Romans 5:11

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.  Romans 5:11 ESV

I would like to look at some other things that Paul has said in this section (vs 1 - 11) as we look at this verse. 

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.    verse 2

Here, we are called to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. If we look at what Paul says leading up to this verse, we can understand what he means. In verse 1 Paul says we have been justified, counted righteous, by faith.

justified by faith: trust that the blood of Christ is sufficient and capable of saving, justifying, and reconciling us apart from works. 

With this faith (trust), which itself is a gift of God, we enter into grace (God's unmerited favor, salvation), and we rejoice.

Rejoicing in the hope (expectation) of the glory of God - since we have now entered into His unmerited favor (grace), we will continue to see God glorified as He is revealed in us, through us, and around us - more and more now, and for eternity in Heaven.

How is God glorified/revealed in us, through us, and around us?
God is glorified when He is revealed, and He is most clearly revealed through the gospel message in action - which includes our salvation! So we can rejoice in the expectation (hope) that the life change we have experienced through the gospel message will work in us, through us, and affect those around us - revealing God and glorifying Him!


Then Paul says in verse 3:  More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings...  

So, more than rejoicing in the expectation that God will be revealed and glorified through our lives because of the gospel message in action (justified by faith in Christ Jesus), more than that - we are called to rejoice in our sufferings as well. 

Paul goes on to explain what this means, which we have covered previously. When we read the following verses, we can begin to see the peace that passes all understanding that Paul talks about. When we are called to rejoice in our sufferings, and then we see that even in this God is glorified through the spiritual growth of His children as He is found faithful, we begin to see this is something the world cannot understand.

Paul transitions from sufferings into Gods love, and explains what kind of love He has for us. The kind of selfless love that includes offering His innocent Son as a sacrifice, to reconcile us to Him even while we hated Him!

In light of these two reasons Paul gives us to rejoice as children of God, we can look at how verse 11 starts off:  More than that, we also rejoice in God

More than rejoicing as God is revealed in our lives, more than being called to rejoice in our sufferings, more than that, we can now rejoice in God.

To rejoice in God is to have that ultimate peace that He is our rock, our stronghold, our refuge, our source of everything and anything we will ever need. There are things in this life that are good, and can be used to glorify God - but nothing else is needed. We rejoice simply in God.

I think Paul placed this purposely as the third reason to rejoice because is sums up, and drives the other two. Because we can rejoice in Him - that He is who He says He is, we know He will reveal Himself in us, through us, and around us - so that we can rejoice in the expectation of His glory. Because we can rejoice in Him - that He is who He says He is, we can know that any suffering He allows His children to go through will ultimately reveal Him even more - and His love - so that we can rejoice even in our sufferings.

On the flip side, if we are struggling to rejoice in God, we will have hard time rejoicing in the hope that He will be revealed in our lives, and we will really have a hard time rejoicing in our suffering. It all starts with rejoicing in Him.

The path to becoming a more godly person, to rising above the temptations and struggle of this world, to glorying Him by allowing Him to be revealed begins with rejoicing in Him and who HE IS - THE GREAT I AM!

through our Lord Jesus Christ

We are able to rejoice in God through what our Savior Jesus Christ has done - there is no other way.

If God were to strip away all of the "good" things you have done, with all of the "good" decisions you made to steer clear of the sinfulness of the world, how would He see you?
If God were to strip away all the Sundays that you were in church, all the time you spent serving, all the money you gave in His name, how would He see you?
If God reminded you of all the sins you committed, from the slightest thought to the worst action, one by one from beginning to end, how would He see you?

He should see you rejoicing in Him through His Son, who has wrapped us completely in the robe of His perfect righteousness - without it we are utterly condemned, but with it we are saved to the uttermost! (Hebrews 7:25)



through whom we have now received reconciliation

It is through Jesus Christ that we have received reconciliation - He alone is the channel of this great act of love and sacrifice!

to be reconciled was covered in the last post, but I have included it here:

What does it mean to be reconciled?

In the Greek, the word reconcile means to change or exchange, to return to favor with, to receive one into favor. In English, the word reconcile mean to win over to friendliness, to compose or settle a quarrel, to bring into agreement or harmony, to make compatible or consistent.

We are reconciled, we have a restored relationship with God, through our Savior Jesus Christ. This reconciliation is not based on or maintained through things that we do or don't do - it is only based on and maintained through Him. Everything we do should flow out of appreciation not obligation. We serve our God as His children, thankful and appreciative of what He has done!

(though we will never understand or grasp the totality of His love and sacrifice, even a taste should be enough to drive us to serve Him forever!)

Lord, I pray that You would reveal to us more everyday Your love for Your children...that this love would drive us to serve you out of love, awe, wonder, and appreciation of  who You are! Forgive us when we take our eyes off of You, and guide us to seek you - that we might first rejoice IN YOU, so that we could rejoice in the hope of your glory, and so that we will rejoice in the midst of our suffering here on earth - to You be the glory forever and ever!

Romans 5:10

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. Romans 5:10 ESV

In verse 9 we saw that we have been justified by the blood of Christ. We looked at what Paul had said previously - Christ died for the ungodly, Christ died for us. Now Paul goes a step further to describe the sad, condemned state we where in when God saved us.



For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God

What does it mean to be an enemy of God?

enemy (Greek): hateful (passively odious, or actively hostile); usually as a noun, an adversary (especially Satan): - enemy, foe.  used of men at enmity with God by their sin, opposing God in the mind

enemy (English):  a person who feels hatred for, fosters harmful designs against, or engages in antagonistic activities against another; an adversary or opponent.  persons, nations, etc., that are hostile to one another

These definitions paint a clear picture of who we are in our relationship to God, how He sees us in our sinful, unforgiven state. We are enemies of God - we oppose Him, we hate Him, we are His adversaries. 

Some verses that describe this further:  

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. John 3:19

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.  John 3:20

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Mathew 6:24

By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. 1 John 3:10

These verses explain the truth that while we are in darkness we hate the light, we can only serve one master, and we are either children of God or children of Satan - there is no in between. From these verses and what Paul has written in Romans we should come away understanding that before we are forgiven we are evil creatures, children of Satan serving only Satan, lost lovers of darkness wanting nothing to do with God who is perfect light. 

One might wonder about those who are not Christians yet seem to be "good" people. People who give money to the poor, who donate millions to charity, people who are moral and upright even if they don't love God or have a relationship with Him. There are people who are "good" from our perspective, but we must look at things from God's perspective. God is the foundation and standard of good, and anything that is truly good will come from Him and glorify Him. 

Anyone who seems to do "good" things without a relationship with God is merely imitating, in a very fractured and incomplete way, what God has revealed about Himself to the world - things that are moral, ethical, and right. 

At the end of the day, God has told us that we either serve Him or the Devil, we either love Him or we hate Him, we are either His children or His enemy. 

So, what does Scripture say about those of us that are now children of God? We were saved while we were enemies of Him! The bible doesn't say that we were people who no longer wanted to be enemies of God and He saved us. The bible doesn't say that we began to hate the darkness and as we looked for the light God saved us. The bible doesn't say that we realized our condemned state and began to clean ourselves up in search of God. No - the bible says that while we were enemies - while we actively opposed God, while we actively hated God, while we were actively serving Satan, while we actively despised the Light, God saved us from our condemnation. 

Salvation is not a reward for moving away from our sinful, lost, condemned state - Salvation is God removing us from our sinful, lost, condemned state. 

It's very important for us to try to understand this, because it is laid out as truth in Scripture and the more we can grasp the truth of Scripture the more God is glorified in our lives. When we realize that God saved us in the midst of our sinfulness, while we were His enemies, we remove ourselves from the equation of salvation. This is very important because salvation is by grace through faith, having nothing to do with us, or our ability. When we can remove ourselves from the equation, salvation becomes only about God saving us from condemnation, by an act of pure grace on His part - and as Paul said - apart from any of our works. 

we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son

Paul has said previously that we were justified by faith in Christ, we were justified by His blood, and now we are reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Jesus had everything to do with our relationship with God being restored - there is no other way we can come to know God other than through His Son that paid the ultimate price.

What does it mean to be reconciled?

In the Greek, the word reconcile means to change or exchange, to return to favor with, to receive one into favor. In English, the word reconcile mean to win over to friendliness, to compose or settle a quarrel, to bring into agreement or harmony, to make compatible or consistent. 

God has promised us that, while we were His enemies (hating Him, opposing Him, adversaries of His serving the Devil), He has reconciled us to Himself (changed us, returned us to favor with Him, settled the hatred, brought us into harmony with Him, made us compatible with Him) through the death of His Son!  What an awesome, loving, holy God!

much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life

Mathew Henry, in his commentary, made a point I don't want to miss on the last part of this verse, and how verse 9 and 10 tie together as one truth. Here the the two verses in order, with the parts I want to emphasize highlighted: 

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.  (verse 9)

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. (verse 10)

We can see that we were justified and reconciled, and much more than that, we are saved from the wrath of God by the life of our risen Christ. I have included part of Henry's commentary as he explains this with such beautiful clarity:

Hence results salvation from wrath: Saved from wrath, saved by his life. When that which hinders our salvation is taken away, the salvation must needs follow. Nay, the argument holds very strongly; if God justified and reconciled us when we were enemies, and put himself to so much charge to do it, much more will he save us when we are justified and reconciled. He that has done the greater, which is of enemies to make us friends, will certainly the less, which is when we are friends to use us friendly and to be kind to us. And therefore the apostle, once and again, speaks of it with a much more. He that hath digged so deep to lay the foundation will no doubt build upon that foundation. - We shall be saved from wrath, from hell and damnation. It is the wrath of God that is the fire of hell; the wrath to come. The final justification and absolution of believers at the great day, together with the fitting and preparing of them for it, are the salvation from wrath here spoken of; it is the perfecting of the work of grace. - Reconciled by his death, saved by his life. His life here spoken of is not to be understood of his life in the flesh, but his life in heaven, that life which ensued after his death.

 I highlighted to two major points that stuck out to me. Will not God, who saved us from condemnation through the brutal death of His Son, not follow through and bring us now to an eternal life with Him, through His risen Son? Hallelujah!