On a hot, humid day in 1505, a traveler by himself was trudging over the dusty roads outside of the German village of Statterheim. He was a young university student, and as he approached the village, a thunderstorm filled the sky. Suddenly there was a storm crashing with lightning and thunder and one particular lightning bolt struck nearby and knocked him off his horse and to the ground. As he rose to his feet in absolute terror, he cried out, Saint Anne, help me. I will become a monk. That man did become a monk out of fear of God and for the next years tried to earn his salvation and peace with God through his own efforts. Of course, it was this monk, Martin Luther, who, writing years later about this period in his life and the struggles that he had to understand how one is made right with God, said this, is it not against all natural reason that God out of his mere whim deserts men, hardens them, damns them as if he delighted in sins and in such torments of the wretched for eternity. He who is said to be of such mercy and goodness. This appears iniquitous, cruel and intolerable in God. by which very many have been offended in all ages. And who would not be? I was myself more than once driven to the very abyss of despair so that I wished I had never been created. Love God? I hated him. Luther had been held in bondage by a false gospel that we are made right with God by our own works. And so he worked. He worked more than any of his age. He did penance. He did confession. He did everything to earn his righteousness before God. And the more he worked, the more he tried, the more it increased his problem and his alienation from a righteous and holy God. But he sought to learn the Bible. And so, in 1515, he began to lecture on the book of Romans. I think Luther is a good example that anybody that is serious about studying the Scriptures is going to be changed. And so in Luther's own words, he said, I greatly long to understand Paul's epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but the one expression, the righteousness of God. Because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation was that although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner, troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would satisfy Him. Therefore, I did not love a righteous and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against Him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant. Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the righteousness of God and the statement that the righteous shall live by his faith. Then I grasped that the righteousness of God is that righteousness by which, through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the righteousness of God had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love." This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven." The gospel set this little monk free in what all of his penance and striving and confession could never do, Christ did by providing a righteousness that is appropriated by God's grace alone through faith alone. And his life was transformed When that happened, Luther became aware of the errors in the Roman church and saw how the gospel had been all but obliterated. And the thing that most set him off was the selling of indulgences. Now, at that time, Pope Leo was building St. Peter's Basilica, and all building projects need money. And so, Rome needed to raise money, and the way that was done was to sell indulgences, which were basically years off in purgatory. The Roman Church taught that the saints had this great excess of merit. And it was in this treasury under the control of the church. And so the church could dispense this excess merit of the saints to those who were worthy and thus get years off in purgatory. And of course, the way you got the merit was to pay the price. So if you bought an indulgence, you received a certain number of years off your time in purgatory, or you could do it for someone who had already departed this world. The little motto or jingle, they had jingles back then like commercials, was that when in the coffer a coin rings, a soul from purgatory springs. Well, Luther saw this as being directly against the gospel. And on October 31st, 1517, he posted his 95 theses or points of debate with the Roman Church. This ignited the Reformation. He saw that what was being done and taught dealt with the very heart of salvation by God's grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone. Now, Luther didn't begin the Reformation. God had been working for centuries through a variety of individuals who suffered great persecution. But God, in his perfect redemptive plan, brought about at this time the perfect confluence of opportunity and personality. And men like Martin Luther and William Farrell and John Calvin and John Knox came to the forefront. And what had been smoldering for centuries was ignited into a forest fire. We as God's people enjoy the fruit of their labor and their sacrifice and God's grace. And so on this day each year, we remember and celebrate our heritage that God has graciously preserved through history, the gospel. We're reminded that we're not the first generation of Christians to live, but rather we stand upon the shoulders of those who have gone before us. And on this day, we can have a renewed dedication to the proclamation of the gospel of sovereign grace. We are living in dark times when it comes to the proclamation of that gospel. And in many ways, we need a reformation like God did 500 years ago. Because that gospel of sovereign grace is being eclipsed. It is certainly not the predominant message. In even evangelicalism today, this past week, D.B. Cummings and I had the privilege of attending the annual Ligonier Pastors Conference that reinforced these very truths. And as D.B. said to me, you know, it's nice to know we're not the only ones who believe this. But God is faithful to His Word. And as those doctrines that Luther and Calvin and Knox expounded 500 years ago that ignited a reformation in the 16th century are our only hope for the 21st century. And so on this Reformation Sunday, we come to this great text. of hope from the gospel in Romans 5, verse 2. We have been working our way through this letter and as we come to chapter 5, Paul is now making a transition from an expounding of the nature of justification by grace through faith alone to dealing with the assurance that that brings to the life of the believer, and in particular, some of the results that that brings. We have seen that having been justified by grace through faith, we have first peace with God. that the war between God and sinners has been won. We have access into His presence and now we see we have hope in the glory of God. In one sense, verses 1 and the first part of verse 2 look at the present situation of believers in light of our past justification. We have peace. We have access. And now the last part of verse 2 looks at the present situation of believers in light of the future. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. What does this hope of glory include? Well, I want us to consider three things that it includes this morning. It includes, first of all, an unabated passion, second, an unobscured perspective, and finally, an unimaginable prospect. Paul says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." He begins with this unabated passion that this hope of the glory of God brings to the believer. We rejoice. Now, this is not the usual word translated rejoice. Rather, the word Paul uses here is one of his favorites. It's found a number of times in the New Testament, and it's found only in Paul's writings and twice in the book of James. It's a word that is far stronger than just rejoicing or being joyful. It's a word that means to boast in, to glory in. Paul has already used it a couple of times in this letter. In chapter 2, verse 17, he said, if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God, it is that which they were holding up as a point of pride and boasting and rejoicing. Then in verse 23 of chapter 2, he says, you who boast in the law, dishonor the law. It has that idea of something that is my joy, my rejoicing, my boast, my glory. And Paul says, as believers, we boast, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. It has this bold pride in what God has accomplished. As I said, it's a word that Paul uses over and over again. In 1 Corinthians 1, he says, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord in what He has done. Now, previously in Paul's life, he was boasting in his own efforts. If you remember Philippians chapter 3, as he lists all of the things, he says, if I have any reason to put confidence in the flesh. If I have any reason to boast in the things of the flesh, or anyone does, I much more have reason to boast in these things. And he lists his heritage. He lists his accomplishments. He lists his zeal. And then he says, now all of these things are but rubbish compared to knowing Christ. Now he boasts in Christ and what he has done. He no longer holds up any of his accomplishments, any of his merit, but rather what Christ has done. And this is in the present tense, which indicates a continual attitude. He says, we now are always constantly, continually, habitually boasting in the hope of the glory of God. He's not talking here about a mere positive attitude of being joyful or of the attitude that says, you know, don't worry, just be happy. Now, what he's talking about here is a deep seated, consuming passion about Christ and what he has done. Paul says, I don't have anything to hold up, but I will hold up Christ. I will glory in him. I will boast in Him. I will rejoice in Him. This transcends all the circumstances of life because it's not dependent upon events or emotions or feelings or anything that happens. Rather, it's this deep-seated inner attitude that I boast in Christ and not myself. It's rooted in truth, not experience. It's rooted in doctrine. Let's dig in why doctrine is so practical. Because it provides this inward, deep-seated confidence and boasting in Christ. Now, I can't always feel happy. I don't know about you, but I can't always feel that way or joyful or excited. I can't always boast in me. In fact, I can't boast at all in me. But I can always boast in Christ. And this changes me. Changes all of us. We live in an era in which the evangelical church wants to focus upon happiness and feeling good. And so worship becomes a celebration. Something that's continually happy and upbeat, and it ends more often of simply being shallow silliness and the feelings soon pass. The Apostle Paul is talking about something here that is beyond feelings and emotions. It's this inward, deep seated, consuming passion about Christ and what he has done and holding him up. And that changes everything about me and my life. One of the speakers at the conference this week was speaking about the eclipse of God in worship and music and dealing with this issue that evangelicalism now just wants to focus upon happy and being upbeat. And the speaker made this statement that we need to give our people music they can sing when they come to die. I don't know about you, but when that moment comes for me, I'm not going to be singing kumbaya. But songs like we have sung this morning, a debtor to mercy alone, of covenant mercy I sing, nor fear with your righteousness on my person an offering to bring. The terrors of God and of law with me can have nothing to do. His obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from view. It's that deep-seated boasting in Christ that is ours because we have been declared right with God solely on the basis of what Christ has done for us. So, this hope has in it not only this unabated passion, but an unobscured perspective. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Now, we use this word hope rather loosely to mean a wish or a desire that something comes to pass. I hope I can go. I hope this takes place. That's not how the Bible uses this word. Hope is not a wish in the Bible. It is rather a certainty, a future certainty. It's called hope because we do not yet possess it, though we certainly will. In just a few chapters ahead, Paul is going to talk about this great hope. But let us look at a few passages that emphasize the future certainty of this hope that we have. In 1 Corinthians 13, 13, Paul talking about these virtues and says, now faith, hope and love abide, these three. Hope is one of the triumvirate of Christian virtues that is ours in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you go to Ephesians chapter 1, verse 18, The Apostle Paul, in his prayer, asked that the Father of glory may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened so that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. In Colossians chapter one, verse five, Paul says, beginning of verse 3, we thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you since we've heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. In chapter 1, verse 27 of Colossians, He says, to them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. If you turn to Titus chapter 1, verse 2, Paul in his salutation here says, Paul, a servant of God and of an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. And then in chapter 2, verse 13, Paul says that we are waiting for our blessed hope. The appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And then finally, one other text in 1 Peter 1, verse 3. In his introduction, Peter says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope. through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you. Now, if we take those texts and many others in the New Testament and try to distill from them what is this hope, we see that it is first a settled and certain future assurance based upon the Word of God who cannot lie. that for the Christian, the future holds nothing but this glorious hope, this great inheritance that will be ours because of God's promise. And he cannot lie. It's not some vague optimistic outlook. I don't know about you, but I'm not very optimistic when I look at the world from a human perspective. but can still be full of hope because I know what the Lord is doing ultimately and that he has promised to us this great and glorious future. So our hope, first of all, is this settled and certain future assurance that is based upon the word of God who cannot lie. But secondly, we see that our hope is really a person. Paul said to Titus, we are waiting for the blessed hope. And what is that? The appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Or as Peter says in 1 Peter 1.13, preparing your minds for action, being sober minded, set your hope fully on that grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. comes right down to it, our hope is a person. It's Christ who is returning in consummation of our salvation. And that's the third point here, that our hope is the full and final consummation of our salvation that Christ will usher in. Peter said we are born again to a living hope that is reserved for us in heaven. Or as Paul said, Christ in you, the hope of glory, that because we belong to Jesus Christ now and our hope is Christ, we are going to come into full possession of everything that is ours in Christ. We could say that Reformed theology is a theology of hope. Because it alone declares that we are made right with God solely on the basis of what Christ has done for us and imputed to us by grace alone through faith alone on account of Christ alone. If we add any works to that, we have no hope either in this life or the next. And that was the great liberating truth of the Reformation, that the gospel brings hope. It was against the blackness of the hopelessness of Roman Catholic theology that the beauty and glory of the gospel of God's grace shone forth. Because if there is one thing about Roman Catholic theology that has not changed in 500 years is that it is a theology of hopelessness. In fact, to have hope is a sin. That's why purgatory was invented as a foundation of Roman Catholic theology. It's only the gospel that brings hope. This affects the way we view life, doesn't it? It gives us a new perspective. We look at this world and we see it falling apart at the seams. People distressed and upset, despairing. But as those who know the gospel of God's grace through Jesus Christ, we can look at this world with a new perspective because we know that what lies ahead for us is this hope of glory. Not because of anything we have done, but because of what Christ has done for us. We know this life isn't all there is and we know that our standing before God has been settled once for all and what awaits us is nothing but the fulfillment of that hope that has been given to us in Jesus Christ. We know that the true values are eternal values because what lies ahead for us is nothing but unabated glory. You knew that in one year, your house was going to be torn down. A rich man was buying up the area. He was paying a fair market price for houses. Yours was the only one left. And you finally agree to sell for a settled upon price. And in one year, your house was going to be torn down. And you were going to live there for one year. And part of the deal was not only were you going to be paid for your house, but you were going to be given for free a mansion in the best part of town for which you would owe nothing. What would your focus be for that year? Would you add a deck to your house? Would you even mow the lawn? Now, in essence, that is what has been done for us. that this tabernacle is being dissolved into an eternal weight of glory or eternal weight of glory. This is the picture that Paul used in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. In verse 16 he says, Our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day, for this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not at the things that are seen, but the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. For we know if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." This gives a whole new perspective to our life, doesn't it? We have before us this glorious hope that is ours in Christ. And so we view this life differently now. It gives perspective to every circumstance. It answers the why questions of life. Why does this happen? Why does it happen to me? Why didn't it happen this way? Well, why we don't know the specifics, we know the ultimate answer to those questions is because God is preparing us for that eternal weight of glory that is our hope. As believers, we're the only people who can see this life clearly because we know the end. And that hope that is ours makes all the difference, and it makes us distinct from the rest of the world. That's why Peter could say, in your hearts, regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is within you. It changes the way we live because we recognize that what is really important is the eternal and that glory that is ours as God's assurance through the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, this hope of glory involves an unabated passion, an unobscured perspective, and an unimaginable prospect. For Paul tells us we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Now notice, he doesn't merely say glorification or the glory of Jesus, but the glory of God. The word glory basically has the idea of something's appearance or how it appears, how a thing appears to someone, and it became used to refer to reputation or honor. The word in Hebrew means heavy or weighty. It's something that has substance and gravity to it as opposed to nothingness and weightlessness. The glory of God is the weight of His very character that is revealed and displayed. We see the visible display of God's glory throughout the scriptures. We see in the Old Testament the Shekinah, which was the cloud and the fire as a visible manifestation of the glory of God. But we are told that his glory is so brilliant as to be unapproachable. So first, this glory of God is a visible manifestation of the very character of God. Just as the cloud and the fire, the pillar of fire, were the visible expressions of the glory of God. So, here Paul's reference to the hope of the glory of God, first of all, I believe is an indication of the manifestation of the character and presence of God. It's the vision of God. It's what theologians refer to as the imago Dei or the vision of God. It is what Jesus said in Matthew 5.8, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. If you turn to John 17 for a moment, we have this great high priestly prayer of Jesus And as he begins this prayer, he says in verse 1 that his eyes were lifted to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. And then in verse 4, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. So here Christ is praying for that glory that was his from eternity as the eternal Son of God. will be his now as the incarnate risen son that will be restored to him. And then down in verse 24, notice his prayer. He says, Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you love me before the foundations of the world. Christ is receiving this pre-incarnate glory again, and his prayer is that all of his people will behold him in his glory. So I believe as Paul here talks about the glory of God, he is first of all referring to the fact that we as his people are going to behold the very glory of Christ himself. But second, it includes as well the future experience of all believers. that we as well are going to participate in this glory, that we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, not only seeing His glory, but of being glorified ourselves. In Romans 3.23, he said, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. that state of God-likeness which was lost due to sin is going to be restored in its fullness to all believers. In Romans 8, verse 17, Paul says that the Spirit bears with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffered with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. And he says, then, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us or in us. Then in verse 21, the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. And then finally, in verse 30, it says, Those whom he predestined, he called. Those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he glorified. See, justification inevitably leads to glorification. Because it is all by God's grace, not only is our justification assured, but our glorification is assured as well. The Christian has been justified. He's being sanctified and he will be fully glorified one day. This is what the Reformation rediscovered, is that believers justified by God's grace are going to participate one day in full glorification. Notice Paul's progress here in these verses. He proceeds first from the past that we have been justified, so we have peace. He goes to the present that we have obtained access in which we stand now in grace. And then the future we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Because we have been justified by grace alone, the absolute certain hope of glorification is assured to every believer. And in fact, the process has begun right now. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3, 18, we all with unveiled face beholding as an emir the glory of the Lord are being transformed from one stage of glory to the next as from the Lord the Spirit. We have already been seated with Christ in the heavenly places. Christ is in us, the hope of glory, and we are being transformed into his image now. That process of glorification has even begun right now, and one day it will be completed when our bodies are glorified in the presence of Christ. Martin Lloyd-Jones says, We are concerned about getting the reluctant outsiders into the church, but when you and I know something of the glory of God and when those others see that we are being changed from glory into glory, they will come to us of their own accord as they always have come to such people. See, the Reformation was all about the truth of these verses. There's no hope of glory. There's no hope at all without being justified by God's grace alone through faith alone on account of Christ alone. The Reformers rediscovered that truth and restored to God's people the hope of the glory of God. Because justification by faith alone assures us of our ultimate experience of the full glory that is ours in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the city of Geneva, though I've never been there, I've seen pictures of this. There is what is called the Reformation Wall. And on it are various figures in the history of the city of Geneva and of Switzerland. In the center is John Calvin. And above this Reformation wall is the motto of Geneva, which was the motto of the Reformation. And in Latin it says, post tenebras lux, after darkness, light. It is what the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4, 6, for God said, let light shine out of darkness. He is shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. All of this is by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone. The believer is one who has come from darkness to light. And the full experience of that light is guaranteed to us in Christ. Let's pray.