Romans 5:1-5
Grace and Faith
I do not want to preach a series of thoughts this evening as much as
I want to preach a thought. The thought I want to give you is, "God
will show up and He will do something when He does."
Let me remind of the backdrop on which these verses are being
written. Rome is the capital city of the Roman Empire. Paul had not
yet been to Rome but he felt God was going to get him there although
he was not certain how.
At the time Paul wrote this letter, most of the persecutions were
coming from the Jews but Rome was starting to take notice as well. I
am sure that Christians were seeing the writing on the wall and knew
it was just a matter of time before the persecutions would increase
dramatically.
Until that time, they had plenty of suffering to tide them over, not
just from persecutions but just the sufferings of life. Paul wanted
to pass this thought along to the people, "God will show up and He
will do something when He does."
I. Notice the collection of great Bible words in verses 1-2.
A. Faith, peace, grace, rejoicing, hope, and peace.
B. All five of these are great tools of the saved.
C. Most of you know that I believe grace is one of the most
powerful tools in our arsenal.
1. Grace is at least two things.
a. Grace is state of being.
(1) \\#2\\ That is what Paul meant when he said we
stand it in.
(2) We stand in the state or place of God’s grace,
meaning that we stand in the place or state of
God’s favor.
(3) God loves His children and shows them favor. He
blesses them, answers their prayers, provides
for them, protects them.
b. Grace is a power.
(1) I often define it, "Grace is God working in and
through you to accomplish His will."
(2) That means God does things, powerful things, to
accomplish His will in and through your life.
2. Notice, the first power that is spoken of in this section
is not grace. It is faith.
a. Faith always has to do with our believing.
(1) Sometimes in the Bible, faith refers to our
collection of beliefs in Christ, God, sin, the
Bible and so forth.
(2) At other times, faith is our need to belief in
Christ, God, the Bible, and so forth.
b. Here, Paul was saying that our faith produces
justification.
(1) Justification is part of salvation.
(2) So Paul was saying that we are saved by faith
and that saving faith produces justification.
D. I could on defining these great Bible tools but that is not
my desire right now. Instead, I want to show you how they
fit together.
II. Consider how the powerful tools God has given to us become even
more powerful when used together.
A. I have pulled out of this text, two of the great tools God
has given to us.
1. Both of these tools are powerful when used alone.
2. Consider what they can accomplish when they are used
together.
B. God often mentions these and other of our tools together.
1. Grace and mercy are mentioned 5x together in the New
Testament (1Tim, 2Tim, Titus, Hebrews, 2John).
2. Grace and peace are mentioned 18x in 17 different books of
the New Testament, meaning there are only 9 in which they
are not mentioned together (4 of them are gospels).
3. Grace and faith are mentioned together 12 times.
C. In these verses, we have faith and grace.
1. Why does God mentioned them together?
2. I suspect it is because as powerful as these tools are
when used alone, they become even more powerful when used
together.
3. Let’s test that theory.
III. \\#1\\ Paul said we are justified by faith.
A. Justified is a by product of salvation.
1. Justified is a legal term.
2. Justified does not mean our wrongs are erased or removed.
That is what forgiven means.
3. Justified means our sins are no longer wrong.
4. In God’s eyes, after we are saved, He forgives our sins
but anything that happened that is left from them, He
sees as being no longer wrong. (i.e. divorce, in jail,
parenting mistakes)
B. However, consider also:
Ro 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Tit 3:7 That being justified by his grace, we
should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life.
1. Do we have a contraction in the Bible?
2. No. We have cooperation.
3. Justification is a by product of two of God’s gifts: faith
and grace working together.
C. How so?
1. Faith, at its essence, is believing that God will show.
a. I pray in faith, believing God will show up when I
pray.
b. I preach in faith, believing that God will show up
when I preach.
c. I claim the promises of God, believing that God will
show up when I clam them.
d. So at its core, faith is believing that God will show
up.
2. Grace, at its essence, is God working, God doing
something.
a. Grace is power, God’s power being released to
accomplish God’s will.
b. So grace is God doing something.
3. What happens when we put these two tools together, as they
are in this text? We are left with a thought.
4. "God will show up and He will do something when He does."
5. When one calls upon Jesus Christ as their Savior, God
shows up, saves them, and justifies them.
6. This is the what having faith and grace together does. It
gives us the confidence that God is going to show up and
He is going to do something when He does.
7. This is the confidence that every believer needs, not just
in savlation, but in every problem we face.
a. Are you going through a problem? facing a crisis?
b. Walk in faith and grace! Believe that God is going to
show up and when He does, God is going to do
something!
IV. \\#1\\ Paul add other elements.
A. Peace is a by-produce of having grace and faith.
1. Peace is calmness, an absence of turmoil regardless of my
situation.
2. People wonder how Christians can go through the storms of
life but not be upset, frustrated, in turmoil over them.
3. That is not how the world reacts to problems and turmoil!
4. How is that possible?
a. It is because they have grace and peace.
b. They know God is going to show up and do something
when He does.
B. They just have to be patient \\#3\\ until He does.
1. Patience is the ability to wait without anxiety or
frustration.
2. Waiting is not spiritual. Everyone has to wait. It is
how you wait that marks spiritual.
3. How can they do that?
a. They know God will show up and God will do something
when He does so they wait.
b. Many times in life, all we can do is have faith and
grace, but even when there are things we can do, we
should never give up the power of faith and grace.
c. It will give us peace and patience.
C. \\#2\\ Rejoicing is having joy in our spirit.
1. While we are patiently waiting for God to show up in our
turmoil, we not only have peace but we have joy.
2. It is one thing not to be like the world. They are torn
by the problems, the struggles, the frustrations of life.
3. We are not like them because we know God is going to show
up and do something when He does.
4. But not only are we not like them, we are the opposite of
them, Instead of being angry, bitter, we are filled with
joy even in our problems.
5. Why? Because we have faith and grace. We know that God
is going to show up and He is going to do something when
He does!
6. So the tools that God has given to us makes us react
opposite of this world.
D. But they also give us hope.
1. Here we sit in turmoil, trouble, pain, suffering.
2. We have faith and grace which has made us patient and
given us peace and joy.
3. But a longing, a hope comes too.
4. We have a longing that God would show up soon for we know
when He does, He will do something.
5. Our hope ceases to be the end of the turmoil but the
showing up of our God!
6. We know that as big as our problem is, it is nothing
compared to the size of our God!
E. But then comes \\#3\\.
1. We begin to glory in our tribulation (troubles).
2. The word glory means to rejoice in, to be thankful for, to
be proud of our tribulations.
3. This is not only the opposite reaction if the world, it is
a crazy reaction to the world.
4. We start looking forward to our problems!!
5. Why? Because we know God is going to show up and He is
going to do something when He does.
6. How do we know this?
a. \\#4\\ We have experience.
b. We have been through this before and we have seen what
God did.
c. What did God do? God showed up and He did something
when He did.
V. But all of these together has taught us something, something
very important.
A. It has taught us that God loves us \\#5\\.
B. How do we know that God loves us? Because when we needed Him,
God showed up and when He showed up, God did something.
Now there is a thought I want you to leave with this evening. The
thought is that no matter what you are going through, no matter how
tough things are, if you will accept God’s tools of faith and grace,
you will handle it. You will be filled with peace, joy, and hope.
Why? Because you will know that God is going to show up and He will
do something when He does.
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