JESUS Is Our Peace with God: Part VI

A Relationship with Jesus
and God, His Father

Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ means that we enter into a new, positive relationship with Him and with His Father, who is God. We are saved from the wrath of God, and we have peace with God. And we finally acknowledge that Jesus, who is already Lord of all, is also our personal Lord, our Master, and that He should govern our lives from here on out.

If we believe in Jesus, God will no longer hold our sins against us, because His Son paid our debt in full by His death. But we must trust in the name of Jesus and depend fully on Him, not on what we have done. As we've seen, our actions, whatever they may be, can never earn us peace with God. Only Jesus could, and only He did.

What does the choice to believe look like? The Apostle Paul explained it in these words:

…you
turned to God
from idols
to serve the living and true God,
and to wait for His Son from heaven,
Whom He raised from the dead,
Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

(1 Thessalonians 1:9-10)

Notice here: We must turn "to God." In order to do this, we must turn "from idols"— anything that we think can earn us salvation other than the One Whom God has appointed and sent. Our idols include our misdeeds, our sinful lifestyles, and also our misguided attempts to save ourselves. Only One can deliver us "from the wrath to come": Jesus.

Jesus alone is our peace with God, and God vindicated His Son by raising Him from the dead, which the Apostle Paul here points out. When we believe in Jesus, both as a one-time act and as a continuing lifestyle, we "serve the living and true God."

Moreover, we "wait for His Son from heaven, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come." One day in real history, Jesus will return to judge the wicked and take the righteous to Himself. The wicked will be judged for their own sins, and the righteous will be saved in spite of their sins because Jesus paid for them in full on the cross. Therefore, the Apostle Paul states that Jesus "delivers us from the wrath to come."

For unbelievers, Jesus will come to execute the wrath of God, but for believers, Jesus has already taken the wrath of God upon Himself. Therefore, He is our peace with God and our deliverer. We wait for Jesus to return, so that "our joy may be made complete" (paraphrase of 1 John 1:4) as we enjoy the peaceful presence of God and our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. All these things go together as one package, but the key is Jesus.

The Apostle John addresses this as well:

And we know that the Son of God
has come and has given us understanding,
so that we may know Him who is true;
and we are in Him who is true,
in His Son Jesus Christ.

He is the true God and eternal life.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

(1 John 5:20-21)

If you confess Jesus, you confess that He is the Son of God and that God is His Father. And in so doing, you repent—you turn away from idols that cannot save you, as well as from your other sins, and you turn to Jesus, who can save you completely, assuredly, and eternally. And you are accounted to be “in” Jesus, like a part of His body. And only in that way can you have peace with God, because God loves His Son.

Do you still stand in expectation of God’s judgment? You may be saved if you turn from your sins and trust Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ is ready to forgive all who humbly come to Him.

Romans 10:9-13

...if you confess with your mouth
that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart
that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved.

For with the heart one believes and is justified,
and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

For the Scripture says,
"Everyone who believes in Him
will not be put to shame."

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek;
the same Lord is Lord of all,
bestowing His riches on all who call on Him.

"For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved."

Notice: "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." It does not depend on our background, our education, our money, our age, our ethnicity, or any other criteria. If we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, He will save us.

Notice, though, that calling on His name does not merely mean uttering the words, "Lord Jesus," without any inner conviction. The passage makes clear that we must believe and confess:

• We must believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. In doing so, we implicitly acknowledge that Jesus was a real man who died for our sins -- that is, the Christ -- and that God approved of His Son enough to raise Him from the dead.

• We must confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord. Once God raised Jesus from the dead, He made Jesus the Master of everything and everyone. Therefore, if we confess Jesus to be Lord, we admit that we are not our own masters. We admit that we are not capable of saving ourselves. We're not good enough to earn peace with God, but Jesus is, and He did. Instead of trusting ourselves any longer, we trust Jesus alone. Moreover, we agree that we will turn from the sins that Jesus died for.

When we believe that Jesus, the Son of God, died for us, was raised for us, and presently reigns as Lord, and turn from our sins to ask for His forgiveness and help, we can call upon His name in prayer and tell Him so. There is no magic formulaic prayer that you must pray in this regard. Simply come, and confess that Jesus, and Jesus alone, is Lord.

Some may feel unworthy to call upon the name of Jesus for salvation. Well, none of us are worthy. But our salvation does not depend on us; it depends on God, who has mercy. And He gives mercy to all who call on the name of the Lord Jesus.

Some think that we must make ourselves more presentable to God before asking for salvation, that we must 'clean ourselves up' or be completely perfect before daring to pray for redemption. But this isn't true.

The whole point of this series is that we cannot clean ourselves up; we are hopelessly unclean in and of ourselves. Jesus alone can clean us, and He will. He simply asks that we turn to Him as children, acknowledging our imperfections, but agreeing to trust Him instead of our own efforts.

We are commanded to turn from our sins, but the power to do so does not come from our own strength or wisdom. Rather, once we ask Jesus to save us, He will give us His Spirit, who will equip us to live better lives. But that comes later. For now, let us take an initial step of faith and trust the One who died for us and lives for us.

If you have read this far and are convicted to act, I am convinced that God is for you, and He wants you to take this step. God says:

"Those who were not My people
I will call 'My people,'
and her who was not beloved
I will call 'beloved.'"

"And in the very place
where it was said to them,
'You are not My people,'
there they will be called
sons of the living God."

(Romans 9:25 b - 26)

So, call on the name of the Lord Jesus! If you trust in Jesus' name, God accepts you as His own adopted child. It’s all thanks to His only begotten Son, Jesus!

The Apostle Paul rejoices with us:

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.

I pray that you have taken the step of calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, beginning your new relationship of peace and life with Jesus and God. If you have done this, whether recently or in the past, you may be wondering what's next. Well, if the Lord wills, in the next section we will look at some of the things that believers are supposed to do.

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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 V

The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus

Before He died, Jesus spoke these words:

"Truly, truly, I say to you,
an hour is coming, and is now here,
when the dead will hear
the voice of the Son of God,
and those who hear will live.

For as the Father has life in himself,
so He has granted the Son also
to have life in Himself.

And He has given Him authority
to execute judgment,
because He is the Son of Man.

Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming
when all who are in the tombs
will hear His voice and come out,
those who have done good
to the resurrection of life,
and those who have done evil
to the resurrection of judgment."

(John 5:25-29)

These would have been quite ironic words for someone to say if he was soon going to be dead himself. But, Jesus did not remain in the tomb. On the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead.

Not only that, but God gave Jesus the highest position of authority in heaven and on earth, to judge and to reign over all.

After He was raised, Jesus told the eleven men He was sending (the Apostles) to preach about Him:

“All authority in heaven and on earth
has been given to Me.”
(Matthew 28:18b)

And the Apostle Peter took this message to the people:

"Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain
that God has made Him both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus Whom you crucified."
(Acts 2:36)

Later, the Apostle Paul expounded further on the authority of the Lord Jesus:

Have this mind among yourselves,
which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though He was in the form of God,
did not count equality with God
a thing to be grasped,
but made Himself nothing,
taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form,
He humbled Himself
by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.

Jesus did what we could not and would not do, and His humility did not go unrewarded by God.

Therefore God has highly exalted Him
and bestowed on Him
the name that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

(Philippians 2:5-11)

Since Jesus humbled Himself beneath us all in His death, God exalted Him above all in His resurrection. Jesus, who Himself never deserved anything but perfect fellowship with God, suffered abandonment by God and absorbed God's wrath for our sins. So, God put Him in charge of us.

The Greek term translated "Lord" could equally be translated "Master," as in the master of servants. The last passage from Philippians states that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

In other words, everyone must submit to the truth that Jesus, the One who paid for our sins on the cross, is not only the Savior but the Master of every person.

This is unusual.

It makes sense for God to be our Master, since He is our Creator.

It also would make sense for Jesus to be the Master of those who believe in Him.

But for Jesus, Himself a man, to be the Master of everyone who has ever lived seems extreme. However, since God is the One who gave Jesus that authority, I, for one, am not going to disagree with God.

The Apostle Peter proclaimed the following message to a group of Gentiles:

“Truly I understand that God shows no partiality,
but in every nation anyone who fears Him
and does what is right is acceptable to Him.

As for the word that He sent to Israel,
preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ
(He is Lord of all),

you yourselves know what happened
throughout all Judea,
beginning from Galilee
after the baptism that John proclaimed:
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and with power.

He went about doing good
and healing all who were oppressed by the devil,
for God was with Him.

And we are witnesses of all that He did
both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

They put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree,
but God raised Him on the third day
and made Him to appear,
not to all the people but
to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses,
who ate and drank with Him
after He rose from the dead.

And He commanded us to preach to the people
and to testify that He is the One appointed by God
to be Judge of the living and the dead.

To Him all the prophets bear witness
that everyone who believes in Him
receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”

(Acts 10:34b-43)

What is the significance of these things, and what do they have to do with Jesus being our peace with God?

I would say this: Not only is Jesus alive, but He holds absolute and final authority over every single person’s fate. Therefore, the issue of peace with God is not something only “religious” or “spiritual” people should be concerned with. Rather, we all must come to terms with who the Son of God is, or else we wait for judgment.

One of the passages above states that God "has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man." Jesus knows what it is like to live a human life. He knows how hard it is to do what is right. He knows the pain and suffering. He knows hunger and weeping and weakness and betrayal. He understands it all. And this is comforting to Christians, for He sympathizes with us and can help us. But it is another reason for terror among unbelievers, for there is no excuse for rejecting Him if He went through the difficulty of a human life and did it perfectly—on our behalf.

Jesus stated:

"The Father judges no one,
but has given all judgment to the Son,
that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father.

Whoever does not honor the Son
does not honor the Father who sent Him.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My word
and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life.

He does not come into judgment,
but has passed from death to life."

(John 5:22-24)

And the Apostle John, sent by Jesus, wrote this:

If we receive the testimony of men,
the testimony of God is greater,
for this is the testimony of God
that He has borne concerning His Son.

Whoever believes in the Son of God
has the testimony in himself.

Whoever does not believe God has made Him a liar,
because he has not believed in the testimony
that God has borne concerning His Son.

And this is the testimony,
that God gave us eternal life,
and this life is in His Son.

Whoever has the Son has life;
whoever does not have the Son of God
does not have life.

(1 John 5:10-12)

The only way to escape the judgment of God, which will be pronounced by Jesus, is to believe God. But believing God does not mean believing that God exists. Rather, we must believe that "God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."

By believing God's testimony about His Son, we can have eternal life. After all, "this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3b). To know Jesus and His Father now, and for all eternity, is eternal life, and peace with God.

Knowing this, what should we do? We must believe in Jesus. We must put our full confidence in Him, in His name, rather than in our imperfect attempts to earn peace with God.

The next few sections will go into more depth on these things. See you then, if the Lord Jesus 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.