In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
In church
MaxOHMS
Member Posts: 14,715
Peace with God
By Stephen Hopkins, Burnet Bible Church, Burnet, Texas
Romans 5
1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
We have looked very closely in the past several weeks at the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone. And what have we found, but that which is summed up in...
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
We have also looked very closely at the doctrines of imputed righteousness and faith...
... how that righteousness is reckoned to the account of the man who has faith in Christ, apart from works, a man's faith not meriting righteousness, as though it were a work acceptable to God in place of perfect obedience... a man's faith not accepted in the place of righteousness... but how that one's faith is the instrument by which he apprehends the object of true and saving faith, which is Christ, the Righteousness of God.
Who is He that justifieth? God
What does it mean to be justified? To be declared legally just in the sight of God.
How is this justification effected? By the imputation of the righteousness of Christ; both His active and passive obedience.
How does faith fit into the picture? Faith is the instrument through which Christ is laid hold on.
7 ...Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Iniquities are forgiven, and sins are covered when, and only when, a man's sins are imputed to Christ and the righteousness of Christ is imputed to a man. And this righteousness is apprehended, or received, by faith, in the object of saving faith, the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Now our text this morning, from Romans 5, verse 1 says...
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
The title of this mornings sermon is "Peace with God".
Philippians Chapter 4, verse 7 speaks of an inner peace experienced by all true believers, a peace termed "...the peace of God, that passeth understanding".
In that sense peace is "a state of tranquility, a quiet of mind or conscience", in the words of my good friend, Noah Webster.
But the peace spoken of in our text this morning refers to that kind of peace which is the antonym of war...
...and the worst kind of war... that war, that enmity, that state of opposition, which exists between men in their natural state and their Creator God...
"...there is no peace saith my God to the wicked..." (Isaiah 57:21)
The Bible says in Romans 8, verse 7 that the carnal mind of man is "enmity against God". It is hostile to God and His law, and will not have this man Jesus to reign over him.
In Ephesians Chapter 2, verse 3 men in their natural unregenerate state are termed "... children of wrath...".
Before our conversion we were enemies of God, at war with God, and under His just wrath.
But our opening text this morning speaks of a cessation of war whereby former enemies of God are come to peace...
"...being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ..."
And further on in our text from Romans 5, verses 9-11 we read...
"Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
Peace with God is the result of reconciliation with God. And the first thing I want you to understand is this...That peace we have with God is a peace that is unattainable by any human means.
This is what Paul is getting at when he says in Galatians 2:21
"I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain..."
The peace the believer has with God is a peace unattainable by human means. If righteousness were able to be achieved by the keeping of any law, then Christ died in vain. If their were any other way that man, created in the image of God, could have been redeemed, could have attained unto a right standing before God, then Christ died in vain.
Men effect peace with each other through compromise every day... two nations in conflict come together, reach a compromise on the issues dividing them, and war is averted... avoided... but the gulf between God and His holiness, and man and his corruption is so great that no compromise could possibly effect peace.
How could the holy Creator God compromise His holiness by receiving into his presence utterly sinful, corrupted, and vile men?
If we could see God as He truly is... all holy, only holy, and nothing but holy, we should see ourselves as we truly are... all sin, only sin, and nothing but sin... if we could comprehend the absolute perfections of God, in contrast we would see ourselves as we ought...
...and to comprehend this would be to comprehend just how offensive we are to God in the unconverted state.
If you are a unbeliever today you may have heard the passage quoted, "God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life..." and this is true, and it is truth, and nothing but truth, and it is Good News to all who would flee to Christ for refuge, but what you must understand is that in your un-regeneracy, in your unbelieving state, when you, having heard the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, sit there with a heart of stone, unyielding, unbelieving, and unrepentant, you are an offense to God, and an object of His wrath.
Epehesians chapter 5, verse 2 says that Christ "hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour."
2 Cor. 2 :15 says "For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, (but not so) in them that perish:
The theme of the sweet savor of the sacrifices of old run throughout the Old testament, and these shadows all point to the Christ who was to come and fulfill them all in his once for all sacrifice (on the cross).
The sacrifice of God's only begotten Son on the Cross was "a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour" and the passage we just read says that we, because of christ's sacrifice, are unto God the sweet savor of Christ.
But, my friends, listen carefully, because the text does not end here... verse 16 goes on to say say, speaking of the unbeliever, those who are not saved, who are described as "them that perish" are "the savour of death unto death".
Do you know what a corpse smells like?
You who remain at war with God are not of the sweet smelling savor of the sacrifice of God's own Son, but a stench in the nostrils of the holy One of Israel, and if you die in that state, my friend, you will remain an offense to God throughout all eternity... for there is a Day approaching...
"...when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: (and these) shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power..." (2 Thess. 1:7-10)
Do you suppose that you will somehow escape the wrath of Him that sitteth upon the throne, He whom the Scripture describes as the One "...from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them."?
No, my friend, the Scripture says that all who know not God, who obey not the Gospel, will cry out to the mountains and to the rocks...
"...Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb..." (Revelation 6:16)
You who are believers, can you see how that you were an offense to God before your were covered in the righteousness of Christ?
You were like Adam and Eve, after they had eaten of the forbidden fruit, naked, and shameful, hiding from the presence of God. Clothed in a righteousness of their own making. Lost and fleeing.
By the way, it was God who came to Adam and Eve in the unregenerate state, and called out to them, while they were hiding in the brush, not the other way around... when Adam and Eve left the serpent they did not flee to the arms of the Lord crying, 'God save us, for we have sinned'... no, they hid themselves, they did not want to be in the presence of God... but God came to them, called unto them, and then clothed them, and covered their nakedness with coats of skins...
...God making coats of skins to cover their nakedness and their shame... shedding blood in the process.
For it is written in... Hebrews 9:22
... without shedding of blood is no remission.
...without the shedding of blood there is no remission, no forgiveness, no redemption, no justification before God, no salvation, no eternal life!
I sent every member of Burnet Bible Church a letter written by John Newton yesterday (the writer of the hymn "Amazing Grace").
Here is a man who comprehended some degree of the helpless, sin plunged, desperate state of unregenerate man.
To Newton, what had been worked in and for Him was an act of pure grace, an action of free unmerited love and favor from God, an Amazing Grace... a grace that could save a wretch...
...a wretch... like me, a wretch like you... a...
"Miserable, worthless person", in the words of Noah Webster, "one sunk in vice, and the deepest distress.... despicable, hatefully vile, and contemptible..."
...that is how John Newton described himself before God saved him.
It is the righteous covering of Christ alone that makes us acceptable to God, even as we learned in our study of Romans Chapter 3, several weeks ago, in verse 22...
"...Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe..."
...for it is written...
"Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity..." (Habakkuk 1:13)
Yet God does look on us, and receives us, the righteousness of Christ clothing us, and covering us... that alien righteousness that alone makes men acceptable to God, to stand before Him in all His holy presence, that righteousness of Christ without which we would be blown away into the fires of an eternal Hell.
Think on it well, my friends, if a man were to spend a billion years in hell it would not be sufficient to pay for even one of the least of his sins.
If a man could effect peace with God through any other means, Christ need not have suffered and died.
The fact of the matter is that there is no other way peace between sinning man and the all holy God could have been achieved. The Cross of Christ was not "a way", but "the way" of eternal life into the presence of God for men dead in trespasses and sins.
It is through our Lord Jesus Christ, and His work alone, that we have peace with God.
Atonement, you may remember from our study last year, is...
"Agreement; concord; reconciliation, after enmity or controversy." (Webster 1828)
That enmity between God and man is an enmity between God and every one of us personally because He is all good, and we, every one of us, apart from Him, all bad (a truth only a follower of Pelagius would deny).
But satisfaction having been made to God by the death of His Son, where once was enmity and wrath, now is concord and reconciliation, the very definition of atonement.
We sang these words from the hymn, Rock of Ages, earlier...
Not the labors of my hands
Can fulfil thy law's demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears for ever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and thou alone.
Romans 5:11 says it very clearly...
And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
Praise be to God, for His grace, and for His infinite mercy, which He has freely given His people, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that...
"...being justified by faith, we have peace with God...", and, "joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
At the moment faith in Christ is present, justification before God is present, and the fruit of justification is peace with God.
Horatius Bonar penned these words in the mid 1800's and we sing them from the pages of our Trinity Hymnals...
"Not what my hands have done
Can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne
Can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do
Can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears
Can bear my awful load"
Peace with God is through our Lord, Jesus Christ alone.
Those who are justified before God by faith in the finished work of Christ are counted and accepted as though they were personally righteous for Christ's sake, His obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead... and this, my friends, this is satisfaction to God, resulting in the cessation of enmity, alone satisfying the just wrath and indignation of God against our sins.
Your right standing before God today, if you have a right standing before God today, is on account of Christ's righteousness, imputed to you, which you received the moment you trusted Him for your salvation, the moment you accepted, received, and rested on Him alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life.
As the the ancient hymn asks, "To whom save Thee, who canst alone for sin atone, Lord, shall I flee?", ...to whom but Christ, shall I flee, who alone can for sin atone?
Fountain of never-ceasing grace,
Thy saints' exhaustless theme,
Great object of immortal praise,
Essentially supreme;
We bless thee for the glorious fruits
Thine incarnation gives;
The righteousness which grace imputes,
And faith alone receives.
In thee we have a righteousness
By God himself approved;
Our rock, our sure foundation this,
Which never can be moved.
Our ransom by thy death was paid,
For all Thy people giv'n,
The law thou perfectly obeyed,
That they might enter heav'n.
By Stephen Hopkins, Burnet Bible Church, Burnet, Texas
Romans 5
1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
We have looked very closely in the past several weeks at the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone. And what have we found, but that which is summed up in...
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
We have also looked very closely at the doctrines of imputed righteousness and faith...
... how that righteousness is reckoned to the account of the man who has faith in Christ, apart from works, a man's faith not meriting righteousness, as though it were a work acceptable to God in place of perfect obedience... a man's faith not accepted in the place of righteousness... but how that one's faith is the instrument by which he apprehends the object of true and saving faith, which is Christ, the Righteousness of God.
Who is He that justifieth? God
What does it mean to be justified? To be declared legally just in the sight of God.
How is this justification effected? By the imputation of the righteousness of Christ; both His active and passive obedience.
How does faith fit into the picture? Faith is the instrument through which Christ is laid hold on.
7 ...Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Iniquities are forgiven, and sins are covered when, and only when, a man's sins are imputed to Christ and the righteousness of Christ is imputed to a man. And this righteousness is apprehended, or received, by faith, in the object of saving faith, the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Now our text this morning, from Romans 5, verse 1 says...
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
The title of this mornings sermon is "Peace with God".
Philippians Chapter 4, verse 7 speaks of an inner peace experienced by all true believers, a peace termed "...the peace of God, that passeth understanding".
In that sense peace is "a state of tranquility, a quiet of mind or conscience", in the words of my good friend, Noah Webster.
But the peace spoken of in our text this morning refers to that kind of peace which is the antonym of war...
...and the worst kind of war... that war, that enmity, that state of opposition, which exists between men in their natural state and their Creator God...
"...there is no peace saith my God to the wicked..." (Isaiah 57:21)
The Bible says in Romans 8, verse 7 that the carnal mind of man is "enmity against God". It is hostile to God and His law, and will not have this man Jesus to reign over him.
In Ephesians Chapter 2, verse 3 men in their natural unregenerate state are termed "... children of wrath...".
Before our conversion we were enemies of God, at war with God, and under His just wrath.
But our opening text this morning speaks of a cessation of war whereby former enemies of God are come to peace...
"...being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ..."
And further on in our text from Romans 5, verses 9-11 we read...
"Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
Peace with God is the result of reconciliation with God. And the first thing I want you to understand is this...That peace we have with God is a peace that is unattainable by any human means.
This is what Paul is getting at when he says in Galatians 2:21
"I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain..."
The peace the believer has with God is a peace unattainable by human means. If righteousness were able to be achieved by the keeping of any law, then Christ died in vain. If their were any other way that man, created in the image of God, could have been redeemed, could have attained unto a right standing before God, then Christ died in vain.
Men effect peace with each other through compromise every day... two nations in conflict come together, reach a compromise on the issues dividing them, and war is averted... avoided... but the gulf between God and His holiness, and man and his corruption is so great that no compromise could possibly effect peace.
How could the holy Creator God compromise His holiness by receiving into his presence utterly sinful, corrupted, and vile men?
If we could see God as He truly is... all holy, only holy, and nothing but holy, we should see ourselves as we truly are... all sin, only sin, and nothing but sin... if we could comprehend the absolute perfections of God, in contrast we would see ourselves as we ought...
...and to comprehend this would be to comprehend just how offensive we are to God in the unconverted state.
If you are a unbeliever today you may have heard the passage quoted, "God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life..." and this is true, and it is truth, and nothing but truth, and it is Good News to all who would flee to Christ for refuge, but what you must understand is that in your un-regeneracy, in your unbelieving state, when you, having heard the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, sit there with a heart of stone, unyielding, unbelieving, and unrepentant, you are an offense to God, and an object of His wrath.
Epehesians chapter 5, verse 2 says that Christ "hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour."
2 Cor. 2 :15 says "For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, (but not so) in them that perish:
The theme of the sweet savor of the sacrifices of old run throughout the Old testament, and these shadows all point to the Christ who was to come and fulfill them all in his once for all sacrifice (on the cross).
The sacrifice of God's only begotten Son on the Cross was "a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour" and the passage we just read says that we, because of christ's sacrifice, are unto God the sweet savor of Christ.
But, my friends, listen carefully, because the text does not end here... verse 16 goes on to say say, speaking of the unbeliever, those who are not saved, who are described as "them that perish" are "the savour of death unto death".
Do you know what a corpse smells like?
You who remain at war with God are not of the sweet smelling savor of the sacrifice of God's own Son, but a stench in the nostrils of the holy One of Israel, and if you die in that state, my friend, you will remain an offense to God throughout all eternity... for there is a Day approaching...
"...when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: (and these) shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power..." (2 Thess. 1:7-10)
Do you suppose that you will somehow escape the wrath of Him that sitteth upon the throne, He whom the Scripture describes as the One "...from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them."?
No, my friend, the Scripture says that all who know not God, who obey not the Gospel, will cry out to the mountains and to the rocks...
"...Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb..." (Revelation 6:16)
You who are believers, can you see how that you were an offense to God before your were covered in the righteousness of Christ?
You were like Adam and Eve, after they had eaten of the forbidden fruit, naked, and shameful, hiding from the presence of God. Clothed in a righteousness of their own making. Lost and fleeing.
By the way, it was God who came to Adam and Eve in the unregenerate state, and called out to them, while they were hiding in the brush, not the other way around... when Adam and Eve left the serpent they did not flee to the arms of the Lord crying, 'God save us, for we have sinned'... no, they hid themselves, they did not want to be in the presence of God... but God came to them, called unto them, and then clothed them, and covered their nakedness with coats of skins...
...God making coats of skins to cover their nakedness and their shame... shedding blood in the process.
For it is written in... Hebrews 9:22
... without shedding of blood is no remission.
...without the shedding of blood there is no remission, no forgiveness, no redemption, no justification before God, no salvation, no eternal life!
I sent every member of Burnet Bible Church a letter written by John Newton yesterday (the writer of the hymn "Amazing Grace").
Here is a man who comprehended some degree of the helpless, sin plunged, desperate state of unregenerate man.
To Newton, what had been worked in and for Him was an act of pure grace, an action of free unmerited love and favor from God, an Amazing Grace... a grace that could save a wretch...
...a wretch... like me, a wretch like you... a...
"Miserable, worthless person", in the words of Noah Webster, "one sunk in vice, and the deepest distress.... despicable, hatefully vile, and contemptible..."
...that is how John Newton described himself before God saved him.
It is the righteous covering of Christ alone that makes us acceptable to God, even as we learned in our study of Romans Chapter 3, several weeks ago, in verse 22...
"...Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe..."
...for it is written...
"Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity..." (Habakkuk 1:13)
Yet God does look on us, and receives us, the righteousness of Christ clothing us, and covering us... that alien righteousness that alone makes men acceptable to God, to stand before Him in all His holy presence, that righteousness of Christ without which we would be blown away into the fires of an eternal Hell.
Think on it well, my friends, if a man were to spend a billion years in hell it would not be sufficient to pay for even one of the least of his sins.
If a man could effect peace with God through any other means, Christ need not have suffered and died.
The fact of the matter is that there is no other way peace between sinning man and the all holy God could have been achieved. The Cross of Christ was not "a way", but "the way" of eternal life into the presence of God for men dead in trespasses and sins.
It is through our Lord Jesus Christ, and His work alone, that we have peace with God.
Atonement, you may remember from our study last year, is...
"Agreement; concord; reconciliation, after enmity or controversy." (Webster 1828)
That enmity between God and man is an enmity between God and every one of us personally because He is all good, and we, every one of us, apart from Him, all bad (a truth only a follower of Pelagius would deny).
But satisfaction having been made to God by the death of His Son, where once was enmity and wrath, now is concord and reconciliation, the very definition of atonement.
We sang these words from the hymn, Rock of Ages, earlier...
Not the labors of my hands
Can fulfil thy law's demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears for ever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and thou alone.
Romans 5:11 says it very clearly...
And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
Praise be to God, for His grace, and for His infinite mercy, which He has freely given His people, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that...
"...being justified by faith, we have peace with God...", and, "joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
At the moment faith in Christ is present, justification before God is present, and the fruit of justification is peace with God.
Horatius Bonar penned these words in the mid 1800's and we sing them from the pages of our Trinity Hymnals...
"Not what my hands have done
Can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne
Can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do
Can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears
Can bear my awful load"
Peace with God is through our Lord, Jesus Christ alone.
Those who are justified before God by faith in the finished work of Christ are counted and accepted as though they were personally righteous for Christ's sake, His obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead... and this, my friends, this is satisfaction to God, resulting in the cessation of enmity, alone satisfying the just wrath and indignation of God against our sins.
Your right standing before God today, if you have a right standing before God today, is on account of Christ's righteousness, imputed to you, which you received the moment you trusted Him for your salvation, the moment you accepted, received, and rested on Him alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life.
As the the ancient hymn asks, "To whom save Thee, who canst alone for sin atone, Lord, shall I flee?", ...to whom but Christ, shall I flee, who alone can for sin atone?
Fountain of never-ceasing grace,
Thy saints' exhaustless theme,
Great object of immortal praise,
Essentially supreme;
We bless thee for the glorious fruits
Thine incarnation gives;
The righteousness which grace imputes,
And faith alone receives.
In thee we have a righteousness
By God himself approved;
Our rock, our sure foundation this,
Which never can be moved.
Our ransom by thy death was paid,
For all Thy people giv'n,
The law thou perfectly obeyed,
That they might enter heav'n.