“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)
Did you start your list yesterday? We’re counting up everything that happened between us and God at the moment of our salvation. That is, we’re counting up everything he did for us. So far we have 1) We were justified from our sin, and 2) We have peace with God forever.
More: We have God’s grace right now. We’ve all heard the word grace talked about. We know it’s a big deal, but we don’t get it. We don’t have the capacity to understand a) how deep our sinfulness goes or b) how completely free God’s forgiveness was. I think if we could glimpse either of those for even just a moment, we’d be knocked over backwards by humility and gratitude. Backwards!
More still: We get to go to heaven! “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” We will be with him forever, which is what we often really mean when we say heaven, that we will share in his glory in person, face to face, always. This is the one we probably really cared about when we “got saved,” and it’s only number 4 on the list.
Think: Some call grace “God’s riches at Christ’s expense.” How would you define God’s riches? What was Christ’s expense? How much of God’s gift of salvation can we pay him back for? (Hint: None!)
Pray: Thank God for His grace to you through your faith in Jesus. And ask him to help you to know better how to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Do: Keep your list going: 3) We stand in grace. And 4) We’re going to heaven!