The Foundation of Hope – Romans 5:6-11

Bethel Baptist Church – David Rising

Romans 5:6-11; August 30, 2026 Sunday AM

The Foundation of Hope

Last week we looked at three blessings believers enjoy as a result of God’s work of justification. If you have trusted in Christ, you have been justified. You may not have known that at the time, but it is true.

Your sins have been forgiven, you were given a new birth, and Christ is now your Lord and Savior.

As a result, we saw in Romans 5:1-5 these three blessings:

(1) Peace with God. We are no longer His enemy; he has brought us to Him and we have a righteous standing before Him. This is a tremendous blessing.

The second blessing Paul noted was (2) access to God’s grace. We stand before God in His grace, and we have access to God’s grace day after day. We have privileges to come to him. He gave us the credentials needed to come to Him. It is all a work of grace.

Third (3) we saw the blessing of hope – hope that is anchored in the future and in the present.

We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God – that God will be glorified as He appears one day, as He brings to fulfillment all that He has promised in Word.

It is also a hope that is anchored in the present – yes, even as we face tribulations. We glory in tribulations, as verse 3 says, because we know the results God will build into us: perseverance, character, then a hope that does not disappoint because it is anchored in the love of God through God’s Holy Spirit.

We see God at work in our lives, and though we may wobble at times, we look back and see the hand of God and we have hope. I hope you have seen that in your life. Look back to that and be hopeful. Look forward and be hopeful.

Today as we move forward in Romans 5 we will see specific two reasons why that hope is sure, and they are all tied to the person of Jesus Christ. Pray.

1. Christ Proved His Love for Us by His Death (5:6-8)

6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

6Ἔτι γὰρ Χριστὸς ὄντων ἡμῶν ἀσθενῶν ἔτι κατὰ καιρὸν ὑπὲρ ἀσεβῶν ἀπέθανεν.

In the Greek, the word “Christ” is the third word and the verb “He died” is at the very end. Christ is the front and back cover of this verse. A wooden translation in English would be awkward, but would sound like this:

“For yet Christ, we being without strength, yet according to time, on behalf of the ungodly, He died.”

The point of this verse is that Christ died for the ungodly at the right time.

Verse 5 spoke about God’s love for us through the Holy Spirit. This is a love that we apprehend, we experience, we come to know in a subjective way through life.

This is the love that we know about as John says in 1 John – a love that teaches us how to love.

God’s love has been poured out into our hearts, and it is something we can’t always grasp or explain but we know it is true.

Our “feelings” or sensing of God’s love for us can go up and down (like all things measured by our feelings), and so Paul makes it clear that God’s love for us is a proven fact – a fact of history.

Verse 6 speaks about the timing of God’s love for us. The phrase “in due time” means at the right time, at the perfect time. We think of Paul’s phrase in Galatians “in the fullness of time” emphasizing the same thing (τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ χρόνου), though there Paul uses the word from which we get chronology which emphasizes the sequence of events.

Here it is a word (καιρός) that points to a specific time – the right time. When the fruit is ripe, now is the time to pick it.

We existed (ὄντων) in a state of helplessness. We were powerless to change ourselves, and even if we had more strength we still could not get it done. We had sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, and there was no way out.

Christ’s death was in due time – at just (NIV) the right time (ESV).

His death was ‘for the ungodly.’ He died on behalf of sinners. He died in your and my place.

The substitutionary death of Christ is critical to remember. He died so that sinners would not have to die and pay for their sins.

He died in our place. Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That is one of the most precious truths we find in scripture.

Notice now in verse 7 how Paul explains how His death for sinners was unique:

7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

7μόλις γὰρ ὑπὲρ δικαίου τις ἀποθανεῖται· ὑπὲρ γὰρ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ τάχα τις καὶ τολμᾷ ἀποθανεῖν·

The idea of one person giving his life for another is truly a remarkable thing. We hear stories at times of fathers or mothers who put their life on the line to save a child. I think that is instinctive when the moment comes.

We may also hear of some person in history who died as a martyr, giving up their life for a particular belief or perhaps even to save other followers with that same belief. We admire them for their sacrifice.

Paul says it is rare for someone to do this, but he acknowledges that perhaps now and then someone may give their life but for a ‘good man’. I think Paul is using ‘a righteous man’ and ‘a good man’ synonymously. I don’t think he trying to create a separate category for our dissection.

Paul is making a larger point that comes into sharper focus in verse 8. Paul is emphasizing that giving up one’s life is rare, and even if someone does so, it is likely for someone who is good. In other words, it would be considered an understandable and noble sacrifice, but still rare.

Given that scenario, notice now how the sacrifice of Christ stands out:

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

8συνίστησιν δὲ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἀγάπην εἰς ἡμᾶς ὁ θεός, ὅτι ἔτι ἁμαρτωλῶν ὄντων ἡμῶν Χριστὸς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἀπέθανεν.

Rarely will someone give his life for someone else, even a righteous/good person. However, there was One who did give His life, but it was not for a righteous or good person.

Christ gave His life for us, even while we were still sinners!

Remember, the context of these verses is love. The foundation for hope is God’s love that was poured out in our hearts, verse. 5.

To die for someone else is to express the highest form of love imaginable.

The KJV speaks about a God who commendeth His love toward us. To commend something in modern English is to praise something, to recommend something. This can be the meaning of the original term, but most translations now give the word “demonstrate” – God demonstrated His love for us, He showed His love for us (ESV).

Paul presents the proven love of God. At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. It is a theological fact of history.

This is profound because only a Divine love could be demonstrated like this. Even with all our efforts to be as good and righteous as possible, we are still instinctively self-preserving.

We may think that martyrdom for a righteous person will benefit as some worthy investment, but to die for an ungodly person? What a waste that would be, we would reason.

This verse shows God’s proven love for us and His Divine initiative to draw us to Himself. He did not leave us in our sin, but He provided an effective remedy for our ungodliness. Through the death of His Son, our sins were wiped away.

We were forgiven, just as we have seen in chapter 3. By faith, chapter 4, we received what God provided, and now we stand before Him justified.

And so the first foundational truth for our hope is that …

1. Christ Proved His Love for Us by His Death (5:6-8). He proved His love for us, and poured out that love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

2. Christ Saves Us From God’s Wrath Through His Life (5:9-10)

9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

9πολλῷ οὖν μᾶλλον δικαιωθέντες νῦν ἐν τῷ αἵματι αὐτοῦ σωθησόμεθα δἰ αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τῆς ὀργῆς.

The effect of the death and resurrection (4:25) of Christ for us is justification. We were justified by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

His death was a sacrifice – the giving of One for another (us). That event gave to us the righteous standing that we now enjoy, the peace with God that we needed, and the grace and hope that we need each day.

The past work of Christ secured our present blessing, but what about the future? Do we have to take it from here?

Verses 9-10 explain the future.

What God accomplished for us will not fade away.

We will be saved from wrath through Jesus. The future is secure.

This verse anticipates the discussion of glorification that will come at the end of chapter 8.

In our evangelism efforts, we often ask someone if they are saved. They might ask: saved from what? We would add: saved from a future judgment that will land you in the lake of fire for all eternity.

Paul says we will be saved from wrath through Him (Jesus). That is a future judgment.

God not only proved His love in the past through the death of Christ, but He will keep His word and we will be kept until the end and not face that final tribunal.

Paul speaks in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 about Jesus Who delivers us from the wrath to come. That may address the future 7-year Tribulation we speak about, but it could also point to that final judgment.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:9 we read that God did not appoint believers to wrath, but rather to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ.

Since God’s wrath against our sin has already been poured out upon His Son, and through His death our payment was secured, we truly have a wonderful hope before us. We do not fear what the future may bring. We will be saved from wrath through Jesus.

Paul expands upon this future hope here in verse 10:

10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

10εἰ γὰρ ἐχθροὶ ὄντες κατηλλάγημεν τῷ θεῷ διὰ τοῦ θανάτου τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ, πολλῷ μᾶλλον καταλλαγέντες σωθησόμεθα ἐν τῇ ζωῇ αὐτοῦ·

Here in verse 10 Paul makes a similar point as verse 9 – that our future salvation is secure.

In verse 9 Paul spoke about justification by His blood, and now in verse 10 he speaks about reconciliation.

Hee Paul emphasizes the fact of Christ’s life. His death secured justification, and His life guarantees our salvation.

Notice how verse 10 begins with an “if.” He is not raising a question, but is using that language to emphasize the certainty of what God will do.

If it was true, and it was, that even while we were an enemy of God we were reconciled to God on the basis of the death of Jesus Christ, then it is even more certain – in a manner of speaking – that since we were reconciled, we also will be saved by the life of Christ.

Both reconciliation and a secure salvation are true. The past, present, and future work of Christ for us guarantees our safety in Him. We will be saved. There is no doubt!

We have been given several theological terms in our study of Romans, and two stand out here: justification and reconciliation.

These two terms are related but emphasize different things.

Justification points to our right standing with God. On the basis of Christ’s payment, we have been declared by God as righteous.

Reconciliation points to our friendship now with God. We the ungodly who were God’s enemies are now reconciled to Him.

We were reconciled to God because He took the initiative and sent His Son, Jesus.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…

…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Ephesians 2:4–5 (NKJV) 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

Notice the construction of the words in verse 10 – ‘having been reconciled….’ That is pointing go the past. Because God reconciled us to Himself, we remain in the present reconciled to Him. It is not something we have to wait some day to find out whether or not it might be true.

Some bad church theology teaches that we can’t really know about this now, but rather have to wait. In the meantime, be sure to do all those good things on the list.

No, salvation is not God doing most of it, and we finish the deal by living a good life. Paul already told us that we fall short of God’s glory and that only the perfect work of Christ will do.

Our hope is not grounded in a life of nice things we have done.

Our hope is grounded in the love of Christ for us.

Love takes the initiative and does not wait for the other party to “get with it.”

Paul speaks here in verse 10 about the life of Christ as an important component of our future salvation.

What is Paul talking about here?

Notice the theme of reconciliation in verse 10. God reconciled us to Himself through the death of Jesus. That reconciliation will continue because of the life of Jesus.

Will Jesus die again? No. Paul is emphasizing that reconciliation will not fade away because Jesus will never die again. We shall be saved by His life.

When we experience broken human relationships, we rejoice when there is reconciliation. Could there be another brake in that human relationship? Of course.

Not so with God. Because of the death and life of Jesus, our reconciliation to God is secure. That is a rock-solid foundation for our hope and joy.

Notice now in verse 11 we have the response:

11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

3. Response: Rejoice (5:11)

If you are a bible student who always looks for the command – something to do – you won’t find it here.

Yes, this speaks to our response – what we do – but it does not present it as a command. It simply states the fact – we rejoice (καυχώμενοι). KJV has ‘we joy in God…’

This could also be translated as “we boast.” We boast in the Lord.

Verse 11 begins like verse 3 begins: “And not only that…”

If you go through verses 1-11 you can make a list of the fruit God has borne for us in Christ:

We have peace.

We have access by faith to God’s grace.

We rejoice.

We glory in tribulations.

We were enemies, but we were reconciled.

We shall be saved by His life.

We rejoice…because we have been reconciled.

How much of all this is the result of what we did?

None.

We were justified.

We were reconciled.

Verse 11 concludes what Paul began in verse 1 and these 11 verses set the stage for the more technical discussion that follows about why it was necessary in the first place to reconcile us to Himself.

Application

1. Continue to deepen our understanding of the gospel. There is much more to know about salvation than simply that we believe in Jesus and are going to heaven. That is the tip of the iceberg.

So far in Romans we have studied many terms: depravity, judgment, unrighteousness, righteousness of God, the law, circumcision, uncircumcision, guilt, justification, redemption, propitiation, faith, works, grace, forgiveness, imputation, heir, promise, peace, access, hope, reconciliation. The more we know…

2. Knowing the truth will fuel our response. The more we understand what God did for us in Christ, the greater sense of joy and hope we will have. Romans 5 tells us this is so. The greater energy we will have in service. Romans 12ff will tell us so.

As we lean upon the Lord during our tribulations, we see God at work and we have great hope.

When we grasp more and more the love of God for us, understanding this great teaching on reconciliation, we will rejoice in the Lord. We won’t have to be told to rejoice. We will simply respond because what else can we do?

That for me is an excellent practical distinction between law and grace. Under law, we must. Under grace, we simply do.

May we keep our eyes upon the Lord and watch Him work mightily in us each day.