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Romans 5: the Security of Salvation

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Romans 5: the Security of Salvation Scholars Crossing Romans Study Guide Center for Global Ministries 2009 Romans 5: The Security of Salvation Don Fanning Liberty University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgm_rom Recommended Citation Fanning, Don, "Romans 5: The Security of Salvation" (2009). Romans Study Guide. 5. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgm_rom/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Global Ministries at Scholars Crossing. It has been accepted for inclusion in Romans Study Guide by an authorized administrator of Scholars Crossing. For more information, please contact [email protected]. R o m a n s 5 Study Guide P a g e | 1 NOTES Chapter 5 The Security of Salvation If salvation cannot be earned by being good enough or by accumulating enough good works to merit salvation, how does a person know for certain that when he dies, he will go to heaven? The primary reason that God has revealed to us, and had written down through inspiration, the revelation of His will was so that man could “know that you have eternal life” (1 Jn 5:12). This assurance of salvation is sometimes referred to as a “helmet” (Eph 6:17; 1 Thess 5:8) to protect the believer from the blows of doubt and uncertainty in his mind concerning his relationship with God. In Chapter 4 Paul established the method of how He is willing to justify sinful mankind, and an OT illustration of this method to show that this is not something new, but the only way sinners from the beginning of the people of God could ever be acceptable to Him. Not only are there immediate blessings to this gracious salvation, but blessings that accompany the believer throughout his life. I. Justification is provided to be enjoyed (5:1-11) Paul will define six reasons why our salvation is so great and why we should rejoice in it always (see Phil 3:1; 4:4) First: Believer’s peace with God. NET Rom 5:1 Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 5:1 “Therefore” (oun, conjunction, “something follows from another necessarily, drawing a conclusion,” THAYER) ties chapter 4 and 5 into a continuous thought introducing the implications of the salvation of full justification (chapters 3-4). The premise or basis of the blessings to follow is the fact that “we have been declared righteous by faith” (dikaioo, emphatic position, aorist passive participle: “At one time in the past someone did something to us” - “to declare and treat as righteous; acquitted of a charge or reproach; to declare guiltless one accused,” THAYER). As a consequence we “have peace with God”1 (pros, “to show motion towards a person, or position and state looking toward a thing,” THAYER). This is not a feeling, but a state of peace between the repugnant sinner and a holy God. Instead of a state of enmity, rejection, hostility and antagonism there is a declared “peace” because all conflicts have been resolved on the cross of Christ. Most people are unaware of this conflict because they think they are pretty good and have done little or no wrong (a typical concept of the unsaved in 1 Jn 1:8, 10). Two things are necessary for a peace treaty: a successful mediator and an acceptable satisfaction of all conflicts. How do these verses show God’s wisdom in creating a peaceful resolution to the conflict between sinfulness and holiness? 1 Tim 2:5-6 Eph 2:13-18 Col 1:19-22 • This peace is God’s doing, something we can count on or depend upon. We can rest in the fact that Christ’s work was to secure our peace with a Holy God, thus this peace cannot be lost, nor ever changed. It is all His doing. We can only enjoy it. The fear of 1 This is not the “peaCe of God” (Phil 4:7; Col 3:16), whiCh is a Corporate bonding peaCe shared together in the ChurCh. Dr. Don Fanning Logos Adult Bible Community TRBC R o m a n s 5 Study Guide P a g e | 2 NOTES rejection by God is forever gone. Hallelujah! How does Romans 8:38-39 help explain the “peace of God?” Second: Believer’s standing in grace 5:2 through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God's glory. 5:2. Let’s look at the unbeliever’s standing before God. What is the description of the unbeliever before God in Isaiah 59:2? • God is totally inaccessible to the unbeliever, except to hear his repentant cry. Otherwise he is ignored and only finds a deaf ear. What a difference for the believer! The promise of an “access” (prosagoge, “the act of bringing to, approach;” “whereby we are acceptable to him and have assurance that he is favorably disposed toward him,” STRONG) is provided to us because Jesus has justified us, providing an open access to God’s grace for all those He has declared as, and will forever treat as, righteous. What are the means and the importance of this access in Ephesians 2:18 and 3:12? • On the basis of his faith, the believer can “stand” (histemi, perfect tense: completed action with permanent continuous effect –“standing firm, fixed and immovable”) accepted in the presence of God. We are not saved by grace and then made secure by human effort. His grace is not fickle or conditional. It would make no sense for God to begin by grace then be unwilling or unable to preserve or secure us by grace. How do these verses reaffirm the permanence of being able to stand by His grace? Phil 1:6 Jude 24 Gal 3:3 2 Tim 1:12 • The purpose and benefit of a secure salvation is to free men from sin, not to free them to do sin: “Having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness” (Rom 6:18). Any “professing” Christian who continues unchanged by continually practicing his old sin life, evidently made an insincere profession. Even true believers are not perfect, but their new nature hates sin and loves God, resulting in new desires to please God through obedience to His Word. The next several chapters deal with this change. How did John describe those who were not changed by God’s grace? 1 John 2:19 1 John 3:9-10 • When salvation is understood from the biblical revelation, the believer can’t help but “rejoice” with all his soul (kauchaomai, present tense: “continuously” – “attitude of confidence, a boasting in or about, expressing a high degree of confidence”). The “hope of God’s glory” refers to the promise that believers will share in Christ’s future glory and manifestation. Notice in these verses how the believer anticipates the future coming of Christ: Col 3:4 Heb 2:10 Phil 3:20-21 Third: Rejoicing in a shared hope in glory Dr. Don Fanning Logos Adult Bible Community TRBC R o m a n s 5 Study Guide P a g e | 3 NOTES 5:3 Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 5:4 and endurance, character, and character, hope. 5:3 Ironically, the believer can especially “rejoice” (same word as above in present tense: “continuously…”) in “suffering” (thlipsis, “pressing together, pressure,” as squeezing olives in a press to extract the oil; metaphor: “affliction, tribulation, distress, straits”), because there is a direct relation between the present suffering for Christ and the future glory. This is not a reference to the human suffering common to all men due to sickness, sins or mistakes, but the consequences of choosing to so identify with Christ and His purpose that persecution is inevitable. See 2 Tim 3:12. What was the Apostle’s attitude toward suffering for Christ in these verses? 2 Cor 4:17 Rom 8:18 1 Pet 4:19 • We can rejoice in suffering not only because of the future, but also because of what it “produces” (katergazomai, present tense: “continuously…”-“accomplish, achieve, brings about results”) in the present, namely, “endurance” or “patience” (hupomone, “remain under, continue under difficult circumstances,” LOUW-NIDA). This is a high value in God’s providential dealings with believers. Why did James declare that learning “endurance” was so important in James 1:3-4? • What is the source of this endurance in Romans 15:4? • Suffering for Christ is a necessary schoolmaster also to teach “character” (dokime, “approved character, experience of a testing ordeal, and proof of genuineness”). It is used of testing silver and gold to demonstrate their purity. How was Paul approved or accepted as a “minister” or “servant” of God in 2 Cor 6:4? • The proven character produces “hope” (elpis, “expectation of good”). How does suffering generate hope in 2 Cor 1:7? 5:5a And hope does not disappoint, 5:5a The first phrase of 5:5 completes the thought of 5:4, namely, passing through suffering for Christ will never lose its recompense nor ever be forgotten by our Lord, even if He is the only one who saw it. “Disappoint” (kataischunei, “dishonor, humiliate”) has the idea of never being forgotten. How did Jesus express this confidence in Luke 6:22-23? Fourth: Sharing in the divine love of God for others through the Spirit 5:5b because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
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