We Have Peace with God

May 13, 2016

We Have Peace with God

“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.”

Romans 5:1

In our journey seeking the life in Christ as our way of life, chapters five through eight of Paul’s letter to the Romans are vitally important. These precious chapters not only show us the new way of living in the Spirit (Romans 7:6), they are the very foundation of our life in Christ. These chapters set forth the practical application of the Christian’s identification with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection and ascension. Over and over again we see that God has made it possible for us to exchange our complete inability to live the Christian life, for Christ's total sufficiency to live his life through us. God did this by providing a way for us to die to our old life apart from Him, and then He gave us our new identity in Christ by uniting our newborn spirit with his. (See also 1 Corinthians 6:17 and Galatians 2:20)

Paul begins his exposition with an incredible statement: “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory” (Romans 5:1-2). Do you remember the silly witticism, “God created us in His image, and we returned the favor?”  Unfortunately, it is really more than a truism. There is a huge human tendency to reduce God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, to something just slightly larger than humankind. To fully drink in Paul’s affirmation, “we have peace with God,” we need to stand back and consider the attributes of God.

Psalm 135 is helpful in this regard. The psalmist begins with an imperative statement, “Praise the Lord! Praise the name of the Lord! Praise him, you who serve the Lord.” The psalmist then identifies many of God’s virtues, or attributes, using words such as good, great, sovereign, defender, just, faithful, eternal, and alive. Because it is so easy to diminish the enormity of our God, I have found it vitally important to make time to ponder the wonder and vastness of His infinite, eternal existence. To this end, I often go to Colossians 1:15-20 and ponder the Supremacy of Christ. Then, when my cup is overflowing with the wonder of God, our Abba, I can begin to appreciate Paul’s powerful affirmation, “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory”

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.