WE HAVE ACCESS
Romans 5:2
Man's natural state is terrible. By nature man is under
the wrath of God. He is the object of the divine wrath because of his sin. By
nature man is shut out from the presence of God. When man took sin into his
heart, God excluded man from the Garden of Eden. A barrier between man and the
holy presence of God was erected for the protection of sinful man. If man in
his natural and sinful state were to wander into the presence of God, it would
mean the destruction of man. He would die immediately. He would be burned into
nothingness by the holy flame of the divine presence. Our God is a consuming
fire to all such.
The conclusion of the Roman letter is that this is the natural
condition of each of us. In and of yourself, you have no access to God. All
that you can expect from God is His condemnation and wrath. This is all that
you deserve to receive from God. Yet for those God has justified, something
glorious has happened. They have been given access to the presence of God and
to His grace. Already we have noticed that those who have been justified have
peace with God, and now the Apostle adds that they have access.
This word access has a beautiful history. The word was used of
introducing someone, or ushering someone into the presence of the king. Some
would translate the word, "we have an introduction". In this sense
the word was used of the approach of the worshipper to God. In the later Greek
period the word was used of the place where ships came in. It was used for a
harbor or haven. This then is a bold claim. To the man who has been justified
by faith, access into the grace of our God has been given through the Lord
Jesus Christ. Let us notice the different aspects of this grace that are
suggested to us in the verse.
OUR ACCESS IS THROUGH CHRIST JESUS
How does a man gain access into the presence of God? Who will
introduce him to the living God and gain favor for Him before God? This is a
most important question. The Christian is a person who has found this access,
but he readily confesses that He found the access through the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is the way the statement begins, "Through whom". This
points us back directly to the "Lord Jesus Christ".
Man cannot gain access on his own merits or in his own way.
None would dare venture into the presence of God on his own. In the Old
Testament tabernacle, and later the temple, there was a heavy veil that hangs
between the worshipper and the manifestation of God. Only the High Priest ever
ventured beyond that veil, and he only once each year. The priest went on that
annual Day of Atonement covered with the smoke of the incense. Early in the
history of the tabernacle, two of the sons of Aaron violated this rule about
going beyond the veil. They were immediately burned to death by the holy fire
of the divine presence. God considered their crime so serious that their own
father was forbidden by God to even mourn over the death. This is a clear
indication of what would happen to any of us who ever dared intrude into the
divine presence without the Lord Jesus.
This statement also excludes the possibility that Mary or some
of the saints might gain access for us. The idea that the saints or the Mother
of our Lord can gain a hearing for us before God is foreign to the New
Testament. We gain our access through Him.
One aspect of this is found in the fact that Jesus removed the
sin which was preventing us from coming into the presence of God. Jesus is
able to introduce us to the Father without fear of divine wrath because He died
upon the Cross for our sins. Since He was offered for our trespasses, and
raised for our justification, we have this access. Another part of the truth
is that we approach God in Him. God deals with us in Him. This is a part of
divine truth that will he set forth even more plainly in the later part of this
letter.
One of the things that happened on the day Jesus died was the
destruction of the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy place.
This was an outward sign of the effectiveness of the work of our Lord upon the
Cross. It was a sign that the Father was willing to open the door to His throne
room to those who would come on the basis of that which Christ had done upon
the Cross. The only access any man can have to God is on the basis of the work
of Christ upon the Cross. through the High Priestly ministry of our Lord. It is
"through Him" that we have access.
OUR ACCESS IS INTO GRACE
"Grace" is the favor of God. It is presented as
though it were a place, a large room. The Lord Jesus has brought each believer
into this large hall and given them a place in the hall. It is being in a state
of divine favor.
This is a change for man. Man is by nature the child of wrath.
He lives with the personal knowledge that all he merits is the wrath of God.
Grace is just the opposite of the wrath of God. While wrath is what man
deserves, those who have been justified have been brought into a place where
they enjoy the divine favor.
This is a truth that my own heart finds it difficult to really
accept. Do you acknowledge and enjoy the privilege? This means that right now,
if you have been justified, you are in the place where you are overshadowed by
the divine favor. To put it even more in the language of the Scriptures, it
means right now that the eternal God bestows upon you the same favor that He has
bestowed upon His only Begotten Son from the foundation of the world.
Consideration of this truth makes me want to protest that I am a sinner. It
makes me want to cry out, "But 0 God, in my flesh there dwelleth no good
thing." But God answers, "I know that, but I am receiving you not
because of what you have done, or because of who you are, but because of the
righteousness of my Son in which you have been clothed.''
In the great doxology that opens the Ephesian letter, the
Apostle celebrates the same truth. In offering praise to God, he sings,
"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he that made us accepted
in the beloved." "Accepted" is the verbal form of the word
"grace". He has graced us in the Beloved. All of the favor, the
goodness of God has been bestowed upon us in the Beloved ‑‑‑ that is, in the
One that God has eternally loved, even the Lord Jesus Christ.
OUR ACCESS IS A FIXED PRIVILEGE
This is one of those places where we have difficulty conveying
in English all that the Apostle is saying in Greek. Both of the verbs in this
sentence are Greek perfects. This means that they point to something that has
been completed in the past that has abiding results. Let us see if we can
transfer this into our English. It could read, ''Through whom we have had
access with the result that we permanently have access into this grace,” “where
we have stood with the result that we now stand." This is not a smooth
translation, nor an acceptable one, but this is exactly the idea that the
Apostle meant for us to receive. This is the place into which the Christian has
been permanently brought. He now stands and will continue to stand in the favor
of God.
The permanence of this is rooted in the very method God used
in bringing us into the privilege. How did we find access into this grace? It
was through the Lord Jesus Christ. It was on the basis of God's justifying work
that we were made acceptable to God and were allowed to enter into His holy
presence. God's justifying work is that act whereby He bestows upon me freely
the wondrous gift of righteousness when I come to Him by faith, acknowledging
that I am an ungodly sinner. I am accepted without any regard to what I am in
myself. Any test would have indicated that I was nothing but a sinner. It is
the ungodly that He justifies. Since I did not gain this access through human
effort, the maintenance of it does not depend upon human effort. I received it
by grace, and the privilege continues to be mine by grace.
Does this make me presumptuous? Never!
However it does bring to me a deep sense of confidence and
assurance. My ability to earn the favor
of God is not greater now than it was before God saved me. It is a cause of humility and gratitude to
know that God has bestowed upon me graciously this access into a standing in
permanent favor. Whatever may happen, I
can know that God’s attitude toward me is one of favor through the Lord Jesus
Christ.
There are some tremendous practical implications to be drawn
from this truth. This truth becomes the
very basis of my prayer life. My
approach to God is on the basis of the fact that I have access to Him and stand
in His favor through the Lord Jesus Christ.
This means that I do not approach in my own merits, but in the merits of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This means that I
do not come before Him to gain His favor, but I have His favor. This should add boldness to the requests that
I make to Him. His heart is already inclined favorable toward me, because I am
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
This truth should bring a confident note to my approach to
life. If things depend upon me, then I
can never be confident for I know too much about myself. If they depend upon what Christ has done for
me, then I have no reason to fear. Thank
God! The favor which I now enjoy, the
grace which I am now receiving, is not coming to me because of my goodness, but
because of His work. God is treating me
as a justified sinner. This is the basis
for my blessed assurance. It is not
based upon something that I feel, for my feelings are so unpredictable, but
upon the very place into which God has brought me through His Son.
