Peace with God

Romans 5:1-2

Evidence of Eternal Security- Part 01

Peace with God

Romans 5:1-2, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

We have been studying through the heart of the book of Romans, chapters 3, 4, and 5. Of course, this is Paul’s great treatment of the gospel, spiritually powerful, life-transforming truth. Romans chapter 3:21 to 4:25, the faith of Abraham we have seen it all in detailly.

What we have learned in this great passage is that salvation is by faith alone, through grace alone.

It is not a matter of law, it is not a matter of works, it is not a matter of human effort. Is it possible, having received this salvation by faith alone, through grace alone, apart from works, it is possible to lose this salvation?

This question is a dividing question in the Christian world. It has been literally for centuries, for millennia. People have debated whether our salvation is permanent, whether it is eternally secure or not. The issue of once-saved-always-saved has been debated literally through the centuries of Christian history.

You receive it by grace, apart from works, but your saved life has been evidenced by works. The Salvation Army handbook on doctrine, “Some truly converted people have fallen from grace, and the danger of doing so threatens every Christian.”

That is a very serious claim.

Do we all live in mortal danger? As Christians, do we all live on the brink of damnation?

Is our salvation conditional on our ability to maintain it, to maintain works sufficient to keep it? Is it true that if we fail to maintain those works, salvation is forfeited? Now, the reason this issue comes up at the end of chapter 4 kind of goes along this path of thinking. The Jew would say to Paul, “You say that faith is all that is needed for salvation. Faith is all that is needed. Are you sure it is enough?

Are you sure that faith alone can secure that salvation permanently? Are you sure it will work?

What about the future?

Is faith enough to escape judgment from God? Can faith alone keep us saved and is faith itself sustained?” So, Paul moves immediately to this issue in chapter 5, and it’s a very powerful chapter. Maybe the most convincing chapter in the Bible on the issue of the security of salvation.

We are going to begin to look at chapter 5. The message of chapter 5 is Justification. The message of Chapter 6 and 7 is Justification embraces sanctification. The message of chapter 8 is Justification embraces glorification.

Paul presents six great links in the chain that ties the Christian eternally to the Saviour. Six great truths inherent in salvation, which constitute its eternal character, its eternal nature and therefore, the divine guarantee.

The six things are familiar to us. There are six gifts that come with salvation. They are six components that define salvation. 1. Peace with God, 2. Standing in grace, 3. Hope of glory, 4. Assurance of love,

5. Certainty of deliverance, and

6. Joy in God. These are the six articles in the guarantee of your eternal salvation, so we need to learn them well. One of them was this, "Some truly converted people have fallen from grace and the danger of doing so threatens every Christian."

If it's true that some Christians have lost their salvation and every Christian is in danger of doing that, that is indeed an important thing to know. For if you can lose your salvation, you better find out fast how to hang on.

Now, this is a subject that through the years has been very hotly debated in theology. There have always been those who have affirmed that you can lose your salvation and those who have affirmed that you could not, and the battle has gone on through the years.

The issue of eternal security, or the perseverance of the saints. Some of you in your own backgrounds, some of you even maybe to this very day believe that a Christian can lose his or her salvation. Sometimes we hear about those who quote/unquote "backslide"and fall away from the knowledge of Christ.

Now this doctrine that says you can lose your salvation basically makes salvation conditional. In other words, your salvation is only so good as long as you meet the conditions of maintenance. In other words, God has saved us and now if we continue to match up with the standard we can hold on to that salvation. If at any point, we fail to live up to the standard we lose it. Now

it doesn't take much insight to realize that that is basically a works-righteousness perspective. In other words, you are really saying that salvation is conditional in the sense that my works have to stay up to standard or I forfeit my salvation.

Now this is exactly the issue to which Paul speaks in Romans 5. Paul is writing basically to affirm the gospel. His thesis in chapters 3 and 4 is that salvation comes by grace through faith. Faith is all that is necessary to appropriate eternal salvation.

Now this is quite revolutionary to a Jew, frankly, who has been reared on a works-righteousness system of salvation. In other words, by doing certain works he gains the favour of God. Exactly how all other world religions are built on the goodness of man, man living up to some religious code, some ethical standard.

So, when Paul articulates in chapter 3 and 4 that salvation is a free gift, that it is given by God's grace, that it is unearned and undeserved, and is appropriated by faith and faith alone. Men find that very difficult to comprehend.

Because men basically are into works,

• they are into human achievement,
• they are into self-righteousness.
• they are into lifting themselves by their own bootstraps.

Basically, the philosophy of men and the religion of the world is that I am good, religious, and God would never send me to hell. It is very hard for people who have been reared and taught to understand that they get into God's kingdom by being good or ethical or moral, to hear that it's only a matter of faith, and particularly the Jew.

Since Paul argues in Romans with an imaginary Jew from time to time, I don't doubt that that's in his mind right here. He has just made this long discourse about Abraham being justified by faith, as an illustration of the justification by faith in chapter 4.

Now, immediately a Jew is going to say this, Paul, you say that faith is all that is needed for salvation. You say that faith is enough. Are you sure it's enough? Once you are in there don't you have to keep standard up?

Aren't you required to live at a certain level or you're going to lose it? Are you sure it's faith and faith alone by which we stand? It seems so over-simplified. Are you sure it will work?

Can faith keep us saved? Don't we have to live up to some level? Or what about the future judgment, Paul? Is faith enough to assure us that we'll escape the condemnation of God in the time of great judgment? Or, they might have questioned this way.

What maintains this salvation by faith? If we get in by faith, what keeps us there?

What maintains it? That is why chapter 5 is here. Because Paul is speaking directly to that issue. One of the things that Satan does in attacking a Christian is to attack him at the point of his assurance of salvation. Satan likes to make us doubt our redemption.

That's why you put on the armour of God.

Ephesians 6:17, And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

1 Thessalonians 5:8,But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.

The helmet of the hope of salvation.

Why?

Because Satan wants to deal devastating blows to your head in doubt.

• To doubt that you are really saved or redeemed.
• To doubt that God is really holding you in the palm of His hand forever.
• To doubt that you really belong to God.

Satan wants you to believe that somehow, some way you forfeited your redemption, and so he blasts away at you, making you feel insecure, intimidating you. So, you must have on the helmet of the hope or the confidence that you are really redeemed. Here we want to help you get your helmet on and show you why you can know that you do belong to God forever.

None of us is impervious to the assault of the enemy in the matter of our assurance, our confidence, our certainty. All of us at some point (some of us at many points) struggle with doubt.

People often ask me this

• I don’t know if I am really saved,
• I don’t know if I still am saved,
• I don’t know but that I have lost my salvation.

Whenever you are assaulted with doubt and you will be assaulted, that’s why you wear the helmet of salvation to protect you from the blows of the enemy as he wants to crush your confidence in your salvation. You can doubt what you don’t know, but you need not doubt what you know. So let me help you to know the right things that will mitigate against needless doubt.

1. Peace with God

V1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith,” That sums up everything that’s been said since chapter 3:21 till 4:25, and having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. “Therefore” is the way this begins, the truth consequent to the foundation laid in Romans 3:21-4:25 Justification comes to us by faith.

We have been justified by faith. Therefore, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have present possession peace.

• This is not psychological tranquillity.
• This is not positive feelings.
• This is not feelings of wellbeing.
• This isn’t feelings at all.

When we talk about peace a lot, we have in mind feelings. You feel peaceful. You feel comfortable. We are not talking about that here. This is a peace that is not subjective, this is a peace that is objective. This has nothing to do with feelings and everything to do with actual relationship.

The point is this

Justification by faith in Jesus Christ establishes a new relationship between the believer and holy God. The prior relationship was defined by the fact that we were enemies of God.

Romans 5:10, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.”

It must be understood that every human being on the planet, apart from salvation, is an enemy of God. God is an enemy of that individual. There is real war. The issue is not our attitude, or how we feel, but our relationship to God.

• God is the enemy of the sinner, and
• The sinner is the enemy of God.  God is at war with the sinner, and  The sinner is at war with God.

The unregenerate hate the Bible. We shouldn’t be surprised if they reject it. We hear people say today that we should not teach the Bible in your church because unbelievers aren’t going to respond to it. So, get the Bible out and get something in that they are going to respond to.

We don’t come together as a church for the sake of unbelievers, we come together as a church for the sake of feeding the flock of God, over which the Lord has given us oversight.

But apart from that, we ought not to be surprised that the unbelievers hate the Bible. Even if you repackage the Bible in some other format, unless you strip it of its truthfulness, they are going to hate that, too. They are going to hate divine truth in any package because it is the nature of man to hate the Bible because it is the nature of man to hate God.

The sinner by nature hates the truth, both written and incarnate. God is the enemy of the sinner. Jesus in John 8 that the unregenerate are under the power of Satan.

John 8:44, You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

Ephesians 2:1-2, And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,

1 John 5:19, “The whole world lies in the lap of the evil one.”

That is the issue. You have people who belong to Satan’s realm, who have Satan’s disposition, who are Satan-driven. Rejection of the Bible is not academic, it’s never academic. It reflects the hatred of God that is part of what it means to be fallen.

It is so powerful in fallen man to hate the Bible that it’s residual in Christians. When you were saved, your flesh wasn’t eliminated. It’s still there. One of the elements of your flesh is resistance to the truth of God.

We should not be surprised when people say, “Unbelievers don’t want to hear the Bible.” But it’s dominant in the unregenerate. They are at war with God and God is at war with them.

Exodus 22:24, “My wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with a sword, and your wives will be widows and your children fatherless.”

Deuteronomy 32:21-22, They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; They have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish

nation. 22 For a fire is kindled in My anger, And shall burn to the lowest hell; It shall consume the earth with her increase, And set on fire the foundations of the mountains. That’s how angry God is.

Joshua 23:16, When you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land which He has given you.”

2 Kings 22:13, “Great is the wrath of the Lord that has kindled against us because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book to do according to all that is written concerning us.” Resistance to the Scripture because the Scripture is the revelation of God is resistance to God and God reacts in anger.

Isaiah 5:25, Therefore the anger of the Lord is aroused against His people; He has stretched out His hand against them And stricken them, And the hills trembled. Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still.

One of the greatest illustrations of this, this built-in fallen animosity to divine truth is Israel. Even though they were the people of God who had been given the oracles of God, the Scripture, they resented it, resisted it, and hated it.

Isaiah 13:9, Behold, the day of the Lord comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it.

Isaiah 63:3-6, “I have trodden the winepress alone, And from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, And trampled them in My fury; Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, And I have stained all My robes. 4 For the day of vengeance is in My heart, And the year of My redeemed has come. 5 I looked, but there was no one to help, And I wondered That there was no one to uphold; Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; And My own fury, it sustained Me. 6 I have trodden down the peoples in My anger, Made them drunk in My fury, And brought down their strength to the earth.”

Isaiah 66:15, For behold, the Lord will come with fire And with His chariots, like a whirlwind, To render His anger with fury, And His rebuke with flames of fire.

Jeremiah 21:5, I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath.

Nahum 1:2, “God is jealous and the Lord revenges, the Lord revenges, the Lord is furious and reserves wrath for His enemies.” That’s the condition of the unregenerate.

When you are not on God’s good side, putting it mildly. You may not be that angry with God, but God is that angry with sinners.

Romans 1:18, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

Ephesians 5:6, “Let no man deceive you with vain words because of these things comes the wrath of God on the children of disobedience.” Revelation ¹⁴ says that men will drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture in the cup of His indignation.

Psalm 7:11, “God is angry with the wicked every day.”

Every day. That is the way you define the relationship between the unconverted and God. What does peace with God mean, then, in that context? It means the war is over! It means that God is

• no longer fighting us,
• no longer our enemy,
• no longer promising judgment, death, and
• hell.

Peace with God is the new status between God and the believer, which flows from the reconciliation accomplished in Jesus Christ. When Jesus died on the cross, He bore our sins in His own body and God was propitiated. God was satisfied. The penalty of sin was paid in full, nothing left to be paid.

That’s why Jesus said, “It is finished.”

Colossians 1:20, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

Having made peace through the blood of His cross. Peace with whom? Peace between the sinner and God! God no longer needs to be angry with us. God no longer needs to punish us because our sins have all been punished. All of God’s anger was spent on Jesus Christ.

So, the new reality is a new peace. Instead of being the enemies of God, we are the friends of God. We are the sons of God. We are the beloved of God. God’s wrath toward us, which would ultimately catapult us into eternal hell, is removed, having been fully absorbed and resolved on Christ at the cross.

V1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith,” Jesus is the reconciler. He’s the provider of this peace, and certainly He promised this peace.

John 10:36, do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

• The Jews hated Jesus Christ.
• They resented Him,
• They despised Him.
• They called Him a blasphemer who said He was the Son of God.

This is an illustration of the enemy status, the violent hostility between the sinner and God. While not all sinners might say that all sinners find themselves in that situation. They are blasphemers, whether they acknowledge that or not.

In spite of that, Jesus said in the upper room.

John 14:27, Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. He offers peace, peace with God, which then produces peace in the heart. Objective peace, which then leads to subjective peace.

This is a new status. Now, what is important for you to understand that this status change comes because of the cross. Christ’s work being complete, full, the status then is

complete. Christ’s work never needed to be repeated, the status never changes. We have entered a new dimension, a new kind of relationship with God. God’s wrath is settled, having been spent on Christ. We are at peace with God.

Subjective tranquillity, subjective calmness of soul, feelings of security flow out of that, but the objective fact is an unchanging reality. We are friends of God, sons of God, brothers of Christ, joint heirs with Him. This is our new status.

Psalm 37:23-24, The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way. 24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the Lord upholds him with His hand.

The new status.

Ephesians 6:15, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

What do you mean have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace? Roman soldier, when he went to battle, put on hobnail boots and little things that looked like football shoes with little spikes sticking out the bottom of them.

Because when he got into hand-to-hand combat for a life and death issue, he wanted to make sure he didn't slip and slide everywhere. So, he had these little nails coming out and they would hold him on his ground. He could fight and carry the blows and so forth.

When you go out to do battle with the enemy, with the powers of demons and the forces of hell, and you go into that spiritual warfare, you get your feet firmly planted. What you have got on your feet are prepared with the gospel of peace.

What is the gospel of peace? The good news that God is at peace with you. God is now on your side. When the enemy comes you just hold your ground and say, get out. Because God is on your side. That is the transformation that has taken place in the reconciliation work of Jesus Christ.

What is the gospel of peace? It is not that Jesus brings you peace of mind, it is that Jesus provides peace with God. It leads to peace of mind.

Ephesians 2:14, For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,

He is our peace! Our peace with God was secured by the Prince of Peace. The reason you have peace with God is because God was satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ, paid in full the penalty for your sins. You are now at peace with God, and that is a permanent condition because the sacrifice of Christ rendered it permanent by satisfying in full the wrath of God.

If God was not fully satisfied with the work of Christ, there could be no permanent peace. Since God is fully satisfied with the work of Christ, there is permanent peace. That is an unchanging status.

Conclusion

God's wrath toward us, which would ultimately consign us to eternal hell, is removed. All His fury fully absorbed and resolved in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We are left with a marvellous relationship of reconciliation.

It's all through Christ. Everything we have is through our Lord Jesus Christ, everything! Ephesians l:3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, Everything that is ours is because of Christ!

This is great that Jesus did that and He reconciled us to God.

2 Corinthians 5:18-19, Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

God gave us the ministry of reconciliation and that is to go out and preach the gospel to others who need to be reconciled. Reconciliation. Jesus Christ brought us to God, but does He keep us in that relationship?

Jesus not only reconciled us to God initially, but He maintains that reconciliation. That is His High priestly work.

1 John 1:7, But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

The continual cleansing, the continual mediation, the continual washing of our sin provides for us the maintaining of that reconciliation. We have two tremendous truths that cannot really be perceived. In the one hand we are at peace with God forever because every sin we will ever commit was already borne by Christ.

Do there is nothing to violate our reconciliation, for the sin for which we should be cast out was paid for and covered. Even in the daily walking through the world as we sin the Lord keeps on cleansing and keeps on cleansing so then we are maintained in reconciliation, not only by the past act of Christ on the cross, but by the present mediation of Christ at the right hand of God. His high priestly ministry says He ever lives to make intercession for us.

You are peace with God.

For how long? For as long as Jesus Christ lives.

Hebrews 7:25, Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

How long does Christ live? Forever! He intercedes for us. When a person embraces Christ by faith the spotless Son of God makes that person one with God and he's at peace. When you love the Lord Jesus Christ you really do invite a relationship of peace with His Father.

Psalm 2:12, Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry.

When Jesus came into the world the Father said.

Matthew 17:5, While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of

the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” Hear Him.

1 Corinthians 16:22, If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord, come! You better love the Lord Jesus Christ, or you will be anathema.

When we love the Son we gain the love of the Father. David Livingston spent nearly two years with a certain tribe in the southern part of Africa. He went into the interior with his wife (and they had a little baby at the time) to preach to another tribe. After he preached to this other tribe, he returned to the first tribe, and he found them in difficult situation.

Because a neighbouring tribe had attacked the tribe where he had been for a couple of years. They had killed a lot of the men and they captured the chief's son, took him away. Livingston's return there had come a messenger from the invaders who had captured the son of the chief and they were begging for peace because they feared retaliation. The chief of the injured tribe who desired only to live at peace with his neighbours said to David Livingston, "How can I be at peace with them who hold my son prisoner?"

If this attitude is true in the heart of a savage chief, how much more is it true of God the Father? "How can I be at peace with those who trample underfoot the blood of My Son?" But when you, in love, come to Jesus Christ you seek out the Father's peace. Because Christ has died on the cross to pay the penalty for all your deserved punishment and all that penalty has been spent, all that fury has been released, all that wrath has been satisfied, God can be at peace with you.