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The Grace of Peace
Or, Exulting in the Glory That Should Have Killed Us Romans 5:1-2 April 24, 2022 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins
Introduction
Were it not for grace we would all be consumed by the thing we long for the most. Even if it misfires, some internal combustion like engine within each of us longs to see true beauty. Even if it’s diluted by false ideas or dulled by half-heartedness, we want to know and be a part of ultimate glory. All this really means that we have a heart that wants to know God, to have God be pleased with us. But were it not for grace, His glory would kill us.
His glory is righteous glory, and unrighteousness is more than inadmissible it is intolerable. Those who have turned from His ways and fallen short of His standard are in grave danger. If God were to reveal the fulness of His glory right this moment, glory in the raw, glory undisguised, we would all be burned up by it as if we were enchanted into the center of the sun. Getting closer would be certain death.
But to the believer, the glory of God is our hope. It is not safe, but it is the only satisfaction for our thirst. It is not a position we’ve put ourselves in, it is not a rank we’ve purchased or earned, it is a status we’re given by grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Considered from the legal side, it cost Jesus His life so that we could be declared righteous (Romans 4:24-25). God does not hold our sins against us because Christ was delivered up for our transgressions. We believe in Christ and we are counted before God with the righteousness of Christ.
This freedom is good, but you can imagine, I’m sure, a convicted felon, in prison, waiting for his capital punishment, one day a judge overturns his conviction and releases him, and he is out but also left on his own. Guards fling the gate open, and he walks out without threat of return, but also without resources.
Much of the above illustration relates to the good news. We have been delivered, and any time someone wants to check our status, the record of our charges has been wiped clean before God and we are free men. But there is more. Romans 5:1-5 tells us more.
Verses 1-5 are a paragraph with two parts. I didn’t have enough time to figure out how to exult in all five verses in one sermon, so this morning we’re going to look at the grace of peace in verses 1-2. We have peace, we have access, we exult.
Reconciled (verse 1)
The gospel is not a distraction from our disturbed consciences, but a resolution to our fear and shame of having defied God.
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (verse 1, ESV)
Therefore pushes us further downstream from the previous paragraph, Romans 4:18-25. A participle sums up all of chapter 4, “having been justified by faith.” The ESV translates it as since because the justification is the basis for this first implication: we have peace with God.
This is another way to talk about reconciliation, except that it’s more than clearing up a miscommunication between friends. This is to know that the one who rules the universe, God Himself, is pleased with us. It is our position, whether or not we feel it, but because it is our position, it has real consequence. Peace with God (compared to the peace of God) stresses that the friction have ceased. His face is no longer against us.
The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,to cut off the memory of them from the earth.(Psalm 34:16 ESV)
There is a textual variant in the main verb, the difference between a long and short “o” in Greek (ἔχωμεν and ἔχομεν), so either an subjunctive or an indicative. If a subjunctive, then it is an exhortation: “let us have peace.” If it is the indicative, it is the reality: we have it. The context favors the state of it.
We have p[...]
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By Trinity Evangel ChurchOr, Exulting in the Glory That Should Have Killed Us Romans 5:1-2 April 24, 2022 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins
Introduction
Were it not for grace we would all be consumed by the thing we long for the most. Even if it misfires, some internal combustion like engine within each of us longs to see true beauty. Even if it’s diluted by false ideas or dulled by half-heartedness, we want to know and be a part of ultimate glory. All this really means that we have a heart that wants to know God, to have God be pleased with us. But were it not for grace, His glory would kill us.
His glory is righteous glory, and unrighteousness is more than inadmissible it is intolerable. Those who have turned from His ways and fallen short of His standard are in grave danger. If God were to reveal the fulness of His glory right this moment, glory in the raw, glory undisguised, we would all be burned up by it as if we were enchanted into the center of the sun. Getting closer would be certain death.
But to the believer, the glory of God is our hope. It is not safe, but it is the only satisfaction for our thirst. It is not a position we’ve put ourselves in, it is not a rank we’ve purchased or earned, it is a status we’re given by grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Considered from the legal side, it cost Jesus His life so that we could be declared righteous (Romans 4:24-25). God does not hold our sins against us because Christ was delivered up for our transgressions. We believe in Christ and we are counted before God with the righteousness of Christ.
This freedom is good, but you can imagine, I’m sure, a convicted felon, in prison, waiting for his capital punishment, one day a judge overturns his conviction and releases him, and he is out but also left on his own. Guards fling the gate open, and he walks out without threat of return, but also without resources.
Much of the above illustration relates to the good news. We have been delivered, and any time someone wants to check our status, the record of our charges has been wiped clean before God and we are free men. But there is more. Romans 5:1-5 tells us more.
Verses 1-5 are a paragraph with two parts. I didn’t have enough time to figure out how to exult in all five verses in one sermon, so this morning we’re going to look at the grace of peace in verses 1-2. We have peace, we have access, we exult.
Reconciled (verse 1)
The gospel is not a distraction from our disturbed consciences, but a resolution to our fear and shame of having defied God.
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (verse 1, ESV)
Therefore pushes us further downstream from the previous paragraph, Romans 4:18-25. A participle sums up all of chapter 4, “having been justified by faith.” The ESV translates it as since because the justification is the basis for this first implication: we have peace with God.
This is another way to talk about reconciliation, except that it’s more than clearing up a miscommunication between friends. This is to know that the one who rules the universe, God Himself, is pleased with us. It is our position, whether or not we feel it, but because it is our position, it has real consequence. Peace with God (compared to the peace of God) stresses that the friction have ceased. His face is no longer against us.
The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,to cut off the memory of them from the earth.(Psalm 34:16 ESV)
There is a textual variant in the main verb, the difference between a long and short “o” in Greek (ἔχωμεν and ἔχομεν), so either an subjunctive or an indicative. If a subjunctive, then it is an exhortation: “let us have peace.” If it is the indicative, it is the reality: we have it. The context favors the state of it.
We have p[...]