Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Tuesday, October 23rd

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is John 7-8
Today's scripture focus is Romans 5:1-5

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings,because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

I appreciated MacArthur's introduction to Chapter 5....

begins in the epistle of the Romans by dealing with the wrath of God against sinful men. And then he offers an escape from the wrath of God. The wrath of God is unfolded in chapter 1, chapter 2, and the first half of chapter 3, and then the escape is unfolded in chapter 3, the second half, and chapter 4. And he says if you believe in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, simply believing that is by true, genuine saving faith, you are justified or made right with God. There's no works involved, there's no self-effort involved, there's no human enterprise involved, it's a matter of believing what God has done in Christ. Justification by faith, being made right with God by believing in Jesus Christ.
Now, that seems so incredibly simple to the Jew that it would be very difficult for him to handle that. Because, you see, he was basically reared in a works system. It even would seem incredible to a Gentile who was raised with a religion of human achievement, which all false religion is. And to hear that all you need to do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you can be made right with God forever is more than they could have hoped for. And so the natural question that follows that is that you're going to say to yourself -Well, boy, this seems too simple, too...too...too clear, too easy, there's got to be more than just believing. And so you ask yourself -Is this enough? If all I do is believe, can that really save me? Can that keep me? Will that be enough in the day of judgment when I stand before a holy God and it's time to find out the real issue of eternity, is my faith alone in Jesus Christ going to hold me there? Am I going to survive the judgment? And that is why in chapter 5 Paul speaks to this issue. Because anyone who is newly converted and comes to Christ through faith is going to naturally ask the question -How long is this good for? How do I keep it? Is there anything I do to lose it? Now that I've got it is it mine forever? And that is the reason he approaches the subject in the way that he does. 

Paul affirms the fact that salvation is forever.  We can be absolutely secure in our salvation.  MacArthur then goes on to describe several links in an unbreakable chain that unites us to our Saviour.

First - we are at peace with God (v1).  It's not so much that we are hostile against God (though some people are), but the real issue is that God is hostile against us.  Our holy God is angry about our sin, and is angry with the wicked every single day.
Psalm 7:11 God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day.
But God's wrath was satisfied in the death of Jesus Christ, His anger is satisfied, and because of that we have peace with God.

Second - we stand in grace (v2).  Now grace operates where there is sin. If you don't have any sin then you don't need any grace, right? So, grace operates where there is sin. Now if we stand in grace, then when we sin...what happens? Grace operates. And what does grace do? Forgives our sin because of Christ. And so we are secure then, not only because we've made peace with God and His wrath has been spent on Christ, but because we stand in grace. And grace is God's undeserved favor to sinners.

Third - we are eternally linked with God through the hope of glory (v2b-4). we are secure because God saved us to bring us to glory. There are three tenses to salvation: past, present, future We have been saved. We are being saved. We shall be yet saved. We wait for the full salvation, the redemption of our bodies, the full and ultimate glorification...He has saved us to bring us to glory. Salvation wouldn't even be salvation. You couldn't even call it that if you could lose it. You can't even define it that way because salvation can only be defined as three parts: past, that is we have been saved from the sins of the past; present, we are being saved; future, we shall yet be saved in full glory. And so the hope of glory links us to Christ....we know that tribulation not only does it not take away our salvation, not only does it not weaken us, but rather it produces endurance and endurance produces proven character and proven character has a greater hope. So, Paul is saying we are anchored to the Savior by the promise of ultimate glory and even when we go through trial that just increases our hope of glory because trials produce proven character. And the more spiritual character you have, the more spiritually mature you are. The more confident you are in the hope of ultimate salvation.

Fourth - the possession of love (v5). God has begun a love relationship that stretches through all eternity. We have become the possessors of love.....When you become a Christian, God deposits in you the Holy Spirit and Paul the Apostle calls Him in Ephesians, the earnest, or the arrabon. it means engagement ring. or down payment, or guarantee. In other words, when you become a Christian you're given a guarantee, and that is the guarantee of your ultimate glory, the guarantee of your ultimate salvation, the guarantee of heaven, the guarantee of your perseverance, your security. And that guarantee is none other than the indwelling Holy Spirit given to every Christian. And the Holy Spirit, then produces in us an awareness of the love of God....it speaks of a personal, internal, intimate ministry of God through the Holy Spirit which takes security out of the cognitive area. It takes security out of the mind and plunges into the heart. It is not intellectual. It is emotional. It is not objective so much, it is subjective now. God is assuring our hearts that we belong to Him by pouring out love..... the truth is that God's love for us has been deposited in our hearts by the presence of the Holy Spirit....

Now, at this point I want to say something that I think is very important in understanding this truth. You will forfeit the sense of assurance that comes by the Spirit ministering to you that God loves you, you'll forfeit that if you live in disobedience.  Galatians 5:22 The fruit of the Spirit is love     If in your life by disobedience you quench the Spirit, if in your life by unrighteousness, by unconfessed sin, by disobedience you grieve the Spirit, you will cause the Spirit to bear no fruit. You will hinder that operation. And what you will lose is the sense of love....

God's love is not dripped on us one drop at a time, it is profusely poured out. And so our hearts are filled with the sense of His love as the Spirit of God confirms it to us....

The Holy Spirit is the agent by which God works in the life of the believer. He is the gift of God's love...The very fact that the Holy Spirit lives in a believer is in itself a massive testimony to the love of God. Is it not? Would God give you His Spirit if He didn't love you? Would God plant His Spirit. the third member of the trinity, within the life of a believer if He didn't love that believer? The very fact that the Spirit of God is there in residence in your heart is the great testimony of the love of God.

Romans 8:35, 38-39  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?...For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We have been justified by faith through grace when we believe.  And when we believe, we have peace with God, we stand in grace, we have the hope of glory and experience God's love for us intimately through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  What an amazing God we serve who would do so much for sinners so unworthy!

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 5:6-8
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: John 9:1-10:21

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