DEVOTION
ROMANS
EXCHANGED
Rom 5:9-11
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we
be saved from God's wrath through him! 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! 11 Not only is this so,
but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have
now received reconciliation.
NIV
Since we have been rendered innocent by his blood. That alone would be
enough as to be rendered innocent means we go directly to go, passing jail and
collect our eternal life. However ,the word since implies there is more than being rendered innocent by his blood. Having been rendered innocent we also are
saved from the wrath of God because we are in Christ. Here is the kicker. We were
once God’s enemies. Even those believers who think they have been Christian all
their lives were once an enemy of God. They were not born a Christian, there
had to be some time in everyone’s life when they had to make a decision to
accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. That is the moment what we call
conversion. Paul uses the word reconciled to him through the life of Jesus. The
Greek word means to change or exchange, as for coins of equal value. So we have
been exchanged from or changed from being subjects of Gods wrath to being his
children, subjects of his love. Both wrath and love fall into the category of
violent or passionate emotions. Therefor, we should live a life of rejoicing
because we have been exchanged from the wrath to the love of God. How could we
not be glad every moment of every day? When someone asks, “How you doing?”
should not our answer be, “Just another wonderful day in Paradise!” That is
where we now live, we have been changed from that place of darkness into the
place of his light. We have been exchanged, reconciled by God. We have received
this change, we are no longer as we once were. Our life is now a life in Christ
which comes with all the blessings including having been sealed by the Spirit
as our guarantee of our salvation. The Spirit also brings with him his fruit to
bear in us for the pleasure of others. Yet that fruit is manifested in us and
therefore we can have love, joy, peace and the rest. But for now we need to see
that joy. We should live with joy in our heart, not just because it is the
fruit of the Spirit, but because we were changed or exchanged from wrath to
love.
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