Daily Devotional

A Ministry of the Kerwin Baptist Church

May 22, 2019

by Pastor Hawtree

BIBLE READING: ROMANS 5

1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

This word justified means not only that we are forgiven of our sin, but it also means that in the eyes of God, it is as if we never sinned at all. That is a truly wonderful blessing that we do not deserve and could never earn. But as if that was not enough, there are also some wonderful blessings that “accompany salvation”.

WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD
Through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, we have something that we could have never accomplished on our own, that is peace with God. God is a holy God and He cannot look on sin. We are sinners. So, we had a major problem. Please do not miss this. If we could not make peace with God without Jesus, then obviously we could not have forgiveness from God without Jesus. I don’t know why some people think they must do more for God, in order for Him to love them more. If we have peace with God through Jesus, and if we have forgiveness from God through Jesus, then we need to understand that God loves us because of Jesus. When you and I are in Christ, God could not love us more than he already does. You need to quit trying to earn the love of God because you never will. He loves you not because you’ve earned it, but because Jesus His Son did.

GRACE WHEREIN WE STAND
This is how we make it day by day. This is how we can “stand” against the wiles of the devil. It is by grace. And we have that grace because of the faith we have put in Jesus Christ. So not only because of Christ do we have peace with God, we receive grace from God.

HOPE OF THE GLORY OF GOD
Now because of Christ, we have hope. This was something we did not have before salvation. There is no hope without Christ. We not only have hope for today, and we not only have hope for tomorrow, but we have hope for eternity. We need to not act or conduct ourselves today like people who have no hope. A few circumstantial setbacks in life should not disintegrate the hope we have in Christ. People today need Hope, and that means that they need Christ. Today let’s show them Christ.