God Has Declared It! Peace Is Yours :: Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, having been declared justified out of faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ (v 1).
[Introduction]
God has declared it! Who can deny it?
God has declared it! Therefore, it must be so!
God has declared it! Salvation by grace through faith is yours on account of our Lord Jesus Christ. As Saint Paul says, He himself is our peace ... [He] has made us one (Eph 2:14). He has reconciled both [the new man and the old man] in one body to God through the cross (Eph 2:16). Therefore, God has declared you are in good standing before Him, forgiven and free. [Jesus] is the one who died, [and] more than that, who was raised ... [And he] is interceding for us (Rm 8:34). He alone was delivered on account of our trespasses and was raised on account of our justification (Rm 4:25).
Jesus patiently endured ALL of your sins in his own body. Jesus patiently endured ALL of your worries, your cares, your illnesses, and your distress. [Jesus] was despised and rejected by men (Isa 53:3). Jesus then patiently endured the cross for you, pouring out his life-blood to enact the new covenant. As our Great High Priest, Jesus completed the pure atoning sacrifice to God ... giving his own blood ... his own death for all of your sins. As True Man and True God, Jesus patiently endured the grave and brought death and the devil to shame by rising again. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ out of the dead into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading (1 Pt 1:3-4).
This new birth was made a reality in us through baptism, through which He saved you, not out of works, the things in righteousness which we do, but according to his mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). ... There is therefore now no condemnation for you who are in Christ Jesus (Rm 8:1). No one can accuse you.
GOD HAS DECLARED IT ... PEACE IS YOURS IN CHRIST
This is our theme.
I. Alongside God’s declaration come immense blessings.
Perhaps the greatest of these blessings is faith ... that is, complete trust and certainty in what Jesus has done and continues to do for your salvation. We don’t have faith because of the Law. We have faith on account of the Gospel. Faith is confidence that Jesus’ cross and empty tomb destroyed all your sin and has given you eternal life, an assurance and hope given through God’s Word. It is the Gospel, the promises of God, that give you faith. He declares that you are one of his very own ... it’s a promise ... that you are one of his chosen ones ... a son, a daughter of Israel ... it’s a promise ... that you have eternal life. This is how the faith is established. And faith in those promises is how God justifies.
Therefore, having been declared justified out of faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have obtained and now keep a way of access by faith into this grace (vv 1-2).
This next blessing that follows the forgiveness of sins is peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no worldly peace that we have ever sought that achieves this. Our peace fails. God’s peace, on the other hand, comes from the very Prince of Peace, who has brought God’s kingdom to earth ... just as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. God’s peace is the answer we are given immediately after the Lord’s Prayer in the Divine Service. The Lord of all Creation gives us peace realized in fellowship ... communion ... participation ... with him. This is the peace we then share through fellowship ... communion ... participation ... with each other.
Therefore, as Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4[:1], we ask you and plead in the Lord Jesus, that just as you received from us how it is necessary to walk and please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more (1 Th 4:1).
That means we need to repent and forgive each other, sharing peace. All anger and resentment you hold against others is outside of Jesus. So let it go.
Paul and James both teach us this. Never let the sun set on your anger, Paul says (Eph 4:26). The wrath of man does not produce within yourself the righteousness of God James says (Jas 1:20). As Jesus himself says, if you are offering your gift upon the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go first to be reconciled to your brother (Mt 5:23-24).
Use the keys of forgiveness God has given you in faith. These keys we confessed last week also lead us to peace with one another and our Lord, who destroyed the wall of hostility between God and man ... you and me ... by dying on a cross. It was there, on the cross, that Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last (on the cross), and the temple's veil was torn in two, from top to bottom (Mk 15:37-39). Then, out of the empty tomb, the Light of the World (Jn 8:12) began shining in the darkness because the stone was rolled away and the tomb is now empty.
II. Since God has declared it: Now we can boast in the hope of the glory of God (v 2b).
This is yet another immense blessing. God issues a standing invitation for you to be in his presence, just as we heard last week. The love of God has been poured into your hearts through the work of the Holy Spirit. He makes you holy just as he is holy so that you can stand before him ... so that you can boast of him ... of what he has done and continues to do ... keeping you in the faith. This is the same Holy Spirit that Christ breathes upon his apostles, teaches you the word of truth, and carries your prayers to God the Father. This is the same Holy Spirit who gives you all boldness and confidence to come to him, to ask him as dear children ask their dear Father.
Luther gives us great advice to this end. When you wake, make the sign of the cross with the Holy Triune Name of Your Baptism, recite the creed, pray the Lord’s Prayer, commend the day into his care, and then go about your daily tasks with joy because you are reminded once again ... before God, you are justified. Then when you receive your daily bread, acknowledge the good gifts given by grace with thanksgiving. And as the sun falls past the Western horizon, be reminded of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’s given grace of the day by remembering your baptism, crossing yourself, reciting the creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and maybe another prayer before going to sleep joyfully, entrusting the darkness into His almighty and ever-gracious hands.
At every moment of the day, in all trial and trouble, take the lesson from the Canaanite woman. Though she was considered to be a dog ... that is, an outsider ignored by Israel ... she actually had faith, and she kept pursuing our Lord in faith, knowing He does hear the prayer of faith ... even as some disciples tried to silence her. She knew God always turns his ear toward the faithful ... those who seek and receive the gifts of God from the Lord’s table ... just as Jesus himself proved in saying, O Woman, great is your faith. It will be done for you as you desire (Mt 15:28).
III. God has declared it ... therefore, we can be confident in the promise that NOTHING in all creation can separate you from His Peace.
There is no tribulation, no pressure, no persecution ... no poverty, no family problems, no tyranny, or uncertainty ... that can separate you from God. He has declared it! Peace is yours!
It is on account of this that we can boast in tribulations, understanding that tribulation accomplishes perseverance, and perseverance tested character, and tested character hope. And hope does not put us to shame because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (vv 3-5).
Having the confidence and hope in God’s glory that Christ is Lord grants all of us the privilege of boasting in Jesus ... of what he has done and continues to do ... dying and rising and raising and giving us access to the tree of life. All the negative effects of the sin of others cannot put us to shame and disgrace. Instead, we are emboldened. As the early church father Chrysostom once said, “God has given us the greatest gift possible. ... What is this gift? It is the Holy Spirit.” Together with the Holy Spirit, we receive the innumerable blessings of God’s love outpoured with his unbridled lavishness.
[Conclusion]
God has declared it! He does this at the beginning of the Divine Service ... He does this in the middle of the Divine Service ... and He does it at the end of the Divine Service. He declares it in your baptism. He declares it by speaking his Word of peace. He declares it with the New Covenant on the altar he provides so that you will have tangible evidence he is with us. He stands you in his grace.
Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. The many blessings of justification are yours now ... and forever more ... because they are found in Jesus, who endured trial, terror, and death for your sake and who lives and reigns for you into all eternity. Let us therefore ever walk with Jesus through life, into death, and out of the grave ... in his name. Amen.