Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
—Romans 5:1
This is the good news of Jesus.
When we trust in Jesus, our faith is credited to us as righteousness, just as Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. [1] [2: explanation of "righteousness"]
There is a spiritual currency exchange that rejoices in faith and imparts righteousness to its bearers.
When we trust in Jesus, He wipes away our unrighteousness and makes our hearts so clean it's as if they'd never sinned in the first place. That what the word "justified" means.
We cannot achieve a righteous state on our own. That would be like a child trying to clean himself by taking a dirt bath.
No, something cleaner needs to wash away the grime from something dirty. Jesus washes us with His cleanliness, and in doing so cleanses us from our unrighteousness.
Our part in this lies in trusting Him to cleanse us, and obeying Him when he tells us to raise our arms so He can get to our armpits. This trust and obedience are what we call faith.
We are made clean through faith, and this means that we experience peace in our relationship with God.
We are no longer at war with Him.
We were created to be in relationship with Him.
He made us to be His image bearers, imbued with grace and dignity. Yet too often we choose to exchange our dignity for the filth of bad hearts and broken ways—and once more need the cleansing and restoration that only Jesus can provide.
When we experience peace in our relationship with God, we experience peace in our relationship with ourselves as well.
That's because only then are we able to fully be the people we were created to be—people in relationship with God our Father, people full of grace and dignity as His image bearers. We are no longer at war with His image in us.
More good news!
And how do we experience this peace with God?
Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ gives Himself freely to us.
I want to write, "Just as we give ourselves freely to Him"—but I know that's not true.
You see, too often we are fearful. We have reservations. We hold back. We've been burned in our human relationships, and we fear that our relationship with Jesus will go the same way.
But it won't.
The Lord Jesus Christ gives Himself freely to us. He will never take Himself away from us. He will never abuse us or domineer over us or obliterate us. He honours our decisions and constantly affirms our worth and dignity.
He becomes our Lord Jesus Christ.
And that is the best news of all.
He is yours.
He is mine.
He is ours.
And through Him, we are not only justified, but we have peace with God, our Heavenly Father.
Can there be any better news than that?
NOTES
[1] See Romans 4:3.
[2] "Righteous" is a tricky word. There are many meanings all wrapped up into that one term. Virtuous. Good. Guiltless. Upright. Innocent. And more...
