Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Are you exhausted trying to earn God's approval? What if you already have peace with God and you don't really know it? Our Verse of the Day today really helps us grasp this tremendous understanding that you and I have peace with God.
It's Romans chapter 5, verse 1. It says, "Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us."
What a phenomenal statement.
The Righteousness of God
The context of the book of Romans is all about the righteousness of God. God is holy, and you and I have to somehow get righteous to get there. Christ does that for us.
Paul starts out in Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17: "I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of God, for it is the power of God." Then he goes into chapter 3 and he says, "There's no one righteous, there's not even one."
We are in this incredible predicament. Then in Romans chapter 3, verse 24, the Bible says that we've been justified freely by His grace. That word is connected right here in Romans chapter 5, verse 1, here in our Verse of the Day, where he talks about having peace with God.
You Are Right with God
Very simply, in Romans chapter 5, verse 1, God shows us how He gives us peace and makes us right with God.
Number one, you are right with God. It says it in the verse: "Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith." That is an amazing statement—to believe that you and I are made right with God.
How does that happen? Well, this word—it really means to be justified. It means two things:
Number one, it means that, if we're born-again Christians, are fully, finally, and forever forgiven. That word "forgiven" means that God chooses to remember your sins no more, because God chose to remember them and condemn every single one of them when Jesus Christ died for us. It's tremendous truth. We're now white as snow, but as good as it is to be white as snow—as the song says, white as snow—you and I can't get to heaven just being as white as snow. We have to somehow be as righteous as Christ. That's the second piece of what this verse talks about.
Declared as Righteous as Christ
It means that we're also declared righteous in Christ—because God attributes the very life, the perfect life that Jesus lived, to us. That's the tremendous word of being declared righteous.
As we look at this passage, that is true of us, if we're born again: we have been made right with God. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21: "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
We have been made right with God.
You Have Peace with God
Number two, you have peace with God. Because we've been made right with God, we have peace with God, and God is at peace with us. This is not like feeling peaceful about ourselves, though that's a great feeling. This is the objective reality that we are actually at peace with our Maker. It's incredible to have peace with God.
Ephesians chapter 2, verse 14 says: "He Himself,” speaking of Jesus, “is our peace." I want to share three quick thoughts that come out of this application.
Number One: Stop Striving and Start Resting
Number one, stop striving and start resting. Here we can rest entirely in the fact that God has made us right with God. God is the One who initiated. God sent Jesus, and Jesus died for us and made us to have peace with Himself.
Number Two: Shift Your Focus
Number two, shift your focus. I love what C.J. Mahaney once said. He said, "Are you more aware of your sin or of your Savior?" Some of you folks who are very conscientious and wonderful people—it's very easy for us to kind of pick the dust, as it were, always off the windows of our lives, instead of being more aware of the ocean of God's grace that covers all of our sin.
Number Three: Base Your Assurance on Truth, Not Emotion
Finally, base your assurance on truth, not emotion. We don't always feel forgiven. We don't always feel at peace with God. But God says it right here: because He's justified us, because we're forgiven, we're declared righteous, we have peace with God.
Therefore, rest in being at peace with God. Let's live for Jesus, who is our peace.