Romans 5:1-5

Peace with God Through Faith [In this next section, Paul invites us to join him in celebrating the excellent benefits given to the justified believer.]

¹ Therefore, since we have been justified by faith [which is a summation of the central teaching of chapters 1-4], we have peace [the well-being, prosperity, and salvation of godly people] with God [peace characterizes our outward relationship with God; it is not that we feel good inside, e.g., “I’m at peace with the world today] through our Lord Jesus Christ [who is “the way and the truth and the life”]. [In and through Jesus, we have been declared innocent on all charges. See note on “Peace” that I will post in a few days.] ² Through him we have also obtained access [“I am the gate of the sheep”] by faith into this grace [the free, unconstrained manner in which God acts toward his creaturely children] in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope [our situation in light of the future] of the glory of God [the state of God-like-ness which was lost because of sin but which we regain as Jesus and the Father make a home in us]. ³ Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. [Here is the huge Christian paradox that, unfortunately, so many want to skip over. Sufferings, rather than threatening or weakening our hope, which is the worldly view, instead increases our certainty of that hope. Hope, like a muscle, will not grow strong if unused. The confidence a Christian has for the day of judgment is not only based on how we know the love of God intellectually, i.e. the cross and all its benefits, but also on our “inner” certainty that God does indeed love us. This is the point Paul is making when he talks about God’s love being poured into our hearts through the Spirit. This verb, poured into, connotes an abundant extravagance. Note that God’s love is active, given to us, and possessive of us. 2 Corinthians 5:14 declares, “for the love of Christ controls us.” Also, see Psalm 23: The Lord is my shepherd ...]