Ruminating on ROMANS! (Some Thoughts on Paul’s Great Epistle) #13 “Eight Blessings of Belief” (A Study of Romans 5:1-5) Blessing #2

Many of you know that my New Jersey friend Frank and I are reading through God’s Word together (described here). We’re now in the book of Romans and are reading chapter 5 each day this week. Here is something that I noticed in reading this chapter:

Here are the eight blessings that I see in this passage:

1. Justified through faith (v. 1)

2. Peace with God

3. Gained access into this grace (v. 2)

4. Boasting in the hope of the glory of God

5. Glory in our sufferings (vv. 3-4)

6. A hope that does not put us to shame (v. 5)

7. God’s love poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit

8. The Holy Spirit has been given to us

We will think about each of these blessings — one by one — in subsequent posts. Let’s notice this morning the second blessing: WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD!

We have peace with God! That is no small matter. Romans 5 later reminds us that we were the ungodly (v. 6) and were enemies of God (v. 10)! God is the last person in the universe one wishes to be enemies with. The story is told of a wealthy man on his death-bed whose servant knew he was not a believer. The servant said, “Sir, do you not think that you should make peace with God?” The rich man said, “What? I never knew we argued!”

Perhaps this idea that we come into the world as enemies of God is the best-kept secret of Satan! We don’t enter this world at peace with Him, but in a state of sin (which we quickly learn to practice) which puts us in the category of an enemy of the holy God.

Thank God today for the substitutionary death of the Son of God — for you — so that you are no longer the enemy of God!