Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 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.
To be justified is to have been declared righteous or innocent from the accusations of sin against us and no longer facing the death sentence we deserve. Have you ever seen the face of a person who was on trial for a crime and facing the death penalty when the judge pronounces him not guilty? The relief and joy are unmistakable. His family and he celebrate with tears, hugs, and shouts of exultation. That is us. We have been declared not guilty, we no longer face being convicted to eternal death. That is reason enough to shout and dance with jubilation. But there’s more.
Not only are we vindicated, but we have peace with God. We are no longer in conflict or at war with the LORD; His wrath is not for us anymore. We are united with Him, we are His people and He is our God (Leviticus 26:12). All the good He wants for us and every good blessing is ours now (Matthew 7:11, James:1:17). Yet, still there is more!
Because of Jesus and the faith God gave us we have admittance, the way to enter into God’s grace. What is grace? The concept of grace is more significant than mere words can translate but the word “carij” is defined as a rewarding way of behaving or action, the divine influence on the heart and its reflection in the life, benefit, favor, gift, joy, liberality, pleasure, and worthy of thanks. God gives us reward and benefit, joy, freedom, pleasure with great generosity. He gives us all this which we do not deserve. That is grace. We can’t earn it, we cannot deserve it; it is lavishly given in kindness and love. Look at our posture in grace. We may enter in humility, ashamed and on our knees, face down but by God’s grace we can stand! We are no longer about to die for sin, we are justified, seen as righteous and so we have access to enter God’s presence confidently. We know He will not direct His wrath at us. We know He loves us and has told us to come to Him, get to know Him, ask anything, and worship Him. Hebrews 4:16 reads,
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 10:19-25 in The Message says it beautifully,
So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into “the Holy Place.” Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The “curtain” into God’s presence is his body.
22-25 So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.
Maybe we don’t have the time and opportunity to be perpetually overwhelmed with the bliss of knowing what salvation means for us right now, but one day, we will. One day that bliss will our endless mood and being in God’s presence will be able to worship Him forevermore (Revelation 19:1-9)! That is the hope and future glory! Shouldn’t some of that joy be evident in us now?
Not to sound like an infomercial but, wait, there’s more! Verses 3-5 read,
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
We have so much to be thankful for that we can even rejoice in suffering! The word kaucaomai which is translated as rejoice or glory gives the picture of a sort of victory dance, a flaunting or boasting celebratory dance, like the football players who celebrate their touchdowns with dances in the end zone. We can do that in our suffering! See, the enemy wants to break us with the troubles we face, but with the Holy Spirit all that suffering creates good stuff and we celebrate the victory it brings us. So, go ahead and dance like a winner, spike the ball, flaunt your victory in his face. The NFL might fine players for the victory dance, but God won’t. He encourages us to rejoice, revel, and celebrate in Him.
When you give a gift, are you more pleased by a small smile and a gentle thanks or a huge reaction of joy? We don’t post videos of “thanks, this is nice.” We post videos of celebrations, shouts, tears, and dances, real gratitude proclaimed with real happiness. The gifts that get those kinds of post-able reactions are the ones that the recipient could not get on her own, the kind that fulfilled a deep desire, will be long-lasting, and might feel undeserved. That is what the gift of salvation is for us. Romans 5:6-10 describe salvation and why it makes us rejoice like a Billy "White Shoes" Johnson.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 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.
We didn’t do anything to deserve Jesus’ dying for us. We needed Him desperately, there was no way for us to be righteous, but Jesus died for us anyway, bringing us together with Him, saving us from eternal death and giving us eternal life! Believer, rejoice! Do your victory dance! Rejoice so hard that even bad news causes you to overflow with joy.