Notes of Faith March 20, 2026
Pastor’s Pen Pulpit
September 9, 2001
Series: Romans Chapter 5
“A STANDING WITH GOD”
Romans 5:2
Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through Whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
Everything following verse one kind of melts down from that verse. Peace with God results in a wonderful standing in grace and abounding in hope. A standing in grace means that we have received a position in the grace of God.
The word “received” is a perfect tense verb which means we have received this position once for all, never to be changed! We are totally immersed in the grace of God forever and ever.
The unbeliever, if he remains in his unbelief, has a complete standing in the condemnation of God forever and ever.
God is so good! He takes us - through faith - from forever condemned to a perfect standing in God’s forever favor. Praise the Lord! Grace is available to God’s people for everything.
We also exult or rejoice in the glorious hope that grace brings to us. This means that we have this hope right now and thus we can rejoice in it.
But that hope is just the beginning. One day we will be in His glorious presence and we will be like Him, without sin, holy and righteous. Can you think of a greater legacy than that, beloved?
What a wonderful God we have. Let us rejoice in our standing in GRACE and HOPE OF GLORY today. God bless.
Love to you all,
Pastor Charles Covington
Without the grace of God we would all stand condemned for “all have fallen short of the glory of God”. We have been given a hope that leaves the earthly temporal glory behind and looks forward to the heavenly eternal glory waiting for those who believe in Jesus and His finished work on the cross, providing complete payment for our sin, forgiveness, a restored relationship…and in His resurrection, He, Jesus, the first fruits of eternal life.
John 11:25-26
I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?"
1 Cor 15:42-49
…the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So also it is written, "The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. 47 The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.
My HOPE is in the glory of God! Jesus, the God-man, is the image of God in which we were originally created. As in Adam, all mankind sins, so in Jesus all believers will be made like His resurrected glory. Though we do not become “gods”, we will be transformed into sinless spiritual beings. Just as Jesus has a resurrected body that can be seen and touched, we will have an amazing resurrected body like His. But the greatest of these, for me, is to be without sin!
I can’t wait to be with Jesus. Let us endeavor to have the most intimate relationship possible with the One who loves us and died for us that we might truly live…today! Though we do not see Him now, we worship our Lord and Savior, giving thanks to God the Father, through the power and strength of the Holy Spirit, with HOPE, expectantly looking for His return to take us to be with Him forever!
Pastor Dale