This tract focuses upon the erroneous notion that many possess when they think that they have ‘made their peace with God’ by turning their lives around. It is still common to hear someone say, ‘I’ve made my peace with God,’ and meaning by it that one day he realized he was a sinner, but told God that he would clean up his life and do the best he could. He figures that by doing so God is no longer displeased or angry with him, and that he now has ‘peace with God.’

This tract exposes the error of this thinking and appeals to the reader to change his mind. It then proclaims to him that though it is impossible for him to make his own ‘peace with God,’ God has made it possible for him to have genuine “peace with God” through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
 

Do You Have Genuine Peace With God?

"What do you think is going to happen to you when you die?" I said to my friend. "Oh, you don't need to worry about me," he said. "I've made my peace with God."

When I heard this I became more concerned than ever, because I was pretty sure that I knew exactly what my friend meant by making his peace with God. And it turned out to be right.

He meant that when he came to realize that he was a sinner in God's sight he didn't deny it. "No sirree, I didn't deny it," he said. Instead he acknowledged that fact to God and told Him that he would change the way he lived. "The way I figure it," he said, "is this. By living in sin I've made God angry. But by changing the way I live and doing the best I can to live by God's Law, that's what God wants. We're back on friendly terms now, and so I've made my peace with God."

"You make your peace with God," he continued, "when you have a change of heart towards Him and amend your ways. So everything is all right now between me and God."

False Peace

Though my friend was quite confident that he had made his peace with God, it came as quite a shock to him to find out that God said otherwise.

He learned from The Bible that though he was correct in realizing that he was a sinner, he was completely wrong in thinking that he could make peace with God by changing how he lived. In fact he came to learn that it was downright impossible for he himself to make peace with God. No amount of change to his lifestyle, no matter how sincere or extensive, could ever make up for the sins he had committed. And no amount of good works he may try to produce by following God's Law could ever be remotely compatible with the perfect righteousness and holiness of God.

My friend came to realize, therefore, that making peace with God was beyond his ability. He couldn't do it. And not because he wasn't trying hard enough, or wasn't sincere enough. He was very sincere and very determined. However he learned from The Bible that making peace with God is humanly impossible. In fact he learned that one of the main purposes of God's Law was to make this plainly evident, just as the Apostle Paul declares.

¹⁹ Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

²⁰ Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:19-20)

Therefore it truly is humanly impossible for anyone to make his peace with God. My friend couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. And neither can you.

True Peace With God

Though it is indeed impossible for you to make your own peace with God, the good news is that you can still truly have peace with God. Yet not by you performing any good works, making amends for your sins, or submitting to any religious rites or ceremonies. Instead you can have it as an absolutely free gift from God, already fully purchased for you by the Lord Jesus Christ when He died in your place on the cross of Calvary.

²⁴ Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

²⁵ Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

²⁶ To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:24-26)

The Peacemaker

As the Apostle Paul says, when the Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross He "was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification." (Romans 4:25) He died, therefore, as our substitute-Redeemer. He completely paid the price for our sins through His own sufferings and death. And when He was raised again from the dead it was "for our justification." He therefore made it so that God could completely forgive us our sins and justify us unto eternal life. He made it so that we could be reconciled to God, no longer being at enmity with God but possessing peace with God. And best of all He also made it so that we could have this forgiveness, justification, and peace with God as an absolutely free gift.

The only condition that God places upon you to receive His gift of complete forgiveness, justification, and peace with Him, is that you believe in the total sufficiency of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you. As the Apostle Paul declares, God is "just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

To believe in someone means to completely depend upon him and his ability to do something for you that you cannot do for yourself. And this is exactly what it means to "believe in Jesus."

Have you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ? If not, why not do so right now? If you will, the following will be true of you: "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1) — K. R. Blades