WE should like our readers to go over once again and ponder prayerfully the first eleven verses of chapter five in this wonderful epistle to the Romans. This portion is of special interest because it brings us to the close of the first section of the Epistle. It may help to a better understanding if we indicate that in these verses we learn that the true believer has,
(1) Peace with God;
(2) Stands in the favor of God;
(3) Rejoices in hope of the glory of God;
(4) Is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God;
(5) Has shed abroad in his heart the love of God;
(6) Is reconciled to God; and
(7) Can joy in God.
Thus, if he commence with the A.B.C. of the Gospel, by a gradually ascending scale we reach the X.Y.Z., or, in other words, we finish on the top note.
It will be observed that it is God that is prominent, and indeed, it is this that is characteristic of the epistle. It is a question of man, and we use that word representatively, being brought into right relations with God. Chapter 1:21 to 3:23 show man by nature at a distance from God. chapter 3:24 to 5:11, let us into the secret of how God has found a means whereby, in perfect consistency with His righteous character, man can be brought back to Himself. Hence it is “the Gospel of God” (1:1), the grace of God (3:24), those who believe are justified by God (3:26), and the justified are they who believe God.
This is of the greatest importance. There are many, we fear, who have trusted the Lord Jesus as Saviour, and who, in a sense, know that their sins are forgiven, but there is a feeling of distance between them and God, and the result is, they are not in the enjoyment of peace. This suggests a defective apprehension of the Gospel of God. It is God who has taken the initiative; it is God who has devised the plan it is God who has found a way by which His righteousness can be maintained and His grace can flow forth; by which His sinning creatures can be justified, and set down in His presence with “not a cloud above, not a spot within.”
In chapter three we have seen that grace is the source of our justification, and chapter four has shown us that it is on the principle of faith, altogether apart from works, that we are justified (4:5). Note the word: — JUSTIFIED. It is not simply that we are forgiven, that is true, but to be justified means that we are as completely cleared of every charge as if we had never sinned at all.
We see in chapter 4:24, 25, how this is brought about. “We believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.” Every believer is entitled to say, “He was delivered for my offenses.” At the cross He satisfied every demand of God’s throne, every claim of divine justice; He glorified God and defeated the devil; He put away sin and annulled death; He vindicated God’s righteousness and revealed His love. The proof that God is satisfied with that great work, the evidence of His acceptance of it, and of His delight in the One who has accomplished it, is that He has “raised up Jesus our Lord from the death” All that remains for us is to believe on God. When we do so we know that we are justified, and that by the very One against whom we had sinned and who might have condemned us. The result is that “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 1).
“Yes, PEACE! since every claim is met,
Lord Jesus, by Thy blood,
And Thou, our Peace,’ an risen, and set
On high by God.”
Ye doubting, trembling souls, be of good cheer! Give ear to “the Gospel of God”; believe on God; you will be justified by God; and you will have “peace with God.” That, however, great as it is, is just the beginning. Not only do we know that our debt is paid, that our guilty past has been forever blotted out, but we discover that we are now introduced into the enjoyment of all the wealth of heaven. We stand in the favor of God (verse 2). Do we realize this—that all the favor of God rests upon us?
Will you just here individualize yourself, dear fellow-believer, and say, “All the favor of God rests upon me?” Say it when you rise in the morning, and let that thought be uppermost in your mind in all the circumstances of the day; find in it a downy pillow on which to place your weary head as you lay down to rest at night: — “All the favor of God rests upon me, therefore, all is well.”
Then, looking onward, we “rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” No mere man could stand in the presence of that glory. When Moses had “reared up the tabernacle,” he “was not able to enter ... because... the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:3535And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. (Exodus 40:35)). When Solomon’s temple was completed, “The priests could not stand to minister because... the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord” (1 Kings 8:1111So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. (1 Kings 8:11)). In the presence of that glory the seraphim cover their faces and cry, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:33And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. (Isaiah 6:3)).
We had “sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)), but now, whilst it prostrates us in lowly, reverent worship, it strikes no terror to our breast. We look on to the time when everything, will be brought into perfect conformity to that glory, the day when the age-long problem of good and evil will be solved, the day of the great triumph of God, and, in fellowship with Him, we rejoice. Hallelujah!
What then of the “in between,” in other words, our Christian pathway? We must go to school and in the school of God we shall receive the best training from Himself, the Teacher. By tribulations we shall learn patience, that will produce experience which, in turn, will eventuate in hope. For all this we shall have the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells every true believer. He will shed abroad in our hearts “the love of God,” and tracing back to this precious source the tribulations, the trial of patience, the sometimes bitter experience, we will be enabled to “glory” or to boast in it all.
Those who have read chapters one to eight will have noticed that in these verses we have the Holy Spirit and the love of God mentioned for the first time in the epistle. The Holy Spirit keeping us in the warm glow of this wonderful love seeks to render us superior to all the vicissitudes of our pilgrim journey. And how great is that love! It is “HIS love,” His own love, that gave Christ to die for us when we were “without strength,” “ungodly,” “sinners” (verses 6-8). Now we are reconciled to God.
Never do we read of God being reconciled to us, nor should we expect to read that. It is enemies that need to be reconciled. God was never our enemy, but we were ever His enemies. Oh, the marvel of it! “When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son” (verse 10). Every trace of enmity has been removed, every shade of distance is gone. The Son’s place is our place, we are loved with that same love of complacency with which He is loved.
Read once again, at this point, Luke 15:11-2411And he said, A certain man had two sons: 12And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 14And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 15And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 17And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 20And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 22But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: 24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. (Luke 15:11‑24). Visualize the scene in the father’s house. The erstwhile prodigal is there, but showing not one single mark of his prodigal career, and not a rag of the far country. With the best robe—graced in the loveliness of Christ; the ring—in the circle of eternal affection; the shoes—the unmistakable mark of sonship, he sits in the father’s presence, the object of his love, and together they feast upon the fatted calf. Just write across verses twenty-two and twenty-three “RECONCILIATION.” It is the father who speaks and he says, “Let us eat and be merry.”
Who are the “us”? We recall the word in Genesis 1:2626And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:26); where we read, “And God said, Let US make man in our image, after our likeness.” The Godhead seemed to take counsel together as to the creation of man. The story of the so-called prodigal son is the story of man’s history from Eden to the cross; by the cross man has been brought back to God; justified by God, made the possessor of peace with God; and reconciled to God. Once again we hear the voice that spake in Genesis 1:26,26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:26) the voice of the Godhead, saying, “Let US make merry and be glad.”
That is not all the story. Luke 15:24,24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. (Luke 15:24) tells us, “they began to be merry,” and the “music and dancing” of which we read in verse twenty-five, shows that all in the father’s house were sharers in the father’s joy. This brings us to our last point: “We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus, Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation” (marginal reading).
Mark the opening words of Romans 5:11,11And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. (Romans 5:11) “And not only so.” We read the preceding verses with wonder and amazement, as we learn of blessing upon blessing, greater and still greater, and when we think we must have reached the highest point, the inspired penman adds, “and not only so,” and then he puts on the top stone, for higher than this we could not get.
Before we do anything further, let us once and again read these eleven verses, let us pray that they may be built into our souls in the power of the Holy Spirit, and then, with hearts filled with heavenly joy, let us worship Him, who is the Spring and Source of it all.
W. BRAMWELL DICK.