Peace Established

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Scripture: Romans 5:1 (NIV)

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

Devotion:

Paul begins with a small word that carries a large load: "Therefore." Whenever we meet it, we should ask what it is there for. Here it gathers up four chapters of argument. All have sinned. No one is righteous. Yet God has declared sinners righteous, not because of anything we have done, but because of Christ, received by faith alone.

Notice the tense. We have been justified. This is not a hope for the last day, still hanging in the balance. It is a finished verdict, pronounced by the Judge himself. And because it is finished, the next clause follows: we have peace with God. Not that we are working toward peace, nor that we feel peaceful, but that we have it.

That distinction matters, because our feelings are poor witnesses. On some mornings we wake anxious, aware of our failures, and conclude that God must be displeased. But Paul is not describing a mood. He is describing a relationship. Before justification, we stood as enemies, and the war was not merely in our consciences but between a holy God and us. Now the hostilities are over, and the treaty was signed in blood, not ours but his.

Notice also the phrase "through our Lord Jesus Christ." Peace does not come through our repentance, though repentance is real, nor through our obedience, though obedience follows. It comes through a Person. If peace rested on our performance, it would fluctuate with our performance. Resting on Christ, it is as steady as he is.

This is why the Reformers prized this verse. A conscience that must earn its peace will never find rest, but a conscience that receives it can finally stop striving and start serving, out of gratitude rather than fear. Peace with God is not the absence of trouble; Paul will go on to speak of suffering. But it is the ground on which we stand through them.

So where do you need to hear this today? Perhaps in a memory of failure that still accuses you, or in a quiet suspicion that God merely tolerates you. Answer the accusation with the Word: therefore, since we have been justified, we have peace.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, you have made peace by your blood. When our consciences accuse, remind us that the verdict is already given, and let us rest in you alone, and serve you gladly. Amen.

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