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Dear friends and family in Christ,

Happy Easter from Tyndale Theological Seminary in the Netherlands.  We hope that this finds you enjoying this special time of the year when we honor our Savior’s death and resurrection.

I was asked the other day, “Why do we need to learn big words in the church?  Isn’t it fine that we use simpler words?”  To which I answered it is fine to use simple words when that will suffice.  After all, why make things complex when simple words will do?  Yet, when there are words within the Christian faith that provide a deeper meaning and greater blessing, it does not always help to make things simple.  Sometimes a word that we are less familiar with can communicate a whole lot more.  

This is the case with the word “justify,” a word that occurs often in the Epistle to the Romans.  This word “justify” means “to declare right,” “to reckon righteous,” or “to count righteous.”  The word, justify, unfortunately, can be forgotten in some quarters of the Christian church where it gets swallowed up by a simpler word “save.” 

Of course, “save” is a good word.  When we trust Jesus as Savior and Lord, we are saved from sin, saved from separation from God, and saved from eternal peril.  These are all true, but the word “justify” has a greater meaning than “saved,” and that meaning is often hidden when we do not take time to think about the word justify. 

In the class on Romans that I have been teaching this semester, we have been paying special attention to this word justify.  One important verse where this word occurs is

Romans 5:1 which reads in the English Standard Version, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

This verse tells us that because we have been justified, we receive peace.  What type of peace is Paul talking about?  After all, some use this word in a variety of different ways.  Some use the word peace as a greeting, saying, “Peace” when they see each other.  Others when they think of peace think of it as a symbol that can be found on artwork or worn on clothing.  Some who react against a world in conflict will use the word peace saying, “Give peace a chance.” 

What Paul is talking about when he uses the word peace in Romans 5 is peace or harmony in our relationship with God.  Because we as Christians have been justified, we have a deep abiding peace with God.  He is fundamentally satisfied with us now.

Now there may be times that Christians do not feel peace, because of sin or because of certain misleading thoughts or feelings.  Because we are justified, however, we have peace with God.  He is not a God of a check list, recording our “good and bad deeds” so that he might someday zap us.  Because we are justified, the guilt and shame from our sin, the debt that needed to be paid to God, has now been paid.  We need not fear the retribution of God, since we are justified.

This word “justify” does tell us much more than being saved, and we will want to keep in our Christian vocabulary.  When we speak about being saved, it does tell us quite a bit, but it does not tell us about the type of relationship that is ours in Christ.  Being “saved” does not tell us about the quality of our relationship with God, that of peace.  This blessing (and many others within Romans 5) comes from the word justify, a word that is a little more complex but worth knowing. 

 

Thank you for your prayers and support.  Andrea and the children join me in wishing you a Happy Easter.

With Christian Greetings,

Drake Williams

Address:

Prunuslaan 113

1829 HV  Oudorp

The Netherlands

Email:  dandawilliams@aol.com, drake@tyndale.nl

Mission Address:

European Christian Mission

PO Box 1006

Point Roberts, WA 98281