At Peace With God (Romans 5:1-2)

If there is one thing that many people in today’s world would desire, it is peace. Many aspects of our contemporary world indicate its absence. This is the case at different levels. There is an absence of peace between nations and in some cases within nations. In addition, there is an absence of personal peace in the lives of countless individuals. Yet peace is a very common word in the Bible. This should be surprising because initially it might seem impossible. Take these two biblical statements: all humans are wicked and God says that there is no peace to the wicked from him. How can there be peace? Paul reminds us here.

Whenever we see the word ‘therefore’, we should ask, ‘What is it there for?’ It is a connecting word to a previous comment or passage. The previous comment concerns how believers in Jesus are regarded as justified by God the Father because of what Jesus did in his life, death and resurrection. As Paul says elsewhere, they are accepted in the Beloved, that is, Jesus. This status has consequences or outcomes and Paul mentions some of them in chapter 5 of Romans.

Peace with God now and forever

The first blessing that we receive through justification is peace with God. This is not a reference to inner peace in our hearts, which can be disturbed even if we have some indigestion. Instead it refers to a permanent status of peace that cannot be changed by any circumstances or actions by ourselves or by others. God has brought this state of peace into existence, and all the combined forces of evil cannot amend it. It is a permanent state of peace.

This is a reminder that we were once in a state of hostility with God. He and we were opposed to one another. He was our sovereign and we were opposed to his authority. Inevitably he would judge us, and the sentence would have been permanent banishment in a state of punishment. But because of what Jesus did in satisfying the righteous requirements of God, we now have this status of peace through believing in Jesus.

Of course, one would expect that this status of peace with God would result in the enjoyment of the peace of God in the hearts of those who have been reconciled to God. Usually that sense of peace is there, although its depth can fluctuate. Sometimes it is not there, and such circumstances are usually connected to sinful thoughts, words or actions committed by us. Yet the absence of a sense of the peace of God does not mean that the status of peace with God has changed. No one can change it but God, and he would only change it if something wrong were found in the work of Jesus, which will never happen.

It is important to note how much Paul wants to exalt the name of Jesus. Here he could have said that we have peace through Jesus or through Jesus Christ, and he would be still stressing the permanence of our justification. Yet he describes Jesus as the Lord Jesus Christ, so giving to him his royal title as the one exalted to God’s throne. His amazing work, which has resulted in our justification, means that he deserves always to be called Lord by his grateful people.

There is also the possibility here that the mention of Jesus’ lordship is a reminder that although we have been justified we still remain the servants of Jesus. We have not been given the standing of being at peace in order to ignore the authority of Jesus over his church. So in addition to Paul’s words being a statement of worship and gratitude for Jesus, they are also an indication of his commitment to Jesus as master and owner.

Further Paul could be hinting at the necessity of unity in the congregation in Rome. Surely if they are justified in the same way, it should be a motive for them to dwell together in harmony and peace. None of them were justified by anything that any of them had done, but only by what Jesus had done. And he reinforces this sense of unity by using the pronoun ‘our’ before the name of Jesus. His lordship must bring about their togetherness.

Access to God in the present

In the first clause of verse 2, Paul makes several important comments about our relationship of peace with God. First, we should note that he calls it ‘this grace in which we stand’. The word ‘grace’ means God’s undeserved favour and can be used to speak of God’s blessings in a comprehensive way or it can be used to speak of a specific divine blessing. Here it refers to the specific blessing of justification. By calling it a grace, Paul is reminding his readers that they did not merit it in any way whatsoever.

Second, this position given to us in God’s grace was the divine response to our faith in Jesus. Since the reception of the blessing depends on faith, we can see how important faith is. Paul does not say here that God responds to the strength of our faith as if justification became stronger when our faith is stronger. Instead God gives the status of justification just as much to a person with weak faith as to a person with strong faith. What matters rather is the object of our faith, Jesus. So the big question for us is whether or not we have faith in Jesus.

Faith itself is not something we can hold or describe unless it has an object. To say someone is a person of faith indicates he believes in someone or something. When thinking about faith in Jesus we can affirm several things that will define it. First, we can say that such faith is informed about Jesus – the person knows who Jesus is and the details of his activities on behalf of sinners. Second, true faith is intentional in that the person makes choice of Christ. Third, true faith is involved with Jesus – the person trusts in Jesus, which means that there is an actual living connection between a believer and Jesus. Moreover, the trust is connected to love for Jesus. Fourth, the person who trusts in Jesus is penitent and hates the sins that caused Jesus to die on his behalf. The first moment we have that kind of faith in Jesus we are justified.

Third, Paul says in this clause from verse 2 that we ‘have obtained access’, which raises the question, ‘To where have we obtained access?’ The answer is to God’s presence, but his presence in a particular way. There is a sense in which Christians are in God’s presence in the same way as unbelievers are because God is everywhere. This is not the kind of divine presence that is meant here by Paul. Instead it is his gracious presence as the God of mercy. It is also access to the presence of the one who is the permanent Judge.

Paul uses a particular tense for the verb translated as ‘obtained access’. He uses the perfect tense, which describes a past action with ongoing effects. What he means is that when we believed in Jesus we were accepted into God’s presence and from the point of view of justification we have never left his presence. We are accepted by God, and having been given access we can now utilise the privileges connected to this marvellous status, such as speaking to God. It is also important to remember that we are given access together with every other person who has the same access into God's gracious presence.

Paul is using a word picture here that is based on the practice of an inferior person being introduced into the presence of a greater person through a qualified intermediary, such as what happened when someone was taken into the presence of a monarch or an emperor. God the Father is the greater person, each believer is the inferior person, and Jesus is the intermediary between them. When a sinner trusts in Jesus, he takes that sinner, as it were, to God and says that the sinner should be accepted because of what Jesus did. Of course, in everyday life, even in palaces, an intermediary could only do this occasionally for a person and ultimately the intermediary might die. Jesus in contrast does it permanently for those he represents. It is ‘through him’, says Paul, that we have this amazing, unchangeable access to the holy Father’s presence.

I hope we can see the greatness of the grace that God has shown towards all those he has justified when they believed in Jesus. Differences in their experience will emerge as they move on in the Christian life, but they all begin it at the same spiritual place, that of justification, and they all retain this standing.

Rejoicing in the present about the future

What is the effect of knowing about the certainty and permanence? The answer is that it enables each believer to consider the future with joy. Most people are apprehensive about the future, mainly because of the uncertainty that marks it. Obviously there is a sense in which each Christian’s future is uncertain as far as the things of this life are concerned. A Christian is not guaranteed health or riches, or a long life with no troubles. Instead he or she may have many problems. The future to which justification points the believer is beyond this life.

Paul defines this forward-looking attitude as hope. In contrast to the way we commonly use the word hope to indicate a possibility of getting something we wish to get, hope in the Bible is a word that anticipates with certainty that our future lies with God and is guaranteed to the justified by his many, great promises.

The range of features in the Christian hope is very large and Paul only mentions one of them here, the glory of God. What does he mean by glory of God? The apostle could be referring to the environment in which God’s people will live eternally surrounded by the glory of God (an illustration could be that of how the sun surrounds all the people that live within its light and affects them). Their eternal dwelling place is in the presence of the beautiful, gracious God. Or the apostle could mean that they are going to experience the glory of God to a degree that is not possible in this life. Another way of describing the glory of God in this sense is to consider all the attributes or abilities and affections of God. In this life, we experience them in smaller degrees than we will in the eternal world. Nevertheless the prospect of them creates great joy in our hearts.

This raises the question as to how believers obtain lasting joy in circumstances that normally would not include it such as persecution, ill health, and disappointments. The answer is that joy is a consequence of focussing on what God will give when all the justified are in his presence. As they think about it, the Holy Spirit within them gives assurance through his Word that it is coming, and therefore they have joy.

What is the point of our sermon? Can it be said in a sentence? Here is the sentence. The justified have permanent access to God’s presence and should have ongoing joy in him because of their wonderful future.