Peace With God Series

Peace with God

Romans 5:1-11

Last Sunday Pastor Steve introduced our church's theme for 2013: Peace-making. Peace is very important to all of us. Peace of mind instead of worry and anxiety. Peace in relationships instead of bickering and bitterness. Peace between countries instead of war and terrorism. Peace with God instead of guilt, shame or fear.

We all can use a little more peace in our lives. And I'd like for us to consider peace with God this morning. Peace with God means to live as a friend of God, rather than an enemy of God.

There are people who overlook the need for peace with God. When Henry David Thoreau was dying, he was asked if he had made peace with God yet. Thoreau replied, “I never knew that we had argued.”

Everyday we argue with God. We choose to do life our own way rather than God’s way. We choose to come to God on our own terms rather than on God’s terms. In fact, the Bible tells us all have offended God. That's the bad news. The good news is that the Bible also tells us how to restore peace with God.

Our text this morning is Romans 5:1-11. Let me read it, give a bit of context and then share with us the good news of peace with God. (READ Romans 5:1-11)

The book of Romans was a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome. In this letter, Paul helps the readers understand that we all need peace with God. And in the verses we read, we see peace with God requires faith, results in hope and rests on love. Let's take a closer look.

First, we see that peace with God requires faith. Verses 1-2a, and 9-11.

All of us have offended God by disregarding God and His ways. We can try to justify ourselves in one of at least three ways. Justify means to make right by removing the offense by proof or payment.

When we do wrong against God, we have the need to justify ourselves. First, we can pretend that there is no God or if there is, we have not offended Him. That's how some justify themselves. It's called denial.

Second, we can try to perfect our lives so that we offend God less. But we still have offended God. It's called partial denial. Or third, we can partake in what God has done to justify us. And that is what Paul calls us to do.

God knew we need to make things right, but we didn't have enough to pay. So He paid our penalty, came in the form of a man, Jesus Christ, and died on the cross. Verse 9 tells us, "We have now been justified by His blood." And verse 1 tells us we can partake in God's justification by faith. By simply trusting God's payment for us on the cross.

Sometime ago, I talked to a college student who newly put His trust in Jesus' death on the cross to have peace with God. When he told his dad, his dad asked him a good question. The question was this: "How were people justified before Jesus died on the cross? And how can people who never hear of Jesus be justified?"

Paul answers those questions in Romans, chapters 1 through 4 and summarizes it in Chapter 5, verse 1: "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith." Justified by trusting God to pay for what we could not.

Paul speaking of how Abraham, who lived thousands of years before Jesus, could be justified before God. Romans 4:5, "However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness."

In other words, if a person trusts God to pay for them, even if they don't know that God paid through Jesus on the cross, the person can be justified. Next week, we'll look at the remainder of Romans 5 and discover why Jesus is the only sufficient payment. Nothing else will do.

First, we see peace with God requires faith. Second, we see peace with God results in hope. Verses 2b - 4.

Paul talks about hope for the future and hope for the present for those who have peace with God. For the future, we have the hope of being with God in heaven. For the present, we have hope of being with God in suffering.

All of us will meet our Maker. The question is, will that meeting in Heaven be a fearful one or a joyful one? For the people who have peace with God, the hope of meeting our Maker brings joy. For others, the hope of that meeting brings fear.

Here's what else. All of us will suffer. We suffer accidents, illnesses, evils and losses. The Bible tells us, and our experience confirms, that we live in a broken world and in a broken body. The question is, will our suffering lead us to grow or give up?