Episode 28 - Essays in Romans... 5:1 - Justification, Faith, and Peace with God

My justification is not temporary, as though I were living under a kind of spiritual parole—constantly at risk that one failure would cancel it and send me back to prison. That is not the Gospel. I am not on parole. A parole can be revoked. A parolee still lives under the shadow of his former sentence. But a pardon is different. A pardon removes the charge itself. In Christ, I have not been paroled; I have been pardoned. The sentence has been lifted, the record cleared, and the cell door opened for good. I am at peace with God. He is no longer my Enemy. I am no longer His enemy. Peace.