Scripture Reading: Rom. 5:1-11
Ⅰ
Justification is God's action in approving us according to His standard of righteousness; the believers'righteousness is not a condition that they possess in themselves but a person to whom they are joined, the living Christ Himself:
A
When we believe into Christ, we receive God's forgiveness (Acts 10:43), and God can justify us (Rom. 3:24, 26) by making Christ our righteousness and by clothing us with Christ as our robe of righteousness (Isa. 61:10; Luke 15:22; Jer. 23:6; Zech. 3:4).
B
Life is the goal of God's salvation; thus, justification is “of life ”; through justification we have come up to the standard of God's righteousness and correspond with it so that now He can impart His life into us—Rom. 5:18.
Ⅱ
The result of our justification is the full enjoyment of God in Christ as our life—vv. 1-11:
A
The result of our justification is embodied in six wonderful things—love (v. 5), grace (v. 2), peace (v. 1), hope (v. 2), life (v. 10), and glory (v. 2)—for our enjoyment; these verses also reveal the Triune God—the Holy Spirit (v. 5), Christ (v. 6), and God (v. 11)—for our enjoyment.
B
Through the redeeming death of Christ, God has justified us sinners and has reconciled us, His enemies, to Himself (vv. 1, 10-11); furthermore, “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us ” (v. 5):
１
Although we may be afflicted, poor, and depressed, we cannot deny the presence of God's love within us; in order to stay on the line of life, which is Christ Himself (John 14:6a), we need to keep ourselves in the love of God (Jude 20-21), which is God Himself (1 John 4:8, 16).
２
We need to fan our God-given spirit of love into flame so that we can have a burning spirit of love to overcome the degradation of today's church; to fan our spirit into flame is to build up the habit of exercising our spirit continually so that we may stay in contact with the Lord as the Spirit in our spirit—2 Tim. 1:6-7; 4:22.
C
“We have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand ” (Rom. 5:2); since we have been justified by faith and stand in the realm of grace, “we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ ” (v. 1):
１
Having peace “toward ” God means that our journey into God through our being justified out of faith has not yet been completed, and we are still on the way into God; according to Luke 7, the Lord Jesus told the sinful woman, who “loved much ” because she had been forgiven much (vv. 47-48) in order to be saved, to “go into peace ” (v. 50, lit.).
２
Once we have passed through the gate of justification, we need to walk on the way of peace (Rom. 3:17); when we set our mind on the spirit—by caring for our spirit, using our spirit, paying attention to our spirit, contacting God by our spirit in communion with the Spirit of God, and walking and living in our spirit—our mind becomes peace to give us an inner feeling of rest, release, brightness, and comfort (8:6).
Ⅲ
In the realm of grace, we have God as our boast and exultation for our enjoyment and rejoicing; to boast in God is also to “boast in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces endurance; and endurance, approvedness; and approvedness, hope”—5:3-4, 11:
A
Tribulation is actually the incarnation of grace and the sweet visitation of grace; to reject tribulation is to reject grace, which is God as our portion for our enjoyment; grace mainly visits us in the form of tribulation by which God causes all things (all persons, all matters, all situations, all circumstances, and all environments) to work together for good, which is our gaining more of Christ to have Him wrought into our being, so that we may be transformed metabolically and conformed to Christ's image and so that we may be brought into the full sonship—2 Cor. 12:7-9; Rom. 8:28-29.
B
Tribulation issues in endurance, and endurance produces approvedness, which is tested character and approved worth (Phil. 2:19-22); Paul says that he and his co-workers had been “approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel ” (1 Thes. 2:4); God proved, examined, and tested their hearts continually so that their speaking of the gospel was not of themselves to please men but of God to please Him:
１
First Peter 1:7 says that the proving of our faith is “much more precious than of gold which perishes though it is proved by fire, ” the fire of trials and sufferings; when gold that is raw suffers the burning of the purifying fire, it acquires a quality that is easily approved by everyone—Mal. 3:3.
２
The Lord wants us to pay the price to gain Him as the golden faith through the fiery trials so that we may participate in the real gold, which is Christ Himself as the divine life with the divine nature for the building up of His Body; thus, we can become a pure golden lampstand for the building of the golden New Jerusalem—Rev. 3:18; 1:20; 21:18, 23; 2 Pet. 1:4.
３
Some of the saints who love the Lord think that they are suitable to work for the Lord because they have a certain amount of life and light, but they are raw and lack the quality of approvedness, an approved quality resulting from the endurance of tribulation and testing; this quality makes the people who are being ministered to feel happy, sweet, and comfortable.
４
We all must pray, “Lord, grant me approvedness ”; the Lord will then raise up the circumstances that will produce approvedness for us; although we are the slaves of Christ, we lack approvedness; this troubles God, damages us, and also bothers the saints and the household of God; by our light and our gift we help the saints, but by our lack of approvedness we hurt them—Matt. 24:45-51.
C
Along with approvedness, we have hope (Rom. 5:4), and we boast because of the hope of the glory of God (v. 2):
１
Although we stand in grace and walk in peace, we are not yet fully in glory, which is God Himself expressed; “our momentary lightness of affliction works out for us, more and more surpassingly, an eternal weight of glory ”—2 Cor. 4:17.
２
The God of all grace has called us into His eternal glory in Christ Jesus; here and now we are enjoying Christ, who dwells in our spirit, as our hope of glory—1 Pet. 5:10; 1 Thes. 2:12; Col. 1:27; Phil. 3:21.
３
The Lord is leading us, His many sons, into glory by daily sanctifying us (Heb. 2:10-11), and we are daily being transformed from one degree of glory to another by keeping our hearts turned to the Lord to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3:16-18; 4:6b).
D
As we enjoy Christ in our sufferings, we are being saved in His life for accomplishing the organic goal of God's dynamic salvation, which is the producing and building up of the organic Body of Christ expressed in the local churches, where we enjoy the rich grace of the Lord and where the God of peace crushes Satan under our feet for His glorious expression and for the display of His victory—Rom. 5:10; 12:5; 16:1, 4-5, 16, 20.