Jump Start # 274

Romans 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”

  What a wonderful verse and an absolute declaration! Justified, is the past tense of being just or justification. That is a legal expression. It means to be declared “not guilty.” Our legal system often abuses the expression, “Not guilty.” I’m not an attorney. My brother is. And I’m sure there are reasons to protect rights and so forth, but from my side of the fence, it sure seems odd, when someone has shot several, like the Tucson shooting, and was caught in the act to stand before a judge and plead “not guilty.” That’s not the concept here in our verse. We may say we are not guilty, when we are. The passage says, “having been justified.” We have been made innocent, or not guilty. Someone else made us just.

  The situation Paul has in mind is our standing with God. Because of sin we are guilty. No blaming parents, the baggage we carry, or the stress we are under or we just couldn’t help it. None of that stuff. We sinned, we are guilty. Through the blood of Jesus, forgiveness has been extended. The crime has been removed from the books. We stand innocent. We have been justified. God will not separate Himself from us. The result is that we have peace with God. We know the opposite of peace, it is war. We don’t consider fussing and fighting with one another as “war” but it is. With God, it is more so. Lacking peace, our sins drive a wedge and destroy our relationship with God. He is not our friend, because of our sins. He may not acknowledge our cry for help or answer our prayers because of our sins. Our sins have destroyed our relationship with Him. Saying “you’re sorry” is only a band-aid. The sins remain.

  Only through the blood of Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, can the sins be taken away for ever. Forgiveness restores the relationship. The basis and the drive behind all of this is our faith. Our faith in God. Our faith in His word. Our faith in Jesus, our Jesus. It is the same faith that compelled Noah to build the ark and made Abraham leave his home and cause Joshua to march around Jericho for seven days. Faith in God, not fighting what He says, but believing Him and obeying Him. The next chapter of Romans says that these people had been baptized into Jesus Christ so they could walk in the newness of life—a new life. Peace with God.

  You’ll notice that Paul includes himself in these verses. He says, “we have peace…” “through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We and our. We are in this together. This is how everyone finds peace with God.

  You’ll also notice that Paul says, “Our Lord Jesus Christ.” He’s not just the Lord Jesus Christ, but He is Ours. He is our Savior, our Lord, Our Sacrifice and here, Our Justifier. There is a connection between the believer and the Savior. Faith, emotion and connection are all found in that expression, “Our.”

  Two thoughts. First, why? Why does God do this? Why does God give the guilty a second chance? If we did the crime, why don’t we do the time? Why does He allow us off? The answer is because He loves us and because of our faith. Without the love, even the faith wouldn’t do it. He opens the door. It was God who sent Jesus. We didn’t climb a mountain and capture Him back for us—God gave. God sent. Those are acts of love. Here in Romans 5 Paul says, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Remarkable. Not after we quit sinning. Not after we promised never to do it again. But WHILE we were sinning Christ came. We are made innocent because God loves us.

  The other thought is, how should this make us feel? What does this do to us? You’d think we’d be the most thankful, grateful, people on the face of the earth. I think Christians are. We know our past. We know what should have happened to us. But it changed because we were justified through Jesus. Our songs, our prayers, our lifestyle, our worship ought to reflect thankfulness to God. We are released prisoners. We are forgiven sinners. We are a people that God did not give up on.

  That is the salvation message! You have been justified! It just makes you look Heavenward and say a heartfelt, “THANK YOU.”

Roger