Sing the wondrous love of Jesus
Sing His mercy and His grace
In the mansions bright and blessed
He’ll prepare for us a place

When we all, when we all get to Heaven
What a day of rejoicing that will be (rejoicing that will be)
When we all see Jesus
We’ll sing and shout the victory (shout the victory)

… Onward to the prize before us
Soon His beauty we’ll behold
Soon the Pearly Gates will open
We shall tread the streets of gold

(Author: E. E. Hewitt, 1898)

I grew up singing hymns of praise such as this one, “When We All Get to Heaven,” thinking the victory in Jesus (another hymn) won’t happen until I pass from this life to the next. Sometimes we act as if what God does is at the end of life.  But that is not the case.  We receive victory as soon as we receive and believe in the Victor!

Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever
He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood
He loved me ‘ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him
He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood

(“Victory in Jesus,” Songwriters; E. M. Bartlett,1939)

God gave us Jesus.  Upon believing Jesus as our Savior, we have been immediately cleared and declared “not guilty” of all our sins!  We discard the old lifestyle and embrace a new way of living, step by step with His Spirit that leads to real life that is eternal!  A profound relationship immediately begins with God, because Jesus made us presentable to God by removing our repented sins once and for all!

God welcomes us with open arms and throws the doors to His Kingdom, (and the wisdom of His Kingdom thinking and behaving), wide open to experience His grace and see His glory at work all around us! 

There’s no waiting on aisle three!  The Three-in-One; God, Jesus, and His Holy Spirit stands ready to help us develop the character traits of Jesus as we cannot do this on our own.  We are given gifts and abilities from God that are beyond ourselves to serve others in need of a Savior.  We now love God back with all our hearts, minds, and souls and obey His Holy Spirit who lives within us.  This is the victory—when we see, really see and believe, Jesus as Savior and Lord of our lives right now!

God did not wait for us to clean up our act.  Jesus, sent by God, acted on our behalf, while we were yet sinners, to save us.  So, why wait until death looms over us to accept God’s gift of generous grace—the removal of our sins?  And why wait to sing and shout until we all get to heaven?  Sing and shout the victory right now!  Seriously, stop and give Him praise!

Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance
I just want to praise you, I just want to praise you
You broke the chains now I can lift my hands
And I’m gonna praise you
I’m gonna praise you…

(“Shackles”, Songwriters: Erica Atkins-Campbell / Trecina Atkins-Campbell / Warryn Campbell)

Romans 5, The Message

Developing Patience

5 ^1-2 By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

^3-5 There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

^6-8 Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

^9-11 Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Our response depends on our belief.  Do we really believe what God says about Himself and His Son really real? 

Pause, be still, evaluate, reflect. 

Does my life reflect the victory of Jesus? 

What we truly believe is demonstrated in our behaviors.

Still holding back?  There is nothing you have done that God cannot and will not forgive in Jesus Name.  “At our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of His Son…”Believe and be saved. 

Then sing and shout the victory!

Lord,

Thank you for your sacrifice that saved us and your resurrection power available to us to live in relationship with you!  Thank you for daily cleansing our hearts, renewing our minds, correcting our course, refreshing our souls with new mercies, and restoring the joy ad peace of you in us and us in you.

In Jesus Name, Amen

Shine.
Make ’em wonder whatcha got.
Make ’em wish that they were not
On the outside looking bored.
Shine.
Let it shine before all men.
Let em see good works and then
Let em glorify the Lord.

(“Shine”, Newsboys, Songwriters; Songwriters: Angel Taylor / Kevin Hammond / Michael Blue / Mikal Blue)