Peace Through Jesus
“Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2).
Jesus Christ has come into the world, lived a life of perfect righteousness, died in our place to bear the condemnation for our sins and risen to vindicate the success of His work. Our connection with the righteousness of Christ and the sin-bearing death of Christ is by faith alone. Justification is a sentence of acquittal, and the imputation of God’s righteousness in Christ—not guilty before God’s justice, but righteous. God “made Him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Because of justification we now have peace with God.
How are we to understand this peace with God? The picture I think Paul has in his mind is brought into sharper focus in Romans 5:10, “If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.” What this shows is that the picture in Paul’s mind is that there is enmity between us and God. God is angry at us for our sin and we are hostile to God in rebellion against His authority (Romans 8:7-8). Romans 1:18 says, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” God’s anger at our ungodliness is our main problem in life. If God is resolved to pour out His wrath on us, we are in a terrifying position.
Our only hope is if God may provide a way of reconciliation. Romans 5:10 says that He has: “We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.” This happened because Christ bore our sins and fulfilled our righteousness. Now by faith we are united to Christ, so His righteousness is imputed (credited) to us. And the result is peace. God is no longer angry with us. We are reconciled. There is no condemnation.
All the power that once stood in the service of God’s anger against us now stands in the service of His grace toward us. So Paul says in Romans 5:2, “Through [Christ] we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Not only do we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, but also through Him we have something else, something more.
Through this peace with God we have entered into a sphere and power of grace which keeps us standing until we inherit the glory of God. Peace is one way to describe our new relation to God. We have peace with Him. But there is something greater, namely, an experience of the omnipotence of God acting not against us, but for us.
This is something more than justification, and something more than peace. This is the mighty sphere and influence and dominion of transforming, empowering, preserving grace—God’s infinite power no longer against us but for us.
—John Piper, condensed