Glorying in God
A Sermon on Romans 5:10-11
Scripture
10For 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. 11And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have …
Sermon Description
Is the Christian finding glory in God? Is He their delight? In this sermon on Romans 5:10–11, Paul has already confirmed that salvation is assured in Christ Jesus and so this means the Christian should have joy in Christ Jesus and what He has done. Christians should glory both in their salvation and in God as the giver of salvation. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones goes as far as to say that true Christian faith always leads to glorying in God. He states that things such as trusting in oneself rather than God, failure to mediate on the things of God, and not reasoning with Scripture could all be causes for a failure to properly glory in God. Not glorying in God is a sign of unbelief and a sin and unbelief is the chief of all sins. A Christian should be in constant examination of themselves to ensure that they are always glorying in Christ. All self-examination should lead to rejoicing.
Sermon Breakdown
- The sermon examines Romans 5:10-11 which discusses being reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.
- Verse 10 says that while we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son. This shows that our salvation is completely of God.
- Verse 11 says that we can now rejoice in God through Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation.
- The sermon asks if we truly rejoice in God as we should. There are several reasons we may fail to do so:
- Failure to fully grasp justification by faith alone. We may still be relying partly on our own works.
- Failure to meditate on God's word and the work of Christ. We must reflect on God's nature, character, and works.
- Failure to reason and argue from Scripture. We must make deductions from what God has revealed, as Paul does. Not doing so shows unbelief.
- Looking too much at our own sin and not enough at Christ. We must be driven to Christ, not stay focused on our sin.
- True faith involves reasoning and arguing from revelation. It means deducing from what God has said and trusting in those deductions.
- We can be certain of the logic Paul uses here: if God reconciled us while we were enemies, he will surely save us now that we are reconciled. To doubt this shows unbelief.
- There must be a balance of humility about ourselves and rejoicing in God. Self-examination should drive us to rejoice in Christ's work, not leave us miserable.
- We must glory in God through Christ, who has brought us reconciliation. All we know about ourselves and God's works should lead us to praise him.
The Book of Romans
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.