JESUS Is Our Peace with God: Part II

Can our good deeds
earn peace with God?

If we know that it is our sins that separate us from God, we may think we can do good things to make up for them. Many people live this way in an effort to get their good works to outweigh their bad ones. Perhaps, one might think, God will overlook the evil and focus on the good.

Fortunately, God did not leave us without a way to tell whether good deeds can actually win peace with Him or not. He gave us His Word, which tells us exactly what His standards are. As we will see, God's standards for someone trying to earn his or her own righteousness are very high.

Let's start with a familiar passage. God spoke to the people of Israel, giving them commandments which they had to follow. We know colloquially of a few of them as the "Ten Commandments." Here they are (although they sure look like more than ten to me):

Deuteronomy 5:6-21

“I am the LORD your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of slavery.

“‘You shall have no other gods before Me.

“‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image,
or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above,
or that is on the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them;
for I the LORD your God am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children
to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me,
but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love Me
and keep My commandments.

“‘You shall not take the Name of the LORD your God in vain,
for the LORD will not hold him guiltless
who takes His Name in vain.

“‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,
as the LORD your God commanded you.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God.
On it you shall not do any work,
you or your son or your daughter
or your male servant or your female servant,
or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock,
or the sojourner who is within your gates,
that your male servant and your female servant
may rest as well as you.
You shall remember that you were a slave
in the land of Egypt,
and the LORD your God brought you out from there
with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
Therefore the LORD your God commanded you
to keep the Sabbath day.

“‘Honor your father and your mother,
as the LORD your God commanded you,
that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you
in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

“‘You shall not murder.

“‘And you shall not commit adultery.

“‘And you shall not steal.

“‘And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

“‘And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
And you shall not desire your neighbor's house,
his field, or his male servant, or his female servant,
his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. "

According to this passage, God required the Israelites to be very upstanding citizens, to say the least, if they were trying to earn peace with God.

For example:

God required that the Israelites, and any who would worship Him, "have no other gods before" Him. But, we have already established in Part I that none of us have consistently kept this commandment (according to Romans 1 and 3). We do not necessarily worship the sun, moon, or statues, but we do devote ourselves to our own pleasures and desires, giving ourselves the credit for our achievements instead of God.

Jesus explained the true depth of the other two commandments that I placed in bold above: adultery and murder.

On adultery, Jesus said:

"You have heard that it was said,
'You shall not commit adultery.'

But I say to you that
everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.
For it is better that you lose one of your members
than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.
For it is better that you lose one of your members
than that your whole body go into hell."

(Matthew 5:27-30)

And on anger, He proclaimed:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old,
'You shall not murder;' and
'whoever murders will be liable to judgment.'

But I say to you that
everyone who is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment;
whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council;
and whoever says, 'You fool!'
will be liable to the hell of fire.

So if you are offering your gift at the altar
and there remember that your brother
has something against you,
leave your gift there before the altar and go.

First be reconciled to your brother,
and then come and offer your gift."

(Matthew 5:21-24)

We can see here that God's standards are much higher than a superficial reading of the commandments might seem to indicate. They extend beyond deeds into thoughts, motives, and desires. While we do not always act on our sinful impulses, God knows that we sometimes would if there were no consequences.

Due to my own lust and anger, I know that I have already failed to meet God's criteria; in His eyes, as far as my own righteousness is concerned, I am a murderer and an adulterer.

Consider each of the commandments for yourself. Have you broken any of them? If so, you have disqualified yourself from peace with God. But don't take my word for it. James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, wrote this:

James 2:8-11

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture,
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well.

But if you show partiality,
you are committing sin
and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

For whoever keeps the whole law
but fails in one point
has become accountable for all of it.

For He who said, "Do not commit adultery,"
also said, "Do not murder."
If you do not commit adultery but do murder,
you have become a transgressor of the law.

James doesn't pull any punches in telling us this. But maybe that's just his opinion. Let's turn to another writer and see if there's any disagreement.

Psalm 15

O LORD, who shall sojourn in Your tent?
Who shall dwell on Your holy hill?
He who walks blamelessly
and does what is right
and speaks truth in his heart;
who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,
nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
but who honors those who fear the LORD;
who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
who does not put out his money at interest
and does not take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved.

This Psalm, written by the king and prophet, David, seems to agree with the sentiment expressed by James. For example, can any of us honestly say that we have done "no evil" to our neighbors? While I aspire to this standard, I can't honestly say that I meet it every day.

But perhaps the testimony of James and David is not convincing enough. Well, here is what Jesus told a man who wanted to know how he could earn eternal life through good deeds.

Matthew 19:16-22

And behold, a man came up to Him, saying,
"Teacher, what good deed must I do
to have eternal life?"

And He said to him,
"Why do you ask Me about what is good?
There is only One Who is good.
If you would enter life,
keep the commandments."

He said to Him, "Which ones?"

And Jesus said,
“'You shall not murder,'
'You shall not commit adultery,'
'You shall not steal,'
'You shall not bear false witness,'
'Honor your father and mother,'
and, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'”

The young man said to him,
"All these I have kept.
What do I still lack?"

Jesus said to him,
"If you would be perfect, go,
sell what you possess and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven;
and come, follow Me."
When the young man heard this
he went away sorrowful,
for he had great possessions.

Now, there's a man who was morally superior to me. He had not, to his knowledge, committed any sins! He, in his own eyes, was nearly morally perfect. But he failed to do two things: He did not "go, sell what [he possessed] and give to the poor." He also did not follow Jesus.

Jesus went on to explain something about this rich man.

And Jesus said to his disciples,
"Truly, I say to you,
only with difficulty will a rich person
enter the kingdom of heaven.
Again I tell you, it is easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."
When the disciples heard this,
they were greatly astonished, saying,
"Who then can be saved?"
But Jesus looked at them and said,
"With man this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible."

(Matthew 19:23-26)

The rich man, because of his riches, had a greater responsibility than a poor man: He had to give up those riches. He failed to do so, and he also failed to follow Jesus. Therefore, he could not earn peace with God either, although he was unaware of any other sin in his life. In fact, failing to follow Jesus was really the most critical issue. On another occasion, Jesus had the following interchange with some Jews:

Then they said to Him,
"What must we do, to be doing the works of God?"

Jesus answered them,
"This is the work of God,
that you believe in Him Whom He has sent."

(John 6:28-29)

But, we will get to what that means in a later part of this series, Lord willing.

On another occasion, Jesus told a parable to illustrate the difference between a man trying to earn peace with God by perfectly obeying the law (a Pharisee) and a man who knew he was hopelessly evil (a tax collector) but asked God for mercy.

Luke 18:9-14

He also told this parable to some
who trusted in themselves that they were righteous,
and treated others with contempt:

“Two men went up into the temple to pray,
one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus:
‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’

But the tax collector, standing far off,
would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast,
saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified,
rather than the other.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

In the Jewish society of the day, tax collectors were despised for their extortion and fraud of their Jewish brothers. They would become rich by cheating their fellow Jews, taking more taxes than were actually owed, and pocketing the change. Jesus' original audience understood this. Therefore, Jesus did not need to explain that the tax collector was right to call himself "a sinner." Not only was he a sinner, but he was one of the worst in a Jew's eyes.

But in God's eyes, it is not those who believe themselves to be righteous who are actually counted righteous. It is rather the ones who know that they are not good enough to merit God's peace whom God extends mercy to.

To sum up, the tricky thing about trying to earn your own righteousness is that there is absolutely no room for error. If you have wealth and wish to enter the kingdom, you must give it all away and follow Jesus, or else, like the rich young man did, you sin. If, like the Pharisee in the parable, you feel righteous but speak against those who are not as righteous as you are (even though they may be wicked and hated people!) you sin. And any sin, no matter how small in our eyes, is sin enough to disqualify us from the holy presence of Almighty God.

Luke 18:15-17

Now they were bringing even infants to Him
that He might touch them.
And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.

But Jesus called them to Him, saying,

"Let the children come to Me,
and do not hinder them,
for to such belongs the kingdom of God.

Truly, I say to you,
whoever does not receive the kingdom of God
like a child shall not enter it."

There is only one way to receive the kingdom of God. Instead of demanding that God grant us salvation and life based on our good works, we must simply trust, as a child does. But Who are we to trust in, and why are we to trust Him? We will examine that question, if the Lord wills, in Part IV and the following parts of this series.

We have touched on the inability of religion to save us from God's wrath in this section. However, because religion and the Gospel are so often and so easily confused, we will take one more section to distinguish the two before moving into the heart of this series.

See you then, 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.

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

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.

JESUS Is Our Peace with God: Introduction

JESUS Is Our Peace with God

Introduction

Romans 5:1-2

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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.

Why is peace with God so important? Why do we need it?
Why does it come “through our Lord Jesus Christ” and not through any other means?

This is a series intended to answer those questions.

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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.

This is the beginning of this series.
For the next part of this series, go here.