Day 14: How to Enjoy True Peace of Mind

We have explored how we can obtain release from mental torment. What we are going to study now follows on very naturally from this: how to enjoy true peace of mind. These two fit together like the two opposite sides of a single coin – one negative and the other positive. How to obtain release from mental torment is negative; how to enjoy true peace of mind is positive. We need them both.

There is a kind of condition of a mental vacuum. Almost invariably, if we maintain that vacuum long enough, some evil force will press its way in and regain control of our minds. Therefore, one essential part of our protection is to have our minds garrisoned with the peace of God. This is what the New Testament clearly teaches us.

First of all, we need to know that we have peace with God. There is no kind of peace of any reality or permanence unless there is a right relationship with Almighty God. Scripture says in Isaiah 48:22: "There is no peace for the wicked" (NASB).

To those who are in rebellion or opposition toward God, to those who are leading lives that are not subject to God's laws and requirements, there is no peace, there is no way that such people can have peace. Therefore, we have to make sure that we've been reconciled with God.

Paul says in Romans 5:1:

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (NASB)

And in verse 11 of Romans 5 he says that, through Jesus, "we have received the reconciliation". The word "reconciliation" indicates that there was a need to be reconciled. By our carnal nature and our sinful lives, we were at war with Almighty God. We were not subject to His just ordinances and requirements; we were not leading the kind of life that brought glory to God, and so we had to repent, and we had to accept the reconciliation that's extended to us by God through Jesus.

Because Jesus on the cross was identified with our sin and rebellion, the judgment for that sin came upon Him, and He paid the full and final penalty for our sins by His death. So we can be reconciled to God through the death of Jesus.

Being reconciled and having received God's promise of forgiveness, Paul says we have been "justified by faith", and so we now have "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ".

The word "justified" is an important word. It could be interpreted as, 'we have been rendered righteous'. When we believe in Jesus and His death on our behalf, His righteousness is imputed to us, or reckoned to us, on the basis of our faith.

Personally, the definition of "justified" that I like best is: 'just-as-if-I'd never sinned'. That's beautiful, isn't it? When the righteousness of Jesus has been reckoned to me by God, then I'm righteous. Not with my own righteousness, but with His righteousness. Jesus never knew sin, never knew guilt. The only reason that He paid the penalty was that He paid it on our behalf. Say to yourself, "I'm justified, just-as-if-I'd never sinned. I have peace with God. God holds nothing more against me. I've been acquitted."