Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.(Romans 5:1-2)
We have been studying the gospel of God. We started with the bad news, that all men stand condemned, Jew and Gentile alike, having sinned and coming short of the glory of God.
God has made a way, of necessity a righteous way, to justify ungodly sinners before Him. That way is in the person of His Son, our substitute in judgment and the condemnation of God.
Jesus died as a propitiation for our sins; that is he died as a satisfaction offering unto God for our sins. In the cross God by no means cleared the guilty ones, punishing them in the person of His Son, pouring out His Holy Wrath upon the one crucified, crowned with thorns, despised and rejected of all, including God Himself.
All of this is included in the word that begins this chapter, Therefore… . What is the outcome of this sacrifice?
* We are justified by Faith-We can now confidently say , that we are in full right standing with God, because of Jesus Christ.He has purchased for us a standing before God, as though we had never sinned, in full favor, even as sons and daughters of the Holy God!
*We have peace with God-The righteous wrath of God has been satisfied, the war is over, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. It was God who took the initiative. The believer in Jesus has been reconciled to the God of righteousness.
Through Jesus Christ the obstacles have been removed, between man and God, Sin has been dealt with, man can come on over to God’s side and know the love and favor of the thrice Holy God. But only by faith in Jesus.
* Access into this Grace wherein we stand–Grace is a status, a literal state of being! The man that believes the gospel knows that He is no longer under the wrath of God, He has been brought into a state of favor because of the cross.
Furthermore , the gospel assures us that God loves us, in spite of the fact that we are sinners and falling short of the glory of God.Believing in Jesus, I stand in the Love of God, warts and all. I can now know God, approach Him,Love Him back for loving me.
Only on the strength of a cleansed and renewed conscience, can a man or woman, know and enjoy and worship God, the very purpose for which we were created. What is conscience but the God given faculty, to witness to the self that there is something wrong within , something between a man and his God.
It is a compound word, con(with),science(Knowledge)- a deeper knowledge that there are barriers, obstacles, inconsistencies which condemn the self.
The man who believes in the gospel is given the grounds to believe that what was between himself and God has been effectively dealt with by Jesus . The cross is the answer to the inner witness of true moral guilt. As the inspired song writer testified;
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
(And Can IT Be…?Charles Wesley,1738)
There can be no experience of the Peace of God, without a living faith in the Gospel which testifies to the Peace With God that Jesus purchased for us.He bought it for us, by his sufferings and by His blood! Isaiah testifies,
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.(Isaiah 53:5-6)
This is the standing, the status Jesus purchased for us, There is to be no question about it, for the text declares that ,”Since we have been justified by Faith…we Have…” (not hope for someday) but we have it now as a present possession, nothing less that Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ! What a Gospel!
Pastor Bill Randles Blog 