We learnt that peace without justification is a hollow, deceptive, and unhealthy thing. Its end is death. Peace built on fancy and not on justification is a senseless and baseless thing. It has neither root nor life. We must settle it in our mind that there can be no peace with God, unless we feel that we are justified. We must know what is become of our sins. We must have the witness of our conscience that we are reckoned not guilty before God. Without this it is vain to talk of peace. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked” (Isaiah 57:21).
The day of judgment shall convince thousands of self-willed people, too late, that it needs something more than a few beautiful ideas about God’s love and mercy to reconcile a man to his Maker and to deliver his guilty soul from hell. No hope shall stand in that awful day but the hope of the justified man. No peace shall prove solid, substantial, and unbroken, but the peace which is built on justification.
Is this peace your own? Make up your mind to the great truth that there can be no heaven without peace with God, and no peace with God without justification. And then, only then, give your soul no rest till you are a justified man. We have seen so far: (1) The chief privilege of a true Christian is that “he has peace with God.” (2) The fountain from which true peace is drawn is justification. Now we move to the next point.
Third, the rock from which justification and peace with God flow is Christ. The true Christian is not justified because of any goodness of his own. His peace is not to be traced up to any work that he has done. It is not purchased by his prayers and regularity, his repentance and his amendment, his morality, and his charity. As to justifying him, such a thing is not to be named. Richard Hooker rightly said, “If God would make us an offer thus large, ‘Search all the generation of men since the fall of your father, Adam, and find one man that hath done any one action which hath past from him pure, without any stain or blemish at all - and for that one man’s one only action, neither man nor angel shall find the torments which are prepared for both;’ do you think this ransom, to deliver man and angels, would be found among the sons of men? The best things we do have somewhat in them to be pardoned. How then can we do anything meritorious and worthy to be rewarded?”
Man’s works may evidence his Christianity, but before God he cannot be justified by anything that he can do. He will be always defective, always imperfect, always shortcoming, always far below the mark, so long as he lives. It is not by works of his own that anyone ever has peace and is a justified man.
Then, how then is a true Christian justified? What is the secret of that peace and sense of pardon which he enjoys? How can we understand a holy God dealing with a sinful man as with one innocent, and reckoning him righteous notwithstanding his many sins?
The answer to all these questions is simple. The true Christian is counted righteous for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Saviour, the Son of God. He is justified because Christ died for his sins according to the Scripture. This is the key that unlocks the mighty mystery.

Here the great problem is solved, how God can be just and yet justify the ungodly. The life and death of the Lord Jesus explain all. “He is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14).
(1) Christ has become his surety and his substitute. He has undertaken to bear all that was to be borne, and to do all that was to be done. Hence, the true Christan is a justified man. (2) Christ has suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. He has endured our punishment in His own body on the cross. He has allowed the wrath of God, which we deserved, to fall on His own head. Hence the true Christian is a justified man. (3) Christ has paid the debt the Christian owed, by His own blood. He has reckoned for it and discharged it to the uttermost farthing by His own precious death. God is a just God and will not require His debts to be paid twice over. Hence the true Christian is a justified man. (4) Christ has obeyed the law of God perfectly. The prince of this world could find no fault in Him. By so fulfilling it He brought in an everlasting righteousness, in which all His people are clothed in the sight of God. Hence the true Christian is a justified man.
Christ has lived for the true Christian. Christ died for him. Christ has gone to the grave for him. Christ has risen again for him. Christ has ascended up on high for him. Christ has interceded for his soul. Christ has done all, paid all, suffered all that was needful for his redemption. Hence arises the true Christian’s justification – hence his peace. In himself there is nothing, but in Christ he has all things that his soul can require.
Christ’s righteousness is placed upon him, and his sins are placed upon Christ. Christ has been reckoned a sinner for his sake, and now he is reckoned innocent for Christ’s sake. Christ has been condemned for his sake, though there was no fault in Him – and now he is acquitted for Christ’s sake, though he is covered with sins, faults, and shortcomings. Here is wisdom, indeed. God can now be just and yet pardon the ungodly. This may well be called a “love that passeth knowledge!” In no way could free grace ever have shown so brightly as in the way of justification by Christ (Ephesians 3:19).
Christ is sealed and appointed by God the father to be the Mediator between Himself and man. He is the ordained Advocate for sinners. He is the accredited Counsellor and Physician of sinful souls. He is the Great High Priest, the Almighty Absolver, the Gracious Confessor of heavy-laden sinners (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 8:1). This is the one true way of peace – justification by Christ. Hold fast the truth about justification and be not deceived. Remember there is no mediator but one – Jesus Christ, no purgatory for sinners but one – the blood of Christ, no sacrifice for sinners but one – the sacrifice once made on the cross, and no priest that can truly absolve – but Christ.
There is no peace with God except through Christ! Peace is His peculiar gift. Peace is that legacy which He alone had power to leave behind Him when He left the world. All other peace besides this is a mockery and a delusion.
Is this peace your own? Bought by Christ with His own blood, offered by Christ freely to all who are willing to receive it – is this peace your own? Rest not, rest not till you can give a satisfactory answer to this question – Do you have peace? Are you justified?
Lovingly,
Your Pastor

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