Jesus Brings Joy – Part Two

City Harbor Church – Hampden, Baltimore, MD

Cultivate joy by choosing to live in God’s gracious freedom from sin.
God, the Holy Spirit, inspired Paul to write to Roman people explaining how Jesus brings joy to a deeply flawed modern life. This letter relates to each nuance of a complicated life and a helpful diagnosis of the human condition.

“Since we have been made right with God by our faith, we have peace with God. This happened through our Lord Jesus Christ, who through our faith has brought us into that blessing of God’s grace that we now enjoy. And we are happy because of the hope we have of sharing God’s glory.” – Romans 5:1-2 NCV

²² God makes people right with himself through their faith in Jesus Christ. This is true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same: ²³ Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard, ²⁴ and all need to be made right with God by his grace, which is a free gift. They need to be made free from sin through Jesus Christ. ²⁵ God sent him to die in our place to take away our sins. We receive forgiveness through faith in the blood of Jesus’ death. This showed that God always does what is right and fair, as in the past when he was patient and did not punish people for their sins. ²⁶ And God gave Jesus to show today that he does what is right. God did this so he could judge rightly and so he could make right any person who has faith in Jesus.” – Romans 3:22-26 NCV

Feel shame or heaviness when these topics, felt that way myself, found that digging into the truth brought life-changing peace and joy. One of the essential ingredients is clarity about right and wrong. We can’t afford a fuzzy relationship with right and wrong. The truth of the Good News of Jesus brings life-changing spiritual freedom and clarity about our identity, value, and purpose. Jesus Brings Joy! Cultivate joy by choosing to live in God’s gracious freedom from sin.

Q + A: Sin?

Sin – to fail, to miss the goal or destination, to miss the goal of God’s designed purpose, doing the wrong thing, not doing the right thing, moral failure, to act contrary to the will and law of God, desires and selfish urges to act for our own benefit at the expense of others “toxic selfishness”, failure to be humans who fully love God and others

Q + A: Sin? What damage would ___ sin bring? “chain reaction of relational breakdown,” Why would God hate sin?

“God shows his great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners.” – Romans 5:8 NCV

“God does not love us because Christ died for us; Christ died for us because God loved us.” – John Stott

^“9 So through Christ we will surely be saved from God’s anger, because we have been made right with God by the blood of Christ’s death. ¹⁰ While we were God’s enemies, he made us his friends through the death of his Son. Surely, now that we are his friends, he will save us through his Son’s life. ¹¹ And not only that, but now we are also very happy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we are now God’s friends again. ” – Romans 5:9-11 NCV
“When Adam sinned, sin entered the world.” – Romans 5:12 NLT
“Adam & Eve choose to redefine good and evil by their own definition.”
Story of Good News – Timothy Keller conversational pathway
Chapter 1: Where did we come from? From God: the One and the relational
Chapter 2: Why did things go so wrong? Because of sin: bondage and condemnation
Chapter 3: What will put things right? Christ: incarnation, substitution, restoration
Chapter 4: How can I be put right? Through faith: grace and trust
Chapter 3 and 4 Q + A are a focus of Romans. We read Romans 1-8 as helpful in understanding salvation.
“The payment for sin is death. But God gives us the free gift of life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23 NCV
“Jesus committed no sin…yet he carried our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to our sins and live to do what’s right.” – 1 Peter 2:22-24
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” – Galatians 5:1
God’s motive: love God’s purpose: includes our freedom from sin. Important to not shrug off sin, accepting it as part of life that can’t be changed. God gives this invitation to participation, receive and live in God’s gracious freedom from sin.
“Go and sin no more.” – John 5:14, 8:11
“If you don’t choose what is good, sin is crouching at the door. It wants you, but you can rule over it.” – Genesis 4:7 God says to Cain.
Note: What does God do? What are we to do?

What do we learn?

1. God has shown us love by sending Jesus as Savior.
2. God offers gracious freedom from sin.
3. A life-giving and life-changing relationship with God produces joy.
4. We can all cultivate joy by receiving God’s gracious freedom from sin and choosing to live in it.

What should we do?

1. Ask God for help in understanding Romans 5.
2. Read Romans 5.
3. Write questions and answers.
4. Consider what “Jesus brings joy.” means to you.
5. Consider how you can cultivate joy.

Jesus Brings Joy! Cultivate joy by choosing to live in God’s gracious freedom from sin.