WE HAVE BEEN RECONCILED TO THE GOD AND FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST!! Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God through which the Holy Spirit touches our hearts are the words he breathed into the Apostle Paul to write, recorded in ROMANS 5: "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates hi own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him. For if when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more , having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." We cannot grasp the riches and power and glory of God’s grace or perceive the righteousness and wisdom and love of His will as they are manifested in the death of His Son apart from seeing their results. His will involves the giving up of His Son to death in light of the good it would achieve (and it alone could achieve) in blessing and realization. This good news is expressed most strikingly in the next several verses of Paul’s outstanding hymn of praise: Conviction #1: We have been justified by His blood. At conversion our sins are forgiven, and all charges against us are dropped. This is a legal term from the world of law. To justify means to “declare not guilty.” Wayne Grudem defines it this way: “An instantaneous legal act of God in which He thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us.” We are found not guilty but we are also declared righteous. According to 2 CORINTHIANS 5:21, the righteousness of Christ is credited to your account. ROMANS 8:1 says, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Don’t miss the fact that we are saved by “His blood.” As the song says, “there is power in the blood” not in pop psychology or in other blather baptized in the waters of Christian words. Why is the blood of Jesus so important? • There is no forgiveness without blood. HEBREWS 9:22: “…Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” • The blood satisfies the Holy claims of God. EXODUS 12:13: “…when I see the blood, I will pass over you.” • The blood redeems the believer. 1 PETER 1:18-19: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” • The blood cleanses us from sin. 1 JOHN 1:7: “…the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” The blood of Jesus justifies us. That’s conviction #1. Here’s the corollary to that. Conviction #2: We are reconciled by His death. It’s not an easy truth to stomach but before we come to Christ, the Bible says that we are at war with God. The word “enemy” was often used to describe bitter military foes and meant “hated, odious and hostile.” Amazingly, Jesus now refers to us not as foes, but as friends in JOHN 15:15: “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I made known to you.” If God did all that He did for us when we were enemies, what will He do for us now that we are friends? Not only is Jesus living His resurrection life in and through us, when we let Him; He is also praying for us. Turn to HEBREWS 7:25: “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 12:09:18 +0000
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