Exultation

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. Romans 5:1-2

We rejoice! This is a term of exultation. To exult means "to leap for joy" or "to be filled with joy." In my last post I wrote about the benefits of being justified through faith.

Here, Paul is telling us that we should be leaping for joy because of God's righteousness that we have gained through Christ.

We should be the most joy-filled people on earth. It seems that none of the things of this world should matter in comparison to what we have gained through Christ. I like the song by Fernando Ortega:

In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise give me Jesus.

Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus.
You can have all this world,
Just give me Jesus.

When I am alone, when I am alone,
When I am alone, give me Jesus.

Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
Just give me Jesus.

When I come to die, when I come to die,
When I come to die, give me Jesus.

Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
Just give me Jesus.

Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world.
You can have all this world.
You can have all this world,
Just give me Jesus.

If we ever REALLY "got it" what Jesus' death on the cross did for us, we would definitely be exulting.

Your thoughts?

Justification

There was a man in England in the first part of the 20th century who put his Rolls-Royce on a boat and sailed across the English Channel to go on a road trip through Europe. While he was driving around Europe, something happened to the motor of his car.

He cabled the Rolls-Royce people back in England and asked, "I'm having trouble with my car; what do you suggest I do?" Well, the Rolls-Royce people flew a mechanic over! The mechanic repaired the car and flew back to England and left the man to continue his vacation.

As you can imagine, the man was wondering, "How much is this going to cost me?" When he got back to England, he wrote the people a letter and asked how much he owed them. He then received a letter from the office that read: "Dear Sir: There is no record anywhere in our files that anything ever went wrong with a Rolls-Royce."

Now I don't know if the man ever cleared it up and paid the bill, but the point here is this: That is justification!

Justification: Just as if I've never sinned! What a wonderful gift of righteousness God has provided for us!

Justified? Whew! What a great relief! But besides receiving God's righteousness as a free gift (as if that isn't enough) let's review the "benefits" of justification that we talked about this morning:

Romans 5:1-2 - "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."

Did you catch that? We now have peace with God and we have access to Him.

Romans 5:9-10 - "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, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."

Yep! God's wrath is no longer upon us and we have been reconciled to Him.

So we have benefits beyond anything we could ever earn. If that doesn't set your heart a-dancin' then I don't know what will!

Imitating Abraham's Faith

God's righteousness. We can't buy it. We can't earn it. We certainly don't deserve it. We can only receive it through faith. Period.

It strikes me that this is good news for those of us who acknowledge our brokenness and sinful state.

When we think about God and His righteousness, His holiness, and His standard of perfection, it would be overwhelming if the burden was upon us to climb that mountain of attainment. I believe we know innately that this is something we can't do. It is asking the impossible. It is doomed to fail.

Except God.

Paul wrote the first three chapters of Romans, building a case for our helpless plight in terms of our bondage to sin and our inability to change that. But now we get to the good part.

If I was God and I was looking at the sinful mess that mankind finds himself entangled in, I would probably feel like "they made their bed, so let them lie in it."

If I didn't do that, I would probably give them a list of things they had to do to "earn" righteousness. Here are some things that would make the cut in compiling my list:

1) You must work at the soup kitchen every week for at least four hours.
2) You must give at least half of your money to the church.
3) You must go out witnessing at least six hours a week. (Does that sound familiar?)
4) You must wear clothes and hair styles that make you stand out in the crowd and show how pious you are.
5) You must adopt at least three orphans and take food to at least two widows each week.

Hmm, aren't you glad I'm not God?

Instead of looking good and acting nice and "earning" your righteousness, God offers it as a free gift. Of course it is a good thing to give money, dress modestly, help people, and share the gospel, but that isn't how we "earn" salvation.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

It kinda takes the pressure off, doesn't it? I cannot earn salvation. I cannot do anything that will help me to measure up. God offers salvation through faith out of His abundant grace and love. Any good that I do is NOT to earn anything. Good works come from a place of already being justified. I do good because I love Him.

So what are your thoughts? Post a comment, please!

Alternate Standards for Living

Yesterday we talked a lot about God's Standard. I asked you if there was an alternative "standard" by which we could live. (Of course, you would also have to redefine living!) I mentioned the "human standard" and the flawed thinking that drives someone to accept and attempt to live by their own standards. I was reading Chuck Colson's Breakpoint this morning and thought it would be a good read for all of us, so I'm posting it here in it's entirety. Let us all know what you think... Post a comment here... PJ Inverting the Moral Code The Radical Selfishness of Ayn Rand October 04, 2010 Responding to the nation's moral and economic crisis, CNN, the cable network founded by Ted Turner, has just published a column that gives an impassioned plea for morality-yes, you heard that right, morality. At first, I might have been tempted to think that they listen to BreakPoint. I've been saying this since the economic collapse. But, sad to say, the writers, Yaron Brooke and Onkar Ghate, aren't calling for a return to biblical ethics. Instead, they explicitly reject anything having to do with religious morality in favor of an inverted moral code that exalts human selfishness. Brooke and Ghate, who work for the libertarian Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, say that just as humanity ushered in the modern world by rejecting religious superstition in favor of science and political tyranny for the rights of man, so now we must dispense with, as they call it, "antiquated moral ideas"-like generosity. Instead, they assert we should instead lift up those in the economy who exhibit "a profound dedication to material production." First, Brooke and Ghate have gotten their history all wrong. Religious faith has not been a barrier to science or to political and economic freedom. Quite the contrary. Rodney Stark, in his groundbreaking book, The Victory of Reason, rightly calls that kind of notion utter "nonsense." Stark writes, "The success of the West, including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians." Second, Brooke and Ghate have gotten their religion wrong, presenting a caricature of Christianity that is a mockery of genuine biblical faith. The key concept for Christians when it comes to economics and wealth creation is not asceticism, but stewardship. God has created all good things for us to develop and enjoy, as long as He, and not we, are on the throne. The problem with the late Ayn Rand, who was a devout atheist, was the misguided belief that man is the measure of all things. Rand called her philosophy "the concept of man as a noble being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." Indeed, in her well-known work Atlas Shrugged, which is still a bestseller, the main character replaces the cross with a dollar sign. That should be enough to raise red flags for Christians. But it isn't. Christian financial expert Gary Moore has been a powerful critic of Rand and her radical libertarian worldview. In a new Christianity Today article, Moore warns that "Rand's philosophy is still deeply embedded in large sectors of the American economy, as well as among some Christian financial advisers and religious leaders." But folks, radical selfishness can never be a principle of Christian ethics-economic or otherwise. Our belief in God, and His call on us to stewardship and charity, must make a difference in our everyday lives-including in our budgeting, giving, and economic behavior. Self-sacrifice and generosity never go out of style for the Christian, especially in tough economic times like these. Contrary to what Gordon Gecko said in the movie Wall Street, greed isn't good. And if the current economic mess teaches us anything, it's that we don't need a new moral code, just more people who will follow the one God gave us-the tried and true one.