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!

 

What Does It Really Mean to Be “Saved”? (A Study of Galatians 1:3-5) Part 1

Friends:  For the next few posts I want to look at a topic which is often misunderstood.  The topic of being saved.  The Apostle Paul writes the following to the Galatian believers:  “3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Gal. 1)

There are five truths that jump out at me from this text.  Let’s look at the first one this morning.  We are at peace with God! (v. 3).  Peace with God!?  One of Satan’s greatest lies is to help people to think that if there is a God, He must like us and be happy with us.  Or not be all that interested in us.  Seldom do people think, “I’ll bet that if there is a holy God like the Bible says, I’m in a lot of trouble!”

Scripture is clear that God is angry with the wicked every day (Ps. 7:11), that we come into the world under the wrath of God (Jn. 3:36), and that it is a “dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31).  Someone has said that we prefer to believe what we prefer to be true.  We prefer to believe that all is right with us and God — and the biblical picture is just the opposite.  An enemy of God?!  Yes!  That’s what the Bible says.  “For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Rom. 5:10).

In Jesus we have “grace and peace.”  And they are not of our making.  Self-salvation is a myth.  We needed a Savior outside ourselves who could extend us grace (unmerited favor) and peace (an end of the enmity between us and God).  And that’s what Jesus did.

I understand that when a wealthy man was on his deathbed, one of his servants mustered up the courage to whisper to the man, “Sir, do you not think that you need to make peace with God?”  The rich man snorted, “What?  I never knew we argued!”  We are not naturally at peace with God. And that’s why we needed to be saved.