Romans 5:2

"Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into His grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." (ESV)

I work for the government and a lot of what I do is contingent upon a security clearance. There are two basic types of clearance, Secret and Top Secret, but then a myriad of different access levels that a person can have based on what he or she is working on. For example, if I am assigned to a particular sensitive project I will be given access to the information pertaining to that project while the person sitting next to me who has the same clearance level that I do may not have access to the project and so can't talk to me about it. After the project is completed my access will be removed for that category of information and I will move on to something else. Access determines what I can see or read or talk about. I get access through my boss, who grants different access to differnt people in the office based on their tasks.

As Christians...we long for accesss to that which saves and sustains. We want to be right with God and we have no way of obtaining that without Christ. It is the Grace of Christ which saves and so that is what we need access to. Only God can grant that access and He does it for His Glory.

The Grace of Christ is a saving Grace. But it is also a sustaining Grace. It is that Grace that gives us hope and joy. It is that Grace that gives us peace and security. It is a Grace that we definitely want access to. It is a Grace that we need access to. And it is a Grace that we have access to through faith in Christ. This is a very profound statement. We have access to the Grace of Christ through faith in Chirst. It is access to salvation, hope, strength, peace, and secuirty. And we have it. We are privy to everything that the Grace spoken of here gives us.

It is the Grace of Christ that allows us to stand.
It is the Graceof Christ that enables us to keep standing.

What does that mean? For what do we need to stand?

We stand against sin and for Christ's glory.
We stand against the world and for Christ's kingdom.
We stand against ourselves, the old man that would drag us back into our depravity.
We stand against the constant onslaught of sinful impulses that attack us every minute of every day from the media, or unbelievers, or stinky worldviews.

We stand in His Grace.

We do not stand in our own strength. We do not stand in the profoundness or cleverness of our own thoughts. We do not stand in the glow of our own religion. We do not stand by the strength of our idols.

We stand in His Grace.

Nothing else can make us stand or sustain our ability to stand.

Is this worth rejoicing? Absolutely.

We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Because there is nothing more worthy of rejoicing for. And there is nothing better to hope for.

That hope that we have...that hope that Christ's work on the cross saved us...that hope that at the end of our days here we shall spend an eternity on our faces in the presence of the One True God...that hope is definitely worth rejoicing in.

So rejoice, Christian! Rejoice in the fact that you have access to the Grace of Christ! You have access to the very grace that saves and sustains and allows you to count Christ your treasure and Heaven your home.

Access that Grace every minute of every day...and rejoice!