A Word in Season: Justified by Faith (Romans 5:1)

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Yesterday we talked about the peace that we have with God and I want to look at that again this morning.

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In Romans chapter 5 and the first verse the Apostle Paul tells believers that having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ and it's that specifically upon which I want to focus this morning.

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First of all Paul is describing the status that believers have. We have been justified through faith.

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We have been declared righteous in the sight of God through faith. God no longer looks upon us as we are by nature in our trespasses and sins worthy of his judgments and his wrath but rather he now has declared us legally to be righteous before him.

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There's no longer anything that God holds against us but rather he looks upon us with favor and he grants to us all the blessings, all the mercies, all the goodnesses that those who are righteous before him enjoy and that new status comes about by faith.

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It comes about by believing and we need to come back to that in a moment but Paul says that having been justified by God we have peace with him.

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Having been justified through faith we now have peace with God. Now that's not just the absence of war, that's the presence of a warm and affectionate relationship.

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If a truce was called between two warring nations you wouldn't call that peace, it's just that they're not shooting at each other at the moment.

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But if a peace accord is signed that establishes a warm bond between those two nations then you've got a very different relationship and when someone has been justified by faith then they have peace with God.

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Everything that caused division and distance, all the sin and the guilt is now taken away and in its place there is this peace, there is the the smile of God upon us.

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Now if we have been justified by faith and if we have peace with God how is that brought about?

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Paul tells us, having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. He's emphasizing the route by means of which we come to be justified and enjoy peace with God.

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It is through Jesus Christ. You see the faith that you have if you're a Christian is in Christ Jesus.

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It brings you to him, it joins you to him so that God no longer looks upon you in yourself but looks upon you in Christ Jesus so that he sees you as having received by faith in Christ all the merits of the

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Lord Jesus himself, all the righteousness that belongs to him so that God can now with justice look upon you and have peace with you.

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Justification then doesn't ignore sin, justification deals with sin.

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The faith that we have is not a vague faith, it's not just a faith in a vacuum, it's faith in Christ Jesus and it's because our faith is in him, it's because we are accepted in the beloved as Paul says in Ephesians 1 that we then have this peace with God.

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The father sent his son in order that we might know him and enjoy this peace with him.

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Justification is God's declaration on the basis of what God has done for us in Christ and that we have received by putting our faith in him and even that faith is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God.

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The point then is that the peace that every believer has with God, the peace that will sustain us through this trial, the peace that is sustained by dwelling upon what

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God has said and what God has done, these excellent and praiseworthy things, is the peace that we have by putting our faith in Jesus to save us from our sins and that is the same peace that everyone who's listening to this can have if they will trust in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. If you come to him as a sinner, if you put your faith in him to deliver you from your sins, then you too will have peace with God through Jesus Christ and can be declared justified by faith and that is the peace that you need both in life and in death for now and forever.