Romans 5:1-11

Written ~ 07-17-2024

Read Romans Chapter Five

Romans 5

Today we are going to learn how to navigate our joy producing faith through problems and trials, plus we’ll find out the importance in understanding why God sent His Son to die for our sins.

Romans 5:1-2…

1 “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. 2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.”

I have heard pastors say, many times in fact, when you see the word “therefore” at the beginning of a chapter, we must look to the verses before the “therefore.” The main reason is because what will be said next is a continuation or a conclusion to the thought that was just written. In Romans chapter four we learned all about the faith Abraham had in the Lord, he had deep, unwavering faith even when he didn’t see the promise of the Lord being fulfilled in his own timing. Just like Abraham, “…we have been made right in God’s sight by faith…”

What cannot be reiterated enough is the very fact that “…because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us, we now have peace with God…” Jesus came to earth, walked among us, did marvelous, miraculous things, taught with the authority of heaven. He then sacrificed His life for ours. We were sinners, desolate in our trespasses with no hope in sight, until the day Jesus died on that cross and rose again three days later. And because we believe, and accept that to be truth, we are saved. “Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.”

Abraham’s faith gave him the confidence to endure twenty-five years of waiting before his promise of a son was fulfilled. When you and I place our faith in the Lord, we may not see our promises, our hopes, dreams and desires being laid out all at once, instead we must wait confidently and joyfully as we look forward to seeing God’s glory. At times we may need endure hardships, let’s find out how we do that…

Romans 5:3-5…

3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.

When irritating problems pop up during our day the first thing that comes to mind most likely is NOT to rejoice! We instead turn to complaining, griping and grumbling about everything that is going wrong. Or maybe we talk to friends who will gripe along with us and we feed off of their responses, but then we sink further into a depressed state wallowing in self-pity. Well, that is not what the Bible tells us to do!

No! It says to rejoice! That’s hard to do! Especially when we want to pout a little more and gain sympathy from those around us.

Verses 5:3-5 paint such a beautiful picture when rejoicing is part of the solution in getting through our problems and trials. What does our complaining, griping and grumbling produce? Negativity! Depression! Anger and disappointment! THAT ~ is not a pretty picture. Instead we are to rejoice!

REJOICE:

  • To feel joy
  • To have great delight

Can you imagine being joyful and being delighted when a trial comes along? Can you imagine singing praises when a problem comes along? People might think you’ve absolutely lost your mind!

But the benefits of rejoicing through problems and trials is incredibly powerful!

Have you ever met someone who is going through something extremely difficult? Let’s say they are having to endure a terminal illness and they are the ones cheering you up, they are the ones telling you everything will be ok. That is an example of a person rejoicing through trials.

So… let’s run through the benefits of rejoicing through trials and paint that picture which has a joyful and delightful outcome…

First…

  • Trials and problems develop endurance…
    • Endurance is the ability to withstand hardship or adversity
    • To sustain, especially to prolonged stressful effort or activity
    • It is a ceaseless persistence

So we are to have a ceaseless and persistent, active rejoicing to withstand hardship! When we develop this endurance within us, it will develop strength of character.

Second…

  • Trials and problems develop strength of character…
    • Character is an attribute or feature that make up and distinguish an individual
    • A person in marked by notable traits
    • Character produces moral excellence

So if endurance is developing strength of character and we are talking also about rejoicing… then our attribute or feature that distinguishes us from everyone else, is that we have a joyful attitude in whatever we are going through. The definition of character also included that this person is marked by notable traits. That means other people will see and take notice that how we handle adversity is different.

Third…

  • Trials and problems develop confident hope…
    • Being confident means we are full of conviction
    • Assured and secure
    • We are full of expectation and anticipation for the future

What do we have a confident hope in? Salvation… We can feel assured and secure in knowing that the Almighty God is on our side.

Let’s go back to that person who has the terminal illness, they are joyful and praising God through a very difficult time… This is confident hope and the evidence of confident hope on full display, it is because of their faith and trust in Jesus and for His Salvation. They can rejoice, because if passing into Heaven is their fate, they rejoice. Romans 5:5 says, “And this hope will not lead to disappointment…” We have a choice! We can either complain, gripe and grumble and talk about our problems over and over again… Or we can REJOICE! We can praise God that He is bringing us through something that is developing our endurance, it is developing a strength in our characters and it is giving us a confidence, a confident hope in our Salvation through Jesus Christ. And why can we rejoice? Because God Loves Us!!

Romans 5:6-11…

6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

Jesus Christ has made us friends of God… when Jesus was born as that innocent baby, this was His entire purpose for coming to earth, to close the gap between our sinful natures and the Almighty and Holy God. The reason Jesus offered Himself as the ultimate sacrifice was for that sacrifice to be the final bridge that would bring us into a relationship with God as our Father. There just isn’t any other way to be made right with God than through the acceptance of what Christ did on that cross.

When you have accepted the fact that God, the Almighty and Holy God, loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us, you have received a powerful gift! This gift has brought you out of death and into life! You have been made right in the eyes of God the Father, He only sees the blood of Jesus as you stand before Him.

Verse 5:11,

11 “So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.”

So now we can rejoice! As believers and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ we now have the distinction of being called the friends of God! And that is something to shout about, to raise a voice of praise to the Father!

Take time to reflect on your relationship with the Lord. All of us have room for growth, no matter the stage of your walk with the Lord. If you were to look back, where do you see bumps in the road? Did you handle those bumps with grace and mercy and give praise and honor to the Lord? Or was your attitude tainted with rebellion, anger, lashing out, complaining and griping?

When given the opportunity to serve the Lord, did you do what the Lord asked without hesitation? Or did you pull away and crawl back into a secluded comfort zone?

When studying the Scriptures did your heart yearn for more? Or did you decide it was too difficult and you set your Bible aside?

Did you give the Lord your top priority in everything you did? Or was your time too valuable to consider Him first?

Every day we have a reset, we wake up in the morning and we can decide then and there if we are going to place our footsteps inside the footprints of the Lord. Following Him should be what sets the precedent of our day.

Verse 5:10,

10 “For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son.”

We have life because of Christ! Our whole outlook on life should be different!

Verse 5:6,

6 “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.”

This verse says we are helpless without Christ! So when Christ died and rose again, He gave us a way to have life! We have the help we need to get through every single day. No matter what is thrown our way.

Think about what verses 5:6-11 are saying… If we don’t have Christ as Lord and Savior, this is what we would have instead…

  • Hopelessness we would have to endure.
  • Separation from a loving Father.
  • Condemnation of our sin.
  • Status as an enemy of God.

But… when we put our faith in Jesus… instead of all that…

We have life in Jesus! We have hope, we are given access through Christ to the throne of God, we have been cleansed of all sin and we are friends of God!

Seems like some pretty great things to hold onto as we start everyday fresh and new. My prayer for today is that we grasp onto the truths of these verses and truly understand what they mean to us individually. Think about your life… think about how differently everything would be if Jesus hadn’t entered in when He did? He has done so much for you, for me, so let’s make sure we live our lives with the heart of Jesus. He resides within us, so let’s put to rest our sinful natures and live for Him with praise and rejoicing.

Praising You Father for all the twists and turns life will bring. Rejoicing in You Lord God in the trials that are presented along the way. Develop in me, endurance, strength of character and confident hope. Thank You Father for loving me. Thank You Holy Spirit for guiding me. Thank You Yeshua for Salvation, my Hope rests in You!

~AMEN~