Peace with God

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace” (vv. 1–2)

- Romans 5:1–11

It has been said that the greatest commentary ever written on Paul’s epistle to the Galatians is his letter to the Romans, which was composed some eight to ten years after Galatians. Certainly this is an appropriate description of the book of Romans, for many of the themes Paul takes up in Galatians — the purpose of the Law, the doctrine of justification, and Christian liberty — are also dealt with in Romans, often in a more comprehensive manner. So that we might more accurately interpret the book of Galatians we will be taking a short break from the letter to look at some of the main themes of Paul’s epistle to the Romans using Highlights from Romans, a teaching series by Dr. R.C. Sproul.

Our studies in Galatians have dealt at length with justification by faith alone, the imputation of Christ’s perfect righteousness, and the atonement, so we will not spend much time on the development of these topics in Romans 1–4. After establishing the universal sinfulness of mankind (1:18–3:20), Paul discusses the righteousness from God available to us on account of the work of Jesus (3:21–31). Then, like he does in Galatians 3, the apostle looks to Abraham as the example par excellence of the one who gains a right standing in our Creator’s eyes through trusting His promises, which promises are kept in Christ (chap. 4).

Justification brings with it the benefit of “peace with God,” and Paul looks at this peace in Romans 5:1–11. In our day, peace with God is not valued, largely because few people in our culture believe that the Almighty would ever not be at peace with them. What has been lost is the idea that all sinners are at enmity with God, a teaching that is found throughout Scripture (Gen. 3:22–24; Ps. 11:5; Col. 1:21). Whether it is felt or not, all people outside of Christ are at war with their Creator, but we who have been made to know our estrangement and have found reconciliation through trusting in Jesus know the joy that comes from being at peace with God through His Son.

Peace with God is not a truce that is broken at the slightest provocation. Our sin grieves the Lord (Eph. 4:30), but He will never again take up the sword of His eternal wrath against those with whom He is at peace (Ezek. 37:26).

Don’t Worry, Be Joyful

Joseph rejoiced when he saw Jacob in Egypt (Gen. 46:29) because the father and son had been apart from one another for decades. Yet as believers, we know that we can have joy even during tragedies like separation or death. Using Dr. R.C. Sproul’s teaching series Joy, we will now devote a few days of study to this Christian virtue.

It can be hard to comprehend the biblical concepts of joy and happiness because our culture has trivialized and sentimentalized these states of being. Society tells us real joy is impossible if we are not always happy with our relationships and possessions. The mantra, “don’t worry, be happy,” is often recited in a trite and frivilous manner.

However, this slogan has one important thing in common with Scripture’s teaching on joy: it expresses an imperative. That is to say, just as “don’t worry, be happy” orders us to be happy, so too does God’s Word command us to be joyful. Today’s passage is but one of many texts telling us to “rejoice in the Lord.”

Unfortunately, we tend to believe joy is something that happens to us, and so we often lack joy when things do not go our way. But joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23) that will be manifest in all believers, and so we must strive to be joyful in our lives. We have the Holy Spirit living within us, and we are therefore able to “rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil. 4:4). We can decide to have joy.

Let us also be clear that Christian joy does not deny the legitimacy of grief. Jesus was a “man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3); thus, it is not wrong to be sad. Sin creeps in when we are consistently despairing or hopeless. We are fearfully and wonderfully made - complex creatures who can be sad in one sense and joyful in another simultaneously. I grieve if my brother dies because I no longer have personal communion with him. But I can have a deep, abiding joy, for I know that death does not have the final word. It has been conquered in Christ’s death and resurrection (2 Tim. 1:10).

Christians find their joy in the Lord (Phil. 4:4). When we consider all the benefits and blessings Jesus has brought to us, we realize that we are joyful in Him and that we must strive to show forth this joy.

Discipling and Disciplining

There is a strange dichotomy in the language of the contemporary church. Much is said and written about the important function of discipling new Christians, while at the same time the function of church discipline has almost vanished. Today, discipline is a word used to refer to the instruction and nurture of the believer. It does not usually carry the connotation of ecclesiastical censure or punishment.

In one sense, this modern version of discipling is linked to the New Testament model. The term disciple in the New Testament means “learner.” The disciples of Jesus were students who enrolled in Jesus’ peripatetic rabbinic school. They addressed Him as “Rabbi” or “Teacher.” To follow Jesus involved literally walking around behind Him as He instructed them (the word peripatetic comes from the Greek word peripateo, which means “to walk”).

The New Testament community was forbearing and patient with its members, embracing a love that covered a multitude of sins. But in the New Testament, church discipleship also involved discipline. Part of apostolic nurture was seen in rebuke and admonition. The church had various levels or degrees of such discipline, ranging from the mild rebuke to the ultimate step of excommunication.

Learning to Love

Love is a popular topic, one that evokes warm feelings and a rush of spiritual adrenaline. Every year the polls indicate that the chapter of the Bible voted “most popular” is 1 Corinthians 13. This is the famous “love chapter” of the Bible. That this chapter holds such perennial appeal for Christians indicates something of the profound concern we have for the matter of love.

1 Corinthians 13 is a double-edged sword, however. It not only comforts us with an inspiring and exalted rhapsody of love, it also presents a portrait of the nature of love so clearly that it reveals the flaws and warts of our feeble exercise of love. It shows us how unloving we are. It sets the bar, presenting a norm of love that condemns us for falling so miserably short of it.

Perhaps our delight in the love chapter rests upon a superficial nod toward this biblical paean of love. Maybe we read its eloquent words as if they were merely the lyrics of a romantic ballad. But once we probe the content of the chapter, discomfort inevitably sets in.

The ultimate norm of love is God Himself. His love is utterly perfect, containing no shadow that would obscure its brilliant purity.

Love, The Christian's Goal

“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

- 1 Timothy 1:5

Although it is hard to identify all of the contours of the false teaching that Timothy was called to fight in Ephesus, we can be certain that the need of the hour was urgent. Paul normally opens his letters with a thanksgiving for the faith of his readers (Rom. 1:8) or for the grace given them in Christ (1 Cor. 1:4–9), or he pronounces a word of blessing (2 Cor. 1:3–11), but 1 Timothy does not begin in this manner. Galatians and Titus are the only other letters of Paul without an opening benediction on the audience, and both of these epistles deal with urgent matters as well. We have seen the Judaizing peril the Galatian churches faced, and in the months ahead we will examine Titus’ difficult situation. That 1 Timothy, like Galatians and Titus, has no expression of thanks in the opening lines of the text demonstrates the severe problems Timothy confronted.

Whatever Timothy’s opponents were saying, Paul makes it clear what they were not teaching — “love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5). This love is the goal of all godly teaching. Whether learning about our Creator’s attributes that we might adore Him better, or focusing on Scripture’s teaching about the poor in order to alleviate their suffering, our charge is to help people learn to love God and neighbor. Instead of isolating genealogies in the Torah and building fanciful theories about them, the false teachers should have been focusing on love, which sums up the Mosaic law (Deut. 6:4–5; Matt. 22:34–40). Augustine says, “Whoever…thinks that he understands the divine Scriptures or any part of them so that it does not build the double love of God and of our neighbor does not understand it at all” (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, NT vol. 9, p. 133; hereafter ACCNT).

Such love springs from a “pure heart,” one made new in regeneration and continuously cleansed through confession of sin and repentance (1 John 1:8–9). A “good conscience,” one sensitive to the truths of God because it has learned to rightly handle His Word (2 Tim. 2:15), is also needed to produce such love. Finally, Paul reveals, holy love comes from a “sincere faith,” an authentic trust in Jesus that reveals itself both in word and in deed (James 2:14–26).

Giving Meaning to Life

The broad question that the writer of Ecclesiastes seeks to answer is, “Is there any meaning to the time that I spend in this world?” We put on a man’s tombstone that he was born on a certain date and that he died on a certain date. Between these two poles of time we live our lives. The basic question is, “Does my life have meaning?”

A common refrain echoed in Ecclesiastes is that there is futility, vanity, and “nothing new under the sun.” If our lives begin under the sun as a cosmic accident, a result of random collisions and mutations of inert matter, and if our ultimate destiny is to return to the dust that bore us, there can be no purpose.

When we cease to look “under the sun” and seek our destiny “under heaven,” we find our purpose. Our origin was not in the primordial soup but in the very hands of God, who shaped us and breathed life into us. Our destiny is not to return to dust, but to give honor and praise to God forever. Under heaven we find purpose. If we have God as our origin and as our destiny, between those poles there is purpose and meaning.

The writer answers the question with a resounding “Yes!” There is a reason for our lives. There is a reason for our suffering and a reason for our pain. There is also a reason for our joy.

PUTTING YOUR FAITH IN ACTION

The organized church is torn with strife and distrust. Ultimately, the battle is not so much between conservatives and liberals, evangelicals and activists, or fundamentalists and modernists. The issue now is between belief and unbelief: Is Christianity true or false, real or unreal?

What is deadly to the church is when the external forms of religion are maintained while their substance is discarded. This we call practical atheism. Practical atheism appears when we live as if there were no God. The externals continue, but man becomes the central thrust of devotion as the attention of religious concern shifts away from man’s devotion to God to man’s devotion to man, bypassing God. The “ethic” of Christ continues in a superficial way, having been ripped from its supernatural, transcendent, and divine foundation.

Biblical Christianity knows nothing of a false dichotomy between devotion to God and concern for man. The Great Commandment incorporates both. It is because God is that human life matters so much. It is because of the reality of Christ that ethics are vital. It is because the cross was a real event that the sacraments can minister to us. It is because Christ really defeated death that the church offers hope. It is because of Jesus’ real act of atonement that our forgiveness is more than a feeling.

The church’s life and her creed may be distinguished but never separated. It is possible for the church to believe all the right things and do the wrong things. It is possible also to believe the wrong things and do the right things (but not for very long). We need right faith initiating right action. Honest faith—joined with honest action—bears witness to a real God and a real Christ.