Celebrating Salvation from Wrath

Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter. 5 and last week, we made it through verse 8 of Romans 5, and today we'll pick up in verse 9 and try to make our way through verse 11. And if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be celebrating salvation from Wrath.

Celebrating salvation from wrath. I don't know if you noticed, but every song we sang this morning, talked about God's wrath, God's anger, not that it was putting that in front of our face to destroy the worship, but it actually was an enhancer of our worship because we're celebrating our deliverance from God's holy wrath, against us for our sins, and that's exactly what Paul is going to do. In our passage this morning, one of the songs that we sang this Sunday and also last Sunday is the song In Christ Alone, just an absolutely beautiful and theologically rich song.

We have the words in Christ alone my hope is found.

I've been thinking about this song a lot studying through Romans 5 because a lot of the same themes are in that song that we find in Romans 5. In Christ alone my hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song, this cornerstone. The solid ground firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

What heights of love, what depths of peace when fears are stilled, when striving cease, my Comforter, my all in all, here in the love of Christ, I stand. We have Christ, we have our hope. He is our peace. We got the love of God, the love of Christ, and a standing in that.

So a lot of the same themes that we see in Romans chapter 5. believe it or not, they're actually people that Don't like, in Christ alone. They don't, they, they have a problem with that particular song, and, it's, it's a particular line in that hymn in Christ alone that they take exception to. And for them it ruins the entire song, and the line that's in question is found in verse 2.

Let me just read verse 2 to you. In Christ alone, who took on flesh, fullness of God, and helpless babe, this gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones he came to save, till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied. For every sin on him was laid here in the death of Christ I live. That one line that you see in red on the screen, the wrath of God was satisfied, that creates an offense and a problem to some people who even claim to be believers in Jesus.

Listen to some of the responses of individuals that I found online. To this line in this song. One person says that one line ruins an otherwise good hymn for me. I have major issues both with the wrath of God and that the atonement is about satisfying it.

Another person says, Part of my problem with the phrase is that Stuart Townend seems to throw a reference about penal substitutionary atonement into all his hymns, even when it doesn't warrant it. Big words there. Penal means punishment, substitutionary means substitute. that Christ on the cross became our substitute, took the punishment upon Himself that we deserve for our sins, so that through His shed blood we have atonement and forgiveness.

And this person is like, I've noticed Stuart Townend, he's just always sticking the atonement in the hymns, even where the context of the hymn doesn't warrant it. the apostle Paul, he sticks the cross everywhere, every topic, no matter what. Paul would insert the cross there. He would have no problem with that at all.

And the same guy goes on to say this in the context of the hymn, I find the line in question just great. In other words, it ruins the worshipfulness of the hymn for him. It isn't necessary and it becomes a real hindrance to singing the hymn. One guy says this.

He says, We at our church use an amended version of this song. We sing the love of God was satisfied. So they replaced the word wrath with love. Other people will say the love of God was magnified.

It's technically illegal to amend the lyrics. There have been people who've contacted Keith. Getty and Stuart Townend to try to get them to change that one line or at least grant publisher permission for churches to change that line and use an amended version of that line when they worship and to their credit, Getty and Townend have said you can't change the lyrics of this song and you cannot change this line, but there are churches. That do this anyway so as to remove any reference to God's wrath from their worship, and he says this guy, we use an amended version.

We sing the love of God was satisfied. I think there's other amendments out there. I don't see a problem with this. In other words, with the amendment, it is a minor change that removes a potentially offensive line.

It's obvious that there are people who whatever their version of worship is, they don't want any reference to the wrath of God in their worship, because it, it grates, and it ruins the worship experience. well, we're going to continue singing in Christ alone, as it is written, because the way we think here at Cornerstone, when we think about the wrath of God, when we're worshiping, it actually deepens our worship, it enhances our worship, and our gratefulness for what God has done.

And I just wonder how Paul would interact with some of these individuals because Paul does exactly what they would say should not be done in worship. we see Romans 1 chapter 5, verses 1 through 11, it's not just verses that Paul writes.

We actually literally in Romans 5:1 to 5, we see a man in worship. We get to watch a man worshiping God. In verse 2, Paul says, like having been justified by faith, we have peace with God, and we're standing in this grace through Jesus Christ. And then he says at the end of verse two, we exalt.

And then in verse 3, we exalt. And then in verse 11, we exult in God. That word that is translated exalt is the language of worship. In fact, write down the reference.

Psalm 32:11, the Psalm where David is saying, how blessed is the man whose transgressions have been forgiven, to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity or sin, and he's celebrating his own forgiveness that God has given to him of his sins. And near the end of that Psalm, in Psalm 32:11, In the Greek translation of this Psalm, the Greek Septuagint, it says, he says this to all fellow sinners, he says, Be glad in the Lord and rejoice or exult, and it's the same Greek word, exalt you righteous ones.

So be glad in the Lord and all you who are forgiven, just like I am, be exalting, oh righteous ones. And Paul, that's a call to worship.

And Paul says, Hey, I'm a righteous one, by faith in Jesus Christ. And so I will respond to this call to worship, and I will exalt, I exalt, I and my exaltation is in God and in the salvation that He has wrought. And it's just interesting that we observe in these verses a man engaging in worship, and we get to actually read verses 1 through 11 and see where his mind goes when he's worshiping God. 1 through 11, in a sense is a song, and we get to read the lyrics of this song.

And see where Paul's mind goes, as he's worshiping God. He talks about things like justification, peace, Jesus Christ everywhere, grace our standing before God. Hope shows up 3 times, glory, God shows up, perseverance, proven character, the love of God, the Holy Spirit, Christ's death, Christ's blood, our reconciliation with God, and yes, the lyrics of this exaltation, this song of exaltation does go to the wrath of God. And we see that in verse 9.

And so let's go there with Paul. Paul says in verse 9, Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. Paul says, I want to exult in this. I want to go here and exult in this, that we, because we've been justified through the blood of Jesus, we will be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

Now with the time we have, what I want to do is make 5 observations from verse 9, 10, and 11, 5 observations about Paul's worship as it relates to the wrath of God. 5 observations about his worship as it relates to the wrath of God. All right? And the first observation is clearly from just reading verse 9, we observe that Paul recognizes the wrath of God as a reality.

It's there is such a thing as the wrath of God. That is a stubborn reality. It may not be politically correct to believe in. It may not be politically correct to talk about.

It may not be what people want to insert that thought into our worship, but clearly in the mind of Paul, an inspired writer of the scripture, the word of God, Paul recognizes the wrath of God as a reality and as a reality that's worthy of mention. Paul thinks we ought to bring this up as we're exulting in God and in the salvation that he has accomplished. It is a worthy topic to insert into our worship. he says much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

God's wrath is a reality that we need to reckon with. Back in 1945, there was a man, Kazo Kitamori, a Lutheran, writer and scholar who wrote a really earnest work on the pain of God, and, an honest attempt to really grapple with the pain of God over the sin of man. But in that work he makes this statement. He says, we may say that the recognition of God's wrath is the beginning of wisdom.

The recognition of God's wrath is the beginning of wisdom. And I think from one standpoint, we can also say that the recognition of God's wrath is the beginning of worship. It's the beginning of worship. Certainly, a person needs to comprehend God's wrath to even become a worshiper who can worship God in spirit and in truth.

And as we go to the wrath of God and contemplate that, and then realize our deliverance from that through Christ, we have our capacity to worship God and to celebrate what he has done to be deeply made more intense by our awareness of the backdrop of the wrath of God. We see His grace, His forgiveness, and all that He's given to us in Christ against the backdrop of the wrath that we deserve, and it actually is literally an enhancer of worship. But God's wrath is a reality that That we need to reckon with.

Let me, let me just read to you some passages.

It's interesting. In the book of Romans, what's Paul doing? He says, I can't wait to come to Rome to evangelize or to gospelize you Christians in the Church of Rome. I can't come.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to write you a letter and evangelize. I'm going to gospelize you. I'm going to give you good news and lay out the good news.

But what's intriguing is in the laying out of the good news of the gospel, God's wrath shows. Up a number of times, as early as Romans 1:18. Paul says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. There is such a thing as the wrath of God, and it's revealed from heaven, and it's against ungodliness and against unrighteousness.

You say, yeah, but is it against people who engage in those things? Well, Paul goes on in Romans 2. He says, do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? Everyone loves those qualities of God, right?

His patience, his tolerance, his kindness. And Paul believes in those qualities also. But look at verse 5, but because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. See, people, they set up these false dichotomies.

Oh, I don't believe that God has wrath. I believe God has love and kindness and that God is patient and tolerant. Paul would say, Yeah, I believe God is tolerant. He's extremely patient.

He's extremely kind, and he has wrath. In fact, here's the connection. If you take God's kindness and tolerance and patience for granted, and you take it lightly, God's wrath will be visited upon you. God cherishes his kindness, tolerance and patience so much that if you take them for granted, and presume upon them, you will know his wrath.

He says, you'll be storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. And then he goes on to say this by way of what happens on that day. Speaking of God, he says, who will render to each person according to his deeds, to those who are selfishly ambitious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, they will receive wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation.

And distress for every soul of man who does evil. And God in the inflicting of that wrath, Paul says, is righteous. It's the righteous judgment of God in chapter 3, verse 5, he says, the God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? And the way that's worded implies a no answer.

No, God is not unrighteous. He is righteous in having wrath and in the infliction of that wrath upon those who do evil and who practice ungodliness, which, by the way, is every one of us in this room, every one of us in this room, we have done evil. And we deserve the wrath of God against us for our sins. I was witnessing to somebody this week who does not as yet know the Lord.

And I was telling them. that they view me as a pastor and so of course, I'm going to go to heaven. I'm a pastor and I do good things, but I was, was telling this person that no, all of my righteousness is like filthy rags to God. and that if, if God were to damn me to hell forever, starting today, I, the way I see myself is I see myself for eternity, praising God for His absolute perfect justice.

I would praise Him. For his justice and giving me what I deserve for all the sins that I have committed. That's what we deserve. The wrath of God is a reality that we need to reckon with.

Now there may be some In this room who just say Pastor Milton, I I don't know much about this Christianity thing, but I do know that I have a real problem with a God who has wrath. I just have trouble believing that. I believe God is patient, tolerant, kind. I believe in a God of love.

I just have a hard time swallowing the concept of God as having wrath. Well, let me, let me just interact with you for a little bit. Over the next couple of minutes. first of all, If you're wanting to believe anything about God, You probably want to let God tell you what to believe about Himself, right?

Like we don't, we don't have the right to just say, well, here's what I want to believe about God. We don't manufacture that. There is a God, and who's bigger than we think and who contradicts a lot of what we wish to think. And if you want to know what to believe about God, let God reveal Himself to you and tell you the truth about Him, and then believe whatever he says, even if it's different than what you're comfortable with or what you've always believed about, about God.

So I would just come in to you God's word. This is God's word revealing a truth about God. And that is that God does have wrath. Another response that I would have is this I would ask you a question.

Do you really want a God who has no wrath? Do you really want a God? Who has no wrath? Do you really want to believe in a God who could witness the murder of 6 million Jews and feel no wrath, just a benign spirit of tolerance?

for those evils that were done, and those who perpetrated those evils against the Jews. Do you want to believe in a God who can witness a woman being raped? And just look upon that with no wrath, just a benign spirit of tolerance. Do you want to believe in a God who can watch a child being molested by someone in a position of authority and trust in their life and feel no wrath in his heart?

See, I think if you, if you really think about it, you would realize, no, I don't want a God who has no wrath. In fact, one writer says that a view of God who has no wrath is a view of God that is normally birthed in the safety of the suburbs, in the heart and the mind of someone who's never really seen real evil done against people. And so it's a convenient view for people who live a domesticated life in the suburbs, but people who have witnessed real evil being done, they have no trouble embracing the fact that God has wrath.

In fact, they don't want to believe in a God who doesn't have wrath against evil.

so I, I just want you to ponder that. Go to the Bible, go to God's word, let God shape what you believe about Him, and, and let that govern what you believe about God. And God is telling you that I have wrath, and you need to reckon with that. And he's telling us as believers, let that reality figure its way into your worship.

one other thing I want to say about God's wrath for the benefit of everyone, including us as believers, we, we often view God's wrath and God's love as like entities that are on the opposite ends of the spectrum of God's attributes. And character and I think that's unfortunate. I think we cheapen his view of love, our view of his love and our view of his wrath when we view them as separate entities. A better way of viewing it is imagine God's love here.

God's wrath is birthed out of His love. It is a product of his passionate and infinite love. think about it. If you walked out the front door of your house and you saw somebody doing something really horrible to one of your children whom you love, what would you feel?

This benign spirit of tolerance? Or would you not feel anger and wrath? You would feel anger, you would feel wrath, and that wrath would be in proportion to the love that you have for your child, right? That wrath would be birthed out of your love.

Becky Pippert in her book Hope Has Its Reasons says this regarding this very subject. She says anger isn't the opposite of love, hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference. God's wrath is not a cranky explosion, but his settled opposition to the cancer, which is eating out the insides of the human race. He loves with his whole being.

God loves the human race that he created. And so he has wrath against the cancer that is eating the heart out of the human race. God loves people whom he has created. So when evil is done against those whom he has created, he feels wrath.

In his heart, and even when he witnesses one of his creation doing harm to themselves, he loves that person so much that his wrath is aroused because he created them. His wrath is birthed out of his love for mankind. In addition to that, we need to be aware of the fact that God's wrath is birthed out of his love for His Son. God loves His Son with such great intensity.

I, we need to ponder this twice from heaven during Christ's earthly ministry. God the Father said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well. Please listen to him. And God sent His Son into the world, and Christ died displaying incredible love.

God raised him from the dead, ascended him to his right hand where Jesus is now in the bosom, or in the embrace of his Father. And God is ravished with the love of His Son. God the Father delights in His Son. And he commends his Son to the human race and to all of us and says, believe in him, embrace this beautiful one and this lovely one.

He is the answer. Believe in him as your Lord and as your Savior, and as your righteousness. And God the Father's love for His Son is so intense. that anyone who blasphemes his son will get his wrath.

They will arouse his wrath. Anyone who looks at his beautiful Son that he's ravished with and say, there's nothing there for me. I'm not attracted to that. I'm not going to believe in that.

I'm not going to put my trust in that, and they walk away. And impugn the glory of God's Son whom He loves so much. God's love for His Son gives birth in that moment to wrath against those who disbelieve in Jesus. That's why in John 3:35, it says, He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not believe the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

You ought to look at a passage like that and go, wow, God must really love His Son. If his wrath is upon all those who won't obey His Son and believe in His Son, Also, we could say God loves his own glory, is so passionate for his own glory, because he's worthy of that glory that anyone who Does not glorify Him, arouses his wrath. So it's not like we've got love here and God's wrath here. No, we've got God's love for His own glory and for His Son, and for the human race.

And what gets birthed out of that love is His wrath against evil, and yes, against those who do evil. So the first observation we make here is Paul is not talking theory, but he considers the wrath of God as a reality that is worthy of mention. A second observation that we can make, and we'll go more quickly through these following observations, is that Paul as a man in worship, exulting in God and in his salvation, Paul recognized the wrath of God as something from which we needed to be rescued or saved.

He recognized the wrath of God is something that we need to be rescued out from underneath.

He says that we will be saved from the wrath of God. So God's wrath is a reality, and the language he uses indicates that it's something we needed salvation from. We needed salvation from the wrath of God. and, and let me just make this point that we don't normally talk this way.

When you look at a lost person who doesn't know Jesus, we, we realize they need to be saved, they need to be saved from sin, from hopelessness, and, and, and a life of enmity with God. But you can also legitimately look at a lost person and say to them, you've got a problem, and your problem is God. You need to be saved from God. Who possesses wrath against the evil that you've done and against you for the evil that you have done.

You need salvation, and that salvation in a sense could rightly be said to be salvation from God and from His wrath. That's the language that Paul uses here in verse 9. And think about our merit of that wrath. He says in verse 5 he describes us as ungodly.

And in chapter 1 verse 18, he says the right, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness of men. So we were ungodly, therefore deserving of his wrath. In verse 8, he describes us as sinners, and we know from Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death. We deserve to have death visited upon us as a result of the sins that we have committed.

In verse 10 we're described as enemies, and So here we are under God's wrath. We need to be rescued out from underneath that wrath. But the problem is that we could not rescue ourselves from the wrath of God. In verse 6, he describes us as helpless.

We were helpless to deliver ourselves from the wrath of God. And in the context, and the word that Paul uses here speaks of utter and complete helplessness in its totality. It's not like we could get some of the way out from underneath the wrath of God, but we needed Jesus to take us the rest of the way, or that we could climb most of the way to God. Our ladder went pretty high, but we needed Jesus to A takeover where we leave off and take us the rest of the way to God.

That's how some people view salvation. This word speaks of a total helplessness. We could not even move one iota towards God. We could not make the slightest contribution to our own salvation or to our rescue or escape from the wrath of God.

True believers in Jesus are people that not only conclude that I deserve to be under God's wrath, but they also conclude, I am utterly helpless to deliver myself from the wrath of God. I love the way Rick Holland, one of the pastors at Grace Community Church, describes our helplessness. He was speaking at Cal Baptist, a couple of years ago, and I was listening to the message and, and I, I love this so much that I went to my computer and I typed it out. Let me read to you how he describes our helplessness by way of analogy.

He says it's like we're trying to pick up An FM signal with an AM transistor. And the transistor radio has no batteries. And it has a broken antenna, and every wire's been cut, and the knobs have been pulled off, and there's no on and off switch, and we have no arms, hands or arms to reach for it, and the radio is on the moon, and we're dead. That's what it means to be helpless.

Amen. Just, We're profoundly helpless to deliver ourselves from the wrath of God. Paul says, what, when I'm exulting in God as a believer, I've known the Lord for decades now, when I'm worshiping and when I'm exulting, I, I like to go to the thought of the wrath of God. And I like to ponder the fact that we needed rescued from that wrath and that we were completely helpless to be delivered from that wrath.

I like to go there in my mind because it leads me to another place, and that leads to our third observation of Paul in terms of where he goes, and that is that Paul affirms the fact that God took the initiative to save us from his wrath. God took the initiative to save us from His wrath. God saw that we were under his wrath, and we deserved his wrath, and we were helpless to escape from that wrath, and God took the initiative to solve our problem. We had a God-sized problem.

That needed a God-sized solution. We ultimately had a God problem that required a God solution. We were quite literally saved from God by God. Through Jesus Christ.

He says very clearly in verse 9, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. Look at this verse 9, much more having now been justified by His blood through the death of Jesus, and believing in Him by faith, we get justified and made righteous through the blood of Jesus. And he says, we're saved from God's wrath through Him. God took the initiative.

To deliver us from His wrath, and he did it through the atoning work of Jesus on the cross. Paul would say, I, I think the atonement fits here. I think Christ's death belongs here, so much so that there's actually 4 references in verses 6 through 10. To the centrality of just the role that Christ's death played.

Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died for us. It's through His blood. Verse 10, we're reconciled to God through the death of His Son.

So death, death, death, death, the death of Christ is the means by which we experience this deliverance from God's wrath. God clearly took the initiative. And it's not like God was angry with us. And Jesus Christ saw that his father was angry and said, what, Father, how about I go into the world and, and I suffer and take your wrath upon myself, and then that way the human race can have salvation.

And then the father says, Well, OK, I'll let that happen. No, this was just in the councils of the Trinitarian Godhead. This is something that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are utterly together on, completely agreed upon. we see in verse 6 that Christ died for the ungodly.

He died in the place of the ungodly. So we would know that He, Christ loves us. But look at verse 8. God, and I think in the context, the idea is God the Father demonstrates his own love towards us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ He died for us.

Guys, imagine the love that would be required in the heart of God the Father to surrender his prized Son over in death, so that our salvation could be accomplished. I know there are times where with my own children they'll get sick or something will happen to them and I'm just thinking as a dad, oh, I wish that had happened to me and not them. I would so much more happily take that upon myself than for that to happen to one of my children. Can you guys identify with that as parents?

So, yeah, we see the amazing love of Jesus that He would lay down his life for us, but But we also see the equally amazing love of the Father that he would surrender his Son, the apple of His eye, over in death to where Jesus hanging on the cross is there, gasping for air and drowning in raw liquid sin, dying in our place. This is all a mystery to me. But I know that Jesus suffered greatly on the cross, and I know that the Father did not watch passively. I know that the father just experienced something in the way of pain as he saw his son sinking.

Into raw liquid sin, all of the sins that we committed. What an awful, awful moment that was for the Father and for the Son. God took the initiative. And at great cost and at great pain to himself, he said, I will accomplish.

This deliverance from my wrath that I observe mankind cannot deliver themselves from. I will deliver them from me. And from my wrath We can be thankful that God took the initiative and Paul says, Hey, when I'm exulting in God, I like to go there. I like to go there.

I like lyrics that take me there to contemplate God taking that initiative and actually showing His love and accomplishing this salvation through the blood of Jesus, a salvation we needed, and a salvation that we could never have accomplished. There's a 4th observation that we can make. Regarding Paul's worship as it relates to the wrath of God, and that is that Paul reasoned that one of the guaranteed results of our justification. is deliverance from God's wrath.

Paul reasoned, he did some gospel thinking, he engages in verse 9 and especially 10 in some gospel logic. And make some inferences and engaging in that gospel logic, Paul reasoned that one of the guaranteed results of our justification is deliverance from God's wrath now and forever. He says in verse 9, much more than having now been justified because we are justified ones. Made righteous through the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross, who purchased this righteous standing for us, having now been justified being in the state of being righteous right now today.

Paul says, I know something is true about the future. And that is that we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. This is true today. Therefore, I know what will be true tomorrow.

There is a day of wrath that is coming upon the world. When Christ comes at his second coming, in the book of Revelation, we learn that he will be treading the wine press of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. We know that there will be a day when everyone, the small and the great, will stand before the great white throne, judgment of God and be judged according to their deeds, and anyone whose name is not found written in the book of life is going to be cast into the lake of fire where the smoke of their torment will go up forever and ever.

A day of wrath and a day of reckoning is coming upon the world and upon every single human being.

That day will come. The day will come when people will stand before God at the judgment and feel the hot fury of His wrath. Because of their sins. And yet Paul is saying, I've committed many sins.

In fact, I've killed people. There are widows and there are orphans on the planet today as I write this, because of things that I did and sins I committed before Christ met me. Paul would say, I was a blasphemer of God. I was a blasphemer of Jesus.

I tried to force Christians to blaspheme Jesus. I've committed multiple sins throughout my lifetime. And yet, when I look ahead to that day of wrath that's coming, I know with certainty I will be saved from the wrath of God. I will never feel the hot breath of God's wrath against me because I'm a justified one, because Christ has died for me, and by faith I have come to him, and he absorbed the wrath of God that I deserved for my sins, and I received His righteousness.

So when I stand before God, I stand in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And so I will never encounter the wrath of God against me, ever. Again. Paul is referring to a future day of deliverance from God's wrath, but This also implies a day to day deliverance from the wrath of God.

This is a gospel truth that I don't know that every believer really embraces. But if we have believed in Jesus, and we believe that God's wrath fell upon him, and he absorbed that, then we must also believe that now that we're justified through faith in Christ, that there's not an ounce of God's wrath left over for us to bear as believers. which means that God now has no wrath in his heart against us. God now only has love, compassion, and deepest affection in His heart towards us, and this love is without the slightest admixture of wrath whatsoever.

Even when we sin and fail God as a Christian, God feels no wrath in His heart against us because Christ already absorbed and bore all of His wrath. And you just need to ask yourself if you really believe that. For many years I didn't really believe that. And sometimes we act as if Christ bore 99% of God's wrath, but there's still 1% of that wrath that is left up to us to absorb.

And bear up under in our day to day lives as Christians, especially when we fail God. Do what one of the most radical truths of the gospel is that all of God's wrath, all of it fell upon Jesus, and now it's completely spent with regard to us, and we never have to reckon with the slightest ounce of God's wrath against us and towards us any longer, even when we sin. God feels no wrath in his heart against us. His heart is filled with nothing but love for us, and he longs for us to repent and confess our sins to Him so that he can give to us the gracious and forgiving love that has been in his heart all along.

That is true for us as believers, because we've been justified by the blood of Jesus. We got, we got Christ's blood on us. God sees that blood. He values that blood, and he will never go back on that, and we will never ever feel the hot fury of God's wrath against us now and as we look ahead to judgment Day.

I remember sharing that with someone in our church, who I believe was a born again child of God. And they looked at me and said, that's too good to be true. They, they couldn't bring themselves to really believe that. They said, I, I'll think about it, I'll think about it, but that's too good to be true.

And I said to them, I said, But what if you did believe it was true? Just think about it for a minute. If you actually did believe that, what difference would it make? And their response was, I I would do anything for God.

I would love Him. I would love Him. That he would allow all of his wrath to be spent on Jesus to where now there's never any of that in any way, shape, or form against me. Paul says, do some gospel thinking.

If you're justified by his blood, that means you're free from God's wrath, all of his wrath, not some of it, but all of God's wrath from day to day in your life as a believer, and as you look ahead to Judgment Day and even the second coming. of Christ. Paul is reasoning here that one of the guaranteed results of our justification is deliverance from God's wrath. Now, Paul, I'm gonna try to do justice to this.

I, I am still trying to figure out verse 10, and I wish I had another week, but unfortunately, I have to preach today and a lot of, sometimes I have to preach stuff and it's not fully cooked because I need to think more about it. You guys probably already know that. But let me do the best I can with verse 10. This is an amazing verse that I need to go further with and, and I think all of us, need to go further with.

Paul is basically going to say, because I've been justified by his blood when I was an enemy of God, it's actually easy for me to believe that I'm going to be delivered from the wrath of God in a future day. That's, that's the easy thing to believe. The hard thing to believe is what I've already believed. And that is when I was an enemy, I was actually saved and reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ.

Look what he says, look at the reasoning here. For if, while we were enemies, who obviously deserve God's anger and God's wrath, If while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. Here we are enemies. And according to the gospel, we believe that when we were enemies, God acted on our behalf when we were enemies, and he allowed His Son to suffer all the way to the point of death, so that we could be reconciled.

God. And he did that, and initiated that when we were enemies. If while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more, having been reconciled to where now we're actually friends of God at peace with God, we shall be saved from his life, or by his life. I wish I could do justice to this, But I, I think part of what Paul is saying is, to, to Christians, he's like, get a clue.

Do you realize that just in believing the basics of the gospel, you're believing the hardest thing that there is to believe in all the Bible? That just the basic truth of the gospel. I was an enemy of God. I deserved his wrath, and God initiated a plan to save me.

And Jesus Christ suffered all the way to the point of death so that I could have forgiveness and be reconciled to God. Paul would say, if you, if you believe that, everything else is easy to believe. It's easy to believe. That's the hardest thing for God to do.

And that's the most amazing thing to believe in. And if you can believe that, then reason from that, what could you possibly be slow to believe after believing that? If you believe that Jesus suffered to the full extent and died for you when you were God's enemy, what can you possibly be slow to believe after that? That's the most amazing thing for God to do.

And the most amazing thing To believe And I think part of Paul's idea also is you're, if you're a believer, you're saying you're pointing to the cross and you're looking at this gasping, writhing figure upon a cross, being crucified, and that is God at his weakest. OK. 1 Corinthians 1, the weakness of God is stronger than men. God designed salvation through a crucified Messiah to show how strong he is.

He said, even at my weakest, I'm going to blow all other philosophies of life away in terms of the power of my plan to transform lives and transform hearts. If you can look at the cross and see Christ crucified, which is God as it were, at his weakest, and if you can look at that and say, I believe I'm justified and I'm saved and I'm forgiven because of what he has done and being crucified for me. Paul would then say, now turn and look at the risen Christ at the right hand of the Father with absolute glory and power to do as he pleases.

What, what can you possibly be slow to believe?

That he will do for you in that position of power. If you believe that a dying Christ hanging on a cross, God at his weakest purchases your justification, what can you possibly be slow to believe that a risen Christ won't fully do for you? I don't, I just don't, I think sometimes we lose sight of how radical just the core of the gospel is. And, and then sometimes we believe that we say we believe that, and then we're like, oh man, I don't know, do all things really work out together for good?

Am I, am I really delivered from the power of all sin to where there's no bondage there and I don't have to commit the sins that, that, that come at me? Am I really delivered from God's wrath? If, if we, if we come to Paul and we're like, I'm just really struggling with believing in those things, Paul would say that's easy. Go to what you say you do believe.

That's the hardest thing. That's the hardest thing God ever had to do, to love you and reconcile you when you were his enemy. And, and you're telling me you believe that a crucified Messiah at his weakest accomplishes your salvation and forgiveness. If, if you believe that, come on, everything else is easier after that.

I love, and he doesn't just do this here. He does this everywhere. He reasons from gospel truth. He goes to the cross and he reasons from the cross, and ends up looking at life very differently.

than we often do. Paul reasoned in his worship. This is a, a man who's exulting, he's fanatical about what he believes and he's thinking and he's reasoning from the cross to everything else. That God promises.

There's a 5th and final observation that we can make. And by the way, if any of you have additional thoughts on verse 10, I would love to hear them because I'm very much still on a journey to grasp. What Paul's trying to convey there, but 1/5 observation is that Paul exalted in God for the salvation from wrath, which he accomplished. It didn't bum him out like, oh man, the wrath of God got brought up and that just grates and it, it ruins my worship.

No, he says in verse 11, and not only this, but we are exulting in God. We're exulting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation, and that present reconciliation means guaranteed, you can take it to the bank deliverance from God's wrath now and forever. Paul is a man in worship, and he is exulting. He is rejoicing in God, and in the salvation, which God has completely from beginning to end.

accomplished through Christ. Randy Alcorn, and I think the book, The Treasure Principle, And he also uses this motif and other of his works, but he seems quite taken with the imagery of lightning is always followed by thunder. You see the lightning, and then a second or two later you hear the thunder, and if you hear thunder, lightning has struck, right? and I think he says something like, God's grace is the lightning, and our giving is the thunder.

I, I'd like to use that motif when it comes to what Paul does here. Paul is a man who's been struck by the lightning of God's amazing grace, and his exaltation in worship is the thunder. that followed that lightning. Which indicates, guys, that one can gauge the degree of his experience of God's saving grace by the, by measuring the intensity of the thunder.

of his worship How's your exaltation? Going? How much thunder is there? And I'm not saying if there's not a lot of thunder, then you're not a believer.

That may be true, but it may be that, we could say it this way, that the intensity of the thunder that emanates from us in worship of God is determined often by the degree to which we understand God's grace and dare to believe God's grace. Paul here is believing all of it. And he has been struck by the lightning of God's grace, and the exaltation, the worship is the thunder. That ensues in response to the lightning.

Well, Much more to learn from Romans 5, and we'll see how the Lord leads and continues to guide us as a congregation. I feel like what we're doing is we're making a journey to the heart of the gospel, and I like being here. And for right now, I have no desire to go elsewhere. but let's pray together and ask God to help us to, to dare to believe the glories.

Of the gospel. We're going to take up an offering in just a moment. Feel free to give as the Lord leads you to give. Father, I pray that if there's any in this room that have never They've they've never seen their helplessness.

And they've never seen The greatness of your love for them. I just pray that even right now where they're seated that they would turn their eyes upon Jesus and And believe in Him as their Lord, as their Savior, and that they would also believe in Him as their righteousness. And then they would go forth from here today believing in Jesus. I pray God that You would do a regenerating work in the hearts of people in this room who maybe have been attending church for a while and, but they've never, they've never experienced a rebirth.

And Jesus, you said, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. Lord, for those of us that are saved, forgive us for how small our faith is, how, how little depth there often is to our thinking. Help us to be gospel thinkers. And may we see the magnitude of the lightning of your grace through Christ, and may, may thunder issue forth.

In our giving, in our loving of you and loving of others, and may there be thunder. In our worship of you that is fueled by an awareness of the magnitude of your grace. Accept these offerings that we give, Lord. As an act of worship that we give to you, do much.

With this offering that is given to you today, we give you our hearts. In the name of Jesus, we pray, and all God's people said, All I have is Christ.