Since We Have Been Justified (Romans 5:1-5)

If the things of this world are not ultimately satisfying, where can we find this satisfaction? If peace of mind can’t be found in this world, it must come from outside this world. What we seek comes from almighty God, and from nowhere else. That’s what Augustine was trying to say 1500 years ago when he wrote his famous prayer: “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” Where can we go to find the things we want more than anything else in the world? We can go to God, for in Him we find what we seek.

With that as background, let's look at Romans 5:1-5; and as we do, Paul starts by including an important word. In a sense, it could be considered the key theme of the book of Romans. He uses the word “justified”. This theme of justification runs throughout the entire book. It means “to declare righteous”. When we are “justified” by God, he makes it “just as if I’d never sinned”. Paul spent the first three chapters of Romans making the case that we are sinners, far from God, in need of his righteousness. In chapter four he uses Abraham and Abraham’s faith as an illustration of God’s solution to our problem. As we begin chapter five today, we will see some of the product in our lives of our justification.