Reading: Isaiah 11 vs 1-10.
Text: “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God” Romans 5 v 1.

My text is Romans 5 v 1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” etc.   Paul has preached the Gospel of Justification by Faith - quite different from what passes for the Gospel today!  Now he lists a series of wonderful benefits experienced by people who are justified by faith.  Head of the list is PEACE with God!

That means that people of other religions do not have peace with God!  It means that those who don’t believe Paul’s Gospel of Justification by Faith do not have peace with God!  It means that all those sincere people who follow their own way of salvation – by birth or parentage, by name or status, by good works or sacraments – none of them have peace with God.  If we desire peace with God, we cannot have it on our own terms; we must have it on God’s terms - through faith in God and in the Gospel of His dear Son.


WHAT IS PEACE WITH GOD?

What is Peace With God? We need to distinguish between an outward peace & an inward peace; an objective peace & a subjective peace; a legal peace & actual peace; a peace treaty & peaceful relations.

OUTWARD PEACE, OBJECTIVE PEACE, LEGAL PEACE

1st the outward peace, objective peace, legal peace.
 As a boy I learnt this text from the AV (Authorized Version): “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” The NKJ (New King James Version) uses the perfect tense, “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.’  That is closer to the Greek.  Does it make any difference?  Sure it does.
 Take the verb ‘to love’. Past tense, I loved; presence tense, I love; future tense, I will love. If I say, ‘I loved her / him’ it means that ‘I loved her once.’  To use the perfect tense we use ‘has’ or ‘have’.  But if I say, ‘I have loved her’, or ‘He has loved her’, it’s the perfect tense and means, ‘I loved her in the past and still do love her today!’  That is the meaning of the Greek perfect tense, a past event with present resulting state.
Paul uses the perfect tense of our justification.  “Having been justified by faith” means ‘we were justified on the day we first believed in God & we still are justified!’  It’s a past event with a present resulting state.  The wonderful thing about justification is that it is not just a past event, it is a past event with an on-going resulting state!  We were justified by faith and are today righteous in God’s sight, because God has logged, counted, imputed the righteousness of Jesus Christ to us!  Justification is an irreversible work of God!!  Our sins as filthy rags were transferred to Jesus Christ that we might be clothed with His white garment of righteousness for ever!!
 Before we believed, we were at enmity against God, for the carnal mind is enmity against God.  Our minds were darkened through ignorance of God and we were alienated from the life of God.  
 But when God made His Son known to us and quickened us by His Spirit so that we believed in Jesus Christ, that great day we were saved!  On the day we believed, God declared peace with us!  Justification is God’s peace treaty!  Since that day, this alienated sinner has been at peace with God - no longer under condemnation; no longer living in fear of God’s judgment.  Justification has created a wonderful, objective, legal peace with God – a framework within which we may have daily fellowship with God.

INWARD PEACE, SUBJECTIVE PEACE, ACTUAL PEACE – through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2nd the inward peace, subjective peace, actual peace.
 It is possible to translate our text as an exhortation. “Having been justified by faith, let us have peace with God.”  Let us walk daily in peace, harmony and fellowship with God.  To ‘have’ is to ‘hold’. Let us hold and enjoy peace with God!
It is a big subject.  As we come to the Lord’s Table, let me begin to show you HOW peace is worked out in our daily lives. Our text says, “through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
 That fits in with Old Testament prophecy and the New Testament birth narratives.   Isaiah 9 vs 6 - 7, “Unto us a Child is born, a Son is given; the government will be on His shoulder; His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government & peace there will be no end.”  Whatever peace is, it is Christ’s reign that brings peace on earth, for He is Prince of Peace.
No wonder on the night Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the choir of angels told the shepherds, Luke 2 v 14 “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” It is the King’s peace!  Only the King can minister this peace to us!

THE CALF AND THE LION LIE DOWN TOGETHER IN PEACE, Isaiah 11.

Go back to Isaiah 11.  The King is “a Rod from the stem of Jesse; a Branch!”  Like a great tree, He will spread abroad and provide a haven for many.  Isaiah tells us, “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”  That is why the King is called the Anointed One, the Messiah in Hebrew, the Christ in Greek.  The Spirit of God is upon Him!
Isaiah adds, “with righteousness He shall judge the poor.” At last, justice is done on earth and wrongs are put right.  And then “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb; the leopard lie down with the young goat; the calf and young lion together – all led by a little child!  They shall not hurt nor destroy for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.  In that day there shall be a Root of Jesse Who shall stand as a banner to the people – the Gentiles shall seek Him!”
Under His rule, when the curse of death is lifted; when sin is banished from the earth; when the earth is filled with the knowledge of God; when great David’s greater Son, the Anointed of God, stands as a banner over His people and all nations seek Him, then there shall be peace on earth!
 The animal kingdom will reflect the King’s peace.  Wild creatures now hunt and eat their prey alive; but when The King reigns over them in wisdom by His Spirit and by His Word, then the wolf and lamb shall dwell together, the calf and lion lie down together!
Ever since the fall of man into sin, peace fled from the face of the earth.  Brother killed brother.  Nation fought nation.  If there is no peace with God, there can be no peace on earth.  When the VERTICAL LINE is broken (man’s relationship with God) then the HORIZONTAL LINE will break down (relationships among people and nations). But when Christ reigns and establishes peace with God, then there shall also be peace among men; peace among nations.  The VERTICAL LINE must be re-established if there is to be peace on earth (the HORIZONTAL LINE).
We are not there yet – not until He has put all things under His feet!  We must wait till Judgment Day at the return of Christ; then there will be peace on earth under His banner of love!

Can we enjoy peace with God now?  As Jesus faced the cross of shame, He told His disciples, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid,” John 14 v 27.  And, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world,” John 16 v 33.  He is our peace!
You want peace to fill your soul?  Cleave to Christ!  He is Prince of Peace!  He secured our peace: listen, Romans 5 v 10: “when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son; being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”  His cross is the focal point for peace on earth.  God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.  That is the basis of peace on earth; Christ purchased our peace with His own precious blood.