Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (2) through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. (5) Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (6) For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (7) For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. (8) But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul. Paul has settled the question that justification is by faith and not man’s good works. All who are justified have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ by the blood of the cross. It is settled forever. We also have access to God by faith alone in Christ alone into the grace in which we stand. Peace here is not a state of mind or heart but a condition; sin had alienated God and man, a breach man could not mend. Our sins are not simply covered but removed in Christ – it is not a precarious state.
The hope of the believer certainly ends in salvation. At the moment of faith in Christ Jesus, the Spirit becomes indwelling – this benefit of justification is hope which will not disappoint. The love of God is in our hearts – given us by the Spirit despite the unworthiness of it’s objects as sinners, ungodly and enemies. We were not able to understand spiritual truth nor, in sin, did we want to. While we were alienated with God and rejected Him, He came to us in Christ’s atoning perfect death. Through the Spirit God worked in us a change of will. In justification the faithful are now children of God.
Our verses today do away with all works based salvation – it is not because of our loveliness but in the constancy of the love of God. Our hope of heaven is secure because it doesn’t have anything to do with us – it is rather in spite of us. It is all and only of grace – all through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.