A sermon preached at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Fort Smith, Arkansas on December 24, 2023.
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1–2).[1]
I think our culture is willing to openly acknowledge Christ at this time of year more than any other, don’t you? It is a time when Christian virtues, such as hope, love, joy, and peace are openly connected to Christ, whether he is known personally or not. Perhaps it is because Christ’s birth is more culturally palatable than Christ’s cross, but in our post-Christian era Christmas still carries not only its name but its significance, even if buried in secular interpretation and consumerism. In settings that would typically reject the authority of God’s Word, carols rich in Scriptural reference are still sung. In a public venue, I recently heard Charles Wesley’s hymn caroled with gusto:
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,
“Glory to the newborn King:
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”[2]
And I thought, well, who doesn’t desire “Peace on earth and mercy mild,” even if no one knows what “mercy mild” means?
I am grateful that there remains a remnant of gospel declaration in our cultural observance of Christmas, but I do pray that the Holy Spirit would move, even through our cultural caroling, that all who sing and listen would hear and know the gospel truth of what is meant by “God and sinners reconciled!” It’s a wonderful phrase rich with meaning, “God and sinners reconciled,” that also poses some substantive questions: Who are these sinners? Why is reconciliation with God necessary? And how are we reconciled?
In a recent survey of Americans, 70% of respondents agreed with the statement, “Everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God.”[3] And 66% agreed, “Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.”[4] But neither of these statements agrees with Scripture. The biblical testimony is that we are sinners by nature, a wicked inheritance from our father Adam (Rom. 5:12). The biblical testimony is that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). The biblical testimony is “None is righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). Turns out, we are the “sinners” of which we sing.
But why must God and sinners be reconciled? If God is love (1 John 4:16), and he is, doesn’t he love us as we are? And doesn’t such love render us at peace with God? I would imagine that if a survey were conducted asking, “Are you at peace with God?” most would say, “Yes.” Or to ask it in the negative, “Are you at enmity with God?” I think the majority would respond, “What’s enmity?” And yet, the testimony of Scripture is that apart from Christ, we are not at peace but the very enemies of God (Rom. 5:10). Turns out, not only are we the “sinners” of which we sing but God’s enemies, in dire need of reconciliation with him.
The Bibles tells us that if we are not reconciled to God, his wrath remains upon us (John 3:36), revealed in our disobedience, including a spiritual hostility toward him (Rom. 1:18). No matter our good intentions, thoughtful words, or best deeds, we cannot please God or appease his wrath. In and of ourselves, that is our flesh, there is no spiritual life, no peace with God, only anger, imminent judgment, impending wrath. This is the greatest human problem in history: God and sinners unreconciled. If this is the case, then how can we sing of “God and sinners reconciled”? The answer may be found in our passage today, beginning with the first verse: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).
Peace through Christ
If “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23), if none are righteous (Rom. 3:10), then who is “we,” of this first verse, and why do “we have peace with God”? The “we” are not those who are just a little better, not those who work a little harder, not those who are a little (or a lot) more spiritual. They are those who were spiritually dead in their trespasses and sins, those who “once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience,” those who once lived in the passions of the sinful flesh, “carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,” those who “were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph. 2:1-3). They were not naturally good by nature but born sinners condemned. But God, in his rich mercy and great love, bestowed his grace upon the unworthy, enabling those dead in their sin to savingly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is you, if you have believed. As Paul puts it succinctly to the Ephesians, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).
Our salvation from the wrath of God, our reconciliation to him, our peace with God, is by his grace exclusively through faith in Christ. This is why we can rightly sing,
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!
Because God’s mercy came to earth in the Holy Spirit-conceived, virgin-born Son of God. Indeed, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5):
Veiled in flesh the God-head see;
hail th’incarnate Deity,
pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus, our Immanuel.
The second Person of the Godhead, the Son of God became man, dwelling as the God-man, Immanuel, God with us. As the apostle explains to the Philippians,
“though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:6-8).
Christ, who was “pleased as man with me to dwell,” also “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2), bearing the wrath of almighty God in our stead, and resurrecting from the dead that we might have life in him and forever. And so we sing:
Mild he lays his glory by,
born that we no more may die,
born to raise us from the earth,
born to give us second birth.
It is only through his life, through his death, through his resurrection that God and sinners are reconciled.
Peace in Christ
However, though we are sinners by nature, we are not reconciled to God in our sin. As God is holy, he can know no sin. To be reconciled to him, we must be justified as righteous. This is why, in this first verse, Paul says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). In Christ, we become the “we” who have “been justified by faith,” at peace with God because of his righteousness alone.
To be justified is to be pardoned of sin and accepted as righteous before God, an act of God’s free grace and received by faith in Christ alone.[5] Elaborating on this truth, Paul says in verse two, “we have also obtained access by faith in this grace in which we stand.” By the grace of God’s gift of his Son, our standing with God is, by his design, by his grace. And by his grace, we are no longer enemies but children, received into the family of God with all the rights and privileges of his child.
This means that in Christ we have access to the living and true God, who is our heavenly Father. And because our reconciled access to God is in Christ, we are confident to approach God, Scriptures says, “with boldness,” not cowering as fearful servants but beloved children, running to our father with the warmest affection (Eph. 3:11-12). In Christ, we may now approach God with all the boldness of an excited child on Christmas morning! But just like affluent children who are over-indulged at Christmas, I think many Christians take this for granted. I fear many of us have lost the wonder, the grandeur, of coming into the presence of our heavenly Father. The greatest Christmas morning you can remember, the most memorable Christmas gift you have ever received pales in comparison to the reconciled access we have to him who loves us more than we can imagine.
Peace with Christ (forever)
On the night of Christ’s birth, Luke records that an angel appeared to shepherds and announced,
Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:10-14 KJV). Rightly then do we sing,
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King.”
It was a glorious, supernatural event, and good news indeed for the world:
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
join the triumph of the skies;
with th’angelic hosts proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
It was a proclamation not only to lowly shepherds but for the nations: That God would enter space and time to redeem a people for his own possession, from every tribe, tongue, and nation.
The angelic proclamation was but an introduction of praise to come. For, we who have been justified by faith, we who have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, we who have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We who have sinned and fall short of his glory, in Christ now hope in it. Indeed, he who “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross . . . God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:8-11). And we look toward that day we whom he predestined, whom he called, whom he justified, will be glorified (Rom. 8:30).
In his second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul gives this encouragement,
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:16-18).
The angelic proclamation that the shepherds beheld was glorious but there is a greater glory yet to be beheld. When “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:51-53). We will be glorified, as our Lord was glorified, and we will behold the glory of God forever. As man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, so we shall forever, for the heaven-born Prince of Peace has reconciled sinners, like you and me, to God forever.
[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).
[2] “Hark! the Herarld Angels Sing,” Trinity Hymnal, Revised Edition (Suwanee: Great Commission Publications, 1990), 203.
[3] https://thestateoftheology.com
[4] Ibid.
[5] “The Shorter Catechism” Q. 33, The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (Lawrenceville: PCA Christian Education and Publications, 2007), 376.
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