WE HAVE ACCESS-Rev. M.D. Rogers

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.