A pastor who served faithfully for forty-two years once said, "It would cut my pastoral problems in half if the people in my congregation really understood the implications of being justified by faith." So many Christians know the gospel — they can explain that we are saved by trusting in Jesus Christ, not by our works. But then they go on to live as though everything after that depends on their performance. It is a bit like the story of a poor kid who gets a charity scholarship to a prestigious school — and the headmaster, a terrible snob, lets him in reluctantly but is constantly looking for any excuse to turf him out. That is how many Christians think God treats them. Romans 5:1–2 demolishes that thinking, giving us three magnificent blessings that belong to everyone justified by faith: peace, grace, and hope.
Romans 5:1 begins a new section in Paul's letter. Chapters 1 to 3 showed us why we need to get right with God — no one is righteous by nature. Chapter 3:21–31 explained how we get right with God — through faith in Jesus Christ. Chapter 4 gave us Abraham as a case study. Now, from chapter 5 through to chapter 8, Paul describes the consequences of being made right with God. That is why verse 1 begins with "therefore" — he is looking back over everything he has said and drawing out three magnificent benefits of justification by faith.
1. Peace (verse 1)
"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
In Miss Congeniality, Sandra Bullock plays an FBI agent posing as a beauty pageant contestant. In the interview round, every other contestant is asked what society needs most, and one after another they all say "world peace." When it comes to Bullock's character, Gracie Lou Freebush, her answer is "harsher punishment for parole violators" — total silence, nobody impressed — and then she adds, "and world peace," to ecstatic applause. World peace really is what everybody wants. But there is something even more important than world peace: peace with God.
We are born into this world as God's enemies. We hate him, reject him, rebel against him, refuse to worship him. But far worse than that — God is our enemy. Every human being is destined to stand before God as their judge. Imagine Vladimir Putin being brought into court for his conduct of war against Ukraine, sitting in the dock wondering who the judge will be — and the door opens, and in walks Volodymyr Zelensky. His enemy is his judge. Zero chance of leniency. That is our situation. God is our enemy, and our enemy is our judge.
That is why these words are so unspeakably comforting: "Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God." Jesus Christ came from heaven to be the peacemaker. He lived his whole life in perfect friendship with God. Then on the cross, he took our sin and guilt, became God's enemy in our place, and God poured out his anger on his Son. He died the death we deserve. The cause of hostility was dealt with and done away with.
The word peace in the Bible is richer than our English word. It is not just the absence of fighting — it is the presence of friendship. In the Garden of Eden, before sin, the Lord walked and talked with Adam and Eve as friends. That harmony was lost. Now Paul says it can be restored. If you are a Christian, God is not just "not against you" — he is for you. He does not just tolerate you — he delights in you. Zephaniah 3:17: "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."
And nothing can threaten this peace. Human peace is fragile — it does not take much for peace talks to break down. But peace with God is absolutely secure, because it does not depend on something you did. The peacemaking was all on God's side. As we saw in the very last verse of chapter 4: "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification."
I have met many people over twenty-five years as a pastor who are haunted by ghosts from their past — things they did, things they said, and they just cannot get over them. I remember talking to an elderly, godly Christian in her late eighties who was really troubled because she had cheated on an exam in school, and she was afraid this would condemn her on the day of judgement. Maybe you have ghosts like that. Listen to what God says: since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God. Your sins are gone. They are taken away. They are forgiven. Bishop Hugh Latimer, burned alive for being a Christian in 1555, said: "Our Saviour makes our sins nothing, so that we be like as if we had done no sin at all."
2. Grace (verse 2a)
"Through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand."
In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a little girl called Lucy gains access to a magical, wonderful new world — Narnia — by going through a wardrobe. Paul says Christians have gained access to a wonderful new world too. We do not get in through a magical wardrobe, but through faith in Jesus Christ. We are taken out of the realm of sin, guilt and punishment and brought into the realm of grace.
Grace is free, undeserved kindness — a gift given to someone who deserves to be punished. Like any gift, it is not free to the giver; it cost God the life of his Son. But it is completely free to the one who receives it. And Paul says we stand in this grace. We have emigrated permanently into the realm of grace. There is no going back. We do not fall in and out of grace the way courtiers of Henry VIII did — or indeed the wives of Henry VIII. It is not like politicians and celebrities who are the flavour of the month one month and forgotten the next.
This brings tremendous balance and comfort. On our worst days as Christians — days of sin and failure — the gospel encourages us, because we are not accepted by God because of our works but because of grace. On our best days — days of obedience and usefulness — the gospel humbles us, because we are still not accepted because of our works. Grace keeps us from despair and from pride.
Think about it practically. Tomorrow morning you sleep in, miss your quiet time, snap at your family on the way out the door, ignore an elderly lady who needs a seat on the bus, miss ten opportunities to witness at work. A terrible day. Tuesday morning you get up at six, read the Bible for an hour, pray for an hour, help around the house, assist multiple elderly people crossing the road, share the gospel with everyone you meet, and lead someone to Christ in the evening. A wonderful day. On which of those two days are you more acceptable to God? The answer is neither — because it has nothing to do with your performance. You are always fully accepted because of what Christ has done. It is all of grace.
3. Hope (verse 2b)
"And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God."
Peace and grace are present possessions — we have them right now. But there is much, much more to come. For many people, the future is a scary thing. There is so much existential angst — fear of World War III, climate disaster, asteroids. But how different the Christian's attitude should be. We do not despair, because we have tremendous hope.
We often use the word "hope" in English to describe wishful thinking. "I hope it doesn't rain in Connemara this weekend when we go for our hike on Diamond Hill." People who play the National Lottery — the symbol is the crossed fingers. "Here's hoping." But when the Bible talks about hope, there is nothing doubtful about it. In the Bible, hope is not uncertain — it is just future. Aaron hopes to be married at the end of April. That is not wishful thinking. The date is set, the arrangements made, the invitations sent. It is certain; it just has not happened yet.
And why is our hope certain? "Since we have been justified through faith." If our future depended on our performance, our situation would be hopeless. But it depends on Christ's track record — his life, his death, his resurrection.
What is our hope? Paul says it is "the glory of God." We are going to see God himself as he truly is, face to face. Think of a time when you were overwhelmed by the beauty of the natural world — a sunset over Galway Bay, or over the Connemara hills, or the Grand Canyon, or the Alps. You try to capture it in a photograph, but it never does it justice. And that is just one tiny sliver. The Bible says that all these glorious things are merely a distorted, pale, small reflection of the glory of the God who made them. One day we will see him face to face. We will be changed, glorified, given new bodies that are imperishable and powerful. We will worship him and marvel at him forever and never get bored, because he is infinitely glorious.
A Treasure Waiting to Be Discovered
I was reading about a couple in England called William and Patricia Newman who lived their whole lives in a modest semi-detached house just outside London. After they both died in 2010, Patricia's sister was clearing out the attic and discovered a Chinese vase that sold at auction for a world-record price of 51.5 million pounds. William and Patricia lived their entire lives with that vase in the attic and had no idea it was there. What a tragedy — if only they had known how much richer their life could have been.
That is like so many of us. We have this wonderful treasure — we have been justified through faith — and all these blessings are ours, yet we do not realise it. Take out your treasure. Ask the Holy Spirit for fresh eyes to delight in it and rejoice in it. We have been justified through faith, and so we have peace with God, we stand in grace, and we have the hope of glory.
Listen to the full sermon above or explore more from the Romans series.
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