JESUS Is Our Peace with God: Part I

Who deserves peace with God?

In order to appreciate peace with God, we must first recognize our natural state: hostility against God.

We enjoy many things as a result of God’s provisions for us. To name a few, we enjoy some or all of the following: oxygen flowing through our blood, strength in our bodies, sight, the taste of foods, and fellowship with other people. Many of us are blessed with homes, jobs, cars, or other material luxuries. Some of us even have loving family members, fulfilling careers, or college educations.

All good things come from God.

John answered,
"A person cannot receive even one thing
unless it is given him from heaven."
(John 3:27)

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights
with Whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
(James 1:17)

Unfortunately, in one way or another, we do not show our appreciation to God for these things in the way that we should. And in declaring our own self-sufficiency by failing to honor God, we deserve God's wrath.

Guided by God's Spirit, the Apostle Paul wrote the following passage concerning this very situation:

Romans 1:18-23

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,
who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them,
because God has shown it to them.
For His invisible attributes, namely,
His eternal power and divine nature,
have been clearly perceived,
ever since the creation of the world,
in the things that have been made.
So they are without excuse.

For although they knew God,
they did not honor him as God
or give thanks to him,
but they became futile in their thinking,
and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God
for images resembling mortal man
and birds and animals and reptiles.

Notice what the Apostle Paul writes.

Firstly, he argues that we all know from "the things that have been made" that we see all around us that God does exist. We can "clearly" observe God's "eternal power and divine nature" by observing the complexity and beauty of the things that He has created. The testimony borne by the stars, the flowers, the animals, and the basic laws of the universe, such as gravity, to name just a few, is unanimous: God exists, and He is greater than us. He deserves our honor and praise. We are "without excuse" for recognizing the existence of our Creator.

Unfortunately, although we all have that basic knowledge, we do not apply it by honoring God. Consequently, God has a bone to pick with us, to put it mildly.

Secondly, then, the Apostle Paul writes, "For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened."

Instead of honoring the true God, and even while "[c]laiming to become wise," we "became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."

In other words, we were so eager to worship anyone and anything but God that we chose to worship images of men and birds and animals and reptiles. And it didn't stop there; many of us have made ourselves the objects of our worship, or else we have elevated other creations to the status of our God.

While there are few people who worship the sun, moon, and stars in these times, there are many who worship other idols: our families, our achievements, our entertainment, or ourselves. While the object of our worship may change, the motivation is the same: We would rather worship a god of our own design than submit to the authority of the true living God.

In addition to being ultimately unsatisfying to us, this lifestyle is greatly dishonoring to God. And, it is common: everyone is guilty.

God does not appreciate our rebellion and will judge it. In fact, He already has begun to judge it, in a sense. Inspired by God, the Apostle Paul wrote these words:

Romans 1:24-31

Therefore God gave them up
in the lusts of their hearts to impurity,
to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie
and worshiped and served the creature
rather than the Creator,
Who is blessed forever! Amen.

For this reason God gave them up
to dishonorable passions.
For their women exchanged natural relations
for those that are contrary to nature;
and the men likewise gave up
natural relations with women
and were consumed with passion for one another,
men committing shameless acts with men
and receiving in themselves
the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,
God gave them up to a debased mind
to do what ought not to be done.
They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness,
evil, covetousness, malice.
They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God,
insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil,
disobedient to parents, foolish,
faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Though they know God's decree that
those who practice such things deserve to die,
they not only do them but give approval
to those who practice them.

This passage shows that God has in fact done a very frightening thing to some of us. For some who have continually rejected God, God "gave them up" to go ahead and practice the evil acts that they love to do. For these people, there is no hope of redemption unless God Himself intervenes on their behalf. But, that is something we will return to later in this series, if the Lord wills.

The ultimate penalty, the deserved payment, for our debts toward God, is death. The above passage declares that "they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die...." Elsewhere, the Apostle Paul writes that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). This does not just mean physical death, but spiritual death as well, which is eternal separation from God.

Jesus stated, “And this is eternal life, that they know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). In contrast to never-ending fellowship with God and His Son, which is eternal life, we deserve everlasting torment apart from God’s good presence, which is eternal death.

Despite this, we may believe that we are actually 'pretty good' or 'mostly good' people. In other words, although most of us acknowledge a few character flaws in ourselves, we generally tend to believe that we are really not very far off from achieving peace with God. We may think that we are pretty close to being righteous, and all it should take, we think, are a few more good actions for us to earn at least a decent standing with God.

The problem with that thinking is that God disagrees with it. From His heavenly vantage point, He declares the following through the Apostle Paul.

Romans 3:10b-18

“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands; no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside;
together they have become worthless;
no one does good, not even one.”

“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

This passage clearly states that “not even one” of us is “righteous” in God’s sight—"none" of us “understands” or “seeks for God.” None of us fear God (“There is no fear of God before their eyes”).

And again, the Apostle Paul writes of the state that we all naturally find ourselves in:

Ephesians 2:1-3

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
in which you once walked,
following the course of this world,
following the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that is now at work
in the sons of disobedience —
among whom we all once lived
in the passions of our flesh,
carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath,
like the rest of mankind.

Here, we find that God considers us "all" to be "dead in trespasses and sins." We are “children of wrath” and “sons of disobedience,” acting on our “desires” and “passions,” doing what we want to do when we want to do it, regardless of God’s commandments. This passage is emphatic in including all groups of people, not just those of us who consider ourselves worse sinners than others. The Apostle Paul writes that "we all...were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."

So, far from deserving peace with God or being even close to it, we are naturally enemies of God because of our sins, especially our sin of ignoring and dishonoring God. And all enemies of God will pay the ultimate price of everlasting torment apart from God.

Revelation 20:11-15

Then I saw a great white throne
and Him who was seated on it.
From His presence earth and sky fled away,
and no place was found for them.
And I saw the dead, great and small,
standing before the throne,
and books were opened.
Then another book was opened,
which is the book of life.
And the dead were judged
by what was written in the books,
according to what they had done.
And the sea gave up the dead who were in it,
Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them,
and they were judged, each one of them,
according to what they had done.
Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
This is the second death, the lake of fire.
And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life,
he was thrown into the lake of fire.

But surely there is some way we can earn our way back to God, right?

Many people think so. Some people live moral lives and others practice religion.

Can either of these things work? We will attempt to answer that question in the next two parts of this series, if the Lord wills.

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All emphases are mine.
All Bible quotes are from the English Standard Version (ESV).
All pronouns for God and the Lord Jesus Christ are Capitalized.

To go to the beginning of this series, go here.
To go to the next part of this series, go here.