Saturday 28th March
Read Romans 5:1-5
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (NIVUK)
We will spend the next nine days approaching the Easter weekend reflecting on the ‘Therefore’ with which this passage begins. Paul is referring back to the end of the previous paragraph.
“He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (Romans 4:25) (NIVUK). Death and resurrection.
When Paul speaks of ‘peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ he is reflecting on the consequences of Jesus’ deliberate choice to die in our place to restore our relationship with God. This is not an inner peace that calms troubled minds in these turbulent times. It is a peace with God whose wrath is revealed against sin and ungodliness wherever it is found. By bearing that wrath on the cross in our place the possibility of a ‘sin-free’ relationship is created.
Peace with God is a present reality based on a past act of God’s grace. In that sense it is sure and secure and unchanging. It is grounded in the glory of God. Weighty and reliable. The consequences of this flow through to the circumstances the Romans find themselves in now and provide meaning to our lives today.
