Sermons from the Barr The Grace in Which We

Saved to Dropbox Nov 6, 2016, 3B44 PM

Sermons from the

Barr
This is a place to share the sermons that I had
preached and taught during my seven years at
New Mitchell Grove Baptist Church (the church on
the Barr). I preach, teach, and study the Bible
believing that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant,
and infallible Word of God. Feel free to read or
use.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Grace in Which We Stand

(Rom. 5:1-11)

The Grace in Which We Stand

(Rom. 5:1-11)

The work of salvation has been accomplished

only by Jesus Christ, by His death and
resurrection. It is our faith in Christ, what we
know and believe about Jesus from the
scriptures, that has changed us from sinner to
saint. That salvation that God chose to reveal
to us, has changed our condition from the
condemned nature of a sinner to that of an
accepted child of God. It is Jesus Christ alone
that has made this possible. It is nothing we
have done, it is awesome power of God
through Jesus Christ that has saved us. It is
God's grace alone through faith alone in
Christ alone that has saved us. Today, we will
explore the grace in which we stand.

I. Justified (declared righteous) v. 1a Therefore, having been justified by faith.

The term justification means to be declared
righteous. How is it that we who are
unrighteous (sinful) can be declared
righteous? Well, a good clue to this is that it
says here that we are declared righteous by
faith. We are declared righteous by our faith in
Christ as our Lord and Savior. The reason I
know this is that the word therefore here in

verse 1 is referring to something that Paul has

already mentioned previously. And if we look
at chapter 4, in the final verses we can
understand how we are justified by faith. The
whole chapter talks about how Abraham was
justified (declared righteous) by his faith in
the promises of God (Rom. 4:3 - Abraham
believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness and 4:9 - For we say that faith
was accounted to Abraham for
righteousness). Abraham put his faith into
the revealed plan of salvation God showed
him in the person and work of Jesus Christ
(Gal. 3:8 - And the Scripture, foreseeing that
God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
preached the gospel to Abraham
beforehand). We just like Abraham are
justified when we put our faith in the person
and work of Jesus Christ. If we look at the
final verses of chap. 4 we can understand that
better, 4:20,22-25 - He did not waver at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was
strengthened in faith, giving glory to God; And
therefore it was accounted to him for
righteousness. Now it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also
for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in
Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the
dead, who was delivered up because of our
offenses, and was raised because of our
justification. Jesus Christ paid the penalty for
our sins by His death on the cross and
resurrection from the dead. Is 53:4-5 says this
about Christ, Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed
Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities; The
chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed; this shows
the work of justification by Christ's death. Dr.
John MacArthur wrote in his commentary on
Romans, that through the work of justification
by Christ: God credits the believer's sin to
Christ's account, He can credit Christ's
righteousness to the believer's account. God
could not have justly credited righteousness
to Abraham had not Abraham's sin, like every
believer's sin, been paid for by the sacrifice of
Christ's own blood. Before the cross, the
believer's sin was paid in anticipation of
Christ's atoning sacrifice, and since the cross
the believer's sin has been paid in advance.
This is how we are justified (declared
righteous), by faith in Jesus' finished work of
salvation. Faith is never the basis or the
reason for justification, but only the channel
through which God works His redeeming
grace. Faith is simply a convicted heart
reaching out to receive God's free and
unmerited gift of salvation. ---John
MacArthur.
II. Peace with God. v.1b - we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Because we are justified by faith, we can now
have peace with God through Jesus Christ.
This peace is something we possess at the
very moment we put our faith in Christ. This
peace comes from the fact that we are saved
and justified in Christ. The fact of the matter is
that when we were lost sinners, we were

hostile and against God; we were enemies

(Rom 8:7 - the carnal (sinful, fleshly) mind is
enmity (hostile) against God. Because we
have been justified by Christ, we now have
peace with God. We are now reconciled to
God by Jesus Christ, v.10 - when we were
enemies we were reconciled to God through
the death of His Son, much more, having been
reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Jesus took upon Himself the full force of
God's fury on the cross, that we as sinful
humanity should have deserved. Because of
our sinfulness we were against God, we were
His enemies and undeserving of His grace and
mercy he showed us through His Son. All of
us who trust in Christ as Lord are no longer
enemies of God and under His wrath, we are
now at peace with Him through Christ (Col.
1:19-22 - For it pleased the Father that in Him
all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to
reconcile all things to Himself, by Him,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,
having made peace through the blood of His
cross. And you, who once were alienated and
enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet
now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh
through death, to present you holy, and
blameless, and above reproach in His sight).
Being reconciled to God will bring peace with
God. Because we are justified by faith, the
immediate consequence of that justification is
peace (reconciliation) with God. This peace or
reconciliation has been made forever between

the believer and God. We are eternally at

peace with God. We cannot fall out of favor
with God because we're saved, justified, and
reconciled because of what Christ has done in
our behalf, by His death and resurrection.
Christ not only brings peace to the believer
but He Himself is our peace (Eph. 2;14). The
knowledge that we have peace with God
should strengthen our assurance that we are
eternally secure in Christ.
III. This grace in which we stand. v.2 through whom also we have access by faith
into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice
in hope of the glory of God.
from what we have looked at, we can
understand that because we have been
reconciled to the Father through trusting the
Son we have access into that grace in which
we stand. Before we put our faith in Christ, sin
denied us access to God. Sin would prevent
us from ever enjoying the presence of God,
from ever hoping to have salvation, and from
ever having a true relationship with Him. The
believer can now approach God because of
what Christ has done for us. Our standing (our
position) with God has changed through
Christ. Once unrighteous but now righteous in
Christ (2 Cor. 5:21 - God made him who had
no sin to be sin for us, so that we might
become the righteousness of God in Him).
This standing in the grace of God never

changes even though our circumstances on

this world change daily our position of
salvation in Christ does not change. Nothing
can change it, nothing can take us out of
God's hand of salvation (John 10:28-29 - And
I give them eternal life, and they shall never
perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out
of My hand. My Father, who has given them to
Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to
snatch them out of My Father's hand). The
grace in which we stand shows us the
completeness and fulfillment of Christ's
salvation (Phil. 1:6 - being confident of this
very thing, that He who has begun a good
work in you will complete it until the day of
Jesus Christ). The act of saving us, of
keeping us saved, and completion of salvation
is solely in the hands of the One who has
provided that salvation. We are incapable by
our strength or our will power or by our good
works to save ourselves; we do not have the
strength or power to do so. It says in 5:6,
when we were still without strength, in due
time Christ died for the ungodly. We are
utterly and totally and completely dependent
on Christ to save us and to keep us saved.
Once we are standing in the grace we can
never leave that place. What we can do is
begin to live and operate in grace. Another
thing we can do is to rejoice in hope of the
glory of God. The hope that we receive from
being in God's grace is not a wishful hope of
this world but that know so assurance of hope

in God. Knowing that once we are in His grace

through faith in Christ, we are eternally in His
hand of grace. It says in Col. 1:13, He has
delivered us from the power of darkness and
conveyed (transferred, translated) us into the
kingdom of the Son of His love. By awesome
power of God through the saving power of
Christ we are now declared righteous in
Christ, reconciled to the Father, and
permanently standing in God's grace. Now
that should be grounds for us to glorify and
rejoice in our God. But the question I want to
leave you with today is this, are you standing
in grace today? Do you have the joy of
knowing the God of this universe through a
saving relationship with His Son Jesus
Christ? If not, today you can enter into His
grace through faith in Christ.
Bro. Jeff at 5:42 PM
Share

No comments:
Post a Comment

Home

View web version

Powered by Blogger.