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Last week, we clearly showed that a person who has truly been saved cannot, under any circumstances, be lost. And, if one could be lost, he could never be re-saved, as Jesus has only died once for our sins, and He will never die again. The text for this is Hebrews 6:1-6. Jesus would need to be put to open shame again, and that is not happening. Now, let us move on. Those trying to make you doubt what God has given you are mistaken, or worse, simply trying to scare you into constant re-thinking and never actually growing in Jesus.
Romans 5:1, those of us who are saved are declared ‘justified.’ This is a legal term; we have been acquitted, declared blameless (remember, God told Satan that Job was ‘blameless’). This is a term to declare that no sin, no record of sin is recorded against us.
Go and see the last lesson for a list of verses that tell us where our sins have gone. In Psalm 32:2 and then repeated in Romans 4:8, we are told that we are blessed to have ‘our sins removed.’ If they are removed, we are saved, and we are now justified in Jesus. In verse 2, we have this great ‘Hope’, a true hope that God can use to build a future for us. We have a reason to rejoice; our sins are gone, and with that we have true fellowship with God according to 1 Corinthians 1:9 and John 14:23.
In verses 3-4, we find the process of sanctification. When I was working on this, I came across a story of a woman who was in a ladies’ Bible class, and they had read from Malachi 3:1-3: “He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.” Verse 3, quoted here, got her attention, and she set about to research it. She found a local jeweler and asked to watch him purify silver, and he obliged. He explained that silver needed a high temperature between 962-1100 Celsius to boil, and that the smelting had to be perfectly timed; neither too little nor too much time was good – as such, the jeweler could not take his eye off the silver.
She asked him how he knew it was done, and his reply was when I can see my reflection in the silver, it is done. And so it is with us as God sanctifies and purifies us. He is a master jeweler, and He is ever watching over us, making sure that we do not burn and that one day soon, His reflection will be seen in us.
In verse 5, we find that love is one of the natural fruits of God growing us into the image of Jesus. We begin to love God more, and we love each other more. We begin to want to love even those whom we did not love before or even think we could love before. Sin begins to bother us more; things that used to come naturally gradually become foreign to us. Our words change, our actions change, our thinking changes, and our desires change. Life is gradually reshaped by God through the Holy Spirit living in us, and our eyes are opened.
Imagine the Apostle Paul, who was a Pharisee for the vast majority of his life until he met Jesus, and then he tells us that all the self-righteousness he had as a Pharisee he counted as ‘dung,’ and he began to see himself as ‘the chief of sinners.’ If you recall, Jesus used two men as examples one day at the Temple. One, a Pharisee, thanked God that he was not like other men, mere sinners. The other, a Publican, a tax collector, fell face-first to the ground and refused to even look up because he knew he was a sinner, and he cried out to God for mercy.
Paul began life as a Pharisee and ended it as a Publican. So too do all who come to Jesus. We may not think we are that bad when we get saved, but the more time we spend with Jesus, the more sinful we become in our eyes and the more in love we become with the One who died for a sinner like me. When was the last time you told Jesus that you loved Him? When was the last time that you had a conversation with Jesus? No, not prayer, a conversation. You know, when you just start talking to Him like He is in the car or on the trail walking with you and the dog?
The Apostles had conversations with Jesus; they chatted with Him about life, their wants, needs, dreams, complaints, and the like. At times, He spoke kindly to them; at times, He told them to wait a bit longer to get their wants; and at times, He rebuked them. But they had these real, sometimes emotional conversations because they had a true relationship fraught with the emotional valleys and hills that come to all relationships. This is the sanctification; it can be messy and filled with failures and re-dos, but it reminds us that what we have is real. So, you are justified in Jesus, not let’s get sanctified by Jesus.
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario
The post Romans 5:1-5: Justified and Sanctified :: By Sean Gooding appeared first on Rapture Ready.
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