“Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.” Romans 15:7
If you and I do not know the joy of justification, and how to catapult ourselves immediately out of false feelings of the enemy and the flesh, and how to stand before God in the righteousness of Christ in boldness by the blood of Jesus, then our relationship with one another is going to feel the repercussions. The lie you believe about yourself is going to be projected on others. Then, of course, there will be no receiving of one another. This shows how crucial it is to know the joy of justification.
What an enjoyment it is when we sing songs about our justification, about how God “saved a wretch like me.” What a blessedness — to know that He saved this wretch and clothed this wretch in righteousness. When we relate to ourselves in this way, the love of God just beams out of us toward all the saints. In that love we experience the receiving of one another, just as Christ also received us. Justification affects both our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationship with one another.
Paul’s main burden is that the saints would be established by receiving one another. In order that this could happen, he writes in the wisest way. He begins by bringing all of them to their common level of being sinners. Then he brings them all to the same righteousness, the same cross, the same blood — the same justification. In short, he brings them all into a marvelous feeling about themselves in their justification. Paul knows that these truths will be the solid factors between the saints.