East Cooper Baptist Church

December 2, 2012

Peace with God

Romans 5:1-2, Ephesians 2:8-10, Romans 1:16-17

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through 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)

8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV)

16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17)

Footnotes:

a.  Romans 1:17 Or is from faith to faith

b.  Romans 1:17 Hab. 2:4

Cross references:

A.  Romans 1:16 : 2Ti 1:8

B.  Romans 1:16 : 1Co 1:18

C.  Romans 1:16 : S Jn 3:15

D.  Romans 1:16 : Ac 3:26; 13:46

E.  Romans 1:16 : S Ac 13:46; Ro 2:9, 10

F.  Romans 1:17 : Ro 3:21; Php 3:9

G.  Romans 1:17 : S Ro 9:30

H.  Romans 1:17 : Hab 2:4; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:38

What are ECBC distinctive (the “30 second elevator statement”)?

1.  Biblical/Reformation theology

2.  Missional (Dec. 9 – The life of Adoniram Judson)

3.  Community/Relationship (Dec. 16)

4.  Transgenerational (Dec. 23)

Five Solas of the Reformation (1560-1660)

·  Sola scriptura ("by Scripture alone")

·  Sola fide ("by faith alone")

·  Sola gratia ("by grace alone")

·  Solo Christo ("Christ alone" or "through Christ alone")

·  Soli Deo gloria ("to the glory to God alone")

“As we look back upon the journey we have traveled, this is what we conclude: the components of gratitude and truth, love and hope, bring the realization of wonder. The disciplines of study, of reading and reflecting, of dialoging in-depth and praying with belief sustain the wonder. In short, wonder is captured in one word- worship. When we have learned what worship is, we have experienced what wonder is. Worship is a personal thing before it goes public. It is an individual thing before it is part of a community. It is a discipline thing before it is natural.”

Ravi Zacharias, Recapture the Wonder, p. 164

Justification by faith (Romans 5:1)

Justification has results. The justified person has peace and joy, and Paul exalts in this. In the process, he further emphasizes the importance of the death of the righteous Christ for sinful people. The love of God is behind all of this. Paul does not think of God as remote and indifferent but as full of love, and it is from his love that our salvation proceeds.

Pillar New Testament Commentary

Luther’s Tower Experience (1515)

In the last 1,000 years, what came to be known as "the Tower Experience" of Martin Luther might well be the most significant event in the western world for all the ramifications which ensued. Here are Luther's own words as he describes what happened as he was studying Romans 1:17 (and reading the insights of Augustine on this verse from a fairly obscure article he had written centuries before)- "For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)

"I greatly longed to understand Paul's epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression "the righteousness of God," because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage Him. Therefore I did not love a just angry God, but rather hated and murmured against Him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant.

Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the righteousness of God and the statement that "the just shall live by faith." Then I grasped that the righteousness of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before "the righteousness of God" had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven..."

Peace with God

“It is not referring to a subjective feeling but to the objective fact that the justified are no longer enemies of God but are at peace with him. The justified person is no longer tormented by questions of his relationship with God arising from the fact that he is a sinner. Sinner though he is, he is at peace with God because of what God has done for him (in Christ).”

Pillar New Testament Commentary

“There is no peace between man and God until a man grasps this doctrine of justification. It is the only way of peace. And it is something that comes to the mind, it is doctrine, it is teaching. In other words we aren't just told, “All is well, do not worry. All will be all right in the end; the love of God will cover you”; that is not the Gospel. The first thing that happens is that the mind is enlightened and the man says, “I see it. It is staggering in its immensity, but I can see how God himself has done it. He has sent His own Son and he has punished my sin in Him. His justice is satisfied, and therefore I can see how He can forgive me, though I am ungodly, and though I am a sinner.” The mind is satisfied...There is no true peace with God until the mind has seen and grasped and taken hold of this blessed doctrine (justification by faith alone), and so finds itself at rest).”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Assurance (Romans), pp. 18-19