The Peace of Faith
Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity
with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy
of God. James 4:4
Righteousness is peace, because our warfare against God
was our sins that we cherished. But God has promised to place an end to
our warfare; to place enmity between us and our sins (see Genesis 3:15;
Isaiah 40:1,2).
God's life is righteousness, and he is the God of
peace. Since the enmity is the carnal mind and its wicked works, peace
must be the opposite, namely, righteousness. So it is simply the statement
of an obvious fact, that being justified by faith we have peace with God.
The righteousness that we have by faith carries peace with it. The two
things can not be separated.
The question is asked, "Can one have peace with
God and not have a feeling of peace?" What says the Scripture?
"Being justified by faith, we have peace with God." What brings
the peace? The faith. But faith is not feeling. If it were necessarily the
case that there must be a certain feeling with peace, then if we did not
have that feeling we should know that we were not justified; and then
justification would be a matter of feeling, and not of faith.
This must necessarily be the case with peace that comes
by faith. Peace that depends on feeling will depart as soon as we begin to
feel tribulation. But nothing can make any difference with the peace that
comes by faith.
"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me
ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of
good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33
Waggoner on Romans, p. 93 |
