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I. WE LIVE IN ONE GREAT WORLD OF TROUBLE AND THE UNERRING WORD OF INSPIRATION PLAINLY SAYS THAT THE DISTURBING FORCE IS SIN. Yet not everybody chooses to admit that. It will be asserted that traditions of anger in the Supreme Being, coupled with an industrious reiteration of foreboding by a few credulous alarmists, have done most of the mischief. It would soon quiet down, if men and women would just take comfort in what is given them and let presages alone. Across the fair plains of Sicily, with the rising of every new dawn, stretches one deep line of darkness, drawn by the pyramidal form of Mount Etna. It is the unvarying reminder of the ruin that may at any hour fall heavily from the volcano's crater. And yet the inhabitants forbid you to speak of that giant phantom. Thus we live under the immediate shadow of Divine wrath. Men choose to think that there is nothing but incivility in a reminder of the coming day of final judgment. Still, it is better to believe that a few desire to be intelligent. What is it that breaks up the peace in this world? What will bring tranquillity and rest? "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked," etc. (Isaiah 57:21, 19, 20). If it is in antagonism with God, then a deep seated source of irritation and uneasiness is lodged in the centre of its being.

II. NO QUIET CAN POSSIBLY BE FOUND UNTIL THE SOUL COMES TO BE AT ONE WITH GOD, and adjusts all its purposes to meet His declared will (Isaiah 22:17, etc.). The question all turns, therefore, upon the possession of justification, i.e., righteousness.

1. It becomes us in the outset to understand that righteousness is a purely individual acquisition. The gospel deals with human beings one by one.

2. What, then, is this "justification by faith"? A sinner is conceived as condemned at the bar of God's justice; the punishment for his sins is death. Now Jesus Christ, as a redeemer and surety, comes and assumes the sinner's exposures and liabilities. In effect, He stands in the sinner's place. This is the picture so often presented by Paul; he appears never to be tired of it (vers. 6-8). Peace comes, therefore, when purity has come beforehand. "First pure, then peaceable." Saved souls are pardoned for Christ's sake. The story is told of Martin Luther, that once the evil one appeared to enter his room with a vast roll of parchment, a catalogue of all his former sins. With a hollow burst of derisive laughter the fiend threw it on the floor, still holding one end in his hand so that it might easily unroll its awful length. There the frightened man was compelled to read, hour after hour, the terrible list of all the wicked deeds he had done in all his life. And his heart failed him as he gazed. Suddenly the devil called him by name, and pointed to some words along the top of the roll. Luther looked up and read aloud, "All sin"; and then he understood that no one of the many acts, or even thoughts, was to be left out. Hell appeared opening at once under his feet. His agony was intense. But Satan kept screaming, "All sin! all sin!" And at last, in order to afflict him the more, exclaimed, "So says God, so says God, all sin, all sin!" Now the man's study of Scripture stood him in excellent stead. For he asked, "Where speaks God that word?" "There, there!" answered the devil, pointing again to the parchment and putting his fiery finger on the two words, "all sin, all sin." The reformer snatched the awful list away from his enemy, and unrolling it one turn more, in the other direction, discovered, as he hoped he would, the remainder of the inscription: "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin!" So he learned that all his sins had been massed together upon that roll in order to announce that atonement had been made completely to cover them. And with a glad cry of exultant joy he awoke, while the devil disappeared with his parchment of woe. It is when a man knows his sins are all in the burden Jesus bore on the Calvary Cross, that he has no longer any fear about them. "The work of righteousness is peace, and the effect of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever."

III. IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO PUT INTO FORMS OF SPEECH THE SOURCES OF ENJOYMENT WHICH A PARDONED BELIEVER KNOWS when he is once possessed of the peace which passes understanding; the soul like a bride rests in a love it cannot explain, when the sweet day of espousal to Christ has been reached.

1. The Christian cannot be alone, for a happy conscience, like a bird in his heart, keeps singing cheerily to give him company. He has no alarms, no suspicions. Nothing breaks up the calm, bright serenity of his trustful repose in Christ Jesus. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace," etc.

2. Peace brings prosperity. God opens the door of His treasury of promise to the souls He has welcomed into the palace. He loves His Son, and they are His Son's friends. If our feet are upon the Rock of Ages it does not matter at all where the danger threatens. "I have pain," said Richard Baxter, on his dying bed, "I have pain; there is no arguing against sense; but then, I have peace, great peace!" To any true believer, there is no shock in the appearance of that messenger who announces his departure. He seems to himself even now sitting in the antechamber of the palace, waiting; and death is only the black-dressed servant who comes out to say the King is ready to see him in the throne room. Conclusion: Surely it is worth something, in a world like this, to find one antidote for wakefulness and unrest. This is the peace which the world can neither give nor take away (ver. 10). Each Christian receives a testimony in his soul which settles all his fears for the future. He has put his case out of his own hands. So he waits tranquilly for the judgment, knowing he is prepared for it, and shall stand clear in the end.

(C. S. Robinson, D. D.)

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KJV: Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

WEB: Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;