Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Romans 5:1

 

Does it really matter any more what you do, as long as you get away with it? It would seem not, based on what is happening in our world.  Like what?  One poll shows that 79% of those interviewed expect politicians to lie to them.  Talk show programs are rigged. Athletes take steroids and swear that they are taking only food supplements. College students cheat their way through school (hopefully your doctor was not one of them). Businessmen consistently pad their expense account.

“I deserve what I took,” we rationalize, as we take supplies home from the office or lift items from the store, hiding them in a purse or pocket.  Teachers say students lie to them so convincingly that they are never really sure when they are telling the truth or lying.

“Everybody is doing it!” we contend, and moralists say, “This is the way it has always been, so why should it be any different today?”  While ethics and morals have taken a radical hit in recent days, the fact remains that the integrity problem is an old one. Making the issue intensely personal, answer the question, “What have you done, knowing full well that what you were doing was wrong?’

This was the issue that Paul confronted when he wrote to the church at Rome.  First, Roman culture was a strange mixture of pomp, depravity, indulgence, and pride. Women were like chattel. Homosexuality was rampant.  Yet even in that culture there was a line and when that line was crossed, individuals felt guilt. Seneca is quoted saying, “We have all sinned, some more, some less.”

That was the term which Paul used, and he didn’t hedge in saying it. “All have sinned,” says Paul, adding, “there is none righteous, no not one!”  But Paul has good news as well as bad.  He says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

The result, says Paul, is peace with God. Here’s how he put it: “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” (Romans 5:1-2).

John Piper tells how he used to carry a MasterCard, mostly for identification, but on a trip, he lost the card.  The only problem was that he didn’t know where it got lost, perhaps in the market when he stopped at an outdoor market to buy fruit where the flies were all swarming over the display hoping they were powerful enough to carry off a few pieces, or perhaps it slipped out of his wallet when he was at a restaurant, or at a service station. He had no idea where it had been lost.

Then having returned home, he got a letter from a friend, and to his surprise, out fell his credit card.  Yes, it was his card. But what struck him by surprise is that he didn’t know he had lost the card until it was returned, having fallen out of his wallet in the friend’s car.

Many have never really confronted the innocence that was lost long ago when as an act of the will we put our backs to God and wandered into the world.  What humankind lost, Jesus restored, and peace is part of the restoration package. If you haven’t discovered the free gift of life and forgiveness, read the book of Romans in your New Testament. It gives you the solution to your despair and failure. Start the Romans road today. Ten minutes a day for a week will get you through this great old book.

Resource reading: Romans 5:1-11