Romans 5:1-11

Romans 5
Just to review, Romans 4 taught us that when we have faith in what Jesus has done for us when He died in our place on the cross (the Old Testament believers had faith in what the Messiah would do), we are made righteous or right with God. Indeed, we are declared "not guilty"!

And so we come to Romans 5. "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. Becauseof 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." v. 1-2. 

Let's think about "peace with God" for a minute. Does this mean that we always have peaceful and tranquil feelings? Though it would be nice if this were true, it is not. "Peace with God" means that we are in a right relationship with God. Our sin no longer blocks this relationship because Jesus paid the price for our sins. In other words, He paid debt we owed, and so the penalty for our sins is stamped "paid in full." Because of this we can be confident and joyfully look forward to sharing His glory.

According to vv. 1-2, our place in God's family is settled, but as we look ahead we are reminded that we are not yet mature. We are still growing, and the problems and trails we face help us to grow in endurance and strength of character. Indeed our growth furthers our feelings of security in Christ. (We're already secure, but in our immaturity, we may feel insecure.) vv. 3-5

v. 8-9 is a wonderful reminder of God's great plan, "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 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."

And then we see one more metaphor of our relationship with God in v. 11, "So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God."