# What has justification done for me?

- **Series:** Specials
- **Passage:** Romans 5:1-5
- **Preacher:** Ben Rolfe
- **Date:** 20th September 2026
- **Duration:** 36 min

As a one off special, Ben Rolfe takes us through Romans 5v1-5.

## Resources

- [Listen to the audio](https://assets.mychurch.media/audio/5441/what-has-justification-done-for-me.mp3)
- [Watch the video](https://www.youtube.com/live/OODAixhDmzI?si=8mOc2OcRew7BZs0A&t=2376)
- [View on the website](https://hopechurchtolworth.org/sermons/5441/what-has-justification-done-for-me)

## Chapters

- 00:00 — Bible Reading
- 00:35 — Sermon

## Scripture — Romans 5:1-5

5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
(ESV)

## Transcript

*This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain inaccuracies.*

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance perseverance character and character hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Good morning. It's good to see you all.

My name is Ben. I'm one of the elders here at Hope Church, and I'm I'm really glad that we can look into these verses. We finished the book of one Samuel last week. This is just a a one off looking at Romans chapter five and those first five verses. So let me let me pray as we begin.

Father, we thank you that your word does speak powerfully to us, and we ask that you would open our blind eyes that we may see these spiritual truths, and open our ears that we may hear. And we ask that these verses will encourage the spiritually poor and remind us that we are spiritually rich. Amen. You might have seen on TV this advert that the BBC aired for itself really. It was called, what has the BBC ever done for me?

And it was showing the breadth and the depth of the BBC's offering. I'll let you come to your own conclusion about the license fee, but Ramesh, he's the guy in the middle, was walking us through what benefits of the BBC What's good about the BBC? Why should you pay? And also getting you to think about what it would be like if you didn't have the BBC. Maybe very quiet and dull life.

I think this passage here in Romans five is getting us to think a similar but different question. What has justification done for me? I'll explain more about justification as we go, but the crux of it is, if I have my faith in Jesus' death and resurrection, then what tangible difference does that make in my life? And we're going to look at these verses from Romans five, and we're going to see three benefits of justification, and we'll start with peace with God. So if taking notes, that's the first point, peace with God.

You'll you'll see it in verse one, so if you've got the bible open, please do follow along. Verse one, therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The biggest change here is that we have gone from being enemies of God to being friends with God. We we now have peace with God. It is an astonishing change that has taken place because of Jesus to us.

But but to understand how weighty that really is, we need to do a whistle stop tour of Romans chapter chapters one to four. Because chapter one begins with a real gut punch. God's wrath is being revealed against all the godlessness, and all the wickedness of people. And this wrath being talked about, it's not like ours. It's not vengeful or vindictive.

No. This wrath is right and legitimate, and it's based on a legal sentence that has been passed by God the judge. You can also see it in Romans chapter one verse 21. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God, nor gave thanks to him. But their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

What what happens in Romans one is like a doctor who gives you the bad news that you need to hear. It's the truthful, hard to hear news that we need to hear. And as you read on Romans one, the situation gets even more dire because we see that we haven't given God the glory that he deserves, and we haven't given thanks to him. And because of that, our thinking has become futile, and our hearts have become darkened. We thought we were becoming wise, but in fact, we've we've become fools.

Have a look at this verse. This is verse 22. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being, and birds and animals and reptiles. And so Paul begins to summarize this. Yeah.

It says in verse 29, they have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossip, slanderers, god haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They even invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents.

They have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. And as you read that, as you begin to absorb that, you can begin to understand why God's wrath is being revealed against us. Why one day we will stand before the living God and be judged, and the judgment will be that we are found guilty. I don't I don't know about you, but it's easy to scan over these verses, isn't it? They kind of wash over you a bit, But Paul wants to make it very clear that this applies to all of us.

There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, and no one who seeks God. That's in chapter three. And this is the hard news that we we need to accept, and and some find it very hard to accept this news. We used to run a a course at our old church, looking at the book of Romans, and we were very conscious that we didn't want them to come to the first week or two, and then and then miss out on the on the good news.

We wanted them to hear their state about God, but also to hear that God has come to rescue his people, to reconcile them. And so the logical question, maybe this is in your mind now, that comes out the book of Romans is, how can I be saved? How can I be right before God given that I'll be found guilty in his court? How can I be justified? How can I be legally forgiven and have peace with God?

Well, answer comes in Romans chapter three. It's a wonderful verse here. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. You see that being justified is a is a legal term. It's a legal declaration, a verdict in which a sinner now stands right before God.

A transformation has taken place. And I I say it's a legal standing because it's not as if God is just being lenient. He isn't just turning a blind eye to what has happened and what you and I have done. He doesn't say, it doesn't matter because it does matter and it is serious. He doesn't say, oh, I I just didn't see that and turns a blind eye because he did see it and he does care.

The punishment that we deserved has been taken by someone else, and God sends his son Jesus to bear the penalty for us that we deserved. And and this justification we've been talking about happens to a 100% of Christians. So if you're a Christian, you have been justified, and comes by God's grace, his kindness to us. And it hasn't come about because we've done good deeds. That that isn't the case.

We haven't contributed anything to this, and and none of us are right before God because we've sensibly come to our senses and decided to be a good person. We've started waving the white flag of peace. That just hasn't happened. We're justified through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and this justification acts as the foundation for the Christian life. Because if your life is built on anything else, it will be revealed that that thing does not save.

It's only justification by faith that every Christian life is built upon. And now having having looked to all that from Romans one to four, we can turn back to chapter five and see that we have peace with God. Because there has been a war over our hearts, between us and between God, about who is king over us. But for Christians, that that war is is over because this peace comes now. We have peace with God.

So if you've repented and put your faith in Jesus, then that peace is now, at this very moment. And it's not something that fluctuates. It doesn't kind of blow in the wind. It's not an emotion that comes and goes, this peace. It is permanent.

I realize that when I say peace, it sounds a bit zen like. It's not like that. It's not a feeling, it's not an emotion, it's not the idea of peace and quiet, however appealing that might be. The piece talked about here, is between two parties that have been at war, and now reconciled. The the hostility is over from us, our side.

It's the end of the war when peace reigns. It's now a secure treaty. And Jesus' death on the cross means that the penalty of our sin has been paid for, and that means that we are now forgiven, that we have peace with God, and we can know him. John was beginning to talk about that earlier, about knowing him. Verse two goes on to explain what this peace means for us.

Let me read to you the first two verses. Follow along if you can. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. The keyword word there is access. Access into this grace.

Grace is a very biblical word. We hear that a lot, read it a lot, and it helps understand what means in this context, because it's less talking about a gift here, a gift of grace, and more talking about a place, somewhere that you've been bought into. So think of it of going through a door. You come from one side where sin has enslaved you, and on the other side, you enter into a place where grace rules, where grace reigns. This access has has given us a new spiritual home.

Before, we were barred, we were blocked out, no entry, but now, Jesus has brought us in. He allows us to come into his presence. We have obtained an introduction to this grace, and we can legitimately be there. We haven't broken in. We're not just visiting.

We can stay. This peace has brought about a relationship with him. We know him and and he knows us. Think of think of a king. We we prayed for king Charles, not for this.

But I, on my own merits, could not get an appointment with the king, let alone be able to stay. Our prime minister gets a weekly appointment with the king. I think if he tried to, whoever that might be, I think if he tried to stay, he would be chucked out. Yeah? Even the prime minister by appointment, can't outstay his welcome.

His time is limited. There's not unfettered access to the king. But in God's kingdom, it's very different. We can be in the presence of God, and we can stay. We can stand.

We're not gate crashes here. We are now citizens of this kingdom. So let me try and apply this. Okay? Let's think these verses through.

May maybe you have had one of those weeks where temptation has crept in, maybe you've forgotten to pray, maybe you've missed a Sunday service, you've neglected to read his words. We can be prone to thinking, what does God think of me now? Is he happy or is he frowning? Am I really at peace? Well, these verses tell us that we are at peace with God because we have been justified.

And we can know that we're at peace, whether we've had a good week or a bad week. And yes, it's right to say that we should battle sin, that we should meet with our other believers, that we should hear from his word, we should pray. Absolutely. That doesn't diminish our access. It doesn't diminish our relationship with him.

Maybe there are times, I don't know if this crosses your mind, that you have just let people down spectacularly. Things haven't gone as planned with your friends, in your workplace, with your marriage, with your children. It's just not how you wanted things to go. But you must remember that that piece, that justification is not based on works. It's not based on what you do.

It's not based on whether you're the star employer, whether you're the hero at home, or whether you're serving on multiple rotors. That's not how this peace and access works. So you can know that through the highs and the lows of life, that you can have confidence before God, that you have been justified, and I want that to be an encouragement to all of us that we have been justified. Now the the second benefit that justification brings, that Paul wants to bring our attention to, is to rejoice in suffering. Now that that might seem an odd benefit, I don't know if you were hoping for something else.

Rejoice in suffering, but bear with me. Let let let's see what God's word says. Follow along from verse three. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. Paul has put this part here intentionally about suffering because he wants to answer the question, well, doesn't suffering eat away at your joy?

Doesn't suffering eat away at that peace that we've just talked about? Aren't peace and suffering at odds with each other? Well, Paul wants us to know that although we have peace with God, that's right, Christians will still suffer, and the suffering talked about here is primarily that of persecution for being a follower of Jesus, but also the suffering that we face in life as well, like sickness and bereavement. In fact, suffering, some of us know very well, is part of the Christian life. It's what's happening between the the present grace and the future glory.

In this gap, there will be suffering. It's it's what happened to Paul, it's what happened to Jesus. Think of it this way, like like a a soldier is destined for the battlefield. He's destined to fight. A sailor, he is destined to be at sea.

Well, Christian is destined to suffer. That is their path. The phrase here is to glory in our sufferings, is kind of an odd phrase, we wouldn't naturally use that. But a better way of phrasing it for us would be to boast or to rejoice in our sufferings. And even as I say that, it sounds very counter cultural, doesn't it?

Because the mechanisms in our society for coping with suffering are stoic suppression, that's a very British way of dealing with things, or maybe a detachment from what's going on, or maybe just a conclusion of meaningless. There's no meaning to this suffering. Don't try and look for one. But one reason that Christians can rejoice in their suffering is because we know that it's not God punishing us. He loves us.

We're at peace with him. He doesn't despise us. That's not why we're suffering. It is for my eventual good, and therefore, I can rejoice knowing that this is God's plan. It's not God being mean to me.

But when I say this, I don't mean that we should rejoice in the sufferings themselves. Yeah? Like we're looking forward to the suffering. Christians instead are called to look through the suffering to the certainties that the bible offers. There is a divine rationale behind our suffering.

And Paul puts it in these verses as a chain reaction that we're going to look at now. Have a look at verse three, the first one is suffering produces perseverance. Suffering produces perseverance. Now perseverance means like a patient endurance or a single mindedness in this. To continue towards the sure hope that we have.

It reminds us of what's really important in life and death, and it makes us laser focused on those things. It realigns our priorities. Maybe you've experienced that through suffering. And then the next part of the chain is that persevering produces character. Now the character that we might think about is that suffering makes us more resilient.

You know, I'm more a kind of better person. Yeah? That we're stronger, we're better. That's not really what we're talking about here. The character here talks about is that of a quality of a person who has been tested.

Think of a plumber. Any plumbers here? Luray, no good. I can carry on my illustration. Think of a plumber who's putting in a central heating system.

Before they leave, they're going to test it, they're going to pressure test it to make sure there's no leaks. They're going to test it and then give it a certificate that it had passed. Is my volume going up? Yeah, okay. Good.

It's test that is passed. And just like a heating system gets a quality assurance approval, so too does the Christian, because it reveals where we have put our trust. And then the last part of this chain is that character produces hope. Now on paper that might sound a bit strange, but if you look back in your own suffering, you will see that it has likely produced in you a strong hope, because you have had nothing else to cling onto. Now we use the word hope, don't we, to talk about things that aren't certain.

We hope for things to happen, but the hope talked about here is certainty, a hope filled certainty. So maybe it was redundancy, maybe it was been a death or an injury, maybe it was the effects of persecution, but suffering has the ability of burning off misplaced hopes, and reminding us of the certain hope that we have. And therefore, those other rival sources of hope can be removed. It has the ability to expose our hopes in things like medicine, or things like money, or our own competence. These things shouldn't be what our lives are anchored to.

And it's noteworthy, isn't it? This chain can't be circumnavigated. You can't get to the hope without the beginning bit of suffering. That is the way God has designed it, that suffering brings about hope. He has designed it that way.

And as I was preparing for the sermon, as I was doing some reading, I was struck by a little phrase which said, suffering can be productive. And not not productive in making money or or getting tasks done, but productive in producing hope because we cling on to the one who gives us that hope. So Paul moves on to his third benefit. He wants now to answer the question, how do we know that suffering and that hope will not prove to be just wishful thinking? Maybe you've heard that question or maybe thought it.

Doesn't suffering make you doubt God rather than strengthening your hope? Have a look at verse five. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And this is the third benefit here, God's love. Once, as we saw, we were dead in our sins, but now a person of the trinity, the holy spirit, has been given to Christians, and that spirit does not lie dormant or inactive.

No, the spirit is actively pointing us towards God's love. And it's not a trickle, maybe you saw it there, it's been poured out. It's like heavy rain on dry ground. It is being poured out to make us refreshingly aware of God's love. Again, this is a bewildering transformation that has taken place.

We have gone from being objects of wrath to objects of love. So how are we going to cope in times of persecution, in times of trials? Well, we need to be like a ship that has put down two anchors. One is sunk deep into the knowledge of justification that we are saved, and the other anchor is sunk down deep into the knowledge of his love. And that hope that we've talked about is not an illusion, it's not a mirage that will prove to be false.

He won't put us to shame like other hopes will be. No. Now I've realized that some of us might be optimists. Yeah? We just live life with a half glass full attitude, but those thoughts aren't guaranteed, are they?

They are just thoughts and hopes. And some of us may be young and haven't faced suffering, and we're hopeful because our bodies are young and youthful, and we have medicine, but again that's not guaranteed is it? And some of us have hopes in other things like self medicating, maybe on drugs or alcohol, maybe more on possessions and money. These things have a habit, don't they, of proving destructive, improving empty and fulfilling. They'll put us to shame those hopes.

But the biblical hope that we're talking about is not like that. It won't be found to be lacking or unfulfilling. God's not leading us down the garden path where we'll find that his promises lead to nothing. Now, God will not disappoint. How do we know though?

How do we know that we won't be put to shame? Well, it's because God loves us. That's why this verse is here, to remind us that God loves us. He has sealed the deal by sending his son, Jesus, and and God's love act acts as the basis for all of this. Out of his love, he sent his only son, which enabled us to be justified, which made us have peace with God, enabling divine access, and love has been poured into our hearts to allow us to persevere in suffering and have hope through it.

Now as we we close this sermon, I want I want to make these transformations and these benefits really clear. Because we have gone from being barred to having access to God. We've gone from bitterness in suffering to boasting in suffering, and we have gone from God's wrath to God's love. Isn't that incredible? Now let me apply these to two groups of people, maybe this includes you.

Let let let's first talk to those who haven't put their faith in Jesus. I want to assure you that this transformation that we've talked about in these first five verses is available, is on offer to you if you put your trust in Jesus. There is an opportunity to escape from God's judgment and for you to be legally justified. By putting your faith in Jesus, your sins can be forgiven, and therefore, you can be at peace with God. You can have purpose in suffering.

You can receive the Holy Spirit and God's love. I would encourage you not to let this opportunity pass by. Please do speak to one of us afterwards. Please do look through the book of Romans, and see how you can be made right with him. And secondly, I wanna I wanna speak to those of us who are Christians or would call themselves a Christian.

Maybe you're in the Christian circles, you speak the Christian bible lingo, maybe you can recite some verses as well. I want us to examine our foundation. I talked about that earlier, that justification needs to be our foundation. But has your relationship with God actually been built upon works? It might not be super obvious, but is your relationship based upon what you've done, or what you're doing?

Is it your behavior that keeps the peace between you and God? Have you ever found that you can rejoice in suffering? Do you know that God loves you? If there's a query over those questions, then maybe that's worth thinking about. There's a disparity between your head and your heart, between what you say out loud and what you actually believe.

Do you really know that you are justified by faith, or do you think it depends on you? Do you think it's your love for him that makes him love you? I want to encourage you to to think about that really carefully. I wanna encourage you to put your faith in Jesus rather than yourself. And as we as we saw in those first few chapters of Romans, we deserve God's wrath.

We've done nothing to merit his love. But these verses are encouraging all of us to put our faith in Jesus. And these benefits that we've seen this morning are on offer to us. I'm gonna leave a a chance for us to maybe think and reread those verses and maybe pray, and then I'll pray in a moment. Father, we thank you that out of your love, you sent Jesus to die for us.

And therefore, we are we are so thankful that we have peace with you. Father, we ask that we would not live lives that are based on works and, trying to earn ourselves respect and love. But instead we would be daily reminded that we are made right, that we are justified through Jesus alone. And please, we ask as we read these benefits in these first few verses of Romans five that they would be make a tangible difference in our lives, and we would enjoy the benefits of them that you have lavished upon us. Amen.