Content in rejoicing

Here is the continuation of the study Jordan gave last month on Romans 12:

“The basis of my hope is being justified by faith. Justification is not simple being pardoned. Richard Nixon was pardoned and yet people knew he was guilty; they just didn’t hold him accountable for it. But he’s still guilty and you still revile him.

“Justification is not acquittal. O.J. Simpson was acquitted and how many people still think he was guilty? The jury said he’s not guilty.

“Justification is not saying, ‘We’re not going to hold him accountable. We’re going to forgive him.’ Justification is to declare him to be right. It’s not just to say he’s not guilty for something. It’s to say, 'He absolutely did the right thing, not the wrong thing.' It’s a positive thing.

“Forgiveness is a negative thing; it’s the taking away of . . . justification is the declaration of rightness. Now, that’s a much more powerful thing. You have the ability to stand before God as being totally doing the right thing in Christ. That’s where I have that hope.

“Now, that’s the GROUND of my hope. Rejoicing in the fact that Jesus Christ is my righteousness. Now, the GOAL of my hope is in Romans 5:2: ‘By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.’

“See, in Romans 12 when he says ‘rejoicing in hope,’ he takes you back to chapter 5 and he says, ‘You’re rejoicing in hope because Jesus Christ is your righteousness and what you’re rejoicing in is hope of the glory of God.

“Chapter 3 said you ‘came short of the glory of God’; now he says you ‘rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.’

“Our hope flows out of that confidence we have in Christ and we rejoice in that! When you think about rejoicing in hope, I think about the thing in Philippians 4 when Paul says, ‘Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
[12] I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
[13] I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’

“He writes in verse 4, ‘Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.’ I can rejoice when I’m suffering need or when I’m abounding. Either way! In the seasons of life when things aren’t going well and trouble’s normal, the joy is going to flow from the hope not the ‘present good things.’

“I look out and see the glory that’s to come and I say, ‘It isn’t always this, and the things I’m going through now aren’t pointless, useless, absurd. They’re something that works for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory!' and I can say, 'My ace in the hole is in the end it’s just glory!' and I can rejoice in that hope! ”