Benefit #10 - Joy
"And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation." (Romans 5:11)
The final benefit in this passage of Scripture is that when we our saved, we will have joy. What is joy? Do other people who do not have Christ experience true joy? Sadly, no. There are essentially five types of people in the world who do not have Jesus in their lives. The acronym THUMB can be used to describe these people. I am indebted to a video on missions for this illustration. "T" stands for the tribal people of the world. Most of these people live life in constant fear of of their gods that bring destruction on them for their sin. They do not experience joy and long to know that there is a God who forgives sin and was willing to die for them.
"H" stands for Hindus. People of this religion live life, hoping to be good enough so that when they come back in the next life they will be humans and not animals. Do they have joy? No. They're hope is that they can will themselves into a better situation.
"U" stands for the Unreligious. This group is simply those who do not believe in God. Where is their hope and their joy? It is absent.
"M" stands for Muslims. They live their life also hoping to live a good enough one so that Allah will choose to have mercy on them. They do not have guaranteed salvation. Fortunately, Jesus offers that guarantee to all.
"B" stands for Buddhists. The people who hold this religion pray to the Buddha in hopes that he hears them and they practice meditation so that they may experience nirvana - or the goal of non-existence. Is their joy in non-existence? No.
Only the God of the Bible, the true God offers true joy. And he is calling all to repent of their sins (Luke 13:3) and place their trust in Him. What is their to lose? One thing: self. Coming to Christ presupposes that one will die to one's self and live for Christ. Why should we live for Christ? Because He commands it and because of what he has done and when we dwell in our eternal state that is exactly what we will be doing: living for Christ.
The final benefit in this passage of Scripture is that when we our saved, we will have joy. What is joy? Do other people who do not have Christ experience true joy? Sadly, no. There are essentially five types of people in the world who do not have Jesus in their lives. The acronym THUMB can be used to describe these people. I am indebted to a video on missions for this illustration. "T" stands for the tribal people of the world. Most of these people live life in constant fear of of their gods that bring destruction on them for their sin. They do not experience joy and long to know that there is a God who forgives sin and was willing to die for them.
"H" stands for Hindus. People of this religion live life, hoping to be good enough so that when they come back in the next life they will be humans and not animals. Do they have joy? No. They're hope is that they can will themselves into a better situation.
"U" stands for the Unreligious. This group is simply those who do not believe in God. Where is their hope and their joy? It is absent.
"M" stands for Muslims. They live their life also hoping to live a good enough one so that Allah will choose to have mercy on them. They do not have guaranteed salvation. Fortunately, Jesus offers that guarantee to all.
"B" stands for Buddhists. The people who hold this religion pray to the Buddha in hopes that he hears them and they practice meditation so that they may experience nirvana - or the goal of non-existence. Is their joy in non-existence? No.
Only the God of the Bible, the true God offers true joy. And he is calling all to repent of their sins (Luke 13:3) and place their trust in Him. What is their to lose? One thing: self. Coming to Christ presupposes that one will die to one's self and live for Christ. Why should we live for Christ? Because He commands it and because of what he has done and when we dwell in our eternal state that is exactly what we will be doing: living for Christ.
posted by Charlie Wallace at
1:40 PM
5 Comments:
Probably not. But a benefit of salvation is joyfulness. Paul says we "rejoice" in God because of our reconciliation. If a Christian is not joyful of his salvation, something is wrong; either that person is not saved or does not love God. I know this sounds harsh but that's how it is. I go through periods of my life where I truly do not love God; I love myself instead. Jesus said himself that one cannot love both God and mammon. One cannot serve two masters. I know the days that I am not joyful are because I have let my sinfulness run my life and I have pushed my love for God out to the periphery of my life.
On a side note, a secular study was done about people who were depressed. And a finding was that people who were "happiest" in life - no matter what their circumstances are/were, were also the most thankful people. They of course did not attribute thankfulness to being appreciateve of what God has done for them, just that they were generally thankful for their lot in life. There is a direct correlation between someone's attitude (whether depressed, worried, or content) and their degree to which they are thankful for what God has blessed them with.
I think a lot of Christians are not very joyful.
I think if we do not walk in the Spirit and we give ground to our flesh, then we will not be joyful.
I would not use joy as a test of salvation.
Every Blessing in Christ
Matthew
Matthew,
I'm sorry if i misconstrued joy as a "test" for salvation. The point of this post is that joy is a benefit one receives with salvation - not a test.
Charlie
Quite so. It is great thing to receive indeed.
God Bless
Matthew
Great post, Charles. Thanks for sharing that acrostic, I had not heard it beofre. I am joyful ... see? :~)
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