Sometimes we have to go back to the original documents to discover the roots of who we are and what we believe. It’s surprising now and then to find out how far we have strayed from the original definition and intentions. I went through a period when I could not read enough history about the founders of our country and realized how little I knew about the original ideas behind America and what it means to be called an American. In the same way, we need to go back periodically to the founders and original documents of our identity as Christians to discover what was in their minds as they began something new. That is why Romans is so important. It is here that we discover the fundamentals of the Christian faith. When a golfer gets in trouble with his game his coach will take him back to the most basic things about his swing. In Romans we understand the unique basics of what it means to be a Christian. And it is in Chapter 5 that Paul moves from the introduction to the faith to the essentials of the faith. If we are not clear about these things we will not be clear about anything else.

“He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 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. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. 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.”

It is this peace with God that I want us to look at this morning. From the outset I want to recommend to you the commentary on Romans by D. Martyn Lloyd-­Jones. Dr. Lloyd-Jones was trained as a physician and became a minister in South Wales until moving to London and becoming the pastor of Westminster Chapel until 1968. He would take many months, even years, to expound a chapter of the Bible verse by verse. His commentary on Romans is 14 volumes. He retired in 1968 and died in 1981.

What is meant by “peace with God”? Well, there are a couple of things it is not.

First, it is not the peace the world looks for in treaties, solutions to violence, and universal tolerance and understanding. It is not “All we are saying is give peace a chance” or “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.” It is not personal peace through meditation. It is not the peace you read about in Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and soma ­ the drug prescribed for any and every anxiety.

“And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half ­gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears­ that’s what soma is.”

Second, it is not the peace OF God that passes all understanding. That peace comes later after we have accepted the assurance we have peace WITH God. That is the peace that allows us to face the sufferings that are the companion of the Christian life. That is the peace that teaches us how to stand up to problems and trials and difficulties and tribulations. That is the peace that can only come after we have accepted God’s terms of peace with him. “We shall never know the ‘peace of God’ until we have first ‘peace with God’.

Let’s look at the characteristics of what we mean by peace with God.

First, the one who has peace with God is the one whose mind is at rest about their relationship with God. Rest is not the same as dozing off. It is not the same as never having a doubt or worry. Rest is assurance that in spite of our falling short of the glory of God we have been accepted into an everlasting covenant through the work of Christ. It is the ability to be content and to realize that every desire that would once have created discontent is now satisfied in this reconciliation with the One who made us and made us for himself. It is what you might call the rest of Abraham. Once obsessed with having a son to carry on his line he came to trust God and “against all hope, Abraham in hope believed…and being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he promised.” Abraham rested and discovered peace with God. He was not sinless but he was declared righteous.

Second, there is no peace with God until one accepts in their mind that peace comes at a price and it is God that reaches out to us to reconcile the world to himself. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.” (2 Corinthians 5:17­19) It is not a momentary emotional experience because “sooner or later a problem will arise, a situation will confront you, a question will come to your mind…and you will not be able to answer, and so you will lose your peace. There is no true peace with God until the mind has seen and grasped and taken hold of this blessed doctrine, and so finds itself at rest.”

Third, we have peace when we rest in the certainty that God loves us and is at peace with us in spite of the fact that we are sinners. There is no certain peace like this outside the peace God initiates through the blood of Christ. Otherwise, we will spend our lives trying to make peace with God. We will fall prey to all the rules and regulations and efforts to make peace with God because we cannot believe peace is already established. There is nothing else we can do to make peace.

Fourth, the one who has peace with God is the one who can answer their own conscience. This is essential because “thoughts will arise within, which will suggest to him, “This is impossible, how can you be at peace with God? Look at yourself, look at your heart, look at the plague of your own heart. How can it possibly be the case that God has forgiven you, and that God loves you?” This is a torture we all understand, don’t we? How can God possibly love us if he really knows who we are? If he can read my thoughts and see what is kept hidden from the rest of the world he could not possibly love me because I am unlovable. I must say this hundreds of times ­ over and over again.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Some of us have more active consciences than others but all of us have times when our consciences will not let go of a shortcoming or flaw or mistake that will not let us rest in the love of God. We have all been less than pure and clean. We have all slipped over the line in “thought, word and deed” and our conscience has a long memory.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said something wise. “God wants to see human beings, not ghosts who shun the world. In the whole of world history there is always only one really significant hour – the present…If you want to find eternity, you must serve the times.” We cannot be perfect in this life. Moreover, there are even times when those who allow their desire to be completely pure from any taint of sin do more harm than good. Their desire for total purity keeps them from engaging in the sorrows of the world.

Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the most influential people in the life of Bonhoeffer, writes about this very conflict in “Moral Man and Immoral Society.” How can a person be involved in the responsible use of power and remain pure? “The pursuit of social righteousness would, he believed, inexorably involve them in acts of sin and imperfection. Not because the end justifies the means, but because that was simply the way of the world. Even the most surgical action creates collateral damage. But the Christian faith just as inexorably called its adherents to a life of perfect righteousness, a calling that gives no ultimate moral quarter to dirty hands. The result would seem to be a stark contradiction, a call to do the impossible.”

“Man is a sinner in his deepest nature. But man was not merely a sinner, but also a splendidly endowed creature formed in God’s image, still capable of acts of wisdom, generosity, and truth, and still able to advance the cause of social improvement. All these assertions were true.”

This is the tension at the heart of the Christian vision. We are sinners declared righteous. There is no way to take responsibility in the world and be spotless.

Just as the sinful and imperfect Christian is obliged to work intently for the cause of good, despite his incapacities, so a morally imperfect America was and is obliged to employ its power decisively in the world. Opting out is not an option: or rather, it is an option that is just as perilous as the alternatives it would avoid. Niebuhr puts it this way:

“Our idealists are divided between those who would renounce the responsibilities of power for the sake of preserving the purity of our soul and those who are ready to cover every ambiguity of good and evil in our actions by the frantic insistence that any measure taken in a good cause must be unequivocally virtuous.”

Fifth, the one who has genuine peace with God is the one who can answer the accusations of the devil. We all know the story of John Newton, the author of “Amazing Grace”. “Before his conversion he had been engaged in the slave trade and traffic. He had been a vile and foul sinner. There was scarcely a sin he had not committed. You can well understand therefore how the devil would rake up his past and hurl it at him. The devil would resurrect it all and cause it to pass as a horrible panorama before his eyes and then challenge him, ‘Do you still claim to be a Christian, forgiven and at peace with God?” I met with a woman this week who for years suffered from the effects of a bad choice she made when she was young. She had an abortion and it racked her with guilt even while she had become a Christian and a faithful attender at church. This was her story as well. It was only when she understood that God really meant it when he said he wanted to declare peace and to reconcile her to himself completely. Yes, there are still twinges and doubts and there always will be but she has the assurance that she can answer the accusations of those demons with “I am a new creation and have peace with God.”

Sixth, when someone has peace with God they no longer have a fear of death and judgment. Lloyd-­Jones puts it this way. “Have you visualized yourself lying on your deathbed? What are your feelings when you do so? Are still afraid of death? Are you still afraid of the judgment of God? If you are, you cannot say ‘I have been justified by faith and am at peace with God’. Maybe it is getting older but I can fall prey at times to thinking there are things I need to do as I get closer to the end of life that will help me pass the final exam. What have I accomplished that will look good on that ultimate resume? What is yet to do that will cause God to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into my rest.”?

I was having lunch with a friend and we were talking about the Parable of the Pounds and how we were using our gifts and our giving to the best use. “What are you doing that is going to let you hear ‘well done’ from God?” he asked. Normally I would have a list of things to illustrate my productivity and desire to hear God’s approval when the time comes. Instead what I heard myself say was absolutely foreign. My internal editor must have stepped away for coffee. “I’ve already received my well done.” I told him. “When I accepted the grace and work of Christ I also received His ‘Well Done’ from the Father. I cannot do anything more. All I can do now is work out of gratitude – not out of trying to please God any further.”

He stared at me. If I could have done it I would have stared at me! I’ve made talks on the motivating principles of the parable. I’ve written articles on it. I’ve even formed one foundation based on the parable and our desire to hear God say ‘well done’ in the end. I’ve never before realized so profoundly the only response that is appropriate for grace is ‘thank you’ and then to work and live out of sheer gratitude. I’m reminded of Dallas Willard’s wonderful quote: “Grace is not opposed to effort; it’s opposed to earning.”

How many of us have been looking at the use of our gifts from the perspective of needing to prove our productivity to God? How much of our giving has been motivated not by simple gratitude but by the desire to do something more to earn the pleasure of God? It can’t be done. For that I’m grateful. I have my well done.

Seventh, what happens to our peace with God when for whatever reason we fall into a sin that affects not only our life but that of others? “It is understandable that a man should be fairly untroubled in mind and conscience when he has been living a fairly good life; but what happens when he falls into some grievous sin? A sudden temptation overtakes him and before he knows what has happened he has fallen. They lose their peace and they are in torment and agony. They have gone back, and have started doubting their whole standing in the presence of God because of that one sin.” I met with a man last week while we were out of town in exactly that situation. He was tempted and, as James says, he was dragged away and enticed by his own desire. It ruined his career and jeopardized his family. His question was exactly this. “How can I have peace with God in the midst of this?” Peace with God is once and forever. We do not have to go on being justified. He pronounces us to ‘be just’ once and forever. You cannot be just one day and not just the next, then again just the day after. Yes, there is sin and the effects of sin but he has not forfeited peace with God.

Paul will go on to develop this theme but until we have settled the question of whether or not we have peace with God I want to warn you that the rest of Romans will not make sense.