Message details

- Today's teaching will be part five in series I've chosen to title; "There's Something Missing in My Life."

- Here-to-fore, the Apostle Paul has risen from the pages of this chapter and identified that which could in fact be missing in our Christian lives.

1. Peace with God (Verse 1)

2. Access to God (Verse 2a)

3. Confidence in God (Verse 2b)

4. Character of God (Verses 3-4)

5. Spirit from God (Verse 5)

6. Love by God (Verses 6-8)

- Paul describes how God demonstrated His own love for us, in that while we were still powerless as sinners, Jesus Christ died instead of us.

7. Justification through God (Verse 9)

-v9 Paul takes it a step further saying that since we’re justified by His blood, how much more will we be saved from God’s wrath through Christ.

8. Reconciliation to God (Verse 10)

(10) For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

-v10 Paul says that if we’re reconciled to God, while still enemies with God, through Christ’s death, how much more are we saved through His life.

- There’s a progression to everything that Paul is communicating here in that justification brings reconciliation, which in turn will result in salvation.

- As one so aptly noted; “Paul’s point in these verses is that past justification, and present reconciliation, absolutely guarantee future salvation.”

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 NIV (17) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (18) All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: (19) that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (20) We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. (21) God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Charles Spurgeon – “When we were sinners He justified us, will He now leave us? He reconciled us when we were enemies, will He not save us now that we are His friends? If His death has done so much, what will not His life do? The threefold argument is overwhelming; He cannot, He will not, now suffer us to perish. His wrath is turned away, and His love is settled upon us for eternity, if we have believed in Jesus. Have we so believed? There is the great point.”

- Perhaps you’re thinking to yourself if I’ve believed in Jesus Christ, doesn’t that mean that I’m automatically reconciled to God, through Christ?

- Well, yes and no, let me explain; my present reconciliation to God will be directly proportionate to my past justification through God.

- In other words, if there’s still un-confessed sin in my life, there will be a hindrance to my life, which will in turn impede the restoration of my life.

- It’s for this reason we’ve spent so much time understanding justification. Justification secures our reconciliation, which guarantees our salvation.

- Absent justification by the blood of Jesus Christ, I won’t have reconciliation through the blood of Jesus Christ. Maybe this is missing in your life.

- I’ll take it a step further and suggest, if this is what’s missing in your life, then you need look no further for the cause of your spiritual depression.

“You cannot hope to solve the problem of depression and melancholy if you are harboring some sin.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones “Spiritual Depression, Its Causes and its Cure”

9. Rejoicing in God (Verse 11)

(11) Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

-v11 Paul says not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

- Sadly, the brilliance and brightness of what it means to rejoice is fast becoming the lost jewel in many a church of Jesus Christ in today’s world.

- What I mean by that is, we’ve become so self focused on being happy in our narcissism, that rejoicing in the Lord is a foreign language to us.

“You can't make yourself happy, but you can make yourself rejoice. …Happiness is something within ourselves, rejoicing is in the Lord. Seek not to be happy, seek after and hunger after and thirst after righteousness. Seek first the kingdom. …Do you want to know supreme joy and experience happiness that eludes description? Seek Him as a child.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones “Spiritual Depression, Its Causes and its Cure”

- If I seek Him in this way, then I’ll know Him in this way, and if I know Him in this way, then I will rejoice in Him in this way. There’s no other way.

- Conversely, if first and foremost, I’m self-seeking for my own happiness in this world, then I will never drink or taste from the cup of rejoicing.

“You can't see if you don't taste first. Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones “Spiritual Depression, Its Causes and its Cure”

Charles Spurgeon – “God Himself is now our joy. We dreaded Him once, but we do so no more. We are at one with Him through Jesus, and the love of God is now the overflowing fountain of joy to us. Again let us each one ask, is it so with me? Parents, children, servants, is it so with you?”