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Jewels #2 &am
p; #3 – You Have Peace with God and You Are Justified

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1-2

To be justified means that the penalty for my action has been paid. If I was caught speeding and the fine was $160, I am justified when I pay the entire $160. The law required $160 and I paid it. The ‘scales of justice’ are back in balance. I am at peace with the law. This is what Jesus has done for us, as the hymnist has written “Jesus paid it all; all to Him I owe. Sin has left a crimson stain; he washed it white as snow.”

If I handed the judge $35, I would stand un-justified before him, because there is another $125 justice demands due to my lead foot. Here, the ‘scales of justice’ are way out of balance. This is the position of a person who believes their ‘good deeds or good intentions’ are going to somehow overcome their sins and spiritual death. Not even Ben Matlock or Perry Mason could win this one.

Suppose, the judge was feeling generous that day, lowering my fine to $80. I would still pay the $80 and be okay with the law. But this would not be justice; it would be mercy. The law (justice) required $160, the judge reduced it to $80 and by his mercy dropped the remaining $80. If this was how God was going to deal with sins, he would have left the blood of bulls and goat in place and never sent His Son.

In love, God sent His Son to pay the full penalty, the death penalty, for us all. Because His blood was accepted on our behalf, full justice has been served in God’s eyes. Christ has taken our wages of sin, death; now resurrected, He now offers us His resurrected life.

We are no longer God’s adversaries. Because we’re no longer God’s adversaries, we are at peace with Him. And because we are at peace with God, we are free to trust Him as our Savior and to make peace with those people we have wronged.
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