One thing that is lacking in our world, and that many people are longing for is peace. We are getting closer to Christmas, a time in which you hear the phrase, “Peace on earth” a lot. That is truly an amazing statement, that I’m convinced many who use it don’t understand the implications of the phrase. Before I dive into that, let me ask you, do you have peace in your life right now? Listen to what Paul wrote in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The word “therefore” is a connector word. It connects what is about to be said with what was previously said. In Romans 4, Paul was talking about how we are saved by grace through faith. He used Abraham as the example. Because of that, we can have peace with God through Jesus. The word “justified” there is very important. It means just-as-if-I-never-sinned, and as though I have always perfectly obeyed. It’s not just that through Jesus’ blood my sins have been removed. It is that Jesus’ righteousness, His right standing with God based on His perfect obedience, was also give to us the moment we surrendered our heart and life to Jesus in faith. God the Father sees the perfect obedience of Jesus in place of our fallen sinfulness. That is amazing! Why did we need Jesus’ righteousness? Because on our own, we are fallen sinners, who are the enemy of God. Since there is no way that you or I could be saved by our own works, we had a problem. God’s holiness demands payment for sin. Only a perfect sacrifice is acceptable. And since we are not perfect, our lives and our works would never be acceptable to satisfy God’s wrath against sin. Therefore, God sent His Son to take our place, the wrath we deserved. By His death, Jesus satisfied God the Father’s righteous anger against our sin. Therefore, Jesus secured not only our salvation, but also guaranteed our peace. When we talk about “Peace on earth” around Christmas time, it has such a deep meaning. It means that the One who came to offer us peace with God had come to earth. God Himself, stepped out of the glory of heaven, and came to this earth to make peace possible. This is exactly what Paul is getting at when he writes what he did in Romans 5:1.
So, let me double back to my opening question, do you have peace in your life right now? Peace isn’t talking about calm in your life. It isn’t a stress-free, worry-free existence. True peace comes from God, and is having a relationship with Him based on His grace through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. True peace is the knowledge that no matter what happens to me today, tomorrow, or any other day after, because I am saved, I know it will all be fine. Do you have that peace? If not, I would love to tell you how you can have it. Reach out to me at pastorjustin@westlakebaptist.org. True peace can only be found in a Person. That Person is Jesus.
By His grace and for His glory,
Pastor Justin