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Weekly Devotion
Rom. 5:1
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Although we are saved by grace alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone, God's gracious salvation does not come alone. There are other benefits of our justification in Christ, and the Apostle Paul explains some of them in the first 11 verses of Romans chapter 5.
The first benefit is peace with God. This implies that until God's grace breaks into our sinful lives, we are at war with him. Tim Keller, in his commentary on Romans, explained why this battle occurs. Keller wrote, "When you sin, you not only break [God's] law, but you assume the right or authority to do so—you claim kingship over yourself and your world. But God claims kingship over the same things. Whenever two parties claim absolute kingly control over something, there is a war. Pushing this thought to its conclusion, then, we can assert that peace can only be achieved when we submit under God's rule as lord over our lives. Is he, friends?
Think of it in this way. Last week, my beloved Steelers lost to the Buffalo Bills. Early in the fourth quarter, the Steelers faced 4th and 2 at the Buffalo 7 yard line. They ran the ball, got stuffed, and turned the ball over on downs. When the offense was coming off the field, Aaron Rodgers had this look on his face that conveyed, "I knew this play wasn't going to work." But he ran it anyway. He didn't change to a different play. He did what the offensive coordinator called. In the football game of the Christian life, our offensive coordinator is God and the plays he calls are given to us in Scripture. Do you run the play, submitting to God's authority? Do you run the play even when you don't think it's going to work? Or do you take control and change the play to what you think is right?