Peace with God

(Article for publication week of 10-3- AD 2012)


“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:” (Romans 5:1).

Dear reader, can you say that you have “peace with God”? To be sure there are multitudes who have a false peace. There are many who have had their wounds healed slightly by some false prophet, and they are going on to hell with a false sense of security. They cry “peace, peace”, but there is no peace.

The only way you will ever have peace with God is to be justified by faith. The only way you can have peace with God is through His eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You can only have peace with God on His terms.

Our text opens with a “therefore”. This is a great help in our interpretation of the word. In other words, after Paul has made his arguments, he draws a conclusion. Because of everything he has written to us in the first four chapters of Romans, he comes to this glorious conclusion, that the believer in Christ, and only the believer in Christ has peace with God. In Romans 1:18-3:19 Paul was inspired to show us that all men without exception are under the wrath of God. I shudder to write it! “The wrath of God”! Dear reader do you not see that in your natural state you are an object of God’s holy and just wrath? Do you not see that you deserve that wrath? And if you remain as you are without Christ, the wrath of God will come pouring down on you with the fires of eternal vengeance. OH! I just pray that the Holy Spirit will awaken you to that fact, that you are under God’s wrath. This is how the Apostle starts, and it is the place that all preachers must start, that is to get people lost, for Christ only saves lost people. This is the great need of the hour, for sinners to see their lost and ruined estate.

But then, after he shows us our lost condition, he shows us how God justifies elect sinners. God justifies His people by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ Alone. The very righteousness of God is imputed to all who believe in Christ. Since the believer is declared as righteous as God (for he surely is), the believer has peace with God. The sins that made us fit for God’s wrath and condemnation are all taken away by the redeeming work of Christ.

Peace with God! Neighbours that is shouting ground! I am on good terms with God because my sins are taken away, and the righteousness of Christ (which is the righteousness of God, for he is verily God) is imputed to me.

This is true and genuine peace. The believer in Christ may have peace in his soul, though there may be wars and rumours of war all about him. Though this life is attended by many conflicts, the child of God has true peace because he has been saved from his sins and reconciled to God. The only way you will ever have that kind of peace is by believing in Christ for your salvation. May the Lord grant it.

The Passive Obedience of Christ

(Article for publication week of 9-26-2012 AD)

“And being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8).

It is by the obedience of Christ that believers are constituted righteous in the sight of God (Romans 5:19). The obedience of Christ is both active and passive. Christ actively obeyed the law to a jot and a title (Matthew 5:17-18). He always did those things which pleased His Father (John 8:29).This active obedience is imputed to the believer so that God reckons the believer has actively kept His law.

The obedience of Christ is also passive, as spoken of in our text here in Philippians 2:8. Christ was obedient unto death. As our Surety, Christ had obligated Himself to stand good for all our obligations. As rational creatures, we were obligated to obey the law of God and answer to Him for every transgression thereof. By breaking the law of God we were condemned and sentenced to death, the proper punishment for sin. By His passive obedience, Christ stood in our room and stead, as our Substitute, and died for us.

He “became obedient unto death.” The sword of God’s vengeance was raised to strike the terrible blow to Christ’s people. God had pronounced death as the proper punishment for those who broke His law (Genesis 2:17; Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 6:23). It was for the sins of His people that Christ died (I Corinthians 15:3). He had no sin of His Own, but it was for the sins of others that he died. He was just Himself, but He suffered for the unjust (I Peter 3:18). We were under the curse of the law, but Christ was made a curse for us, and so redeemed us from the awful curse (Galatians 3:13).

The death to which we were subject is physical, spiritual and eternal. Since sin is cosmic treason against the Infinite God, the only proper punishment is infinite death. This is the reason Hell is eternal. Eternity is not long enough to satisfy the wrath and hatred of an Infinitely Holy and Just God. After a million years in hell, the unsaved sinner is still under the penalty of the law. Hell will not purge him of his sin. And so Hell has to go on forever.

Since Christ is an Infinite Person, He was able to undergo the wrath of God and suffer eternal punishment in a moment of time. Christ is the God Man. His Manhood is Joined to His Deity in such a way as it could be said that we were purchased by the very blood of God (Acts 20:28). All the sins of every elect sinner were put upon Christ and He became a sin Bearer.

Christ passively obeyed God by willingly dying for the sins of His people. No man took His Life, but He laid it down (John 10:18). He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane , “not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” Christ became obedient unto death, even the cruel and ignominious death of the cross. He was numbered with us transgressors. He was treated by God as if he were a sinner Himself, though He was perfectly sinless.

It is by such perfect obedience that all who trust in Christ Alone are made righteous. Believers are justified by the active and passive obedience of Christ. As dear old Isaac Watts expressed it,
         “The best obedience of my hands dares not appear before Thy throne.

          But faith can answer Thy demands by pleading what my Lord has done.”

(Columnists note: this article was originally planned for 8-29. Due to my being late for the deadline, it was not run that week. It was not the editor’s fault, it was all your columnist’s fault. It should have followed the article entitled “the “Active Obedience of Christ.” Should any wish to read the articles in their original sequence, you may do so by visiting the matthewsevenfourteen blogsite.)