The 10 Benefits of Salvation (Rom. 5:1-11)
"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," (Romans 5:1)
In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul spends the first four chapters explaining how mankind has sinned. He also explains that such sin brings about seperation from God (since God cannot dwell in the presence of sin), and that such sin also demands a penalty. That penalty is death. Paul then explains how Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, has paid mankind's penalty for us, and that those who accept Him as Lord will have their sin slate wiped clean as their sin was given to Jesus who died on the cross. That is the Gospel! Now, Paul turns his attention to the "benefits" of having salvation, the hope of eternal dwelling and fellowship with our Maker.
The First Benefit - Peace
The first benefit of salvation is peace. Ironically, peace seems to be a a slippery object that people cannot grasp. The world preaches "world peace" but no one seems to listen. Why is this? Because there will never be peace throughout the world as long as sinful people are living and allowed to live their own selfish, self-serving lives.
Therefore, Paul says that "having been justified by faith" (Jesus has paid our sin penalty), we have peace. Who do we have peace with? We have peace with God. God does not have to execute his judgment on us, because he has executed it on His only Son. We have peace with God (how?) through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peace - the state of mind that the entire race of mankind seeks, cannot be found in money, cannot be found in fame, cannot be found in reputation, and cannot be found even in families. True peace of the heart - the settling, comforting feeling of salvation so that no one shoud worry about their lives, only comes from accepting Jesus as your Lord in the power of the cross. What good news that is!
posted by Charlie Wallace at
7:10 PM
14 Comments:
'The first benefit of salvation is peace. Ironically, peace seems to be a a slippery object that people cannot grasp. The world preaches "world peace" but no one seems to listen. Why is this? Because there will never be peace throughout the world as long as sinful people are living and allowed to live their own selfish, self-serving lives.'
Good thoughts.
Thanks for reading, Matthew.
this is trey smith again. i have a question about the notion of peace as it is used in christianity. so in the left behind book, the devil is the head of the un and ends up gaining popularity by bringing about some semblence of world peace. but obviously, since he is the devil, it was all a ploy and things go haywire. so here is my question: is it part of the christian belief system (i know thats a big generalization) that since peace can only be found in the next world, peace in this world is not a noble cause? or is it a noble cause but one that will never be solved unless god has a hand in it?
if this is the case, then are religious people just meant to accept their lot in life and suffer through it. i think its pretty clear that this isnt what you or other christians are saying. there is no better example for a christian fighting for a better way of life in this world than martin luther king jr. so how does a notion of a better, stable, relatively peaceful world fight into christianity?
-trey
in the last sentence, 'fight' is supposed to be 'fit'
Good question. Just so you know, the Left Behind series is a work of fiction, and the authors' views of the "end times" are not the universal views of all Christians.
To answer your question, the pursuit of peace on earth is a "noble" goal as you phrased it. I don't think that any Christian would disapprove of MLK's stance against oppression. However, apart from Christ changing the lives of people and people living for others and not themselves, there will never be peace on earth just because true peace is perfect and mankind is not.
Therefore, the only time true peace will ever reign is in the Kingdom of Christ.
Matthew, etc. any other comments are about this subject would be helpful.
If God gives us opportunity to be involved in politics, then we may use such opportunities to help to bring more peace and order. There is nothing against that.
However, the Christian's hope is in Christ and being with Him. It si easy to get distracted worrying about this world when we need to be focused on Christ and what He is doing in terms of bringing people into His Church and into spiritual regeneration.
Too much of modern Christianity is focused on trying to realise the Kingdom of God now. The Kingdom of God willl only be realised when Christ returns.
The world may become a little more peaceful in the short term, but I belive we will not see any substantial increase in peace until Christ comes.
We also need to be supsicous of peace movements which are often inconsisitent in their aims and which are motivated by Marxist politics.
Every Blessing in Christ
Matthew
Matthew,
Sound comments
just to clear the air, i am no marxist. and the reason for that is somewhat related to y'all's points. we cannot, as marx does, postulate an ideal society that is static due to the mass enlightenment and self realization of the populace. if we do, then any means to that end, no matter how violent, become justified. likewise, relgion cannot postulate a static society to strive toward (in this world) either, and you two have done well to stay away from that.
but this brings me to think: if it would be wrong to attempt to try and institute some notion of utopia on the world, then clearly movements toward a better, albeit not perfect, world must be premised on the nature of man rather than god. so shouldnt movements, religious or otherwise, premise themselves on reason and not faith.
politically speaking i think that is an important point i would agree with it by going even further and saying that religion and politics must confine themselves to seperate spheres of society. but obviously that isnt what happens in real life (ie pat robertson).
I agree with most of your points except that "a better, albeit not perfect, world must be premised on the nature of man rather than god."
Here is where we differ in our worldviews, I believe. Correct me if I am wrong but you believe that man is capable of doing good and are by nature "good." A good Bible student (and believer)will generally disagree with this and say that man is not good but is a born sinner and is incapable of "good" apart from the work of Christ.
Sure, there may be some "good" deeds done every once in a while, but "good" apart from the Bible's definition, is relative depending on the culture.
Sheena, it is wonderful to read of your joy in the Lord, if Charles does not mind my saying so.
Sheena,
It is always wonderful to hear the excitement that new believers have when they first accept Christ. Indeed, we should always have this kind of excitement in good times as well as bad. Keep writing on your blog and we look forward to reading.
In Him,
Charlie
i think you've summarized our impass really well. i would only say that i dont believe that people are inately good, i'd prefer to think of humans as starting off as a blank slate.
but i do wonder about the last bit you said. isnt a notion of god usually culturally specific? now if you concieve of god in a broad context then it would be applicable to all peoples, but if you narrow it down it tends to be very Western. thats why i would argue that the 'good' needs to be premised on something common to all people, like reason. which, one could argue, is endowed upon us by god.
Well, Christianity is far from Western, since its beginnings were in the Middle East. Also, the Old Testament, which contains the promise of the Messiah throughout, was written in Hebrew. Some of the traditions of Christianity have been "westernized" by the Catholic church and other denominations but the "main idea" of Christianity is the same throughout the world.
Reason is endowed upon us by God and Scripture affirms this. Read Romans 17 where Paul reasons with the Athenians who were praying to all Gods, even an "Unknown God." God has given us reason to accept His Son. Christianity is very reasonable. We have sinned, sin cannot exist in Heaven with a perfect God, therefore, how do we get to Heaven? God takes our sin way from us via His Son when we admit our sin and turn to Him. I feel this is very reasonable.
Acts 17 - not Romans
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