One of my favorite verses in all of Scripture is found in the fifth chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Romans where he writes about having peace with God. This peace is not some theoretical concept but a present reality for those who have been justified by Christ. The apostle wrote, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 5:1). John Calvin, writing in his Commentaries, observes:

"…Paul, however, now teaches us that our souls are quieted and pacified when we have obtained justification by faith—we have peace with God. This is the particular fruit of the righteousness of faith, and any desire to seek for security of conscience by works (which we see among irreligious and the ignorant) will be unsuccessful, for the heart is either lulled asleep by disregard or forgetfulness of the judgment of God, or else it is full of fear and trembling until it rests in Christ, who alone is our peace.

Peace, therefore, means serenity of conscience, which originates from the awareness of having God reconciled to oneself. This serenity is possessed neither by the Pharisee, who is inflated by a false confidence in his works, nor by the senseless sinner, who, since he is intoxicated with the pleasure of his vices, feels no lack of peace. Though neither of these seems to be in open conflict with God, unlike the man who is struck with a sense of sin, yet because they do not truly approach the judgment seat of God, they have no experience at all of harmony with him. A dulled conscience implies a departure from God. Peace with God is opposed to the drunken security of the flesh, because the rousing of oneself to give an account of one’s way of life is of first importance. No one will stand without fear before God, unless he relies on free reconciliation, for as long as God is judge, all men must be filled with fear and confusion. The strongest proof of this is that our opponents do nothing but idly bandy words when they lay claim to righteousness by works. Paul’s conclusion is based on the principle that wretched souls are always uneasy, unless they rest in the grace of Christ."

Indeed, how utterly sad it is for those who are caught in a vicious cycle of sacramentalism or attempted works of righteousness—always chasing after but never knowing the peace of which Paul wrote about. The individual who relies on his own goodness will never know such assurance, but the one who rightly understands that there is nothing we can do to merit, to earn, or to maintain our own justification will understand fully what the apostle taught. The believer who trusts wholly in Christ knows what it means to have confidence because his standing before God is not his own—it is an alien righteousness. That is to say, when God looks at us, He sees us cloaked in the righteousness of Christ. And in that, in the knowledge of that fundamental concept, is what brings about the peace spoken of in Romans 5.