How Faith and Trust Lead to Righteousness, Grace and Glory

At the beginning of Romans 5, Paul continues developing his intricate treatise on the justifying power of faith.  He just reminded us in Chapter 4 that Abraham wasn’t made right by any works of the law, but instead was made right by trusting God (Romans 4:13, Romans 4:20-22). Paul argues unequivocally that Abraham’s trust in the promises of God are what counted toward his righteousness. He then goes on to argue how the same principle applies to everyone who trusts God (Romans 4:23-25).

 It’s because of that trust, Paul says, that we have peace with God (Romans 5:1). When you don’t have a trust in God or his goodness, or his truths about your fallenness, or his desire to rescue you from that fallenness, or in the powerful and sacrificial work of Christ on the cross, then what you have instead is a hatred of God. You tend to see God as a killjoy who keeps you from good things – not realizing that good things are not good things apart from God. Or perhaps you see God as a constantly angry judge who wants to kill and crush everyone who steps out of line for even the smallest reason.  Or perhaps you don’t believe in his existence at all.  When this happens, you develop a friendship with the world and a profound hostility toward God (James 4:4, Romans 8:7).  You will develop negative patterns of behavior that are outside of God’s boundaries for human life, and this in turn, will further alienate you from his goodness and beckon you away into deeper and darker relationships with things that are opposed to God (Galatians 5:17-21). 

However, Paul points out that trusting God puts you in a state of grace with him (Romans 5:2). God will extend favor toward you because of your trust by counting that trust as righteousness.  But the most visible benefit of faith or trust isn’t some magical, ethereal grace.  The tangible benefit is that it motivates you to obey God and to willingly follow the paths he blazes before you. Your trust enables you to see the goodness of God. Your faith produces positive behavioral results when you choose to walk those paths through your trust in him rather than by what you think you see in a dead and Godless world (2 Corinthians 5:7). As you follow those paths, you develop greater trust in God, and thereby become increasingly ensconced in his grace because you are doing his good works while he ever increasingly transforms you into something that is actually good (Ephesians 1:4-5, Ephesians 2:10, Philippians 1:6, Genesis 1:27). 

This divine trust gives you a divine assurance that you will rejoice in the glory of God at some time in the future (Romans 5:2b).  Even greater, Paul tells us that we will not only bask in that sweet glory, but that we will also share in it because God is making us glorious (2 Corinthians 3:18, Romans 8:29, Ephesians 4:24)!