Romans 5.11
Bless you readers!
“And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”
Notice how it says we “joy in God”. It is through Jesus Christ. This is quite a specific thing for Paul to say and for good cause. It is not really possible to joy in God apart from Jesus Christ. You may say, well, Anthony, I could not believe in God at all and totally enjoy a beautiful sunset and this is just the same as “joying in God”. If you were to say this though it would not be true. You would be simply enjoying a part of Gods creation and not God Himself. If a young boy receives a five dollar bill from his uncle the boy has the sense to not thank the five dollar bill, he thanks the uncle (even though his actions are more aligned with thanking the five dollar bill). This is what is referred to in Romans where it says in Romans 1.25, “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.” Believers have a special joy that is only through our understanding of what we have through Christs finished work. Just when life is at its worst we can look to this hope and remind ourselves that we are just visitors here on this Earth. Just visitors.
“Atonement”? Sup with that? It is the Greek word katallage and it only appears in this one spot right here in Romans 5.11. This is what the concordance says katallage means
a) of the business of money changers, exchanging equivalent values
2) adjustment of a difference, reconciliation, restoration to favour
a) in the NT of the restoration of the favour of God to sinners that repent and put their trust in the expiatory death of Christ.
“Equivilent” values? How can that be? Take a look at a previous post on strongs #40, the Greek word hagios, titled Are we Saints?