“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
The opposite of peace is war. The carnal nature of man is at war with God because God is holy and man is sinful. Man’s attempts to reach across this great divide have always been futile because no matter how hard we try, we can never eradicate sin from our lives. We are born into this world as sinners, and we would be completely without hope except for the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for our sins. God reached out to us first in an effort to end this age-old conflict. Peace with God is now available to us, but we must first be justified (made righteous) by coming to Christ for salvation. Because Jesus paid for our sins on the cross, we are made righteous in the sight of God when we accept His payment by faith. Those who have received Christ’s payment for their sins by faith in Him are counted righteous before God based on Christ’s merit. This means that those who are saved are at peace with God because God no longer sees their sin, but there is more that the Lord has for us to experience. The passage above says that we stand in His grace and rejoice in the hope of glory. We are still sinners, but we must understand that through Christ we are not only saved and justified, but we are the recipients of His grace, and we will one day be glorified. When we get to heaven, our sin nature will be laid aside, and our peace with God will be complete.
Morning: Psalms 60-62
Evening: Romans 5