Meditations on the Meaning of ChristmasSample

Peace with God

Read: Romans 5:1-11

There was a TV show that I watched when I was young called, “Wait till your father gets home!” It originally aired from 1972-1974. The premise was simple, the mother would get fed up with the kids and threaten that when their father got home they would receive their due punishment. I wouldn’t recommend it as a parenting technique, but you get the idea. Whether or not actual reprisals were imminent, the threat of their father’s wrath was meant to scare the kids straight.

For a variety of reasons, when I was young in my faith in Jesus I wrongly believed that Jesus was my protection from an angry God in Heaven. My belief in Jesus didn’t change God’s wrath and anger at my sin, but Jesus acted as my protection from his wrath. It was if I was under a spiritual umbrella that Jesus was holding where God’s wrath couldn’t get to me. I was afraid of when my father in Heaven “got home” so to speak.

God, in His marvelous grace, opened my eyes to Romans 5:1-11. It was and is breathtaking to me. As believers we are justified. To justify is defined in Merriam’s online dictionary as “to judge, regard, or treat as righteous and worthy of salvation.” Verse one says that faith and repentance in Jesus Christ justifies us and gives us peace with God. As Christ-followers we do not hide behind Jesus. In fact, verse two says we have access through faith into God’s grace. Here we stand not under an umbrella, but in a relationship, able to pray to our God in Heaven who loved us so much he sent Jesus to live perfectly, die sinless, and conquer death and Satan by being raised from the dead.

One of the terms the Bible uses to describe salvation is to be washed in the blood, meaning that Christ’s physical sacrifice, where he shed His blood, paid for our sins. Another phrase is washed white as snow, meaning we have been made pure in God’s sight.

So today another perspective of the peace that Jesus has brought us in coming to earth is that he came to justify those who by faith believe. He has made us pure before God and allowed us to be in relationship with Him. Peace with God allows us to rejoice in God through Jesus Christ since we are reconciled.

That’s a powerful peace.

Reflect

• Do you feel the peace of reconciliation with God the Father?
• Ask yourself, “Am I living in the joy of the truth that through Christ I have been deemed worthy of salvation?” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
• Do you feel pure in God’s sight through Jesus? Why or why not? Perhaps pray for a deeper understanding of your standing with God in the light of this scripture.