangement from his children, and his futile efforts to become what he thought others expected him to be. “I didn’t like me,” Davis told an interviewer in 1989, “so it made all the sense in the world to me at the time that if you don’t like yourself, you destroy yourself. The monkey on my back is that I created a lifestyle that was no good for me. My life was empty. I had drugs, booze, and broads, and I had nothing.” Most people we rub shoulders with every day are searching for three things in life - for some it’s a conscious search, for others it’s less intentional. They want peace - an abiding sense of contentment and personal wholeness; joy - inner tranquility and a deep sense of well-being; and hope - confidence and expectation. But we often look in all the wrong places to acquire them: affluence, status, human relationships, hobbies, recreation, sensual pleasures, and career. You can spend your entire life pursuing peace, joy, and hope and never find them except in superficial fleeting forms. The Apostle Paul indicates that the answer to these essential human desires flows out of the believer’s redeemed relationship with Christ. They are the inherent benefits of what the Bible calls justification.
Source & Motivation
What needs to be underscored first in this passage is the source and motivation behind the provisions we find here. Paul wants it understood that what he’s presenting are the benefits of justification by faith, not what human good works can produce - “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God….and we rejoice (have joy) in hope of the glory of God (vv.1,2).” Religious systems built around human striving and moral merit will never produce, in substantive form, any of these. There’s no real peace, no real joy, and no real hope. Ultimately there’s only a sense of futility, frustration, and failure. Just as righteousness isn’t self-generated, true peace, joy, and hope can’t be self-generated either. The language Paul uses to reveal the source of these benefits underscores the source in several lines of text - “....we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”...”Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God”...”...we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation (vv.1,2,11).” Where are you looking to find peace, joy, and hope? In the party scene? In the accumulation of wealth? In an illicit love affair? By climbing the corporate ladder? Please hear me, these desires will never be satisfied fully except in Christ!
I would be remiss if I didn’t draw your attention to the motivating factor that’s at work prompting these provisions in Christ. What compelled Christ to die for the ungodly, to literally lay his life down for his enemies, was his love - “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (v.8).” This is love with a capital L! Every redemptive benefit is an expression of God’s love and grace.
Benefits
Let’s now look more closely at the benefits that are gifted to us. First, peace: specifically ‘peace with God’. The primary reference here isn’t to a subjective tranquility of mind, but rather, to a radically altered relationship with God transforming the relationship from one of hostility to that of peace. The Greek word translated ‘peace’ is εἰρήνη. It’s similar to the Hebrew word ‘shalom’. This peace isn’t simply a state in which hostility is held down, rather hostility is eliminated because its root cause (sin) has been dealt with. What we need to understand is that peace in this context carries the same idea as reconciliation. There’s a companion passage in Colossians - “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, (Col.1:19-22).” It’s out of this reconciled relationship with God that peace of mind and inner tranquility comes. It can’t be found anywhere else!
Next, we have ‘joy’ and ‘hope’. These are companion ideas that can’t be fully separated in the context of this passage - “...we rejoice in hope of the glory of God (v.2).”
The word ‘rejoice’ literally means ‘to boast’. It combines the ideas of ‘joy’ and ‘exaltation’, and carries the idea of ‘joyful exaltation’. This combination of ideas indicates a connection of the present to the future - “...we rejoice (present tense) in hope of the glory of God (future reference).” The hope we have as Christian believers is confident expectation, not wishful thinking. And we’re filled with joyful exaltation (boasting) as we anticipate sharing in the future glory of God. This is eschatological joy that’s grounded in our confidence in what God will do. The Apostle John tells us what the future holds - “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (1Jn.3:2).” As believers we face the future with great expectation and joy.
Present Application
It’s also important to understand that ‘rejoicing’ and its companion ‘hope’ have a strong present application as well - “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (vv.5:3-5).” The verb ‘knowing’ (οἶδα) speaks of a perfect mature confidence. We can rejoice in the face of adversity because we know it’s shaping our character and deepening our confidence in the faithfulness of God. In the context of present things, hope means confidence or trust, and Paul says that hope doesn’t disappoint us; it never lets us down. When we understand that our present struggles are what God uses to accomplish his purposes in our lives, it alters our whole perspective on life. We no longer see life as a series of random disconnected events, but rather as a grand mosaic made up of good and bad, delightful and painful, events that the Lord uses to shape our character and deepen our faith. It’s in the context of these life-transforming struggles that we encounter God’s love, grace, and goodness in their most profound forms. As decided Christians, we’re confident that all the events of our lives are filtered through our understanding of God’s love. This gives us a deep and abiding peace.
Do you want peace? Do you want joy? Do you need hope? They are found only in Christ; he’s their sole source.