Our last study wound up at Romans 5:6 – 8, observing that many believers don’t fully grasp the impact of these 3 verses. They teach that no one deserves Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death, so no one will ever be able to say they even remotely earned what He did for them on the cross. On the contrary, Christ died for us when we were sinners and totally alienated from God. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8. The Greek word translated “commendeth” means “to show, prove, establish, exhibit,” thus God proved or exhibited His love for us by the death of Jesus Christ in spite of the fact we are undeserving sinners. Paul continues, “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” Romans 5:9. The phrase “Much more then” points to the fact that, because of Christ’s death (when we come to believe) we stand justified in Christ (we are “rendered righteous)” and so are saved from wrath through Him. Believers are made “righteous” based on the finished work of Christ Jesus: “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Romans 3:24 – 26.
It is God’s Grace (His merciful kindness to us), which was made available through the redemption (deliverance, or liberation procured by the payment of a ransom) that is in Christ Jesus. He was the expiatory sacrifice (having the power to make atonement) through faith in His blood. God didn’t cut any corners. He couldn’t because He is just (He does everything right). The phrase “at this time” in Romans 3:26 refers to the time God revealed this wonderful news to Paul. God waited throughout history until He revealed to Paul (at this time) to declare His righteousness to justify (make righteous) anyone who believes in Jesus (His death, burial and resurrection). It was at that time that He declared His righteousness for the remission of sins that were past (all those in the Old Testament who believed what God told them) and all who have believed since then. Amazing Grace! Our part is to believe, that is, have faith, in order to be righteous before God.
Back to Romans 5:9, “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” Romans 5:9. The result of all that God in Christ Jesus has done for us, “much more” “we shall be saved from wrath through him.” “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” Romans 5:10 – 11. Again, most people don’t recognize that mankind, on his or her own, are enemies of God. The Greek word translated enemies means hostile, odious, hateful, opposing God. But God loved us and demonstrated His love for us by sending His Son to earth to die for us. And now, being reconciled to God, we are saved by Jesus Christ’s resurrected life. And thus we “joy,” which is translated from the same Greek word translated “glory” in Romans 5:3, we joy, i.e., glory, boast or rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have “now,” at the time of His finished work, received the “atonement.” The Greek word translated “atonement” means an “adjustment of a difference, reconciliation, restoration to favor.”
Breaking it down to a personal level, each and every individual believer has gone from being an enemy of God; totally alienated from Him, to being in His favor; saved from the wrath of God that is going to befall all of unbelieving humanity. Believers have moved on to being “blessed … with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ,” Ephesians 1:3b – “That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:7 – 9.
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