October 9: Do you have peace with God?

Romans 5:1-11

Sep 21, 2005
TROY BUSH

Troy Bush is the minister of evangelism and missions at Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola.

Mrs. Bolton was nearly 90 and still very active. One day she came to my home. While I had visited her home on a few occasions, this was her first visit to my home. I opened the door, and she stood on the porch with a brown bag in her hand. Before I could invite her in she said, “Brother Troy, I want you to forgive me for what I said the other day. Here are some cookies I baked for you, because I do not want anything to hurt our relationship.”

Mrs. Bolton was a great theologian, though she never attended Bible college or seminary. She understood the practice of reconciliation, and she gave a young seminary student a word picture that I have never forgotten.

Reconciliation is a biblical term, but it is more than just a term. It is legal practice, an accounting practice, and it is a relational practice. It is something that occurs between parties or people that are divided or that have differences. Concerning relationships, one person said, “Reconciliation may be seen as part of a process of restoring a relationship gone awry.”

We do not teach, preach, and model reconciliation enough. Reconciliation is fundamental to our relationship with God and our relationship with others. Because we have neglected this biblical truth, many people think that all people have a relationship with God. The common thought is our relationship simply needs to be improved by our “asking Jesus into our hearts.”

The Bible teaches us something different. In Romans 5:10 Paul says, “For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life!” The first part of this verse instructs us that our relationship with God is terrible. God considers us His enemies. Paul repeats this idea in Colossians 1:21, 22: “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior” (NIV).

How do we move from being enemies of God to being a child of God? How is it that we can have peace with God? Paul again reveals God’s plan for redemption through Jesus Christ, and in this fifth Chapter of Romans he emphasizes reconciliation. It is God’s process for restoring relationships gone awry. Notice three important elements.

First, we are the offending party. We are the ones responsible for breaking the relationship. God is not our enemy, rather we are His enemy. Second, the Scriptures reveal to us that it is God who does the work of reconciliation. Look at Romans 5:10. “We were reconciled to God.” Colossians 1:22 makes it even clearer: “But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him.” Though we have broken the relationship, He does the work to mend the relationship. Third, He pays the penalty with the blood of His Son. He is the One that has been offended, but He reveals His grace and love by giving His Son as a sacrifice so that we might have peace with Him.

Mrs. Bolton taught me about reconciliation on the day she brought me cookies. She wanted to mend our relationship. God the Father also teaches us about reconciliation, but He stuns us when we stop to consider what He did. In order that we might have peace with Him, He reconciles us through Jesus, even while we were still His enemies.

Peace with God can be found only in the reconciliation that He performs. Simply praying for peace is not enough. We must be reconciled through the death of Jesus Christ, and this truth must saturate our thinking. We have peace with God because of what He did. Our peace never comes from what we did or can do.

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