May 4, 2022
Author: Pastor Bernard Ibrahim
May 04, 2022
"Therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."
Romans 5:1-11
This word, rejoice, (it’s a verb,) is used in verse 2, “and we rejoice in hope,” verse 3, “but we rejoice in our sufferings,” and verse 11, “we also rejoice in God.” ‘Rejoice’ can be translated: to exult, to glory, or to boast. If you look at the reasons for rejoicing we can get a summary as we reflect on our own salvation of what are clear reasons to give glory to God, to rejoice, to give thanks, to exult.
The first one is heaven, “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” When we have peace with God and we have been reconciled and we have obtained access by faith into this grace, we have the hope of heaven.
The second one, “We rejoice in our sufferings.” Not that we are excited to suffer, but for what those sufferings are going to be doing for us and doing in us. By God’s grace those sufferings are going to produce endurance and character and hope. The kind of hope that the Bible talks about, not a speculative look at the future, a gamble, but a true faith looking forward at the promises that God will fulfill in future time for us.
In verse 11 we see, “We rejoice in God,” in his person, in his character, who we have been reconciled through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, in God himself. We glory, we boast in God, in his character, his person, in what he has done, in what he is doing.
I encourage you, when you reflect on your own salvation and as we hear the testimony of the salvation of our brothers and sisters, that we should be ready to rejoice, to give thanks to the Lord. These are key concrete things we can look back on and say, we rejoice in the hope of heaven, we rejoice in the things that God is doing in my life and the trials that he has brought into my life. And we rejoice in our God.
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