Grace and Peace
Murray McLellan
an unworthy sinner upon whom has been bestowed the mighty grace of God
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:30-31 NKJV)
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Rom. 5:1-2 NKJV)
Paul repeatedly begins his epistles with the phrase, “Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.” The gospel is summarized by “grace and peace.” It is the grace of God, not according to our works or anything in us, through the all-sufficient work of Jesus Christ, that grants us peace with God. Grace is the source of salvation and peace is the result. The very nature of salvation is peace—peace with God.
Do you really have peace with God?
Do you have the assurance that you have been put right with God and accepted by him?
As the hymn writer has penned: “When peace like a river attendeth my way…” What is the source of that peace? He gives it in these words: “My sin—oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin—not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, Oh, my soul!” Grace is the source of that peace. Grace is the foundation and peace is the river that flows out of that rock.
For grace to be grace, it must be completely divorced from merit, earnings, works, any exercise of the flesh, or any obligation on God’s part. God himself has declared in his word, “Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work” (Rom. 11:5-6 NKJV, emphasis added).
Without grace, there can be no peace for sinners like you and me. We would have no hope but for the grace—the free unmerited favor—of God. Sovereign, electing grace is not according to my works, not according to my birth, not because of foreseeing that I would pick Jesus, but is God in sovereign mercy, choosing a sinner to whom he’ll be gracious, because it pleases him to do so. I would certainly have no peace—not with God, nor in my heart—if salvation were not entirely of grace. The best of my works are but “filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6, emphasis added) and as suchcan bring no comfort to me, and no justification.
Paul rejoices that by God’s grace, he has peace with God. In Colossians chapter one, we see him “giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.... having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight” (Col. 1:12-14, 20-22 NKJV, emphasis added).
Peace with God! That is what Christ has accomplished by dying the sinner’s death. He has made peace between God and man by the blood of his cross.
This is the sinner’s great need—to have peace with God. Before we can even begin to think of joys and blessings and answered prayers from God, we need to see our great need of peace with God. Before we can be blessed by God, we must know God, or rather be known by God. The conditions between God and us must be favorable.
If an American citizen went to ask Saddam Hussein for favors or financial help, how far would he get? There is a state of enmity between his country and the ruler of the kingdom of Iraq. Many seem unaware that a state of enmity exists between God and man.
God knows us. God’s own testimony concerning us is that we are sinners. God bears witness against us and testifies, “there is none righteous, no not one” (Rom. 3:10).There are none that love God as he deserves to be loved. God declares the whole race to be lost, corrupt, self-seeking, dead in trespasses and sins; and therefore under condemnation, as an enemy of God—under wrath and under “the curse of the law” (See Eph. 2:1-3, 12; Psa. 14:1-3; Gal. 3:10; Jer. 17:5, 9; 2 Tim. 3:1-5). We know from the very authority of God’s word that God does not hear sinners (John 9:31) and that sinners and what they do are a stench in God’s nostrils (Isa. 65:2-7). In fact, God clearly reveals to us in the Bible that “God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day” (Psa. 7:11NKJV, emphasis added).
Sin is what has made the world what it is today—a world that suppresses the truth in unrighteousness; a world that loves darkness and forgets God; a world that does not fear God. This is a fearsome thought in light of what our God proclaims:
For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with You. The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. (Psa. 5:4-6 NKJV)
Yet, people continue to pray, perform religious duties, sing praise songs, and participate in so-called spiritual activities and rituals, without ever considering whether they know God or if there exists a favorable attitude towards them from God.
Again, I ask, do you have peace with God? How can a sinner, full of darkness, have favor with God, when God is light and in him is no darkness at all? God hates evil and all that belongs to that realm of evil. That’s why he’s going to punish it. God is at enmity against sin and thus, as sinners, we are at enmity with him. God’s word records, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:7-8 NKJV, emphasis added).
This is the state of man by nature. People of the flesh may think and say, “I’ve always believed and loved God.” That’s not true according to the testimony of God himself, “and there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:13 NKJV, emphasis added).
In my past, I thought that I believed and loved God. I believed in God in the sense that I believed there was a God. But I did not really know God as he has revealed himself in the Bible. I deluded myself that things were okay between God and me. After all, I thought he was okay. Besides, I assumed and had been told he loved me. So, why should I worry? In my ignorance, I couldn’t see why he wouldn’t love me. After all, I was not like Hitler or Charles Manson or bad sinners like that. Besides, most often, I never even gave God a thought. How ignorant I was to the truth that it was God himself who was giving me my very life and breath!
For the most part, when things were going fairly smoothly, I did not feel that I was at enmity with God. I assumed I was his child and that he loved me. I had never read God’s own testimony concerning me—that I had no hope, was without God in this world (Eph. 2:12), and that I was under his condemnation, not his blessing. Though he was longsuffering toward me, yet I was storing up wrath for the Day of Judgment (Rom. 2:5). Though I didn’t realize it, the truth of the matter was that I hated the God who was sovereign over all things, who could, as a potter, “make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor” (Rom. 9:21 NKJV, emphasis added);who didn’t have to answer to anybody, and who wouldn’t answer to me! I resigned myself to God’s will, for what else could I do? But I didn’t like it. If I were God, things would be different. Oh, how I wished things were in my control. Though I did not verbalize these thoughts, yet that was my desire.
When natural man discovers from the Bible what God is really like, he hates this God. God is the one who always seems to be spoiling his pleasure. God is the one who always stands between man and his heart’s desire. God is the one who is in total control and man is not! God is the one who does not do what humans want him to do, when they want him to do it, and they feel a grudge against him. Is this not true—that the natural mind is enmity toward the true, sovereign, almighty God?
This God will punish sin. He must. He has said that he will. He will by no means clear the guilty (Num. 14:18). He must act against sin, for God who is holy, just, and righteous, cannot deny himself. He will pour out his wrath against sin, and when he does, that means death for me. That means my doom, as his enemy…unless there is grace. “Grace, grace, marvelous grace—grace that is greater than all my sin.”
How can God show grace and at the same time not deny himself? How can he be merciful to me and remain righteous and holy and just?
There was only one way. God sent his Son into the world—God in human flesh. God put the sin of sinners upon Jesus Christ—the perfect and unblemished Lamb of God—and punished those sins there on the cross. Jesus died the sinner’s death. He bore the wrath of God against sin to make peace between God and men who repent and trust in him. God, in Christ, has abolished the enmity, so that God can be both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26 NKJV, emphasis added).
How can God forgive us? The cross! The cross! God forgives through Jesus Christ, the bleeding and dying Redeemer!
Isaiah testifies of Christ when he writes:
He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (Isa. 53:3-6 NKJV)
Do you recognize your enmity with the one true and living God? Do you see your sin—your iniquity? It is for ungodly sinners that Christ died. If you think that you are basically good, and that God is so loving that he will receive you in spite of your imperfections, you do not know “you” nor the true “God”. In fact, you show your enmity against the true God and his testimony regarding your state. You are calling the true God a liar.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. (1 John 1:8-10 NKJV)
It is for ungodly sinners that Christ died. He did not come to save those who are righteous in their own eyes. “Christ died for the ungodly!” (Rom. 5:6). Jesus said, “‘I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance’” (Matt. 9:13). “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15).
Do you see that the sovereign God is not someone to be hated, but to be wondered after? He is a God to be in awe of—a God to be worshipped and adored. For this God, offended as he was, “‘so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life’” (John 3:16 NKJV)!
Many have a false peace, built on a false hope that God is love. What they really have is just wishful thinking. They see “love” as the sum total of all that he is, and so they do not feel they have any reason for concern. Yes, they know they are guilty. Yet, they continue in sin (going their own way and doing what is right in their own eyes) without much concern or trouble of mind or spirit, because God is “love”. To make love out to be the complete essence of God is to distort the truth of who our holy God is.
False religion cries out “peace, peace” when there is no peace. Go to virtually every funeral of every religion and they will cry out “Peace, all is well.”
How can I really know that the just and righteous God, who will by no means clear the guilty, will forgive my sins? I do not have to hide behind wishful thinking, or do away with justice through some kind of man-made “sentimental love” doctrine. No, the gospel is the perfect plan and in it we find a complete answer. God did not just wink at sin, but dealt with it fully, for those who come to him through Jesus Christ. My once-crucified and now- living Lord, who has all authority, is my shield, my refuge, and my hiding place!
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:30-31 NKJV)
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace…(Eph. 2:13, 14)