Romans 5:1-5
Justification: to count or show someone as righteous; reckon, credit, account, judge, treat, or look on as righteous. It doesn’t mean to make a man righteous. Justified, we’re still sinners.
1) Review: Paul established that justifcation is by faith.
• Justification is not earned, it is God’s gift to us, it is unearned. Accounted, not owed. Treated as, but not actually so.
• Justified is our position before God because of Christ’s sacrificial death. With Abraham, our faith is counted as righteousness.
• Scripture represents this by many phrases: taking away sin (Psalm 32:1), covering sin (Psalm 85:2), non-imputation (Psalm 32:2), blotting of sin (Psalm 51:1), forgetting sin (Hebrews 8:12; Isaiah 43:25).
2) The why of justification:
• Because of our sin & alienation. We rebelled against God & took our lives into our own hands. We are sinful & ungodly, enemies of God, pushing Him out of our life, wanting nothing to do with Him. Man is separated & alienated from God. Isaiah 53:6
• Justification is necessary because of the anger & wrath of God. “God is angry with the wicked every day” Psalm 7:11 (AV). Sin arouses God’s anger & wrath.
3) The how of justification.
• When a guilty person trusts Christ, God takes that faith & counts it as righteousness. God counts you-judges, treats - as if you are innocent. You are not innocent, but guilty. However, “God justifies the ungodly” Genesis 15:6, an incredible mercy; a mind-blowing grace. Acts 13:39
• God uses Christ’s righteousness as though it is ours. This is because of Jesus’ death on the cross, his substitution in our place.
4) The results of justification.
• God counts you - judges you, treats you - as if you are innocent. You are still not innocent, but guilty.
• We have peace with God. Neg: absence of wrath, conflict, war.
• We have access (AV) to God’s grace, His unmerited favor, love.
• We rejoice in God’s glory, the beauty of his presence. It’s real.
• We even glory in persecution, really the toughest of times. vv 3-5 tell us how that works out, even though it is unpleasant.
• We have the love of God poured into our lives, by the HS who is given to us. Don’t miss that blessing by denying it’s truth.
