How can you have the highest joy in a wrathful God?

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:11 ESV)


Romans 5:11 says that we rejoice in God. Keep in mind, this is the same God that Paul talks about in Romans 1 and 2, this is the God of wrath and God of fury and God of Justice and God of righteousness and God of holiness.

This God aint someone you should mess with, this God, Jesus says to fear because He can take send both your body and soul to hell. This is a terrifying God whose reign brings terror to sinners.

There's no celebration in Him but only dreadful fear because He is our enemy and He is infinitely powerful with unmatchable strength, and we are all under His judgment and anger. Therefore, we all expect a day when we are sentenced to everlasting torment with no escape.

Yet, in a few paragraphs later Paul tells us to rejoice in this God? WHAT?! HOW? When I think of Him all I do is tremble and be terrified. Are you nuts Paul? Are you out of your mind? then Paul connects this rejoicing in God: through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received reconciliation. Paul grounds our rejoicing in God on the basis that we are reconciled to Him.
Meaning to say we were once enemies but we are now friends, we were once rivals but now we are allies, we once had strife but now we are in good terms. All this was accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

WOW what a wonderful news! It's as if you were summoned to appear in court for offending a person, and you know very well that your sentence is a life-sentence. But before the court case, that person comes to you and says, let's reason together, let's talk this out, let's be reconciled..Let's become friends.

The same God of wrath we were terrified in becomes our source of joy! This is the same God who would pour out wrath on us if it were not for Christ. This is the same God who sent His Son to die for our sins so that the wrath and punishment that was meant for us would be inflicted on Jesus. We now have peace with God through our Lord Jesus (romans 5:1) instead of strife and separation.

Romans 5 packs many verses that call us to rejoice in the salvation found in Jesus: "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." In other words, God pours His love on us and gives us hope that will not shame us on judgment day.

Lastly, we are given a beautiful portrayal of God's love:

"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For no one would scarcely die for a righteous person -- though perhaps a good person one would dare even die --- but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. 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."

That is the most beautiful and glorious message of all! that we need not be terrified of God in fear of condemnation, but on the contrary we rejoice in this God who out of love sent His Son to die and bear the punishment and penalty of our sins.

This God is a God of love and compassion and mercy and grace and benevolence. This God went out of His way to rescue us from eternal torment in hell, an act of something we certainly did not deserve.

While I was yet an enemy I was reconciled to Him by the death of His Son. And may we never stray away from this wonderful and extravagant message that encompasses all awe and wonder.
We are not an enemy of God anymore sentenced for death, but we are now called beloved, child, friend.

I need not dread in terror of Him, but I can rejoice in Him and love Him. So When the day comes when you finally see Him, you will not be seing the face of a wrathful Judge but you would see the face of a dad and a friend.

Come to Christ!

The blessings of reading the Word of God

“The Lord revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.” - 1 Sam 3:21

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” - Col 3:16

Tonight, we as God’s people, will commit ourselves to Him, ourselves, and each other by reading the Bible everyday and journaling what God reveals in His words to us.
The benefits and blessings that we will draw from this new commitment to God, each other, and to ourselves far surmounts any expectation that we might have. Indeed we will reap more benefits than we can think of.

Yet we can expect two important benefits in our lives to happen when the word of God dwells richly in us: 1. We will see and enjoy God 2. Christ will abide in us 3. We are enabled to minister to one another.

God reveals Himself to us through the Bible

The fundamental reason that the Bible is essential is that it is mainly the way God reveals Himself to us. And seeing this revelation of God is the foundation of our joy. As it was in the days of Samuel, so it is in our time: “The Lord appeared… at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel At Shiloh by the word of the Lord.”

When it says “The Lord appeared,” it says something amazing. God was not seen with the eyes of the head, but with the eyes of the heart, for God is “The King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God” (1 Tim 1:17). And this seeing happened “by the word of the Lord.” As the Word was heard, the Lord was seen. In this hearing was the seeing. The spiritual hearing of God’s Word becomes the spiritual seeing of God’s glory.

The Lord opens the eyes of the heart to see the glory of Jesus in the Word. God has chosen to reveal Himself to to the world mainly through the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, by means of the written Word, the Bible.

When we read the Bible, God reveals Himself and we will see Him, not with physical eyes but with the eyes of our heart; and by seeing Him we enjoy Him.

Jesus abides in us when we read the Bible

Jesus said, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you” – John 15:7.


The best way to see what it means for the words of Jesus to abide in us is to look at what Jesus says about abiding a few verses earlier. In verse 5 He says, “Whoever abides in me and I in Him, he it is that bears much fruit.”

Notice the parallel.

In verse 7 He says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you,”
and in verse 5 He says, “Whoever abides in me and I in Him…”


I think the point of this switch is to reveal to us how Jesus abides in us, specifically, by His word abiding in us. Meaning to say, when we let the words of Jesus abide in us means letting Jesus Himself abide in us.

The Bible enables christians to minister to each other

When the Word of Christ dwells richly in us, we are enabled to teach, encourage, lift up, and build up one another. When we are immersed in the Bible, we are able to echo the words of Jesus to our fellow Christian brothers and sisters; and when they hear the Word of the Lord, they will see Him and enjoy the beauty and splendor and glory of Jesus.

When we are soaked with the Word of God, we are a vessel that is able to reveal the glory of Christ and we are able love one another by urging each other to a deeper and stronger walk with Jesus.

In conclusion, let the word of Christ dwell richly in you and in doing so, you will reap the reward of seeing and enjoying God, Christ abiding in you, and building up the church. It is a new year of our journey with Jesus, let it count.