“If we are justified through faith then we have peace with God through Jesus Christ.” (Rom 5:1).
Today everyone is thinking about peace because everyone is thinking about tackling anxiety. The famous anxiolytic passage of the Bible is Philippians 4:6-7. Paul calls us not to be anxious about anything but to pray with thanksgiving in response to our anxieties. The expected response to our prayers is peace.
But Paul doesn’t stop there. In the next verses he encourages us to fix our thoughts on what is noble and true and pure and right and admirable and praiseworthy. In practising these thoughts, Paul again expects us to experience peace. In one sense we might argue that this is what we would call today, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Indeed there are great overlaps. Many of us have practised thinking anxious thoughts. We have practised this so much that we’ve gotten very good at it and made a habit of it. What modern psychology would encourage us to do, much like Paul has done in Philippians 4, is to practice thinking of the praiseworthy as opposed to thinking on the matters that make us anxious.
This is great wisdom, great Christian wisdom. It is Christian wisdom because Paul is encouraging us to think on the Lord Jesus. For what is more praiseworthy and more true and more noble or admirable than to think on our King?
To this end, Rom 5:1 provides an important contribution. To think on Christ is wonderful. But it is only so wonderful when we are at peace with God. Peace with God is the grounds for peace within ourselves. So our theology of justification by faith is in fact our grounds for experiencing peace.
Some of us may struggle and wonder at what the tangible lived benefits are of theological concepts such as justification by faith alone. Well here is one aspect in which it speaks very clearly to a great need in our current age, a very anxious age.
Justification by faith leads to peace, both with God, and I would argue also, within ourselves. The doctrine of justification allows you to think on the praiseworthy. It also allows you to pray to the Lord as your heavenly Father. Without being justified, declared innocent, you are unable to approach God because you are guilty, and there is very little to think of that is praiseworthy because you’re existential grounding is non-existent or incongruous with the created order.
It’s easy to think that doctrines like justification provide little practical benefit to life. But I would encourage us not to make that mistake. Spiritual realities are neglected not only at the peril of our spiritual state. We are mind, body, and soul. The three very much influence each other, because we are made up of all three. That is our anthorpological reality.
People today talk about looking after your body by looking after your mind, and looking after your mind by looking after your body (good and true). The Christian adds to that. We look after our soul, and it helps us look after both body and mind.
Bigvai and Shiphrah 