Spoils of Peace

Does it ever seem like there are 1000 things a day that try and distract us from time with Him. From what He wants us to do? There is so much in this life with Him we miss when we just jump from one ‘attention grabber’ to another. He wants us to focus on the best (He’s the best) and not worry so much about the rest. Sometimes that means we need to put down the phone or turn off the tv or turn down the radio so we can let Him have our attention. So He can have a voice in our lives and we can recognize His voice.

It all springs forth from the Love of God!

Romans 5:1–11 ESV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

The righteousness, the justification, the peace: all springing forth from the love of God.

The righteousness, the justification, the peace: all springing forth from the love of God.

But PEACE! Peace is the benefit introduced by Paul in chapter 5!

v.1 since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through Jesus.

Different than the peace of God that passes understanding. That peace is what washes over us when the Dr has bad news. That peace is what gets us through the time of grieving. That peace what He gives when we have no idea what the future holds but we ARE CERTAIN who holds the future!

Oh how we can be thankful for the peace of God that passes understanding!

But the peace in is peace WITH God. We get peace with God because of Jesus. Because Jesus did the work of sanctification and because Jesus provides righteousness and because Jesus paid the debt for sin!

Oh sin. The problem of mankind before God. A holy God. A just God. God who the word says is light and in whom is no darkness at all.

1 John 1:5 ESV

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

Darkness is sin.

Darkness is sin.

Can you say that about you? That you are light and in you is no darkness at all? I cant. Then that poses a problem between me and God. A problem I cant solve.

Try as I might, there is nothing I can do to solve my sin problem. I cant pull myself up by my bootstraps. I cant dust myself off. I can only fall on the mercy of a God who cannot allow sin to remain in His presence.

Putting myself in that position means I rely totally on Him. Not on myself. Like the prodigal son. I must come to the conclusion that He is right and I am wrong. I must surrender!

And when I do, all that work Jesus did is immediately and eternally transferred to me! THAT, my friend, is salvation!! Which brings peace with God.

We have peace with God. Let that just settle on you for a bit. Everything in this wretched, sin-stricken world says we should be at odds with a perfect God, holy and just. But He offers us peace with Him. Because of the incredible work of Jesus, we gain peeeeeeeace.

And there are benefits. Spoils of peace, if you will. v. 3 But wait! There’s more!

Access to grace and hope.

Even joy in suffering.

Hope is the foundation of our joy. But not just joy, our hope is the building block for our lives! Without hope, we have nothing on which to build.

Nice little town, well kept but in the area where a new dam would submerge it. All the residents would have to relocate. Between the news of the dam and the completion of it, the town became completely run down. An eyesore. Why? Where there is no faith in the future, there is no work in the present.

Hope - Nazi concentration camps. Victor Frankl of Vienna taught the loss of hope can have a deadly effect on man. In the camps, for one to have the strength to survive, one had to be shown hope in the future.

How then does the message of hope take us out of this building and into this community?

First we have to believe that God is providing a future here for us. Then we might need to believe that we play a significant part in that future. After that we should allow the future hope to motivate us to act on that belief.

That whole ‘rejoice in suffering because suffering produces...’ line gives us the certainty and confidence that this isnt just happening all willy nilly, but there is a plan. God has a plan that, even when things go poorly, He is accomplishing something great for, in and through us!

There is one more spoil of peace that we need to accept today. It is found in verse 9. We will be saved by Him from the wrath of God. If God were to pick up the cup of wrath that was intended for us, He would see that it is empty. Poured out completely on the person of Jesus Christ. There is no wrath left for us. We will not experience the wrath of God. All who refuse to believe will, sin itself will, but no one who puts their faith in Jesus will. We dont deserve that. We didnt earn that. Oh church, let this understanding create thankfulness in your lives!

The hope for sinners is that between us and the wrath of God stands the cross of Jesus. Sin was laid on Jesus and the Divine wrath toward it was poured out, spent, and exhausted in the darkness of Calvary. And when it was done, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “It is finished!” The wrath of God that will one day be poured out on all sin was spent at the cross with regard to all who are in him.

Then Christ rose from the dead, and he stands before you today, a living Savior! He offers to you the priceless gift of peace with God. He is ready to forgive your sins and fill you with his Spirit. He is able to save you from the wrath and reconcile you to the Father. He has opened the door of heaven, and he is able to bring you in.

There are a few of us here this morning who generally believe that upside down view of the world that says ‘the worst is yet to come’. says otherwise! The worst was taken by Christ on the cross. And because He is able to declare ‘I have overcome the world’ we can live expecting that the BEST is yet to come!