Paul then takes his historical testimony to the next logical conclusion; those who have been declared justified by God are now at peace with God. “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.” The peace that Paul describes not only has a future eschatological fulfillment but a present realization. The sufferings that God’s elect face are not to be seen as life out of control but rather the means by which God strengthens and matures the faith of every believer. Paul goes further by stating that in one’s weakness, the weakness of sinful depravity, Christ died for the ungodly. This was to demonstrate God’s love for His chosen people. If this group was so loved and cared for by God in this way, why would God not preserve His people through the struggles of this temporal life? That is not to say that all things will be trouble or pain free but that whatever the believer faces in their mortal life, either for good or for ill, these things are brought about by the divine providence of God for reconciliation and maturity.
The First And Second Adam
The grounds for such an assertion is the fact that each believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has been baptized, that is publically identified, as a follower of Christ. The necessity of such an identity is founded upon what Paul describes as the universal work of two Adams. The first Adam, the first human being created in the Garden of Eden; the father of all mankind, rebelled against the word of God and therefore introduced sin into the entirety of the human race. This principle of Federal Headship declares that in this single human father, all people have inherited a natural tendency toward sin (ἁμαρτήσαντος, aorist active participle) and further, because of the radical corruption introduced by the first Adam, all that mankind can accomplish is rebellion before God. The holiness of God mandates that such willful rebellion be judged and condemned leaving sinful man without hope; save for the second Adam. Christ as the second Adam accomplishes all the first Adam failed to do. Christ as the second Adam never sinned; He never failed to be obedient to the word of God. As a result, the second Adam provides the means by which sinful men may be redeemed; that is, restored into a right fellowship with God through faith. The work of the second Adam is universal in that all of those who by faith put their trust in His work will be saved. This does not mean that all men shall be saved; universal is not intended in this way. Rather, the universal nature of the work of Christ is intended to mean that faith can and is applied to persons from every walk of life, every ethnicity and every nation. The saving work of Christ’s cross is not reserved for one group of people only, when that group is gauged by earthly standards, but that all those who possess faith are in fact saved by the second Adam’s finished work. The logical conclusion of this sort of reconciliation is that the believer no longer belongs to himself; that is, he has been purchased by Christ to accomplish the will of the Father. The reality of this situation is that men really do not belong to themselves even prior to regeneration; they belong to the lordship of the evil one. The devil simply allows sinful men to do what they desire and thereby deceives the lost into thinking they are sovereign over their own lives. As part of regeneration, the deception that all people live under in their lost condition is removed and the newly regenerated believer sees for the first time that he is not sovereign but rather God is. In this newly bestowed submission, the believer begins to live under the holy mandates of his Lord. This obedience is not forced, coerced or brought about by deception. Rather it is the natural expression of a heart that has been ontologically changed from a sin laden, deadness to a living instrument of devotion. This in short is the process of sanctification and to this pivotal doctrine Paul now turns his attention.
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