The Blessings of Salvation

If you would take your Bibles
and turn once again to the book of Romans, we are pressing on. We open this morning into chapter
five of this great epistle. It was interesting to me as I
began to study this particular section a little more deeply
this past week. that there were a great many
commentators that see this beginning of the chapter. Chapter five,
verse one is a very hard break, a very new, totally new subject. And Paul is moving on and pressing
on. I, I, I simply don’t see it. And there were certainly plenty
of other commentators that agreed with me. Paul is really continuing on
his discussion of salvation. As we know, that discussion began
all the way back in chapter 3, verse 21, where Paul announced
that the righteousness of God had been manifested, that now
men could own this righteousness by faith. They could come to
know and enjoy the fruits of this righteousness being justified
by God. We saw that in chapter 3, verse
21. And the subject really advances from there. That is the great
subject of salvation. In chapter four, Paul dealt with
those varied arguments, arguments against justification by faith
first in chapter four. And then in the later verses
of chapter four, arguments for justification by faith, clarifying
not only salvation, but clarifying grace and faith. and ultimately
issuing forth in what we call the salvation chorus. And so
the subject hasn’t changed at all. In fact, what Paul wants
to do here in chapter five is begin to talk about the blessings
of salvation. He’s told us about the great
means of salvation. He’s argued for adamantly for
this idea of justification by faith. He’s described and discussed
thoroughly the particulars of that in faith and in grace and
how those things, how those components all come together. But what he
really hasn’t detailed, not greatly, is what are the blessings? Why
is this such a good thing? You can read between the lines.
And certainly for us who know Christ, even coming to the book
of Romans, we know ahead of time what blessings have already accrued
to our account. But Paul hasn’t really trumpeted
those. He certainly didn’t lead with
them. I think I shared with you a number of years ago that I
read, I believe, every tract on the market at the time. I
purposely did a study of every tract that I could put my hand
on, and the sad discovery was that almost every one of them,
almost every one of them led with what’s in it for me. It
led with the good news, the best news, When in reality, what Paul
does here is the very first thing he does is tell us about the
nature of sin and about the nature of man caught up in sin. And
it’s only now, all the way in the fifth chapter, that he begins
to outline what are the blessings of salvation. Paul doesn’t want
to get caught up in this what’s in it for me mentality. If you’re in chapter five, it’s
a very simple outline that of chapter five. Chapter five has
two sections, verses one through eleven and verses twelve through
twenty one. Paul will talk about the blessings
of salvation in the first portion, and he will talk about a contrast
between Adam and Christ, a beautiful contrast that tells us not only
about condemnation, But it goes back again to the great subject
of justification that secured by our Lord Jesus for the morning. Let’s go to chapter five, verse
one. We’ll look at the first portion
of this. At the blessings of salvation. Where Paul wrote to the Romans,
therefore, Having been justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained
our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.
And we exult in the hope of the glory of God. And not only this,
but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings
about perseverance and perseverance proven character and proven character
hope. And hope does not disappoint
because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For while we were
still helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good
man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his
own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Much more than having now been
justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God
through him. For if while we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, Much more,
having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only this, but we also
exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we
have now received the reconciliation. Well, you guessed it, that is
a mountain of blessings. To even begin to embrace the
depth and the height of all of those blessings will take weeks. And we’ll take our time. We want
to begin this morning in chapter five, verse one. At this section
that really, as I said, continues on Paul’s discussion of salvation,
Paul is reaching, if you will, a different phase in the discussion,
this discussion of justification by faith. But now he basically
takes a position of fact. It is assumption that not only
he himself, but all of those who he addresses have received
and are enjoying already this gift. It’s that that is our starting
point in the blessings of salvation. What Paul begins to do here is
to give us the pleasant and overwhelmingly happy blessings of the gospel.
What are the fruits of justification? What is it that we enjoy as believers? Paul begins to describe this
condition that we’re in, the nature of it. If you would go all the way back
to verse one of chapter five. As I suggested, we are still
discussing salvation and what Paul is into here in verse one
through 11 are the blessings of salvation. And the first one
that he comes to is a simple one. It is a life of peace with
God, a life of peace with God. Now, you know me, if if I look
at a passage, I can’t even I can’t even begin to digest it until
I know what the simple sentence is. And this is a very complex
sentence. It’s as if Paul. Modified the modifiers that modify. That’s essentially what happens
to the sentence is it gets deeper and deeper and deeper the further
you go. But on the face of it, the very simplest point that
Paul makes is that we have peace. Therefore, we have peace. And what Paul is doing is concluding
everything from at least chapter 3, verse 21, all the way down
to chapter 4, verse 25. But I would even take it further
back from there. I would take it all the way back
to chapter 1 verse 16 at least and say that knowing the sinfulness
in which we were steeped, knowing the justification by faith, the
righteousness of Christ that we can come to enjoy now, knowing
all of those things, we have peace. But as I said, it’s a
complex sentence. That’s the basics. Let’s deal
with the rest as well. As I said, the therefore points
back and essentially sums up everything that Paul has been
talking about, and you could certainly distill it down to
those verses that begin in chapter 3, verse 21, where the righteousness
of God is introduced or at least introduced for the first time
as good news for the sinner. What Paul is doing is drawing
a conclusion here in chapter five, verse one, based on everything
that he’s said. Therefore, we have peace. But
that peace is built upon something, and that is essentially the first
modifier of this entire sentence. Look at it. Therefore, having
been justified. Paul’s no longer talking about
this as a hopeful prospect. Paul’s no longer arguing for
justification by faith. Paul is now talking to those
who are in Christ by faith already having been justified. Paul’s
not going to wrangle with the Jew any longer. Paul is not going
to seek to prove or argue. Paul’s done it. Paul turns his attention to those
who have placed their faith in Christ. And what Paul does here
is contemplate the great work of salvation having already been
accomplished. Now, there’s no doubt that Paul
realized in writing to the Romans that not everyone that read this
epistle would already have placed their faith in Christ. Paul is
not saying that everyone who’s ever born or everyone who is
in this room this morning is already in Christ. We’ve detailed
it very clearly. If you place your faith in Christ
and in him alone, these things are true of you, but only in
that condition. For Paul, The great work of salvation
was for him and for any who had placed their faith in Jesus Christ
as having already been accomplished. It was done. The believer is
already justified before God. It is much more than a doctrinal
discussion that Paul has been conducting. It’s an expose into
reality. Paul has all along been trying
to tell Christians what really transpired. And he’s been trying
to testify, proclaim to those who don’t know Christ what really
is offered to them in Christ. Just incredible. Paul has been conducting this
expose into reality, into what had already occurred spiritually
in the believers lives, what was there for the taking for
any who did not know Christ, Some had come to fully embrace
Christ in Christianity without a full knowledge as to how things
worked. They saw the Savior. They placed
their faith in the Savior, but they didn’t know how this whole
justification by faith thing took place. And in a sense, for
the Jewish believer, that’s what chapter four was all about, is
arguing for the truth, contending for the truth. But now Paul turns
the corner. That’s what Paul has been discussing
these past few chapters, and now here he speaks of it as a
firmly established reality. For all of those who have placed
their faith in Christ, we are in a condition of already having
been justified. We’re not waiting to have the
slate wiped clean. We are already in that condition,
in that state. And Paul can’t just say that. Paul has to add an additional
modifier that it is, once again, by faith. Paul’s not going to
let go of this. He argued for it. It is the only
way of salvation. He spent an entire chapter wrangling
with the Jew over this very subject of faith. It has been at the
forefront of the discussion for the entire book of Romans. It
is the only hope. For the sinner. That of salvation
by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul is not about to just say
already having been justified. Therefore, already having been
justified by faith. Paul’s not going to let go of
it. He introduced the idea of it, righteousness of God through
faith in Jesus Christ. He introduced it in 322. He reiterated
in 326 that God would be just and the justifier of the one
who has faith in Jesus. It’s not faith in faith, as we
saw. It’s faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. To the Jew, he proclaimed boldly
about Abraham’s faith in chapter 4, verse 3 and 5. Chapter 413. He summarized it
by saying the promise to Abraham and to his descendants that he
would be heir of the world was not through the law, but through
the righteousness of faith, and it was faith that Paul spent
no little time at the end of that chapter detailing and clarifying
exactly what real saving, justifying faith was like. Look again at
verse 18. Verse 18 of chapter four, in
hope against hope, Abraham, that is, he believed in order that
he might become a father of many nations. Look at verse 19, and
without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body.
This was a distinct kind of faith in a distinct kind of God that
had a distinct kind of blessing. That is the righteousness of
God, as one said, the fact that the first fundamental act of
trust, when it has once brought man under the justifying love
of God and the power of Christ’s life, becomes a permanent, though
progressive, act of submission to and reliance upon that power. Did you hear what he’s saying?
This act of faith, of placing our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
is not a one-time event. It’s a life of faith. It’s a
life of walking with Christ. It’s a life of believing in Him. It’s a continued act, as he concludes. It’s a continued act of will
realizing that power. Well, no wonder Paul summarizes
everything that he’s talked about up to this point with those simple
words. Therefore, having been justified
by faith, That’s the conclusion of Romans 321 through 425. That is. The groundwork. And with that said. He gives
us the conclusion, therefore, having been justified by faith,
we have peace. The world is very concerned about
peace, isn’t it all the time? Especially the antiwar, you know,
they’ll clamor and scream for some kind of peace as if absence
of war is any kind of real peace. Absence of war is merely absence
of war, it doesn’t necessarily. Mean or produce peace. It’s interesting
here that the form of the verb is what we call a derivative,
it It means to maintain a hold on. It is to have and to not
let go. We have it. We own it. We have peace. And that will
help us toward the end of figuring out exactly what kind of peace
this is, because it’s not merely an absence of war. It’s not meaning
necessarily even kindly feelings or peaceable feelings towards
one another. We know we’re called to that. We know we’re called
to unity in the church. We’re called to oneness. We’re
called to set aside our grievances. We’re called to forgive each
other and walk in peace. That’s not what Paul’s talking
about. Well, we also know that we oftentimes
have a feeling within. We have a feeling of kind of
serenity in being a Christian, in having placed our faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. We just have a calm, centered,
peaceable feeling. Is that what he’s talking about
here? Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace. I’m at peace now. I no longer
have to worry about my sin. Well, I think it goes beyond
even that. As I said, it indicates something
that we already possess. We own it. There are all kinds
of things that as a Christian. We don’t own, not yet. We are
not as Christ, we are not yet like him as we should be. We
have not seen heaven. We are not yet glorified, we
are not perfected in Christ. There are plenty of things that
lie out there in the future, but this is something that Paul
says we have now. Or should. Basic meaning of the word peace. Interestingly, is indicates a
reconciliation, a having been reconciled with God. And that was brought about, we
know, by the death of his son, our Lord Jesus. And what it ultimately
implies is that God’s wrath has been taken away. It has been
the focus has been taken completely away from the sinner who has
placed his faith in Christ. That is the overarching sense
of this word, even outside of Paul’s writings. John 16, 33,
Jesus said, These things I have spoken to me that in me you may
have peace. Was he just talking about a settled
feeling in the soul? Jesus wanted to put the war to
rest, the war between the sinner and God. Jesus wanted the sinner
to be at peace with the Holy God. In Acts 10, speaking of
the early church, it said the word which he sent to the sons
of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ. It wasn’t just
that God wanted some kind of peace between the fledgling church
and the venomous Jews. He wanted them to come to know
God’s peace, peace with God. When you begin to look at Paul’s
writings, this becomes absolutely clear what kind of peace Paul
is talking about here. In Romans 15, 33, when he closes,
he refers to God two different times as the God of peace. He’s a God who seeks peace with
sinners and did everything in his power, including sending
his own son to procure that peace. Philippians 4, 9, Paul wrote
to them. The things you have learned and received and heard
and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will
be with you. It is a walking with that God
of peace. It is a lifetime of enjoying
that peaceful relationship with God. To the Thessalonians, Paul
wrote one of the most heartfelt blessings that any believer could
ever receive. Now may the God of peace Himself
sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body
be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It’s the God of peace who’s going
to do the work. It’s the God of peace who’s going
to sanctify you. The God of peace who sent His
Son to die for your sin and started the work of grace within you
who’s going to complete it. What a blessing. One of the most
crucial passages and a direct relation to the passage in front
of us is in the book of Ephesians. If you would turn to Ephesians
2. Granted here in this particular
passage, in speaking of his work of salvation among the Gentiles,
it’s not limited just to that. This is a universal blessing
on those who place their faith in Christ, Jew or Gentile. They are made at peace with God. Look at Ephesians 2, beginning
in verse 14, where it says, For he himself is our peace, that
is, the Lord Jesus, who made both groups into one and broke
down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh
the enmity, which is the law of commandments, contained in
ordinances, so that in himself he might make the two groups
into one new man, thus establishing peace. and might reconcile them
both in one body to God through the cross by having put to death
the enmity. And he came and preached peace
to you who are far away and peace to you who are near. Now, what
Paul is saying is not this enmity that was between the Jew and
the Gentile, but between the sinner and God. God did away
with it. God dealt with it. So even though it has the passage
has reference to the Gentiles, certainly a much broader truth
is there to be enjoyed by all. Essentially, these verses. The simple little opening verses
of the Book of Romans, which you can return. They make the point that God’s
promise, this righteousness by faith,
is a life that ultimately is characterized or enjoys the blessing,
really, of a life that is at peace, characterized by peace
with God. It points to the incredible truth
that Even though we were completely undeserving of God’s blessings,
God sent His Son. He loved us so much. He sent His Son. He has begun
to transform His people from being enemies to being friends,
to those at peace with Him. This peace does not point to
the subjective feelings of the believer. Those things are true.
Those will follow. Once you know that you are no
longer at war with God, you should have a good feeling within. Paul’s
not saying that one is over against the other, but it goes much beyond
that. It is the condition of being
at peace with Almighty God, with the Holy God, As one said, the
enjoyment of harmony with God reconciled favor, resulting in
the Christian and the church’s inward rest and happiness. Another said that it is peace
springing up from the knowledge and love of Christ. What it points
to is all of God’s blessings, the fact that we are spiritually
at peace with God, brings to us all kinds, a flood, if you
will, of blessing. So it’s no longer just a feeling,
not a sentiment, not just satisfaction of the heart, not just a quietness,
but a condition of having been reconciled to God Himself, no
longer at war. No longer the objects of God’s
displeasure, no longer the objects of God’s wrath, no longer wandering
around in hopelessness, no longer wishing that our sin would be
dealt with. We are at peace. And had we read further into
the modifier, we would have known immediately the nature of this
peace, because Paul says it Quite clearly, therefore, having been
justified by faith, we have peace with God. That’s the nature of
this peace. As one said, peace with God is
a blessing coordinate with justification. The background of justification
is condemnation. And it’s subjection to the wrath
of God The background of peace is our alienation from God, and
it contemplates our establishment in the favor of God in the light
of His countenance. We have peace with God. Now,
for some of you who perhaps were raised in a Christian home, or
perhaps it’s been so long since you came to Christ that maybe
these things aren’t as fresh as they once were. But for those
of us who can remember the war and can remember it quite well,
the lying, the deceitfulness, the pretentiousness, the cowering,
as it were, from God himself, the hatred of who he was and
what he stood for, the fact that he wouldn’t just give us everything
that we wanted. I remember the war. I remember
my hatred of God. I remember not wanting to please
him, not only not wanting to please him, but to reason away
and to find if there was any way that I could get rid of God,
not just mentally, if there was any way that we could do to God
what they had done to Christ. I know I would have done it. I don’t know about you. But when
Paul says, having been justified by faith, we have peace with
God, that is one of the most overwhelming statements in all
of Scripture. And the fact that God did it,
that God sought us out. We didn’t go into the throne
room of God and seek to ratify some treaty, seek to ink some
deal with God, putting away our hard feelings toward Him. As
we’ll see in a few weeks, it was God that moved first. God
did it. While we were yet sinners, God
placed the treaty before us and lifted our feeble hand and brought
us to faith. As one said, the thought is That
in the case of the divine justification of sinners, justification necessarily
involves reconciliation. Whereas between a human judge
and an accused person, there may be no really deep personal
relationship at all. Do you hear what he’s saying? He’s taking you into a courtroom.
And it’s sentencing day and the judge is about to slam down his
gavel and issue forth the sentence against the evildoer. But the
judge is impartial. He has no personal feelings against
this. He may have heard the facts of
the case, but there is no one to one relationship. Certainly,
the criminal didn’t offend the judge personally. That’s what
he’s saying. Oh, but against God, it’s quite
different. Whereas the relation between
God and the sinner is altogether personal. Both because God is
the God he is and also and I take that to mean holy. God is a holy
God and also because it is against God himself that the sinner has
sinned. So God’s justification of sinners
of necessity involves the reconciliation. This is a peacemaking deal that
was enacted by God. And so the removal of enmity
in the establishment of peace. Paul spoke of this elsewhere.
Paul spoke of this in glowing terms to the Colossians. Listen
carefully, briefly. Colossians 119 for it was the
father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him
that is our Lord Jesus and through him to reconcile all things to
himself that is God having made peace through the blood of his
cross through him I say whether things on earth or things in
heaven and although you were formerly alienated and hostile
in mind engaged in evil deeds yet now he has reconciled you
in His fleshly body through death in order to present you before
Him holy and blameless beyond reproach. We have peace with
God. But there’s another modifier.
And as I said, this thing gets so deep, you forget what really
is even the subject. The subject is the fact that
we have peace. Paul tells us that it’s a peace with God, that
he tells us that it was established through our Lord Jesus Christ. We know this. This, in a sense,
is repeat. Repeat all the way back to chapter
three, verse twenty one, we know. Of what Paul is speaking here,
that Paul can’t talk about peace with God, Paul can’t talk about
reconciliation without talking about the great savior who secured
it. Just as it is through Christ
that we are justified in the very same way, it’s through him
that we are reconciled to God. It is a twin. Occurrence. We know these things
from our study of Second Corinthians, the verse that immediately comes
to mind when you begin to talk about reconciliation is Second
Corinthians five. Now, all these things are from
God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us what
we talked about last Sunday, that God gave us the ministry
of reconciliation. You’re not just sharing your
faith. You’re not just talking about your church. You’re not
just inviting somebody to the Titus 2T. You are participating
in the great plan of reconciliation, bringing sinners to God, which
is his desire. Now, all these things are from
God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the
ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling
the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.
It is committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore,
we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were making an
appeal through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ be reconciled
to God. He made him who knew no sin to
be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness
of God in him. You see, it was through the Lord
Jesus Christ and only through the Lord Jesus Christ that we
or anyone would ever have peace with God. If it weren’t for the
Lord Jesus Christ, we are all still at war with God to the
bitter end, to death. And we would never win. Christ is the mediator dispensed with the bestowment,
as one said, of privileges which proceed from justification. No sooner were we in Christ,
the blessings began to flow. As one said, it was Christ’s
blood representing his entire vicarious sacrifice, which brought
about this reconciliation. And it was his spirit which brought
into the hearts of all true believers an appreciation of that redemption,
that which is redemption through blood accomplished. We began
to immediately sense. that we have peace with God.
We begin to enjoy it immediately and instantaneously. And you
know what? Paul still isn’t done providing detail. Look back again
at the passage because he bleeds over into chapter 5, verse 2. Therefore, having been justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ
through whom Also, we have obtained our introduction by faith into
this grace in which we stand. Now, this little word introduction
is a fascinating one. It’s only used three times in
scripture and all of them in the same general sense. The word was frequently used
in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures,
and it would frequently represent the act of bringing someone or
bringing a sacrifice before God or before a king or a monarch
of some sort. It’s as I said, it’s only used
three times in all of the New Testament. Each particular instance,
instance, it’s used of The access that we have, the introduction
that we have to God by Christ. This is exactly what I was talking
about, the privilege that we have in prayer that was made
possible because of what Christ accomplished. It can be translated introduction
or access, but what it points to As one said, the privilege
of approaching or being being introduced into the presence
of someone in high station, especially royalty. Here, Christ is viewed
as ushering believers into their new state of grace and acceptance
before God. It’s Christ who introduced us. Now, when Jesus said, In John
14, 6, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to
the Father but through me. This is exactly what he was referring
to. That in essence, Jesus takes
us into the very throne room of God and gives us introduction
to God Almighty Himself. Before whom we could never approach. We could never waltz into that
throne room and live. Ephesians 2.18, one of the other
occurrences of this, says that through him, that is through
Jesus Christ, we both have our access in one spirit to the Father. That’s how we gain access to
Almighty God. That’s what gives us the privilege
to call on God in prayer. The only, as I said, there are
three other occurrences. Ephesians 3.12 speaks of a boldness
and confident access through faith in him. That’s why we can
go to God in prayer. That’s why we can come to him
and unburden our hearts of sin and ask him of favors. That’s
why. Because Jesus introduced us. That’s why we pray at the end
in Christ’s name. Paul points out that we’ve got
this piece because of an introduction that Christ has made, an introduction
to God himself. But he paints this picture in
a very unique way. Look down again at the passage
there in verse two, we have this we have obtained this introduction
by faith and we’re not surprised to find Paul reiterating that. Grand term. But he says we’ve
obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which
we stand. That’s an interesting way of
putting it now, we’ve touched upon grace, we saw it several
weeks ago. The free favor of God. But what Paul uses it as
here is a kind of a sphere, if you will, a room into which Jesus
leads the believer. God’s there, too. And it’s a
condition, a state of mind. It’s a state of being really
in which the believer is placed. I mean, that’s that’s the best
I can do. Gilding the lily here as you
look at God’s word. What else do you do with that? the Jesus Christ through whom
we’ve obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which
we stand. The bottom line is the fact that
we are justified isn’t because of anything in us. We didn’t
open the way. We didn’t find the door. We didn’t
stumble our way into the very throne room of God. God took
us in a state of utter sinfulness. He introduced us to Christ. Christ
turned and introduced us to God himself and placed us into this
sphere, this realm. There’s a good way to put it,
of grace. And in that realm, we’re not supposed to just dip
in every once in a while. We’re not supposed to just open
up the door and sniff the air. We’re supposed to immerse ourselves
fully and formally in the grace of God. We’re supposed to walk
in grace and live in grace and abide in grace. Paul says it
a little bit differently here. He says that through the Lord
Jesus Christ, through whom we’ve obtained our introduction by
faith into this grace in which we stand. It’s a it’s a sphere
in which we have been placed and we stay on moving. As one pastor said it, stand
here carries the idea of permanence, standing firm, immovable. Although
faith is necessary for salvation, it is God’s grace, not the believer’s
faith, that has the power to save and the power to keep saved. We are not saved by divine grace
only to then be preserved by human effort. We stand in grace. Jesus brought us here. By God’s
grace, we belong here. And by God’s grace, we continue
here. We shall not be moved. Not by
Satan, not by all of his henchmen, not by the world, not even by
our own feeble reasoning. We shall not be moved from this
sphere of grace into which we’ve been placed because of God’s
own doing. I had high hopes to get to point
two. That we are enjoying a discussion
about salvation. We are enjoying a discussion
about the blessings of salvation. What things are for us to enjoy
as believers? Not only a life of peace with
God, But come back next Lord’s Day as we consider that we enjoy
a life of confident worship, a life of confident worship.
When Paul says at the end of verse two, we exult in hope of
the glory of God. What a powerful blessing that
is. Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you and praise
you that We all too well remember the war that we had with you.
A war that we loved against a God whom we hated. And everything
in our being would have done away with you. While we were
yet sinners, you sent Christ to die for us. You sent Him and
you wooed our hearts to faith. And Lord, we came to stand before
you purely because of what Christ had accomplished in perfect righteousness. And
Lord, we entered into this life of faith and a life of standing
in the grace of God. And Lord, immediately we began
to enjoy a life of peace with you. Lord God, we thank you for
the work that you have done in our lives. We could never have
set aside the war on our own. We could never have mitigated
the hatred that we had toward you in our love of sin. Because of what Jesus Christ
accomplished on the cross applied to our hearts. We know that we
have begun to enjoy a life of peace, standing comfortably in
your grace, Father, grant us the grace to open our eyes and
to see these truths and to flourish in them. We thank you and praise you.
It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.