Devotional talk #3 in a series of 5 talks on the book of Romans given on July 21, 2010 at the Community Hospital of SDA in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

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Norman McNulty

The Justified Life

And it's good to be with you these mornings this week to study the book of Romans.

I personally have been very blessed and also challenged by going through these passages.

And it's good to have so many of you here in the morning to share this time together as we study.

Why don't we have a word of prayer, and then we'll get started.

Father in heaven, Thank you again for bringing us here.

Bless us now as we continue our study through the Book of Romans, and as we look especially at Romans chapter 5 and 6 today, may you bless our minds.

Just a brief review of what we have studied so far.

On Monday, we looked at the power of the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith." What we saw is that the gospel is powerful because God's righteousness is revealed in the lives of the just who live by faith, and those are the ones who believe.

When that gospel is a witness to the world, it will have such a power that it will usher in the second coming of Christ because God's righteousness will be revealed to the world.

What we saw yesterday is that Abraham is a living demonstration of someone who believed because the power of God unto salvation is to all who believe.

And Romans 4 says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.

Specifically he believed because God is creator he could create a new life with him and Sarah, which is an illustration of the new birth experience each 1 of us can have.

And when you get to the end of Romans 4, and I didn't point this out yesterday, Romans 4.21, it says that Abraham was fully persuaded that what God promised he was able, or also able to perform.

It means to be fully persuaded that what God promises he's able also to perform And that's what it means to have faith Being fully persuaded that what God promises he's able to perform and that because of that righteousness was imputed to Abraham, and it was not just for him It's also for us, and that's the good news, so it's not just a pie-in-the-sky experience for Abraham It's also something that we can have now as we look at Romans 5 and 6 today Well, I'm just going to hit a few points from Romans 5 and spend the rest of our time in Romans 6.

Romans 5, the first half is probably more studied than the last half.

So we'll just try to hit a few key points.

It says, Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

By being fully persuaded that what God promised, He's able also to perform.

Now what is it that we believe God will do for us?

We saw yesterday that just as God the Father raised up Jesus from the dead, we are fully persuaded that God will raise us up to walk in newness of life.

That's faith and that's a justified experience.

When we have that experience, we have peace with God.

Now what we haven't mentioned because of the time factor, if you look at Romans 1, 2, and 3, what you see is that the wrath of God is poured out against the wicked.

And yet if you're justified by faith, you have peace with God.

You don't have to worry about the wrath of God.

And remember, God is loving, God is merciful.

If we are fully persuaded that God can raise us up to walk in newness of life, we can have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And then as you go through the next few verses, it's interesting, Paul doesn't use the word sanctification, but in essence it's what he's describing in verses 3, 4, and 5.

Notice what verses 3, 4, and 5 say, so we're justified by faith and then as we have this experience of justification by faith, notice what Paul says, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." So guess what happens when you give your life to Jesus Christ?

The devil is a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour, and the Lord allows us to go through trials, which helps us to develop a maturity in our Christian experience.

Notice how Paul says, look, we glory in tribulation because this tribulation worketh patience.

This is verse 3 of Romans 5 and verse 4 notice what patience develops in our lives it gives us experience Now if you have experience in Tribulation What do you think you're going to be looking forward to?

You're going to be looking forward to heaven when there will be no more trials.

And that's what that hope is that the experience of trials brings.

So when we live the Christian life, we will have trials.

But God allows that to happen to us because it helps to develop patience in our lives which gives us experience which helps us to have hope in the coming eternal life that we're justified by faith so we have peace with God.

So if we're going through the trials of life, we still have hope in the future life as long as we stay justified.

And God allows us to go through these experiences to develop our characters for what is coming.

And so that's the beginning part of Romans 5.

So as we're justified by faith, we go through the experience of sanctification, which a lot of times people try to separate justification and sanctification from each other and theologically speaking you can make an argument that yes they are different.

Justification is imputed righteousness, sanctification is imparted righteousness.

However, If you study scripture, sanctification is merely evidence that you're justified.

So if you're not living a sanctified life, you're not justified.

Because what we saw yesterday, and what we're going to see, is that to be justified means to be dead, to sin.

The last half of Romans 5, which can be a little bit tricky theologically, all I'm going to say is that what it talks about in the last half of the chapter is that Adam's sin has had an effect on all men.

And it's true, if Adam had not sinned, we would not be in the situation we are in now.

Because Adam sinned, we are all born with fallen sinful natures.

And we have to fight against the tendencies of our sinful nature because of Adam's sin.

However, what Romans 5 speaks about is that really we give too much credit to Adam for the way we live our lives.

Because what you see in the last half of Romans 5 is that the second Adam came.

And so what Jesus has done for us if we accept it by faith is far more powerful for what it can do in our lives than the effect that Adam's sin had on us.

And too many times we use Adam's sin as a crutch to say, well, it's just the way I'm born.

But what Paul is saying is that, yes, Adam had an effect on all men.

But because of what Christ has done, He was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

He has provided a way to help us live a righteous life because he is more powerful, his life is more powerful than what Adam's sin did that affected us.

And it's interesting, in Romans 5 verse 10, it says, "...for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Now that's interesting, because we talk about how Christ's death has saved us and that's absolutely true.

If Jesus hadn't died for us, we could not be saved.

Did you know that we're also saved by his life?

Because he gave us an example to follow so that his life shows us that we can live the same life that he did.

Romans 8, 3 and 4 says, For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh.

That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." So how are we saved by Christ's life?

Well, because Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, His righteousness can be fulfilled in our lives if we walk after the Spirit, not after the flesh.

So not only are we saved by His death, we're saved by His life.

And so, yes, Adam has had an effect on all of us.

We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.

We've all chosen to sin and follow what Adam did.

But, Christ has lived a sinless life, making it possible for us to live his righteous life here on this earth.

When you get to the end of Romans 5 starting in verse 20 it says, Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound.

And all that's saying is that look the law points out sin.

When Adam sinned, the law entered and said, you are under condemnation because you sinned.

And Paul gets very technical and theological.

But in simple language, when it says, the law entered that the offense might abound, all Paul is saying is that when Adam sinned, the law was there to say, you are under condemnation.

But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

And you know what a lot of Christians do with that verse?

They say, hey, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

The more we sin, the more grace we receive.

And you know Paul actually condemns that.

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The Justified Life

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