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Peace with God

Words of Faith Final

Peace with God
Words of Faith 8-13-2021
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2021
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
www.faithfellowshipweb.com
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Romans 5
    Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, [2] through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

     Peace with God is an important thing.  This is not just an ethereal concept or theological proposition.  This is not even the same as the peace of God we feel at times which surpasses understanding and guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. This peace is literally the cessation of a war.
     War? Yes, war. In our unsaved and unregenerate state, we are at war with God. And God is not someone that we want to be at war with. But don't misunderstand. It is not that God has declared war upon us but that we have declared war on God.
     In our unregenerate state, we are at war with the will and way of God. In our rebellion, we are at war with the holiness of God.  Until we have been justified through faith, we wage war against God, neighbor, and self.  
     Even in our religiosity, we wage war. Religion is simply the war strategy of self-justification. We work, argue, practice, and observe rules through religiosity as we attempt to prove ourselves to be the religious victors. We build enormous siege ramps as we strive to be found meritorious on the field of moral conflict.  We even battle the other religions of the world. But we find no peace.
     But here is the Good News!  Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. The war is over. There is a cessation of hostilities. How?  It happens through the work of Jesus, who justifies us unconditionally.
     Jesus has won the war, and all that is required is our unconditional surrender. Faith is the absolute trust in God and the work of Jesus. Faith calls us to an unconditional surrender. Our surrender comes when we realize that we cannot win the war and that, in fact, we have had the wrong enemy and that God has won the battles for us.
     We gain access by faith into grace, the unmerited favor of God. But our surrender to that grace must be unconditional. We cannot negotiate terms. We cannot cling to any territory. We must surrender everything.  

          Lord, I surrender all. In Jesus' name. Amen.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2021
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)        
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2021 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.