"Peace and Hope" (Romans 5:1-5)

“Peace and Hope” (Romans 5:1–5)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Sunday AM, September 3, 2017

Romans 5:1–5 (NIV)

5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² 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. ³ Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

1.    Believers in Christ have peace with God (1–2a).

       a.    Peace with God means we have entered into a relationship of love and friendship.
              i.    The atoning work of Christ made this relationship of peace with God possible.

¹⁰ For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!  ¹¹ Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.  (Romans 5:10-11, NIV)

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:  ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Co. 5:17-19, NIV)

²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.  ²² But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation-- (Colossians 1:21-22, NIV)

              ii.    We enter into this state of peace with God through faith.
       b.    Peace with God means we have access (a way of approaching) before the throne of God.
               i.    Christ is our mediator.
              ii.    This blessing of access to God is a state of grace.

2.    Believers in Christ have hope for their future salvation (2b–5).

       a.    Our future hope causes us to rejoice/boast in God and his glory.
       b.    Our future hope enables us to rejoice/boast even in the midst of suffering:
               i.    Because we know that suffering is molding our character to be like that of Christ.
              ii.    Because we know that suffering in this world is the path to future glory (as it was for Christ himself).
       c.    Our future hope is based on God’s love for us.
       d.    Our future hope is revealed and made certain to us in our experience through the gift of the regenerating Holy Spirit.