If you have a Bible and want to turn and follow along or just listen as I read, I'm only going to read two verses today from Romans 5, verses 1 and 2. We just got out of Romans 4. We talked about Abraham and his faith and how he was justified by faith, counted righteous by faith alone. just like you and I can be through our faith in Jesus Christ. Well, let's hear the Word of God, Romans 5, beginning in verse 1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Now, this is the living and abiding word of God, sharper than a two-edged sword. It is powerful. It is active. Let us pray. Thank you, Lord, for your word. We thank you for the Holy Spirit who breathed out this word. We pray now for the illumination of the Spirit of God and that, Lord, you would change us, open our minds, our hearts, to hear, Lord, deliver us from distraction, speak to us, for we are listening. In Jesus' name, amen. So in the first four chapters of Romans, Paul is building here a case. And the first thing he does in the first couple of chapters in Romans is to establish man's need for salvation, our need to be justified. And then secondly, he teaches us, beginning in chapter 3 and then continuing in chapter 4, of the way in which we can be justified, and that's through faith in Christ and Him alone. And then third, now we're going to get into some of the blessings that flow from our justification. Justification is just the beginning. if you will. But a justified person, of course, is someone who has been forgiven of all their sins and accepted as righteous in the sight of God. That's only because of the work that Jesus has done for us. And Romans 5.1 says that this person becomes justified, that we're justified through means of faith. Justification is not caused by our faith, but it's simply received as a gift by our faith. It's through faith. So what does it mean to believe in Jesus and be justified? Well, it means we set aside any confidence that we have in ourselves and that we put our faith in Christ alone. No self-effort. We don't trust in our works, our efforts, but in Christ's work. And that's it. So when God justifies a sinner, And those are the only people he justifies. He doesn't justify the righteous, because remember in Romans 3, there's none righteous, no not one. He justifies sinners, and that's all of us. And when he does that, it's an immediate and a once and for all irreversible act. But again, it's only the beginning of the blessings that we have. And so today we'll look at three of these benefits or blessings that flow from our justification. First, peace with God. Second, the continual access that we have to God's grace. And then last, the assurance of future glory in Christ. So knowing these benefits, enables us to be better servants of the Lord. That's what God is calling us to be. So first of all, Paul tells us, we who have been justified by faith have peace with God. Peace with God. Notice the past tense in that verse, verse one. Having been justified. So as I said, justification is a once and for all act of God. It is not something that can be repeated. It doesn't need to be repeated. It's complete. At the very moment we trust in Christ, we're justified completely, perfectly. And we continue in that state from that point on. And that state of being accepted as righteous in His sight solely for the sake of the grace of God in Christ. And this by itself is a tremendous blessing, but there's more to come. And so having been justified by faith, we now have peace with God. And here, when he says peace with God, he's talking primarily about an objective reality, not so much about subjective feelings, although that will come into play, we'll see in just a moment. But mainly he's talking about something objective here. What does it mean to have peace with God? It means, first of all, to recognize that there was previously, when we were still in our sins, there was an alienation, there was war, there was a conflict between us and God. And so Sin had separated us from God, but that sin has been paid for by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. And so the breach in the relationship between God and man, you know, Isaiah said, your sins have separated you from God, but Christ has brought us together and breached the relationship, repaired the relationship. And now we are reconciled to God. We are reunited with the Father. And though we were his enemies now, we are at peace with God. And that peace has been ratified by the blood of Jesus Christ. But peace carries with it more than just an absence of hostility or an absence of enmity. It's more than that. There's a positive aspect to it. And you might remember the peace, the word for peace in the Old Testament is shalom. And so Paul probably has that in his mind, you know, therefore having been justified by faith, we have shalom with God. And that means we have this wholeness, this soundness, this health has come to our souls. prosperity, well-being, and it's a spiritual thing. Shalom, this peace, peace with God. It's the fulfillment of the wonderful Aaronic blessing of Numbers chapter six. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace. Jesus Christ, those who have been justified by faith, have that peace, that Aaronic blessing. Now this peace, of course, it is a gift. It's found only in the person of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2 14 says, He, Jesus, is our peace. So when you think of peace, think of Jesus. He is your peace. You know, in life, It can be a dangerous thing to try to intervene when two people are fighting. You're going to probably get it from both sides. Well, that's exactly what Jesus did. He stepped in between us and God. He stepped in between sinners who, as sinners, we can be, we're at enmity with God. And he stepped from God's side. You know, God was determined to punish our sins. He has to because of his justice. And he when he went to the cross, he stood there as our representative and he took all our sins upon himself. And he took the wrath of God from God's side, the fury of the wrath of God, which we deserved. And so 1 Peter 3.18 sums it up, puts it this way, for Christ suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. You see, he stands as a go-between, as a mediator. He's the sole mediator between God and man. It's only through him that we come. And when we come through Christ, we can now have a peaceful relationship. with God. And that's what Christian faith is all about. That's what the Christian religion is about. It's about a relationship with God. And it's one in which God's anger now has been taken away. And since God is no longer angry with us on account of our sin, that anger has been poured out and satisfied, His justice has been satisfied, then He wants us to draw near to Him. Sometimes people are afraid to draw near to God because they know what they deserve and they know that they are sinful. But in Christ that fear is removed and Sometimes a child can be afraid of his earthly father, and there's a certain amount of respect, of course, that fathers should have. Honor your father and your mother, the Bible tells us. But some fathers can be a little hard, a little harsh, and not very approachable. And so that child will be hesitant to draw near to such a father, but God in Christ, God, our Heavenly Father, is not like that. When we come in Christ, He is not like that. He draws near to us, draw near to God, the Bible says, and he will draw near to you. So Romans 8, 15, which we'll get to later, but he says, for you did not receive the spirit of bondage, again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. And that word Abba is that term of endearment. It's like saying dad, daddy. You know, yes, we respect God that we reverence him, but he's a God who is a loving father to us. And we ought not fear to draw near to him. So this objective peace that we have now with God through Jesus Christ and through his death. It also results in a felt peace. I said it's not primarily a subjective thing that he was referring to here, and that's true, but it results in, the objective peace results in a subjective peace, a felt peace for the believer. Do you have that today? Do you have peace with God? And are you experiencing the peace of God? I was reading this week about the kinds of vacations that are supposedly going to be the most popular in 2025. And one of those vacations stood out to me and it's called a calmcation. Do you need a calmcation? It's a vacation that supposedly is meant to just create a sense of tranquility. Right? And if you live in a big city, which probably most of us really don't around here, not a big city, but there's a lot of noise, there's, you know, there's sirens, there's crime, there's, you know, you're kind of always on edge. And so these people, they really would love to have a calm occasion. But all of us, We need that kind of thing. We need a vacation from our social media and from all the apparatuses that we have that occupy our attention. I don't think we can find peace by scrolling the internet for endless hours and looking at our phone all day long. I think that robs us of our peace. So do you need a concation today? Most importantly, do you need to experience the peace of God? You see, God's peace in Jesus Christ can be had no matter what is going on around you. You say, I can't control my environment. I can't control the fact that I go to work and there's pressure, there's stress on my job. I can't control the fact that people are angry with me. When I go, you know, drive down the road and drive into traffic, it seems like everybody's out for themselves and everybody's upset. including me, the driver. You know, I'm upset sometimes at others. But anyway, we need the peace of God, and that's not dependent on outward circumstances. That would be nice, right? To have peace when everything else is falling apart. Only genuine believers in Jesus can have that. And Jesus said this to his disciples. He said, these things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." That's our confidence that should give us peace. Well, this experience of peace, we enter into it when we put our faith in Jesus. Do you know him? Have you received Jesus? then we maintain that peace by keeping our eyes on him. Isaiah 26 3, you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. So keep your mind on Jesus and you'll stay in peace. Well the next blessing that flows from justification in these two verses is access to God's grace. Verse 2, Through Jesus also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And that word access, it simply means that we are able, it's the ability to approach someone. Do you have access to the President of the United States? Probably not. Do you have access to the governor of South Carolina? Well, if you went to First Presbyterian Church and worshiped this morning, you could go up and visit him. He's usually there. When we used to worship there, Governor McMaster was sat just one row over from us, could have gone and shaken his hand any time I wanted to and had access to him. And, uh, things like that. We think about access and, uh, through Jesus, we have access to God, almighty, everlasting, sovereign God. Now we can approach this throne without fear, without rejection. Um, we can approach him and be admitted into his favor and it's by faith always. And the door of admission is opened by Jesus. Hebrews 10 says we have boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. by a new and living way in which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh. Now the holiest is talking about the holy of holies, the place in the very center of the temple that was separated from everything else with a heavy, heavy, thick curtain. The Ark of the Covenant was there, and no one went in there except the high priest, and only once a year. And it's not written in the Bible, but some think that there was a practice that when the high priest went in, they tied a rope around his waist, because if he died in there, and he might die, because things like that happen in the Old Testament, God is holy, and he expressed that by putting people to death, that if he died in there, no one would dare go into the Holy of Holies, because they would die too, so they had to pull him out by that rope. So here's what Hebrews says, we now have boldness, we can enter the Holy of Holies, without fear, through Jesus Christ. And then Hebrews says, since that is true, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. All right, we have access to God. Now it's time for us to draw near. And again, the verb tense there, have access, is something that's completed in the past. Once and for all, and it doesn't need to be repeated, has ongoing benefits. So once it's accessed, just like justification, once you're justified, you'll always be justified. Once you have this access, that will not be taken away. We recently decided after many, many years of not having a Costco membership, that we would purchase a Costco membership again. We like to call that place Stuff Mart. But it's just crazy going there. But we have a Costco card, and now I can proudly show my Costco card to the greeter at the beginning. They won't let you in without that card or without somebody who has that card. And if we fail to renew the membership at the end of the year, we no longer have access to Stuff Mart. But you know, that will never happen with the Lord. Because the access that he purchased for us is a lifetime membership. It's an eternal membership. So are you a believer in Jesus Christ? Then you have access to God. The question is, what are you doing with this great privilege? Are you taking advantage of it? I'm reminded again, it's the beginning of the year. We make these resolutions. A lot of people join the gym. But I know in a couple of months, most of the people who start working out won't be doing it. They'll be paying that membership, but they won't be using it anymore. Their gym membership is wasted. Are you wasting your access to God's grace? Hebrews 4.16, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Why do we need access to God's grace if we're saved? Because we need grace every day. We need His mercy and forgiveness every day. We need His help every day. And so we need to go to that throne every day. Countless times a day. Keep coming, because we keep being in need of His help. And so we do so, of course, primarily by means of prayer, by means of speaking with God. In the Word, God speaks to us, but we speak to God Prayer and the thing about prayer It's a great gift But it has to be exercised. It's like okay. I have a gym membership. I went to the gym three times this week Well, what'd you do? Well, I sat around and talked to people I watched them work out. Well, that won't do you any good You have to do something when you're there I went to church today. Did you pray? Do you bracket your day with prayer, the beginning and the end, and in between? With the gym membership, yeah, you've gotta get up and go to the gym, but you gotta do something when you're there. When you come to God, you need to pray. And so, if you have access to God, in prayer, put it to use. It's a great prayer, it's a great privilege, but it's also a discipline. It's a discipline. It's one of the things that Christians find most difficult to do. We all, if we asked each other about how's your prayer life, if you want to put someone on the spot, ask them that question. But, you know, for most Christians, it's challenging. F.B. Meyer, the author of a little chapter in a little book, but the chapter was titled The Secret of Guidance. He said, the great tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, it's unoffered prayer. And that's what James says, we have not because we ask not. We need to pray. So in this new year, what would you like God to do as an answer to prayer in your own life, or for someone else that you might be praying for? Then take that to God in prayer and be earnest about it. like the persistent widow of Luke 18-1. She kept coming to this unjust judge, and he wouldn't give her justice, but she wouldn't leave him alone. Finally the unjust judge says I'm gonna give her justice because she's wearing me out We're out the throne of God God's a whole lot easier to to to talk to than that on an unjust judge. He is a just judge He's a loving father. So keep praying until God gives you an answer. Yes No, or maybe wait but don't let go of the throne of God be like Jacob who wouldn't let The Lord goes, he wrestled with God all night. So, prayer takes effort, it takes discipline, but it's always worth it. You will never regret the time that you spent in prayer. And prayer is coming into the presence of God, it's coming into the presence of, again, of your Heavenly Father, who knows your needs before you even ask, who cares about your needs more than you know, And you lay those things before Him, and not only does He meet your needs, but after you get up, as Philippians 4 says, the peace of God, He will give you the peace of God that passes all understanding. So come right back around to peace. But verse 2 says, we have access by faith in this grace in which we stand. So we're saved by God's grace, His unmerited favor, and we stand in this grace. We're in a state of grace. And it's a firm place to stand. We're kept by the power of God. God keeps us in His grace, by His grace. Well, we just had some winter weather. I'm looking out at this sidewalk in the shade. Don't walk over here. It's pretty slippery. I was out yesterday a little bit and I was very careful when I walked on the ice because we're all subject to fall in those conditions. Well, by God's grace, we will stand firm even in treacherous conditions. He will not let us fall. Jude said he's able to keep you from stumbling. So we stand in grace. We can be confident in a treacherous world, knowing that he's with us, knowing that he will keep us from falling into sin and temptation. God is able. to do that, and we need to trust Him and believe Him. These are the benefits that come through access to God's grace. But there's one final blessing that flows from justification, and that's the hope of glory, the hope of glory. In verse 2, we read that since we've been justified, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And there's a play on words here, and it's hard to see it in that translation that says rejoice, but the word rejoice comes from a word that means to glory in something. To glory in something. So the play on words here is like, what he's really saying is we glory in glory. We glory in God's glory. And John Murray in his commentary said that this refers to rejoicing and boasting on the highest level. It's exultant rejoicing and confident glory. You know, we're not to glory in ourselves, but it's okay to glory in the Lord. In fact, we're commanded to do that. But we have this hope of the glory of God. And this is a future thing. Hope, you know, the three great virtues of Christian life, faith, hope, and love. And so now he's been talking a lot about faith. Now he's still doing that, but he brings in hope. And it's a Greek word. It's a very rich term. And certainly we know that the hope of the Christian is not like the hope of the world. And it's very different. You know, we might say to ourselves, well, do you think that Clemson's going to win the ball game tonight? I don't know. I hope so. And sometimes they win, sometimes they don't. But biblical hope is not like that. You see, it's not a desire that things come to pass, but we don't really know if they will. No, biblical hope is knowing that they will come to pass, exactly as God has predicted. We can predict the outcome of the game or the outcome of an election, but we're often wrong. But God predicts our future for us, and it's certain. It's absolutely certain. Christian hope is so certain, the Bible calls it an anchor of the soul, an anchor that will not, cannot fail. So where's your hope this morning? What is it that you are glorying in? If it's anything earthly, it's not gonna last. Only the hope of the glory of God lasts forever. Because we're all gonna die. We're all gonna spend eternity somewhere. And for the Christian, we should put all our hope in that which is to come. Set your mind on things above, Paul said in Colossians. And so there's a second term for glory in that, you know, we glory in glory. And that phrase, the glory of God, it's a slightly different Greek word than the first one. And this one means the glory of God in terms of his heaviness or his weightiness. Glory is simply a word that means weighty. It means heavy. So God's being, he is not light. He is not insignificant. That's why we're commanded, the third commandment tells us not to take the name of the Lord in vain. It simply means don't take the name of the Lord lightly, because He's not light. We should do so. Whenever we speak of God, do so reverently. Acknowledge His dignity, the gravity of His being. And I mentioned earlier that one of the great blessings of access, of course, is prayer. But really, finally, what's the purpose of prayer? It's to worship. It's not just to get what we need. It's to worship. That access is for worship. And we come into this presence. And so worship is to attribute worth to God, attribute weight to God. I am nothing. I am dust on the scales. But God is everything. To worship Him is to ascribe glory and honor and to revere Him. So our chief end is to glorify God. And it says, one little word is added to that in our catechism, you know, man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. So our chief end does not change when we get to heaven, it only becomes more realized. Because there we will behold His glory, we'll give Him glory without the hindrance of sin. There'll be no end to our experience of that glorious presence of God. And in response, we will be offering praise, exaltation with joy as we worship the Lord. And in Jesus Christ, we've been given so much, so much now, a lot now, so much more than we can ever imagine that is to come. So in glory we'll be saved. Here now we're saved from the penalty and the power of sin on a daily basis, but in heaven we'll be freed from the very presence of sin. And again, we can't imagine. Sin is what puts a damper on everything in our lives. Without sin, it's just going to be amazing. So we need to keep this future hope alive because for now there are many tribulations, many trials. and a lot of pain, a lot of sorrow. And Paul's going to deal with that in the very next verse, the very next couple of verses in Romans 5. We're going to get into that issue, the realities of life, the hardships of life. But first, he reminds us of what we have to look forward to in heaven. This is what he wants to leave us with today. Think about that which is to come. The second coming of Christ is called the blessed hope. So at the return of Christ, we're going to see him in all his glory. One look at Christ will make up for every difficulty, every hardship, every sorrow that we've ever been through in this life. So to sum everything up, three blessings that flow from our justification. Peace with God, access, and then hope. Again, like with prayer, all of these things, we need to make use of these benefits. We need to reckon on them and live in light of them. Charles Hodge, as we close, he notes that the assurance of these things belongs to us as believers, yet he said the actual state of the believer generally falls far short of the ideal. The believer ever lives below his privileges and goes limping and halting when he should mount up with wings of the eagle." Do you want to go on limping through your Christian life or do you want to mount up with wings as an eagle? Which will it be? Meditate upon these realities, these blessings, these benefits. Think on Jesus Christ. Think of what's to come. You begin to soar as you think on what's above, you begin to live above the things of this world. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for the great, the amazing.