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*Enniscorthy Christian Fellowship – 20th April 2008*
*The Reasons for Rejoicing Romans 5:1-5*
A young man wanted more than anything to take a cruise aboard a luxury ship.
But he didn’t have much money.
Eventually, after a lot of effort, he saved enough money to purchase a ticket.
As he packed, the young man knew he would be travelling with no money for food.
So he carefully packed some bread and cheese for his meals.
He really enjoyed the cruise.
But as he walked around the ship and watched people eating in the dining and banquet halls of this amazing boat, his joy started to fade.
After two weeks, his bread and cheese had already gone mouldy, and the young man was starving.
And as he walked around the ship, people started to notice how painfully thin he’d become.
An older man was really worried about him and asked him if there was anything wrong.
Slightly embarrassed, the young man explained that he didn’t have enough money for food.
The older man took the young guy by the shoulders and said, “Don’t you know, that all your food was paid for in the price of the ticket?”
The young man was astonished—all this time he could have been enjoying the wonderful banquets, but he hadn't known it!
He didn’t know all that was included in his ticket!
Are we are sometimes like that in our lives?
Do we ever miss out because we don’t know all that we have?
Are we missing out on what is already paid for?
In the first 4 chapters of Romans we’ve seen that all of us are guilty before God.
However we can be right with God if we have faith in Jesus Christ because of his cross.
We don’t need to do nothing - no effort, no religious ceremony, no keeping God’s law.
Faith in Jesus Christ is all we need.
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
Acts 16:31
If we have put our faith in Jesus, then we can be sure that we are justified, we are declared right with God – because as we saw last week, God has the power to keep his promises, and God is always faithful to his promises!
And many of us here have trusted in Jesus and are saved.
But, it’s possible that we are saved by faith in Jesus, and yet living as if we’re not!
We could be forgiven and yet living with guilt and fear.
We could be a child of God and yet living as a stranger.
We could be like that young man, living our lives missing out on what is already ours!
Missing out on enjoying what has already been paid for!!
Paul doesn’t want us to miss out.
And so we tells us some of what we have in Christ so we can enjoy our salvation to the full.
As he does so, he gives us 5 reasons to rejoice in our salvation.
Read Romans 5:1-5
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What we have through Faith
In this section Paul describes some of the amazing reasons to rejoice in our salvation.
And these blessings are for everyone who has faith in Jesus.
In fact, Paul’s point is that everyone who has faith in Jesus already has these blessings: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have…” v1
These are not things that we should aim to achieve someday.
They are not possible blessings we might someday achieve if we really live for Jesus.
Rather they are the present possession if we have simply put our faith in Jesus.
So these are not rewards that we need to earn, but simply gifts that God wants us to enjoy.
He is not teaching us this so that we will obtain these blessings, but that we will rejoice in them!!
*1.
*We Have Peace with God v1
Our first reason to rejoice is that we have peace with God.
When the second World War started to go against Japan in 1944, a Japanese soldier called Shoichi Yokoi fled to the island of Guam There he lived in a cave.
Fearing for his life, this man lived in a jungle caves for twenty-eight years in the jungle cave.
He only came out at night and lived on frogs, rats, snails, shrimp, nuts, and mangoes.
Yokoi said that he knew the war was over because of leaflets that were scattered throughout the jungles of Guam.
But he was afraid that if he came out of hiding, he would be executed.
Finally, two hunters came upon him and told him that he need not hide any longer.
At last he was free, and with new clothes to wear and food to eat, he was taken by plane to his home.
Paul wants us to know that the war is over.
“We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
v1
*a) *We were Enemies
Outside of Christ, Paul says in v10: “we were God’s enemies.”
This is because of our sin.
“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour.”
Colossians 1:21 We had rebelled against God’s rule and come under God’s wrath!
And it didn’t matter what we tried, how many prayers we said, how much money we gave away, we could never experience true peace with God!
*b) *Jesus is our Peace
But through his cross, Jesus has reconciled us to God.
Because we have been justified by God, we are reconciled to God. “ But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight.”
Colossians 1:22
Jesus has brought this true peace; this true completeness in the loving embrace of our heavenly Father by paying the full price for our reconciliation with God.
“But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:5
And so our salvation is not only that God has as judge declared us righteous in his sight, it is that God has in love brought into a relationship with himself.
*c) *No More Fear
And so we can rejoice because we know that whatever we do or don’t do today, we don’t need to hide from God.
We don’t need to live in fear or guilt any longer.
God will never condemn us.
He will never turn us away.
He will never punish us as our sins deserve.
Our relationship with God is secure.
He is no longer our enemy, but he is our Father and we are his children.
I wonder have we really grasped this.
God is our friend.
Nothing else is required to make him accept us.
Through faith in Jesus we have been reconciled to God!
*2.
*We Have Access to God
And so, we have access into the intimate presence of God. “Through whom we have grained access by faith.”
v2
*a) *We were excluded
In Jesus’ day, people went to the temple to meet with God.
It was called “the house of God” (Matthew 12:4).
In the temple, there was the outer court, the Court of the Gentiles.
The Gentiles could approach God in this court and learn from Israel about the true God.
This is why Jesus was so angry when this area was turned into a market place by the money changers.
But that’s as far as the Gentiles could go.
Ephesians 2:12: “At that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise.”
In fact there were notices at the entrances into the next court that warned Gentiles that if they went any further they would be killed!
Only the Jews could enter the next court, the Court of Women.
From there only male Jews could go further into the Court of Israel.
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