When we don’t understand the worth of something, we don’t value it as much.
We’ve been given an incredible gift. The more we realize what we’ve received, the greater the appreciation we will have. The following are the 4 things Jesus accomplished for us through His sacrifice in Calvary.
1. PEACE WITH GOD.
Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The peace Paul speaks about is the fact of peace more than the feeling of peace.
We were at enmity with God. We were at odds with God. Some may say, “I feel peaceful.” That’s true. But you may not necessarily be at peace with God.
It’s like sitting on a lounge chair, drinking your mango shake on the deck of the Titanic. You feel good for now but the boat is about to sink. It’s a temporary illusion.
But when we come to faith in Christ, we are reconciled to the Father through Him. We now have peace with God.
The peace with God is the fact.
The peace of God is the feeling.
The peace with God is judicial.
The peace of God is experiential.
The peace with God is objective.
The peace of God is subjective.
2. PRIVILEGED ACCESS
Romans 5:2 says, “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand…”
Dr. Kenneth Wuest, a New Testament scholar, describes the word access as a person having the privilege of having an audience with the king because he has the right set of clothing.
You and I can’t enter the presence of the King of kings without the right clothing. Our personal clothing is like filthy rags (Is. 64:6). But thankfully, He has given us the robes of righteousness (Is. 61:10) when we surrendered our lives to Jesus.
As a result, we have unlimited access to the Father through Jesus.
He has given us the keycard to keep going back to the presidential suite because of this privileged access.
3. PERSPECTIVE OF THE FUTURE
Romans 5:2 says in the JB Philips translation, “Through him we have confidently entered into this new relationship of grace, and here we take our stand, in happy certainty of the glorious things he has for us in the future.”
We have a happy certainty of the glorious things God has for us. Hope is a confident expectancy and anticipation of that which we have yet to see.
When we see Him face to face, we will no longer be marred by sin, but freed from the corruption of our depravity and released from bondage of our sinful nature.
As Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic (paralazyed neck down) beautifully puts it,
“I still can hardly believe it. I, with shrivelled, bent fingers, atrophied muscles, gnarled knees, and no feeling from the shoulders down, will one day have a new body, light, bright, and clothed in righteousness—powerful and dazzling. Can you imagine the hope this gives someone spinal-cord injured like me? Or someone who is cerebral palsied, brain-injured, or who has multiple sclerosis? Imagine the hope this gives someone who is manic-depressive. No other religion, no other philosophy promises new bodies, hearts, and minds. Only in the Gospel of Christ do hurting people find such incredible hope.”
4. PURPOSE TO OUR SUFFERING
Romans 5:3-4 says, “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”
Was Paul out of his mind? Why would we rejoice when there’s suffering?
The only reason is when we understand that there is a purpose to the pain. We are averse to it. None of us wake up in the morning asking God for a painful day. When we’re going through suffering, our initial prayer is for God to take us out of it.
But Paul says that there is a purpose to the pain.
Will you allow pain to shape us or break us?
Having a relationship with Christ is not an escape from trials but a guarantee that those trials have a purpose.
