In 1991, I received my first of many leadership assignments: I was to lead a team as a Military Police Investigator. I was pending promotion to a junior non-commissioned officer and now had responsibility for a half dozen or so investigators. I had arrived! Or had I just begun?
That question is the subject of Paul’s discourse over the coming verses.
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 hope of the glory of God.
Romans 5:1-2 (NASB95)
The reality of the Christian life is this: The day of our Salvation is the starter’s pistol, not the finish line. Notice in these first two verses:
Having been justified… This is a passive action from our perspective. We do not justify ourselves. We experience justification. This is because we are not the Judge. We were under judgment. It is the Judge who declares justification. Justification carries with it more weightiness than simple forgiveness. It is forgiveness, but it is more. Justification communicates a right standing before God. It is not a commuted sentence. It is not mere clemency. It is a pronouncement of righteousness in the present without qualification of the past actions. Forgiveness focuses on a response to our bad actions. Justification speaks of our present. We ARE saints. Why? Because God declared it.
Now He did so, based on Christ’s substitutionary atonement, His propitiatory sacrifice on our behalf. God forgave our sin and our sin is to God, as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). But the emphasis of justification does not merely look back on what God did. It focuses on our present status which is reality. “Having been justified…”
We have peace. That is a present-tense idea. We are not looking back on when we once had peace. We are not focused on when we all get to Heaven and rejoice over the peace we will have. We RIGHT NOW have peace with God.
All of this through Christ, and, as such, through Him, we also have our introduction by faith into this new grace (a new and unearned reality). A new beginning. A new status. A new reality of peace with God.
All of this matters. But our hope and the glory that is spoken of as the outworking of our introduction by grace is only realized when we KNOW it and ACT consistently.
Choose not to live as a prisoner of the past. If Christ has set you free, then you are free indeed (Galatians 5:1). You do not have an asterisk by your name. You are not a saint on probation or with a checkered past. You are a saint. You have peace with God. You are justified.
Of course, this is not everyone and it is not automatic. You must believe it. That is, you must know it, accept it as true by faith, and live it out as if it were true. If I can help you with this, or help you understand it better, please contact me through the link on my homepage at chrisaikenonline.com.
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