Let us turn once again to God's
Word in the chapter that we read in Romans. Romans chapter 5. And directing your attention
for a while tonight to words that we find here in verses 10
and 11. Romans chapter 5 verses 10 and
11. For if When we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Much more being reconciled,
we shall be saved by His life. And not only so, but we also
join God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
the atonement. Then we have the great doctrine
of reconciliation. or the receiving of the atonement
as he's spoken of at the end of verse 11. The doctrine of
reconciliation is that that stands before us truly in these words
that we've just read for our text, for if when we were enemies
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more
being reconciled we shall be saved by His life. and not only
so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
we have now received the atonement or as the margin reads, by whom
we have now received the reconciliation. Here is the doctrine then, this
great theological subject of reconciliation. how important
it is that we have some understanding of these Bible doctrines. And yet often times people complain. The objection is made that they
don't want really to have to set their minds too seriously
upon the matter that is being preached. They want to hear pleasant
things, easy things. They don't come as those who
are prepared that their minds should be brought to the stretch.
In fact, I remarked this afternoon at Hedgen Chapel on conversation
I remember having in times past with the late Mr. Matronola.
Of course, many years the pastor here oftentimes occupying this
pulpit and how he would say how sad it was because people would
have their various interests, a man might have a great interest
in motor cars and he'd want to obtain the manual of the particular
vehicle that he was in ownership of and he wanted to know all
about the technical side of the internal combustion engine he'd
read these things and much technicality there and no problem but yet
when he came to hearing sermons sitting under the ministry of
the words that same man couldn't be bothered to stretch his mind
to come to terms with great biblical truths and biblical doctrines
God grant that we might be those who have such a hunger and such
a thirst after righteousness, that we might be those who are
determined to ransack our Bibles, that we might come to some proper
understanding and appreciation then of these great truths. First of all then, I want to
say something with regards to this doctrine, Reconciliation
or the Atonement. as we have it here at the end
of verse 11. Now I'm sure you're aware that
the word atonement, and it is a great word, it's one of those
words that was actually coined by William Tyndale, the Bible
translator. The word was unknown previous
to the work that Tyndale did in his translation of the New
Testament from the original Greek into our English language. And
he himself came up with this word. And of course, he breaks
down quite conveniently. Literally, it is at one meant. We pronounce it as atonement,
but that's what it means to be at one. And so we have clearly
the idea of reconciliation. In fact, In verse 10 we have
the verbal form of these words. We have the noun here in verse
11 rendered atonement. We have the verb there in verse
10. When we were enemies we were
reconciled. We were made at one. with God
by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, being
at one, we shall be saved by his life. But before we can really
understand this truth of reconciliation, we have to come to terms, of
course, with what our condition is by nature. with regards to
God and with regards to the things of God. To have a true spiritual
appreciation of the doctrine we must know something of what
it is to be in a condition of alienation. And what is alienation? It is the consequence of our
sins. This is what has come as the
result of Adam and Eve's transgression there in the Garden of Eden. This is the result of all our
sins against God. We are alienated from Him by
nature. Remember how in Ephesians chapter
4 Paul speaks of the Gentiles having the understanding darkened,
being alienated. from the life of God through
the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their
hearts. That's our condition. Alienated
from God because of the ignorance. We're so ignorant. Our hearts
are so blinded. Our hearts by nature are so hard. and so we're in this state where
we're alienated, we're separated from God and we see it there
in Genesis chapter 3 with Adam and Eve how that after they partook
of what God had commanded they should not partake of after they
had rebelled against the commandment of God and transgressed God's
law They are separated. And do you remember how we have
the record there of God coming as he was wont into the garden?
It was a place of rich communion with God. It was paradise. And
God comes into the garden in the cool of the day and Adam
and Eve hide themselves. They hide themselves from the
presence of God. They are no longer friends with
God. They feel their sin, their alienation, and what does God
do? He drives them out of the garden
at the end of that solemn third chapter of Genesis. They're driven
out of the garden, they're away from God. Your iniquities have
separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His
face from you. But it's not just a matter of
separation, not just a question of being those who are away from
God, at a distance from God. No, it's much worse. There is
real opposition. That is what sin really is. There
is real opposition. The very essence of sin is this,
it's against God. The sinner sets himself against
God. Sin is a very contradiction of
God Himself, that's what Professor John Murray says. And we have
the words, do we not, later in this epistle, familiar words,
we often refer to them there in chapter 8, verse 7, because
the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the Lord of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. The cardinal mind, the margin
tells us that the Greek literally read the minding of the flesh. It's the fleshly mind. It's the
natural mind of man. It is not an enemy. It's worse than that. An enemy
might well be reconciled. But the natural mind of man is
enmity, enmity personified. Enmity is always enmity. This
is why the sinner, you see, must receive a new nature. He must
be born again. The natural man cannot receive
the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness to him, neither
can he know them. What is man by nature? All of us are born in that condition
where we are children of wrath. And I say friends, this is where
we have to begin. We have to understand something
of what our real state is before God. We're in a condition of
alienation. Every individual ever born into
this world is in such a state as that. It matters not who our
forebears are. It matters not what our parentage
is. By nature we are those who are
the children of wrath. And when the Lord begins to teach
us, does He not make us to feel that? That is the ministry of
the Lord, is it not? Whatever things the Lord said,
He said to them who are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God." Oh,
it stops the mouth, you see, of those who are enemies, so
set in their minds and in their hearts against God. Alienation, the result of our
sins. But then, we're considering,
are we not, what we're to understand by this reconciliation. What does it say here in verse
10? For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Or we were enemies, and yet,
The Lord Jesus Christ is that one who has come to reconcile
the sinner. Well, here we have the essence
of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul is the
apostle who brings these things out time and time and time again
as he writes to these young churches of the New Testament writing
there in the epistle to the Colossians look at what he says in chapter
1 and verse 21 and you that were
sometime alienated you that were sometime alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in
the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in His sight." This is the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has come to make reconciliation. He has come to atone for the
sins of His people that they might again be at one with God. It's interesting, is it not,
how in the Old Testament we see quite clearly that atonement
has that idea of covering. Covering. In the previous chapter
we see the Apostle where he speaks of the faith of Abraham. Abraham, the father of all them
that believe. And he is speaking of the great
doctrine of justification in these chapters, is he not? And
how is it that we come to be justified? Well, it's by the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's that justification that
comes by means of that precious blood that Christ shed. When we We're reading the chapter,
we quite deliberately read the opening verse differently to
what the punctuation in our authorized version indicates. You may have
observed. It says, therefore being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
But we didn't read it that way, we read it, therefore being justified. By faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, justification
is before faith. Justification is by that great
work that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished in the fullness
of the time, in the outworking of that that was purposed in
the eternal covenant. There is that eternal justification,
of course, in the purpose of God. It was accomplished by Christ
And we come to experience it by faith. And there in chapter
4, as I was saying, Paul is speaking of Abraham. And Abraham came to experience
justification by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what does
Paul do? He refers to Psalm 32. refers to what David says there
in the psalm. In chapter 4, verse 6, even as
David also, "...describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom
God imputeth righteousness without works." saying, Blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. The man whose sin is not accounted
or reckoned to him, it's not imputed to him, but what's imputed
to him is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
he is one who before God, in God's strict justice, is declared
to be a righteous man. He's clothed with the righteousness
of Christ. But see what he says there in
verse 7, quoting the psalm. It's whose sins are covered. There in the Old Testament atonement
does have that idea of the covering of sin and we see it so wonderfully
really in a type when we consider the tabernacle and remember the
the holy of holies which houses of course the arm of the Covenant,
that that is really the central part of the worship of God's
ancient Covenant people. The Ark of the Covenant, it's
that chest containing the tables of the Lord, the Ten Commandments. This was the Covenant that God
had entered into with the children of Israel there at Mount Sinai. And that to keep those tables
in this chest, this Ark. And there in Exodus 25 we are
told how Moses was instructed with regards to the making of
the Ark of the Covenant and all the measurements of the Ark of
the Covenant and so forth and what is that that is put upon
the top of the Ark? It's the Mercy Seat. It's the
Mercy Seat. And not surprisingly, there in
verses 10 and 17, we see that the measurements are the same.
In other words, the mercy seat is a perfect covering. It fits exactly over the Ark
of the Covenant. It covers it. Or does it not
speak, you see, of the great work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the mercy seat? He is that one who is the propitiation
for us in... He is that one who is really
our mercy seat, is he not? And we have it here, in chapter
3. Verse 24 is speaking of Christ
Jesus whom he says in verse 25, chapter 3, verse 25, whom God
has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. And
the word propitiation there, it's that same word that we have
in Hebrews 8, where we have the furnishings in the tabernacle,
and we have mention of the mercy seat. It's the same word, exactly
the same word. In Hebrews 8, the trended mercy
seat that is used there in Romans 3.25, whom God has set forth
to be a mercy seat through faith in His blood. The mercy seat
was the place where on the great day of atonement the blood of
sacrifice was taken and was sprinkled. It was at the mercy seat the
atonement was made. and the Lord Jesus Christ is
that one you see and now as the mercy seat there is that perfect
covering of the Ark of the Covenant or doesn't God's justice demand
that the punishment should exactly fit the crime that has been committed
we see it time and again this is the justice of God when God
is dealing with those Egyptians, and he deals with them in the
way of judgment in the 10 plagues, does he not? Remember the first
plague? All the waters throughout Egypt
were turned to blood. Now, the Pharaoh had made the
Nile a bloody river. He had murdered all those little
babies, all those male children. had been taken and they'd be
drowned in the river, as he sought to destroy the Hebrews. The river
was a bloody river, a murderous place. And when God begins his
judgments upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians, how fitting it is. All the waters throughout his
land become blood. Justice demands, you see. that
the punishment fits the crime. And so we see it with regard
to that great work of the Lord Jesus Christ when he comes to
reconcile the sinner. And we see it in time. Is sin
that that results in separation and alienation? Well, that was
what Christ had to experience. We see it there in type I say,
we've already referred to the Great Day of Atonement, spoken
of in Leviticus chapter 16. And you remember what was required?
Here is that day. The Jews still observe it, Yom
Kippur, the Day of Atonement. And on that day in the Old Testament,
The priest was permitted to enter then beyond the second vial. He could go into the most holy
place. The only day in the year. It is the presence of God that
he ventures into. Because that mercy seat, that's
the throne of God. This is where God dwells in the
midst of his people. And as he goes there, of course,
he must go with the blood of sacrifice. But we see in Leviticus
chapter 16 at verse 8 following that there must be two goats.
The one goat was to serve as a sin offering, and the other
was to be a scapegoat. You see there is such a glorious
fullness in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ that we must have
a multitude of offerings and sacrifices in the Old Testament
to set forth all the fullness and the richness of the work
that the Lord Jesus Christ has done. There are two goats and
they are both types of Christ. The one is sacrificed the sin
offering and the blood of sacrifice is taken there and is sprinkled
upon the mercy seat, and is sprinkled there before the mercy seat. And then we have the other goat,
the scapegoat. And what does it say there? You
just turn to that chapter and you can read it at your leisure. It's a remarkable chapter, Leviticus
chapter 16, is it not? What does it say? Verse 21, Aaron
shall lay both his hands upon the head of the liger and confess
over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all
their transgressions in all their sins putting them upon the head
of the goat and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man
into the wilderness and the goat shall bear upon him all their
iniquities into a land not inhabited, and he shall let go the goats
in the wilderness." Separation. That's what that goat is experiencing. He's taken away, he's separated,
and there he's left in the wilderness. And that was the experience,
was it not, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at what we read
here in verse 8. how God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And what did that death entail? It entailed separation. We see it in the type, we see
it in the scapegoat. And so when we come to the New
Testament, we see it in very truth. when the Lord Jesus Christ
is dying upon the cross yes we see him as that one who is pouring
out his soul unto death it is a bloody death that he dies we know that without the shedding
of blood there can be no remission of sins and so Christ must die
such a bloody death He must bear that terrible punishment that
was the deserts of his children. He must suffer as their substitutes. And he must die, so that sin
of it shall die. He being the sinless one, but
there we see him as the sinner's substitute. And he bears there
in his own person the wages that was due to his people, the wages
of sin is death, but then also we see him as that one who knew
what it was to endure a separation. Here is the great mystery of
his dying. How he cries out in agony, My
God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Could there really be a separation? between God the Father and God
the Son, is not God warned? Hear O Israel the Lord our God
is one Lord and yet here is the truth of it, what Christ endures
not only a bloody death but that experience of dereliction feeling
himself to be forsaken all this is how Christ is born that punishment,
sin brings alienation. And in a sense the Lord Jesus
Christ himself had to experience that, an alienation, a separation
from God. And the result? Why every sinner
who is trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ himself is now separated. Separated from what? Separated
from all the guilt, and all the curse and all the penalty that
was due to his sins. Here is the great work of reconciliation
that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished. Look at that verse
that we have in the book of the prophet Jeremiah
in chapter 50 and verse 20. In those days and in that time. Do you know the significance
of those opening words? Those days, that time? It's referring
to the Great Gospel Day, the last days. In those days and
in that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought
for and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah and they
shall not be found. for I will pardon them whom I
reserve." Oh, there is such a wonderful result of all that the Lord Jesus
Christ has endured for sinners that the sinner now who was once
separated from God by his sins is separated from all his sins.
His sins are no more. God has removed them from him
as far as the East is from the West. That's infinity, is it
not? As we said before, it doesn't
say as far as the North is from the South. All we know that the
North and the South are fixed points, are they not, on the
compass? The North Pole, the South Pole. But once you start
travelling in an easterly direction, you keep on travelling in an
easterly direction. You travel North, once you get
to the North Pole, you start travelling South. But you see
when God separates the sins of his people from them. Oh, it's
an infinite separation. It's as far as the East is from
the West. Oh, this is that great work that
has been accomplished. Now, the Day of Atonement, that
that we read of in some detail there in Leviticus chapter 16,
was to take place in the seventh month. That was the great festal
month in the Old Testament. In Leviticus 23, 27 we're told
it's the tenth day of the seventh month. The tenth day of the seventh
month was the day of the Atonement. And of course, not surprisingly,
we're dealing with types. Even the The numbers are significant. The 10th day, it speaks to us
of the end of the Law, does it not? The 7th month, it speaks
of the completion of the Law as Christ has honoured and magnified
all the Law of God. Christ is the end of the Law
for righteousness. to everyone that believes. This is a great work. When we
were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.
Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life and
not only so, but we also join God through our Lord Jesus Christ
by whom we have now received. the Atonement, we've received
the Reconciliation, so we turn, having said something with regards
to the Reconciliation, we turn to consider what it is to receive
it. We come then, as it were, to
the application. It is not enough, is it, to read
these great truths as we find them recorded for us here in
the Word of God. It's not enough to fill our minds
with these great truths. It's a good thing. It's a good
thing to have a right understanding, a clear mind with regards to
these doctrines. But we want more than that. We
have to receive these things. We have to feel these things
in our very souls. We have to receive God's words. And here we have it, you see.
By whom? That is the Lord Jesus Christ
by whom we have now received the atonement. We have to receive
with meekness, James says, the engrafted words. Or we have the
inscripturated Word, we have it before us. Here in our Bibles
we can read God's Word, we can hear the ministry and the preaching
of the Word of God. but ought to know it as that
engrafted word that word that is brought home into our hearts
and we feel it how do we thus receive it with meekness ought
to be humbled before the word of God and we come as those who
feel our dependence and God himself must apply it to us We can't
just seize at it. We want God himself to deal graciously
with us and to so implant it in our minds and in our hearts. The receiving then, the application
of these things. First of all we want to observe
here that it is a sovereign work. It is a sovereign work of God. What we have here at the end
of verse 11. We have now received the Atonement. Does it not preclude every idea
of any merit in us? We do nothing to earn this great
blessing. Remember the ministry of John
the Baptist as we have it recorded in the Scriptures there in John
chapter 3 In verse 27, the Baptist says, a man can receive nothing
except it be given him from heaven. Friends, we must receive it from
heaven. God has to give it to us. And Paul says much the same,
does he not, when he writes to the Corinthians? And alas, the
poor Corinthians, they were such proud people. how they were certainly
a gifted people, it was a church that was highly favoured of God,
remarkable gifts were evident in that church but how they became
so proud at what they'd attained to and there were those who had
entered amongst them who were false teachers and false apostles
and they turned their minds and they turned their hearts against
Paul himself, who had been so instrumental under God in taking
the Gospel there to Corinth and by his preaching that was the
very foundation of that church, was it not? And yet they came
to despise the Apostle. And yet all of that's under God's
hand, as we've said on previous occasions, that's why Paul has
to write as he does. and has to speak of himself and
he doesn't want to do that at all. His determination, he tells
the Corinthians, was to know nothing amongst them save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. The person, the work of Christ,
that's what Paul wanted to speak of, but he has to speak of himself.
And he has to speak of his experiences. But it's all under God's hand,
you see. It's all part of the ministry
of God to us that we should have these things written. Here is
that man who is a pattern to them which you do not have to
believe as much as we can learn not only from the doctrinal part
of Paul's epistles and the practical part of the epistles but also
those more experimental aspects where he is writing about himself.
It was a church then that was very gifted and yet became very
proud. Paul writes to them and says
this, Who maketh thee to differ from another? Who maketh thee
to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou
hast not received? If therefore thou hast received
it, why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it? All
that they had, all that they were, was by the grace of God. And how true it is, friends,
how we have to recognize that all that we are, if we're anything
at all, and we doubtless often feel ourselves to be but nothings,
all that we have is by the grace of God. As John says there in
the opening chapter of his epistle, in verse 16, concerning Christ,
of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. Oh, it is grace, and it is grace
upon grace, and it is grace for grace. This is our experience,
is it not? It's nothing of ourselves. It's
all of God. It's all of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so here we have it, you see. In the text, verse 11, our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. And then again we have it at
the end of the 17th verse much more, they which receive abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness. It's the abundance of the grace
of God, it's the gift of righteousness and it's all by one, even the
Lord Jesus Christ himself. Oh, there is in Christ, is there
not, all that fullness of salvation? All the fullness of salvation
is in Him, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that as it is written, He that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Is there a full salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ? I'm sure we would all say, yes,
there is. There is, and He is all our salvation. And can we say that He is all
our desire? But you see, as there is such
fullness of salvation in Christ, here is the wonderful thing,
that salvation comes to us also freely from the Lord Jesus Christ. It's full in Him, and it's free
from Him. And that's what we're told, is
it not, here in this 10th verse. When we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son. That's what Christ
accomplished by dying. But there's more, much more it
says. Being reconciled, we shall be
saved by His life. how He made the atoning sacrifice,
how He, by His death upon the cross, reconciled the sinner
to God, but much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
by His life. What is this life? It's the resurrection
life of the Lord Jesus Christ that is being spoken of. How
the Father raised Him again from the dead. Oh, remember what Paul
says at the opening of the Epistle when he defines the Gospel. And
he tells us what it is. In the opening verses, verse
3, concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And he goes
on, verse 4, declared to be the Son of God with power. according
to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So God the Father in the resurrection
has owned and acknowledged him, vindicated him. And this life
you see, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life,
it's that resurrection life. And what is the resurrection
life of the Lord Jesus? Why, it's his interceding life. He has risen, He has shown Himself
to His disciples for 40 days by many infallible proofs. They
are the witnesses to the truth of His resurrection and then
He has ascended on high. He has been received now into
the very heavens. Read the language of the Psalmist
there in Psalm 24. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come. Now he has entered into heaven
itself, and there in heaven he lives, and his presence there
is a constant play. He lives to intercede, and as
he intercedes, what is he doing? There is the application of the
salvation that he has wrought. Him hath God exalted with His
right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance. He is that One who is the Prince,
the Saviour and He gives repentance to Israel and the forgiveness
of sins. Oh, He is able, you see, able
to save to the uttermost. all that come unto God by Him,
seeing He ever lives, to make intercession for them." Much
more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. The Lord Jesus, of course, is
that One who as He rose and as He ascended, so He was the One
who gave the Holy Spirit, was He not? You know the language
of the Apostle Peter there at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost
and he tells those Jews so plainly concerning the one that they
had crucified therefore being by the right hand of God exalted
having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit
he has shed forth this which he now see and hear he is the
one who gives the Spirit who gives the Spirit thou hast ascended
on high says the Psalmist. Thou hast led captivity captive,
thou hast received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious
also. Who are the rebellious? They
are those who are in that state of alienation. They are those
who are the enemies of God. They are those that Christ came
to reconcile to God. He has received gifts for men.
Yea, for the rebellious. Oh, the Lord Jesus is that one,
you see, who has not only accomplished the great salvation, but He is
there in the application of the salvation. It is by that blessed
ministry of the Holy Spirit Himself. He must come and He must make
these things real. It is, I say, a sovereign work.
It's a sovereign work of God. It's nothing that the sinner
does. It's all by the grace of God. Where does this work take
place? It takes place in the soul. Or do we know, friends, what
it is to have a soul religion? Something that's been wrought
inside our very hearts. The kingdom of God is within
you, says the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you know, all those who
receive the atonement, all those who know reconciliation, They
must first of all experience alienation, must they not? That's
where we began, was it not? I said at the outset we can only
understand reconciliation when we come to terms with alienation.
Now, David knew these things. In the psalm he cries out, I
said in my heart, I am cut off from before thine eyes. Oh, he
felt himself to be so cut off from God. All are sinners in
God's sight, all are in that state in God's sight, are they
not? All are sinners in God's sight, there are but few so in
their own. Who are we? Those friends who
have been made to feel it, what we are by nature. Donor cries
out, I am cast out of thy sight. Have you ever been there to feel
it? There's a distance from God, alienated from God. cast out
of God's very presence. I am cast out of thy sight, says
Jonah, yet will I look again toward thy holy temple. You see,
sometimes a believer, he's never really cut off from God, but
he feels it because of his sin. When we sin against God, do we
not feel it? What does Jonah say there? He'd been disobedient. I will
look again. He'd looked before. He knew where
to go. And who the one to whom he must
call and cry, I will look again and again. Oh, friends, when
we feel what sin is and the awful consequence of our sin, it brings
that separation. And God does feel to be at some
distance from us. There's that negative aspect,
that sense of alienation. And then we can really understand
what it is to be receiving this atonement. We need to be receiving
it over and over and over again. But there's not only the negative.
Oh, there's a positive, is there not? What does it say in the
text? Not only so, but we also join in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. or with those who are able to
rejoice and we rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ we rejoice
in all that great fullness of salvation all that richness of
that precious atoning blood that the Lord Jesus Christ has shed
with joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ and are we those
who are therefore come to this we reconcile We are reconciled
to God and we are reconciled now to God's dealings with us. And we have to recognize that
God is sovereign in the manner of his dealings with us. And
there are those times when God seems to go against us and act
contrary to us. He doesn't do the thing that
we would. Oh, we have to pray, do we not, for that spirit of
gracious submission that we might conduct ourselves truly as those
who are reconciled to God. Oh God, be pleasing to teach
us this great truth, this great doctrine, this doctrine of reconciliation. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more,
being reconciled we shall be saved by His life and not only
so but we also join God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
we have now received the atonement. The Lord grant His blessing. Amen.