One sunny afternoon my mom called all five of her sons to the porch and asked, “Who broke the chair?” Clearly one of us broke it, it was lying in front of us in pieces. The problem was, no one said anything. “Who broke it?” Still, silence from the boys. “If whoever broke it doesn’t say something, you will all be punished.” My twelve year old mind tried to quickly rationalize the problem to find a way out of being punished; I had more lizards to catch and did not have time for punishment. But reality set in, the culprit was not going to say anything and therefore I was doomed to be punished no matter what, so it made sense to me at the time to just say I did it since I was destined to be punished anyway. My brothers could then go off and keep catching lizards for me. “It was me.” I said in my best guilty voice. “Head to your room for lying and not saying anything when you broke it”, my mom replied.
At that moment, the punishment
was being paid for and my brothers were at peace with our mom. The broken chair issue will not need to be
brought up again because it was behind us all.
The punishment was paid, and everyone was set free to go back to their
summer fun, except me of course. (I
never told them it wasn’t me, but if one of you would like to confess now,
that’d be fine!)
Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we
have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Not to be nitpicky, but could you
read that verse again, slower. Take that
5 word statement in the middle “we have peace with God”, and cling to it for a
minute. Turn it upside down, inside out,
and mentally digest it.
There is nothing too fancy about
that phrase right? Well, try this phrase
on for size, “you do not have peace with God”.
How does that thought make you feel, if you truly knew you did not have
peace with God?
That phrase may make you squirm
just a bit. That is not an idea we
savor, so we justify why we do have peace with God, in order to feel better
about ourselves.
Peace with God is something
everyone longs for, yet not all know how to find it. The answer sits on the surface of the pages
where Romans 5:1 resides and can be summarized by gluing together the first and
last parts of the verse, “Therefore since we have been justified by faith…in our Lord Jesus Christ”.
Peace with God can only be found
by faith through Jesus Christ. Here is
why. Jesus Christ did not go to the
Father and say, “Hey Father, I know these guys and gals are pretty messed up,
why don’t you say, we just forgive them and call it a day? It would make things a lot easier between all
of us.” (I could only imagine trying that argument with my mom, “mom, I know we
are a bunch of knuckleheads, but what do you say we all forget about this
broken chair and the fact that one of us is lying to you and we all go our
separate ways?”) Rather, Jesus knew the
Father’s wrath that had been stirred up by our sin needed to be appeased, and
therefore said, “Father, I know these guys and gals are pretty messed up, and since
you are perfect and holy, you demand an account to be made for their sins. Can
I pay the price for their sins, so they can be at peace with you? I love them too much to see them bear your
wrath, so treat me as if I was them, sinful and messed up, then, and only then,
can they live at peace with you.”
So Jesus bore the burden of the
cross, separation from his Father, and death, in order for us to be at peace
with God.
But since death could not hold
Jesus, Jesus was able to appease the Father’s wrath, at the same time becoming
the mediator of our sins to the Father.
This is why faith in Jesus Christ
is the ONLY way to have peace with God.
For those who turn to Jesus and put their faith, their trust in him, the
Father’s wrath has been appeased. There is not an ounce of vengeance or
punishment God the Father wants to pour out on you, you have perfect peace with
Him, because the punishment of your sin has already been paid.
Therefore, you can go back to
catching lizards, someone stepped and took your punishment.
