For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also celebrate in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Romans 5.10-11
How do we practically receive reconciliation and exult in God? The answer is that we do it through Jesus Christ. That means, at least in part, that we make the portrait of Jesus in the Bible--the work and the words of Jesus portrayed in the New Testament--the essential content of our exultation over God. Exultation without the content of Christ does not honor Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 4.4-6, Paul describes conversation in two ways. In verse 4, he says it is from seeing "the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." And in verse 6, he says it is from seeing "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." You see the point: we have Christ, the image of God, and we have God in the face of Christ.
Practically, to exult in God is to exult in what you see and know of God in the portrait of Jesus Christ. And this comes to its fullest experience when the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as Romans 5.5 says.
Here's the Christmas point: Not only did God purchase our reconciliation through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5.10), and not only did God enable that reconciliation through the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5.11), but even now, we exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus purchased our reconciliation. He enabled us to receive the reconciliation and open the gift. And Jesus himself shines forth from the wrapping--the indescribable gift--as God in the flesh and stirs up all our exultation in God.
Look to Jesus this Christmas. Receive the reconciliation that he bought. Don't put it on the shelf unopened. And don't open it and then make it a means to all your other pleasures. Open it and enjoy the gift himself. Exult in him. Make him your pleasure. Make him your treasure.
This is an excerpt from 'Joy to the World-Daily Readings for Advent' by John Piper.
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