Peace

Man, writing on a blog is really great: so relaxing and enaging at the same time.

I have been so encouraged recently by the book of Romans in the Bible. I have been memorizing some passages in chapters 5 and 8, and I hope to memorize 5 through 8 eventually.

In the process of dealing with these words for a good while, the Lord has really hit home some of their truth into my heart.

The apostle Paul, writing in Romans 5:1, lays out a big idea:

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (ESV)

The first several words,"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith" show the basis for the next statement about peace with God. These words show that Christians have been justified already. Christians don't have to wishfully think about possibly being justified in the future- this is what the ESV study bible (Crossway, 2008) calls the "objective legal standing of the Christian." Amen. I can know that, as a believer in Christ, that I am declared righteous (the definition of the Greek word translated "justified" according to Mounce, 2006) before God himself.

Make no mistake, only someone who trusts in Christ as their Savior is justified. This verse tells us plainly that justification before God is received by faith. This is in stark contrast to someone trying to earn God's approval by the good things that they do. The preceding chapter says:

"For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." (Romans 4:2-3)

So the Bible is saying that, even before the new testament, people were justified in this same way, by faith.

How does this faith in Romans 5:1 justify? A simple answer would be because it is faith in the right person, named at the end of the verse: "our Lord Jesus Christ." Jesus is the one who lived the perfectly righteous life. The bible says he was "made perfect" and "innocent, unstained" (Hebrews 7:26,28). Jesus is also the one who died for the sins of all who would trust in Him. So, when a person trusts in and identifies with this Jesus, Jesus's perfect righteousness is credited to their account. 2nd Corinthians 5:21 says it this way:

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

The passage just before Romans 5:1 points also to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead as important for justification:

"It will be counted to us [as righteousness] who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." - Romans 4:24-25

Now, back to the verse we are discussing: Romans 5:1 says that, because we have been justified, "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Again, this book was originally written in Greek, so getting a sense of the original language is very helpful. In the case of the Greek word translated "peace" here in Romans 5:1, it is downright exciting.

The Greek word for peace in Romans 5:1 is described by William D. Mounce as denoting "euphoria coupled with security." (2006) Let that sink in: euphoria coupled with security.

That type of peace with God himself is what is available to us through Jesus Christ.