“Peace With God Through Jesus Christ”

Romans 5:1-5

1) Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

2) By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

3) And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

4) And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

5) And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

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e are faced with the “corruption” of our young people in the greatest numbers, ever. It would be comfortable and convenient to be able to “blame” the devil and escape any culpability on our part. The fact of the matter is that the devil would be able to gain no ground with our young people if they were adequately “armed.” You see, in many cases, we have spent so much time on our own “problems” with salvation, that we have spent little time investing in those who must be trained to serve behind us.

Sometimes, errors are made in “remembrance.” That is, adults look back upon their childhood and seem to remember not having done so badly. What we sometimes seem to forget is that our decisions as young people (before we were saved) were based on human knowledge. This being the case, our “best” decisions were not “good” because of not being based upon the power of God.

Also, being unhappy in our salvation (largely due to God’s requirements), we have sent “mixed messages” to our children, sometimes acting spiritually, other times, fleshly. Because the human being leans toward doing what is most comfortable for the flesh, if both the spiritual and the fleshly are presented, the fleshly is what will be copied.

In order for one to achieve peace in his life and be free from the issues mentioned above, as well as those even more pressing, he will have to acknowledge that he is in turmoil. No one accepts instruction as long as he feels it is unnecessary. The “yardstick” by which we all can measure our “progress” is whether or not we are accomplishing what we feel God has called us to accomplish.

After all, in that this is God’s salvation, He ought to be able to give us “progress reports,” charting for us whether or not He is pleased. If we ask Him, He will tell us.

In salvation, the instruction that we receive is that telling us how to get from earth to glory. From the beginning, the “instruction in righteousness” has not changed. Unfortunately, the “mistakes” made by the people of God have not, either. In both our case and that of the Children of Israel, we have tried to take the Lord’s instruction and understand it. This leads to our attempting to achieve spirituality through works—an impossible task.

We must never forget that though the Law was given, it was given precisely because and to show that it could not be kept. This has a tendency to confuse us, primarily because the Law was something that we could do and that’s what human beings are drawn to—what they can do. Through this, we should understand why it is a matter of life and death that we not follow our humanity.

Every time the children of Israel failed, they should have clearly seen that “doing right” was not in them. This should have been recognized as a problem that needed “fixing,” since they also knew that God expected them to “do right.”

Even after all that they experienced, the children of Israel were unable to change—no matter how many chances they were given or how much “mercy” the Lord extended to them. The reason for this? They could not change because they were not dead to living after the flesh. For a being constructed of and motivated by flesh, if he would be changed from what he is, then what he is must be changed.

Believe me, Israel knew what to do but was unable to do it because of being without a “method”—and the method of salvation is faith. Even when we are without understanding, we are to exercise faith, for it is faith that transports us from the natural to the spiritual.

The area of “finances” keeps far too many from having “peace with God.” The Lord gets blamed for all sorts of things that are not His fault. In His Word, He gives clear instruction concerning how to be materially blessed. What becomes clear as one reads is that this will not happen unless one is willing to give to the Lord. But as opposed to making men happily grateful to give, it frequently seems to have the opposite effect. It is almost as if we feel that the Lord has no “right” to require a sacrifice from us.

Neither man, woman, boy nor girl will be able attain any part of God’s blessings unless he learns to accept them by faith. This means that he will look to do nothing to get them, will be unconcerned with when they will manifest themselves and most importantly, will live is life as if “it” is already done. Once one “gets the hang” of believing God, he will never have to worry about having “too much,” for the “overflow” of God’s blessing to be passed on to another!

Speaking of “flow,’ we are able to receive the blessings of God only when we are under their “flow.” This involves our “positioning” and positioning involves our daily walk with the Lord and our willingness to allow Him to do the leading. The proper conduct of oneself will enable us to always be in a position pleasing to God.

One will enjoy true peace in the company of another only if one trusts his company. As this relates to God, we can expect to be comfortable only if we have complete confidence in His leadership. You see, we can have no doubt in His ability to direct, comfort, lead and provide for us (among other things).

In all of our lives, the Lord has worked miracle after miracle. As we find these days coming to a close, we need to be moved to offer Him abundant praise for the opening of doors that appeared to be closed! We are never to accept that what is true of those outside of God is true of us! We are children of God and that makes us “different” from anyone else on the face of the earth.

Jesus gave His life that we might have peace in all areas of our lives and be unaffected by that which affects mere mortal man. However, not only will we have to accept peace in order to live in it and be at “peace with God,” we need not allow ourselves to be deceived. The deception? That one will be able to offer God what he is willing to give—and that in return, God will be satisfied. n