Something the Lord highlighted during my fast is “joy of salvation”, which is crazy because that is what my name, Joy Renee, means!!! The Lord just opened my eyes more to the weight of things I thought I had already known and heard before. He tore down the veil between just knowing I am saved and truly feeling the joy of it and living it out. These are things I have heard since I have been born. The difference now is that I have had a heart change, and I finally genuinely understand.
I am currently reading a commentary on Romans by R.C. Sproul. Romans is such an impactful book, as I have been diving in deeper into the theology of it. So many things have just clicked inside my head. The Bible is just so beautifully and divinely written.
Paul starts off Romans with three very convicting chapters. He goes on about the Roman culture, which is all about doing what making you happy, living for the moment, and thinking nothing really matters. The first time I read Romans, I just kinda disregarded these chapters, because i thought “Paul wrote it to the Romans not me.” Surprisingly enough, American culture is almost just like how the Romans were. So when I reread it to where Paul is talking to me that made me rethink some things. It is a very scary three chapters to read to yourself, and know that it is about you. In Romans 3:11-18 , Paul takes passages out of the old testament that says, “none is righteous no not one., no one understands, no one seeks God, All have turned aside, together they have become worthless, no one does good, not even one….there is no fear of God before their eyes.” In society our self description or righteousness leads us to suppose we “pass” judgment. I realized going through these chapters, I struggle with self justification. I thought since I did not drink, do drugs, or anything I classified as really bad sins. The Lord would look over what I thought were smaller sins. All sin is equally repulsive to the Lord, and he pardons none of it. I realized I sin all the time when I put myself and my wants before the Lord. If the Lord is not the center of every thing I am doing I am sinning. Paul writes this book extremely well when he opens with talking about the weight of over sin.
Paul goes on about the Lord’s wrath, which is something most churches do not talk about. Paul also talks about how the Lord will be our judge in the end. He would be completely justified to send everyone to hell. He is a perfect judge, and without wrath he cannot judge the world justly. A Lot of people make the mistake of thinking sinning is just breaking the ten commandments, but sin started in the garden with Adam before the law was even spoken to existence. Sin is so much more than just breaking the law. The Lord writes his perfect law on our hearts. He gave us the law so we see just how deprived we are. Sin is not just our physical actions. Sin takes over our whole body… our mind, our hearts, and our souls. He even says,” For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. Basically if we put our confidence in our ability to follow the law the only thing we could hope to gain from it is God’s wrath. Paul continues to go on about the law and our wickedness, so that we realize our need for a savior.
Romans 3:21 is a game changer. “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested …. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. The word “but” in the beginning of the verse is the difference between heaven and hell. The greek word dikalo is in this passage, and it means to declare righteous. We are not righteous by any means, but the Lord declares us righteous. Isn’t that just amazing. When we are cloaked in righteousness, it is his righteous not ours at all. Martin Luther used to say, “simul justus et peculator, “ which means simotaniously righteous and a sinner. “A propitiation by his blood.” (Romans 3:25) Propitiation is such an important word here that I had no idea what it meant until I read the commentary. It means to satisfy the demands of God’s wrath. CHRIST HAS SATISFIED THE DEMANDS OF GOD’S WRATH. There has been a double transfer… Christs righteousness on us.. covering us whole, and then ours sins were placed on Jesus. Romans 4:25 says, “It will be counted to us who believe in him raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and RAISED FOR OUR JUSTIFICATION.” When the Lord raised Christ from the dead that was his way of accepting the payment of our debt.
Faith is something that has been spoken over me ever since I have gotten to Swaziland. Hebrews 11 is such a beautiful passage on faith that the Lord just keeps bringing up to me. It explains faith, which put to words is a confidence that something God has promised will actually happen because God will make it happen. The only way we receive Christ’s righteousness is through faith in him and his promises. Our salvation is only raised on faith. Faith is the instrument by which we are linked to Jesus. And by Jesus we are saved and made new.
I wish I could put better into words just how differently I view the gospel, because of this simple truth. The truth I have know and believed and accepted all through out my walk with the Lord, but now I have just had a new revolution of joy from fully understanding this simple truth. AMEN
