Were it not for grace we would all be consumed by the thing we long for the most. Even if it misfires, some internal combustion like engine within each of us longs to see true beauty. Even if it’s diluted by false ideas or dulled by half-heartedness, we want to know and be a part of ultimate glory. All this really means that we have a heart that wants to know God, to have God be pleased with us. But were it not for grace, His glory would kill us.

His glory is righteous glory, and unrighteousness is more than inadmissible it is intolerable. Those who have turned from His ways and fallen short of His standard are in grave danger. If God were to reveal the fulness of His glory right this moment, glory in the raw, glory undisguised, we would all be burned up by it as if we were enchanted into the center of the sun. Getting closer would be certain death.

But to the believer, the glory of God is our hope. It is not safe, but it is the only satisfaction for our thirst. It is not a position we’ve put ourselves in, it is not a rank we’ve purchased or earned, it is a status we’re given by grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Considered from the legal side, it cost Jesus His life so that we could be declared righteous (Romans 4:24-25). God does not hold our sins against us because Christ was delivered up for our transgressions. We believe in Christ and we are counted before God with the righteousness of Christ.

This freedom is good, but you can imagine, I’m sure, a convicted felon, in prison, waiting for his capital punishment, one day a judge overturns his conviction and releases him, and he is out but also left on his own. Guards fling the gate open, and he walks out without threat of return, but also without resources.

Much of the above illustration relates to the good news. We have been delivered, and any time someone wants to check our status, the record of our charges has been wiped clean before God and we are free men. But there is more. Romans 5:1-5 tells us more.

Verses 1-5 are a paragraph with two parts. I didn’t have enough time to figure out how to exult in all five verses in one sermon, so this morning we’re going to look at the grace of peace in verses 1-2. We have peace, we have access, we exult.

Reconciled (verse 1)

The gospel is not a distraction from our disturbed consciences, but a resolution to our fear and shame of having defied God.

”Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (verse 1, ESV)

Therefore pushes us further downstream from the previous paragraph, Romans 4:18-25. A participle sums up all of chapter 4, “having been justified by faith.” The ESV translates it as since because the justification is the basis for this first implication: we have peace with God.

This is another way to talk about reconciliation, except that it’s more than clearing up a miscommunication between friends. This is to know that the one who rules the universe, God Himself, is pleased with us. It is our position, whether or not we feel it, but because it is our position, it has real consequence. Peace with God (compared to the peace of God) stresses that the friction have ceased. His face is no longer against us.

The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
(Psalm 34:16 ESV)

There is a textual variant in the main verb, the difference between a long and short “o” in Greek (ἔχωμεν and ἔχομεν), so either an subjunctive or an indicative. If a subjunctive, then it is an exhortation: “let us have peace.” If it is the indicative, it is the reality: we have it. The context favors the state of it.

We have peace through our Lord, Jesus Christ. It’s sort of surprising that Lord is put forward as the mediator. Savior, even Christ, or the Son might seem more appropriate to reference. But the One who sits on the throne brings us to the One who sits on the throne. “Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace” (Isaiah 53:5).

This peace is as objective as your gender, as categorical as the ocean is wet. Peace with God is a settled fact of our justification by faith. It is stated as accomplished, and because this peace is based on His justification of us—purposed by the Father and purchased by the Son—it is imperturbable. We are pardoned and we are welcomed.

Welcomed (verse 2a)

The ESV starts a new sentence with verse 2 but really the sentence includes all of verses 1 and 2 (see the NASB’s better punctuation).

“through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand” (verse 2a, ESV)

The same verb is used again, but this time in the perfect tense. We have had or have obtained through the Lord Jesus Christ access. The word also means “introduction,” “a way in” (Tyndale), and that’s fine if we don’t think about it one and done. The Lord has brought us into the inner chamber, but He’s given us a pass, so to speak, so that we are always welcome.

Remember Esther before King Ahasuerus. Anyone who entered the throne room who hadn’t been called by the king were susceptible to his choice: be welcomed or be killed. “If any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter” (Esther 4:11). Esther, his wife, hadn’t been called for thirty days. She prayed, and asked all the Jews to fast and pray for three days, that she would find favor before the king. The king was glad to see her, but she was uncertain.

Our uncertainty is unnecessary. Our fear is gone. We are welcome because Jesus has already told the Father we are coming. We are welcome in such a time as this.

Our access is into this grace, which seems to be a different way of referring to our peace with God. It is His favor that welcomes us, again and again, into the favor of His presence. We are welcome, we stand in this grace. We have a standing invitation, so to speak, a persistent advantage.

Perseverance in and through prayer. Peace in and through the Mediator.

Anticipatory (verse 2b)

Here is the third implication of our justification:

“and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (verse 2b, ESV)

Rejoice is good, “boast” may be better. Even better, exult, from Latin exsultare, frequentative of exsilire ‘leap up’, from ex- ‘out, upward’ + salire ‘to leap’.

But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may exult in you.
(Psalm 5:11, ESV)

We exult in the hope of the glory of God.

Actually, we fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Seeing glory would KILL us; think of Moses in Exodus 33, who asked the LORD that he might see the LORD’s glory. The LORD told him, “man shall not see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). Moses had to be covered, and only got to see the LORD’s back (Exodus 33:21-23).

But now we have unveiled faces “beholding the glory of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). God has given us “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

This is an end of times hope, an anticipation of future glory. I say that mostly because of verses 3-5 which reveal the current process and indicate that we are not at the glory yet.

We do exult now, like cheering when you know your team will win even though the clock hasn’t run out yet.

Is this the hope we have of His glory being revealed, or the hope we have our our glory given to us by Him? Either way, it is good for us, and because His glory includes not only vindication against unrighteousness but salvation for His righteous ones, the glory of God is the greatest good of every believer.

waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, (Titus 2:13 ESV)

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. (Colossians 1:27 ESV)

When the sun shines, when the skies are cloudless, at that time we will commemorate the light never more to be covered.

Conclusion

We have acceptance with Him, we have availability to Him, we have anticipation for His glory.

Full justification with the status of peace means that we can want glory without that one being self admiration, it also means we can do good for sake of that glory and even if we mess up it does not harm our status.

Man who are bringing themselves to more and more nothing, compared to God who is revealing Himself to be all at all (1 Corinthians 15:28).

Do you have this sort of “inconsolable secret” (Lewis), a desire for something beyond what this world by itself offers? Are you enslaved spending your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy (Isaiah 55:2)? Come to Christ.

“To please God…to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness…to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.” (The Weight of Glory, Location 372)

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Charge

You have been given access to God; Jesus is the door of the sheep (John 10:7). He welcomes You, by grace and in order to give you grace. “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). May God’s favor be upon you and establish the work of your hands in such a time as this.

Benediction

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24, 28, ESV)