God Shows His Love
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
Last week we began to look at this wonderful chapter in Romans chapter 5, considering the blessings that accompany justification. That word "justification" appears—it's the last word of chapter 4 and this chapter continues to enumerate the blessings that flow out of our salvation, that Christ was delivered on account of our transgressions and was raised on account of our justification, and we who believe in Christ have been justified. We've been brought into a right standing with God, and what we find here, as we noted last time, in these first 11 verses are the blessings which accompany justification, the wonderful benefits that flow down to us because of Christ's death on our behalf.
And Paul mentions them: the free access that we have as believers. We enjoy this free access into the very presence of God. We have this standing in grace, an introduction, an entrance into this standing—a standing in grace before God. We have access, we have acceptance with God as those who are now reconciled through the death of His Son, and we have this assured hope of glory, the joy, the hope that is ours as believers in Christ Jesus: "Christ in you, the hope of glory." And we traced last time the things that we have as believers. There are certain things that Paul says we possess.
We enjoy this acceptance, we have this access, we have peace with God, we have obtained a standing in grace, and because of what we have, we rejoice. We boast, he says in verse 2, verse 3, and verse 11. We boast, we rejoice, we glory in the hope of the glory of God. And we can even rejoice and boast in our afflictions, because God is working through it all. And because of what we have, and because of what we rejoice in, he says we shall be—verse 9 and 10—we shall be saved. We're saved from wrath through Christ, and we'll be saved by His life. And it's as if we have this hope of glory presently. It's so sure, it's so guaranteed. As the children of God, we have it now—verse 11: "And not only this, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation."
So we trace these blessings that we enjoy as the people of God through these verses by what we have, what we rejoice in, what we shall be, what we look forward to—and it's guaranteed even to us presently. We have an assured hope as the sons of God of a glorious entrance into the presence of God. And we were thinking about that this morning in Jude. We're looking with eager anticipation to that day when Christ will return and call His people home. We will be with Him, which is far better.
Here we struggle, as He tells us about those afflictions, those trials that come our way, but we're not without hope. We have this definite, this certain hope, and it's ours. These blessings flow to us because we are justified—God looking upon His people as just and righteous, perfectly righteous in His sight, accepted by the Father just as Christ is accepted.
We are justified. We are declared to be, or declared or pronounced to be, righteous in the sight of God, and because of that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have an entrance by faith into this gracious standing before God, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We have confidence based on our justification. But he says more than that—we have something else. We have an assurance. We have an assured hope, but we have this assurance of God's love as we travel through this world presently, as we deal with afflictions and trials.
We have this assurance that God is with us, God is for us, God is on our side, and God loves us, and He will see us through. He will fulfill His word. We have Christ in us, the hope of glory. And so we have here a further blessing that flows out of our justification. It's the assurance of God's love. "the love of God," he says in verse 5, "has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us." And in verse 8, "God demonstrates” – God shows– “His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
The assurance of God's love—”the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us”. This assurance of God's love for sinners like us, Paul says, it comes through the death of Christ. How do you know you are loved of God? How do you know you are a child of God? He tells us in verse 8, "God demonstrated His own love to us… Christ died for us."
You want proof of God's love for you? The greatest expression and the greatest proof of God's love for sinners is found in the cross. God shows, “He demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." The supreme proof of God's love is this: He gave His Son to be our substitute. He gave His Son for sinners like us.
Christ died for us. And who is the "us" here? We're described as the weak, powerless, helpless, morally incapable of saving ourselves. We are ungodly, irreverent, rebellious, sinners, enemies even. Those who could not save themselves. We were helpless. We were hopeless. We were without God in this world. We were far from God. We were aliens to God, strangers to His grace. We were without God. We were without strength, he says. We were without help. We were without hope in ourselves.
And Paul says, to such God has shown His love. Christ died for us. Verse 25 of chapter 4, Jesus “was delivered on account of our transgressions"—transgressions not His own, but for our transgressions—"and He was raised again on account of our justification."
So here you have this wonderful doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone, that our sins were laid to His account, put to His charge. He was put to death on account of our transgressions, but He was raised again on account of our justification—our sins being laid on Him, Christ's righteousness being put to our account—so that we now are reckoned to be perfectly righteous in the sight of God, clothed in the garments of salvation, as Isaiah tells us, clothed in the perfect robes of Christ's righteousness.
So that when God the Father in Heaven looks down upon me, He sees me as covered in the umbrella of God's perfect righteousness, and I'm shielded from the wrath of God. I'm accepted in the beloved Son. He was delivered on account of our transgressions and raised on account of our justification.
At the cross, our sin was credited to Jesus Christ, and His righteousness was credited to us, and now God sees us in Christ, clothed in that perfect righteousness. He's satisfied, and the fact that God raised up Christ from the dead, that's a very receipt that His justice has been vindicated. It's a guarantee that He is satisfied with the finished work of Christ on our behalf, and there is therefore no condemnation now. Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." That wrath has been turned away. We've been reconciled to God.
We who were afar off have been brought near and joined to God in Christ, and now we find approval. We're commended to God on account of Christ's finished work on our behalf. Christ died for us. How does God show His love? How does He put it on display? How does He do that? He proves and He demonstrates His love by pointing us to the death of His own Son at Calvary. When God wants to show us His love, He leads us to Calvary's cross, to Christ's death on our behalf, on behalf of sinners like us.
And every believer, every child of God who has put their faith in Jesus Christ has tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious. We have tasted the sweetness of His salvation. We have tasted by experience the love of God. It has been made known to us. All true Christians know the love of God, having tasted the outpouring of God's love in our heart by the Spirit who is given to us. And that's another reason we can know God's love for us, be assured of God's love.
Not only did God give His only begotten Son, but God has given to us His Holy Spirit. His Spirit now dwells in us, resides in us as a seal, as a guarantee that what we have in Christ will be fulfilled. The love of God has washed over our soul by the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Spirit who is given to us. We could say the love of God that we have come to know and experience, it's something real to us. It's real in our experience. We can testify of its truth.
We acknowledge the power of the gospel. This is not something that is distant and unknown, but this is something that is real in our experience. We have come to know personally, genuinely, intimately the love of God for us. The love God demonstrates to us in Christ and gives by His Spirit we have experienced. We have come to know by experience the love of God in Christ Jesus. The love of God has been poured out in our souls. It floods our souls. There's a fullness about this.
There's something real and true about the fact that God has poured it out. It's gushed out. It is lavish. It is free. It is something that we have come to know personally and intimately. The love of God poured out in our hearts is the knowledge that is conveyed there by the Holy Spirit of our new relationship, our new standing. God assures us of His love that we are children of the Father. We have a new standing now in grace as sons before the Father with this free access into His presence, this acceptance in Christ, and this assurance that we have a joy and a hope laid up for us in glory.
It's this knowledge that is connected to our position, to our standing before God as those who are justified in His sight. And how do we now stand before God? We stand in His grace, but we stand as those who are justified. We have tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious. This is something that we have come to know by personal experience, and that's what the Holy Spirit gives to our hearts. It is a love that is poured out within our hearts.
The Holy Spirit, who is the dispenser of God's gifts and blessings to us, is also Himself God's gift to the church. God has given His Holy Spirit to us. The Spirit of God resides within us, and in grace the Holy Spirit pours out on us God's love freely, lavishly, abundantly. He gives grace upon grace upon grace, and that's the work of God in the regenerated soul. And it's through the Holy Spirit who is given to us, it says there in verse 5.
This is a work of God in the soul of man, the Holy Spirit dwelling in us as God's gift to His people, to continue on that work of Christ in us, to sanctify us and lead us on to glory. And to think, as it says in Galatians 4:6, God sent forth His Son so that He might redeem us, those who are under the law, so that we might receive this adoption as sons. And because you are sons, “God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’." We have a Father in Heaven who loves us. And how do we know His love? He sent His Son to die for us, and He has given us His Holy Spirit who now dwells in us.
We have come to know and experience and to receive the Spirit of adoption as sons. God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. And so we cry, Abba, Father. God, by His Spirit, works in our hearts the miracle of the new birth. Being born of God, we are now His children. And God, by His Spirit, dwells in us. The Holy Spirit is sent forth by God the Father into our hearts. He makes known to us the wondrous fact of our relationship to the Father as children, as sons.
The Spirit Himself bears witness, bears testimony to the fact that we are now the children of God. And so we have this wonderful proof, this wonderful demonstration of God's love for us. God sent His Son to die in our place. God has given us of His Spirit.
The Bible commentator Stuart Elliot said, "The proof and the measure of God's love is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We were unrighteous, deliberately and inexcusably wicked, perverted within and without. We were God's enemies, yet Christ died for us.” Isn't that amazing? He died, not for His friends as we read here, you know. "For one will hardly die for a righteous man” – some may even dare to die for a good man – “But God demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners,” – enemies. He “died for us."
Christ died for us, and the cross is a demonstration of love which is without parallel. It's the overwhelming evidence that God loves us. And so in the death of Christ for us, we have such proof of God's love that we know He will never forsake us.
We have this hope in Christ that come what may, He will see us through. We are His. We are His children. He gave His Son for us. He has given us His Spirit who now dwells in us as a seal and pledge of our acceptance and our inheritance. And He will see us through. And we have this definite hope even now. It says in verse 3, "And not only this, but we also boast" –we can boast and rejoice even – “in our afflictions”.
You know, as James said, "Count it all joy."
How can you count it all joy in a day of trial and affliction? You can boast in your afflictions knowing that affliction brings about perseverance. Perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope. God is putting you to the test. He's proving you. He's preparing you. He's refining you. He's working in you. He's proving that character, that what you have is real. And so these afflictions test you, prove you. And in it all, you have hope, the hope. It's a definite hope. It's a certain hope.
Hope does not put to shame. In the death of Christ, we have such proof of God's love that we know that He will never put us to shame. He will never disappoint us. He will never forsake us, come what may, whatever we're facing here. Right now, in this day, He will see us through, and He's working. It's an evidence of His grace, if you like. It's an evidence that God hasn't forsaken us. He's still working with us. He's still refining us. He's still shaping us. He's still sanctifying us, and He's using even these afflictions to do that.
And the Holy Spirit is the one who gives you this assured hope of the love of God. Because, He says, "hope does not put to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." The assured hope, He will see us through to the very end. He will lose none of those who belong to Him. None of His sheep will be lost. And here Paul argues from the greater to the lesser. If this is what God has done for you in Christ, when you were an enemy, when you were an alien, a stranger to grace in God, when you were a rebel to God, when you were ungodly, weak, without hope, without God, without strength, unable to save yourself or do anything to merit the favor of God—if God would go to such extreme lengths to rescue you and to save you.
If God has loved you so much when you were a sinner, an enemy—much more then, being now reconciled as His friend. No longer an enemy, but a friend. Reconciled, at peace with God. One with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Having this access through the Spirit into His presence. This assurance of His love. Here Paul argues, this is the logic: if God so loved you when you were His enemy—verse 9—"Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God, we shall be saved by His life." Much more then, we shall be saved by His life.
If God went to such great lengths to rescue me, to save me, His enemy, what will He not do for me now that I am His friend? Much more than I could ever imagine or anticipate. He's the God of the much more, who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all, beyond all that we ask or even imagine. The experience of the love of God enjoyed by believers is the work of God in the soul. It's the result of the supernatural, regenerating, miraculous work of the Holy Spirit within us. It's through the Holy Spirit who is given unto us.
"But as many as received Him,” – Christ, – “to them gave He the right the power to become the sons of God, even to those who believe in His name.” You're born again, not of the will of man, not of the flesh, but of God. It's the work of God in the soul of man. It's that gracious, sweet, transforming, powerful work of God the Holy Spirit that raises dead sinners to life, to walk in newness of life, to know and experience the love of God. The Holy Spirit brings us to an understanding of certain facts.
The natural man receives not the things of God. They're spiritually discerned. And God, by His Spirit, has brought us to this place where we see ourselves as we really are before God, as we stand before Him in our sin, in our rebellion, worthy of wrath. But we see also Christ died for us. Christ took our place. The Spirit of God makes the things of Christ real to us, a reality in our lives, so that we, by faith, look to Christ, believe in Him, accept His finished work on our behalf.
And we enjoy this real heart experience and assurance of being loved by God because of the outpouring of the love of God into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. And we know by experience we are loved by God. Knowing by experience you are loved of God is, Paul says here, a Holy Spirit-given reality. It is a Holy Spirit-given experience of God's love. And so much so, even as we walk through the trials here, the afflictions that he mentions, those things that test us, that threaten our faith, we can know for certain that God is with us. God is for us. He is on our side because He has given us the Holy Spirit to help us.
He's our Helper. He is our Comforter, the One who comes alongside to aid us, the One who ever lives to make intercession for us, who is always pleading our case before the Father, who is one with the Father and prays and intercedes on our behalf as One who is in line with the Father's will. The Father knows the mind of the Spirit, and the Spirit knows the will of the Father. They're one. And so He ever lives. When we are without strength and weak and hardly know how to pray as we ought, the Holy Spirit, Paul tells us in chapter 8, “intercedes for us”. And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, “but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."
The Holy Spirit is interceding for us according to the will of God because He knows the mind of God. He is one with the Father. And as we go through these trials, Paul says, we have this help, this assistance, this Comforter—comfort in our suffering—One who is continuing to do the work of Christ and is One who is continuing to sanctify us and conform us to the image of our Savior, and One who is proving to us that our hope really is in God and not in the things of this world.
And the hope that we have in God is a genuine hope, is a certain hope, is a definite hope that will be realized. It's not a hope that will disappoint, of which we will be ashamed.
We will come through with confidence in the grace of God, in Christ, realizing that what we have is real and what God has said is true, and we can hold on to our Lord. He will never let us go. He will see us through.
And so because God's love has washed over our souls, has been poured in, has flooded our souls, you know, child of God, He will never let you down. He will never disappoint you. You will never be put to shame because your hope will not be disappointed. It will not fail. It will not prove to be an empty hope because of God's love for you.
There is a warrant for your hope in God. That's the work of God, the Holy Spirit, in our souls—the Holy Spirit who is given to us. And the reality of your salvation rests in this: Christ died for us. God shows to me now, presently, that truth. And by looking to the cross of Christ, we come to know the love of God for us. And that's the work of the Holy Spirit in us. A greater sense of God's love for me comes when I look to the cross, when I contemplate the work of Christ on my behalf, when I consider Him, and how we need to keep ourselves in the love of God, in the center of God's love, motivated by God's love for us.
Looking to the God who loves us. Trusting the God who loves us. Looking to Him for strength. What a blessing. What blessings are ours in Christ. We have peace with God. Acceptance. No longer enemies. God is no more angry with us. We're not under wrath. We'll never be condemned. We will not be in hell. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Acceptance.
And we have this access, verse 2, "through whom we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace." We have a standing in grace. We can come before our King any time, any day. We will worship Him. We will love Him. Seek Him. And He will never turn us away. We find acceptance because of our standing in grace as those who are justified. And we have this assurance. We boast. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Blessed results. Things that we have. Things that we enjoy. Things that we shall be. And we rejoice in all that God has done for these souls of ours in Christ. Peace with God. A standing in grace. Divine favor and fellowship. Assured hope. We rejoice that God will be completely glorified in that day. It's living with an eye to the glory of God. Yes, it'll be a wonderful day. The hope of glory—Christ in us. The hope of glory. We will be glorified. But more than that, God will be glorified.
The hope of glory is the certain hope that God will be glorified through it all. Through the salvation of sinners like us. As He sees us through and brings us into His presence. "He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied." God is glorified through it all. It's His glory. That's the end. We can know this assurance of His love, joy, and trials. The knowledge and experience of God's love flooding our souls. We, who were once enemies, now friends. We, who were previously condemned, now reconciled.
We are no longer condemned, but we're in full possession of an eternally secure hope. And Paul says, in this we rejoice. We rejoice. "And not only this," – verse 11, – "but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ." We glory. We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ to Whom now we have received reconciliation. We rejoice in the rich blessings we enjoy upon the basis and the grounds of our justification. A justification that God in Christ has provided for us.
We boast in that. That's our only boast. "God forbid that I should boast, save in the cross of Christ." That's my only plea. My only argument. I boast. I exalt triumphantly in the cross of Christ. And the fact that God in love gave His Son to die for me. His Spirit resides within me. And He will see me through to the very end. Through every present difficulty, every toil and danger and snare. He will refine us. He will remove the dross. He's preparing us for glory. And He will bring us home. We boast in the hope and the glory of God. The glory of God.
Let's pray.
And Paul mentions them: the free access that we have as believers. We enjoy this free access into the very presence of God. We have this standing in grace, an introduction, an entrance into this standing—a standing in grace before God. We have access, we have acceptance with God as those who are now reconciled through the death of His Son, and we have this assured hope of glory, the joy, the hope that is ours as believers in Christ Jesus: "Christ in you, the hope of glory." And we traced last time the things that we have as believers. There are certain things that Paul says we possess.
We enjoy this acceptance, we have this access, we have peace with God, we have obtained a standing in grace, and because of what we have, we rejoice. We boast, he says in verse 2, verse 3, and verse 11. We boast, we rejoice, we glory in the hope of the glory of God. And we can even rejoice and boast in our afflictions, because God is working through it all. And because of what we have, and because of what we rejoice in, he says we shall be—verse 9 and 10—we shall be saved. We're saved from wrath through Christ, and we'll be saved by His life. And it's as if we have this hope of glory presently. It's so sure, it's so guaranteed. As the children of God, we have it now—verse 11: "And not only this, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation."
So we trace these blessings that we enjoy as the people of God through these verses by what we have, what we rejoice in, what we shall be, what we look forward to—and it's guaranteed even to us presently. We have an assured hope as the sons of God of a glorious entrance into the presence of God. And we were thinking about that this morning in Jude. We're looking with eager anticipation to that day when Christ will return and call His people home. We will be with Him, which is far better.
Here we struggle, as He tells us about those afflictions, those trials that come our way, but we're not without hope. We have this definite, this certain hope, and it's ours. These blessings flow to us because we are justified—God looking upon His people as just and righteous, perfectly righteous in His sight, accepted by the Father just as Christ is accepted.
We are justified. We are declared to be, or declared or pronounced to be, righteous in the sight of God, and because of that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have an entrance by faith into this gracious standing before God, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We have confidence based on our justification. But he says more than that—we have something else. We have an assurance. We have an assured hope, but we have this assurance of God's love as we travel through this world presently, as we deal with afflictions and trials.
We have this assurance that God is with us, God is for us, God is on our side, and God loves us, and He will see us through. He will fulfill His word. We have Christ in us, the hope of glory. And so we have here a further blessing that flows out of our justification. It's the assurance of God's love. "the love of God," he says in verse 5, "has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us." And in verse 8, "God demonstrates” – God shows– “His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
The assurance of God's love—”the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us”. This assurance of God's love for sinners like us, Paul says, it comes through the death of Christ. How do you know you are loved of God? How do you know you are a child of God? He tells us in verse 8, "God demonstrated His own love to us… Christ died for us."
You want proof of God's love for you? The greatest expression and the greatest proof of God's love for sinners is found in the cross. God shows, “He demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." The supreme proof of God's love is this: He gave His Son to be our substitute. He gave His Son for sinners like us.
Christ died for us. And who is the "us" here? We're described as the weak, powerless, helpless, morally incapable of saving ourselves. We are ungodly, irreverent, rebellious, sinners, enemies even. Those who could not save themselves. We were helpless. We were hopeless. We were without God in this world. We were far from God. We were aliens to God, strangers to His grace. We were without God. We were without strength, he says. We were without help. We were without hope in ourselves.
And Paul says, to such God has shown His love. Christ died for us. Verse 25 of chapter 4, Jesus “was delivered on account of our transgressions"—transgressions not His own, but for our transgressions—"and He was raised again on account of our justification."
So here you have this wonderful doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone, that our sins were laid to His account, put to His charge. He was put to death on account of our transgressions, but He was raised again on account of our justification—our sins being laid on Him, Christ's righteousness being put to our account—so that we now are reckoned to be perfectly righteous in the sight of God, clothed in the garments of salvation, as Isaiah tells us, clothed in the perfect robes of Christ's righteousness.
So that when God the Father in Heaven looks down upon me, He sees me as covered in the umbrella of God's perfect righteousness, and I'm shielded from the wrath of God. I'm accepted in the beloved Son. He was delivered on account of our transgressions and raised on account of our justification.
At the cross, our sin was credited to Jesus Christ, and His righteousness was credited to us, and now God sees us in Christ, clothed in that perfect righteousness. He's satisfied, and the fact that God raised up Christ from the dead, that's a very receipt that His justice has been vindicated. It's a guarantee that He is satisfied with the finished work of Christ on our behalf, and there is therefore no condemnation now. Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." That wrath has been turned away. We've been reconciled to God.
We who were afar off have been brought near and joined to God in Christ, and now we find approval. We're commended to God on account of Christ's finished work on our behalf. Christ died for us. How does God show His love? How does He put it on display? How does He do that? He proves and He demonstrates His love by pointing us to the death of His own Son at Calvary. When God wants to show us His love, He leads us to Calvary's cross, to Christ's death on our behalf, on behalf of sinners like us.
And every believer, every child of God who has put their faith in Jesus Christ has tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious. We have tasted the sweetness of His salvation. We have tasted by experience the love of God. It has been made known to us. All true Christians know the love of God, having tasted the outpouring of God's love in our heart by the Spirit who is given to us. And that's another reason we can know God's love for us, be assured of God's love.
Not only did God give His only begotten Son, but God has given to us His Holy Spirit. His Spirit now dwells in us, resides in us as a seal, as a guarantee that what we have in Christ will be fulfilled. The love of God has washed over our soul by the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Spirit who is given to us. We could say the love of God that we have come to know and experience, it's something real to us. It's real in our experience. We can testify of its truth.
We acknowledge the power of the gospel. This is not something that is distant and unknown, but this is something that is real in our experience. We have come to know personally, genuinely, intimately the love of God for us. The love God demonstrates to us in Christ and gives by His Spirit we have experienced. We have come to know by experience the love of God in Christ Jesus. The love of God has been poured out in our souls. It floods our souls. There's a fullness about this.
There's something real and true about the fact that God has poured it out. It's gushed out. It is lavish. It is free. It is something that we have come to know personally and intimately. The love of God poured out in our hearts is the knowledge that is conveyed there by the Holy Spirit of our new relationship, our new standing. God assures us of His love that we are children of the Father. We have a new standing now in grace as sons before the Father with this free access into His presence, this acceptance in Christ, and this assurance that we have a joy and a hope laid up for us in glory.
It's this knowledge that is connected to our position, to our standing before God as those who are justified in His sight. And how do we now stand before God? We stand in His grace, but we stand as those who are justified. We have tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious. This is something that we have come to know by personal experience, and that's what the Holy Spirit gives to our hearts. It is a love that is poured out within our hearts.
The Holy Spirit, who is the dispenser of God's gifts and blessings to us, is also Himself God's gift to the church. God has given His Holy Spirit to us. The Spirit of God resides within us, and in grace the Holy Spirit pours out on us God's love freely, lavishly, abundantly. He gives grace upon grace upon grace, and that's the work of God in the regenerated soul. And it's through the Holy Spirit who is given to us, it says there in verse 5.
This is a work of God in the soul of man, the Holy Spirit dwelling in us as God's gift to His people, to continue on that work of Christ in us, to sanctify us and lead us on to glory. And to think, as it says in Galatians 4:6, God sent forth His Son so that He might redeem us, those who are under the law, so that we might receive this adoption as sons. And because you are sons, “God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’." We have a Father in Heaven who loves us. And how do we know His love? He sent His Son to die for us, and He has given us His Holy Spirit who now dwells in us.
We have come to know and experience and to receive the Spirit of adoption as sons. God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. And so we cry, Abba, Father. God, by His Spirit, works in our hearts the miracle of the new birth. Being born of God, we are now His children. And God, by His Spirit, dwells in us. The Holy Spirit is sent forth by God the Father into our hearts. He makes known to us the wondrous fact of our relationship to the Father as children, as sons.
The Spirit Himself bears witness, bears testimony to the fact that we are now the children of God. And so we have this wonderful proof, this wonderful demonstration of God's love for us. God sent His Son to die in our place. God has given us of His Spirit.
The Bible commentator Stuart Elliot said, "The proof and the measure of God's love is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We were unrighteous, deliberately and inexcusably wicked, perverted within and without. We were God's enemies, yet Christ died for us.” Isn't that amazing? He died, not for His friends as we read here, you know. "For one will hardly die for a righteous man” – some may even dare to die for a good man – “But God demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners,” – enemies. He “died for us."
Christ died for us, and the cross is a demonstration of love which is without parallel. It's the overwhelming evidence that God loves us. And so in the death of Christ for us, we have such proof of God's love that we know He will never forsake us.
We have this hope in Christ that come what may, He will see us through. We are His. We are His children. He gave His Son for us. He has given us His Spirit who now dwells in us as a seal and pledge of our acceptance and our inheritance. And He will see us through. And we have this definite hope even now. It says in verse 3, "And not only this, but we also boast" –we can boast and rejoice even – “in our afflictions”.
You know, as James said, "Count it all joy."
How can you count it all joy in a day of trial and affliction? You can boast in your afflictions knowing that affliction brings about perseverance. Perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope. God is putting you to the test. He's proving you. He's preparing you. He's refining you. He's working in you. He's proving that character, that what you have is real. And so these afflictions test you, prove you. And in it all, you have hope, the hope. It's a definite hope. It's a certain hope.
Hope does not put to shame. In the death of Christ, we have such proof of God's love that we know that He will never put us to shame. He will never disappoint us. He will never forsake us, come what may, whatever we're facing here. Right now, in this day, He will see us through, and He's working. It's an evidence of His grace, if you like. It's an evidence that God hasn't forsaken us. He's still working with us. He's still refining us. He's still shaping us. He's still sanctifying us, and He's using even these afflictions to do that.
And the Holy Spirit is the one who gives you this assured hope of the love of God. Because, He says, "hope does not put to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." The assured hope, He will see us through to the very end. He will lose none of those who belong to Him. None of His sheep will be lost. And here Paul argues from the greater to the lesser. If this is what God has done for you in Christ, when you were an enemy, when you were an alien, a stranger to grace in God, when you were a rebel to God, when you were ungodly, weak, without hope, without God, without strength, unable to save yourself or do anything to merit the favor of God—if God would go to such extreme lengths to rescue you and to save you.
If God has loved you so much when you were a sinner, an enemy—much more then, being now reconciled as His friend. No longer an enemy, but a friend. Reconciled, at peace with God. One with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Having this access through the Spirit into His presence. This assurance of His love. Here Paul argues, this is the logic: if God so loved you when you were His enemy—verse 9—"Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God, we shall be saved by His life." Much more then, we shall be saved by His life.
If God went to such great lengths to rescue me, to save me, His enemy, what will He not do for me now that I am His friend? Much more than I could ever imagine or anticipate. He's the God of the much more, who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all, beyond all that we ask or even imagine. The experience of the love of God enjoyed by believers is the work of God in the soul. It's the result of the supernatural, regenerating, miraculous work of the Holy Spirit within us. It's through the Holy Spirit who is given unto us.
"But as many as received Him,” – Christ, – “to them gave He the right the power to become the sons of God, even to those who believe in His name.” You're born again, not of the will of man, not of the flesh, but of God. It's the work of God in the soul of man. It's that gracious, sweet, transforming, powerful work of God the Holy Spirit that raises dead sinners to life, to walk in newness of life, to know and experience the love of God. The Holy Spirit brings us to an understanding of certain facts.
The natural man receives not the things of God. They're spiritually discerned. And God, by His Spirit, has brought us to this place where we see ourselves as we really are before God, as we stand before Him in our sin, in our rebellion, worthy of wrath. But we see also Christ died for us. Christ took our place. The Spirit of God makes the things of Christ real to us, a reality in our lives, so that we, by faith, look to Christ, believe in Him, accept His finished work on our behalf.
And we enjoy this real heart experience and assurance of being loved by God because of the outpouring of the love of God into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. And we know by experience we are loved by God. Knowing by experience you are loved of God is, Paul says here, a Holy Spirit-given reality. It is a Holy Spirit-given experience of God's love. And so much so, even as we walk through the trials here, the afflictions that he mentions, those things that test us, that threaten our faith, we can know for certain that God is with us. God is for us. He is on our side because He has given us the Holy Spirit to help us.
He's our Helper. He is our Comforter, the One who comes alongside to aid us, the One who ever lives to make intercession for us, who is always pleading our case before the Father, who is one with the Father and prays and intercedes on our behalf as One who is in line with the Father's will. The Father knows the mind of the Spirit, and the Spirit knows the will of the Father. They're one. And so He ever lives. When we are without strength and weak and hardly know how to pray as we ought, the Holy Spirit, Paul tells us in chapter 8, “intercedes for us”. And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, “but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."
The Holy Spirit is interceding for us according to the will of God because He knows the mind of God. He is one with the Father. And as we go through these trials, Paul says, we have this help, this assistance, this Comforter—comfort in our suffering—One who is continuing to do the work of Christ and is One who is continuing to sanctify us and conform us to the image of our Savior, and One who is proving to us that our hope really is in God and not in the things of this world.
And the hope that we have in God is a genuine hope, is a certain hope, is a definite hope that will be realized. It's not a hope that will disappoint, of which we will be ashamed.
We will come through with confidence in the grace of God, in Christ, realizing that what we have is real and what God has said is true, and we can hold on to our Lord. He will never let us go. He will see us through.
And so because God's love has washed over our souls, has been poured in, has flooded our souls, you know, child of God, He will never let you down. He will never disappoint you. You will never be put to shame because your hope will not be disappointed. It will not fail. It will not prove to be an empty hope because of God's love for you.
There is a warrant for your hope in God. That's the work of God, the Holy Spirit, in our souls—the Holy Spirit who is given to us. And the reality of your salvation rests in this: Christ died for us. God shows to me now, presently, that truth. And by looking to the cross of Christ, we come to know the love of God for us. And that's the work of the Holy Spirit in us. A greater sense of God's love for me comes when I look to the cross, when I contemplate the work of Christ on my behalf, when I consider Him, and how we need to keep ourselves in the love of God, in the center of God's love, motivated by God's love for us.
Looking to the God who loves us. Trusting the God who loves us. Looking to Him for strength. What a blessing. What blessings are ours in Christ. We have peace with God. Acceptance. No longer enemies. God is no more angry with us. We're not under wrath. We'll never be condemned. We will not be in hell. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Acceptance.
And we have this access, verse 2, "through whom we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace." We have a standing in grace. We can come before our King any time, any day. We will worship Him. We will love Him. Seek Him. And He will never turn us away. We find acceptance because of our standing in grace as those who are justified. And we have this assurance. We boast. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Blessed results. Things that we have. Things that we enjoy. Things that we shall be. And we rejoice in all that God has done for these souls of ours in Christ. Peace with God. A standing in grace. Divine favor and fellowship. Assured hope. We rejoice that God will be completely glorified in that day. It's living with an eye to the glory of God. Yes, it'll be a wonderful day. The hope of glory—Christ in us. The hope of glory. We will be glorified. But more than that, God will be glorified.
The hope of glory is the certain hope that God will be glorified through it all. Through the salvation of sinners like us. As He sees us through and brings us into His presence. "He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied." God is glorified through it all. It's His glory. That's the end. We can know this assurance of His love, joy, and trials. The knowledge and experience of God's love flooding our souls. We, who were once enemies, now friends. We, who were previously condemned, now reconciled.
We are no longer condemned, but we're in full possession of an eternally secure hope. And Paul says, in this we rejoice. We rejoice. "And not only this," – verse 11, – "but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ." We glory. We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ to Whom now we have received reconciliation. We rejoice in the rich blessings we enjoy upon the basis and the grounds of our justification. A justification that God in Christ has provided for us.
We boast in that. That's our only boast. "God forbid that I should boast, save in the cross of Christ." That's my only plea. My only argument. I boast. I exalt triumphantly in the cross of Christ. And the fact that God in love gave His Son to die for me. His Spirit resides within me. And He will see me through to the very end. Through every present difficulty, every toil and danger and snare. He will refine us. He will remove the dross. He's preparing us for glory. And He will bring us home. We boast in the hope and the glory of God. The glory of God.
Let's pray.
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