Page 4 - October 2024 - Truth & Tidings

he Old Testament has been called tion to consecration. It is fitting that as he
“The Twice-Told Tale.” There draws to the close of this great epistle,
Tare two accounts of creation, Paul recognizes 26 individual believers,
two reviews of the offerings, two books all transformed (as we have been) by the
concerning the law, two remembrances great power of God. But Romans 5 focuses
of the history of the kings, to (not two) on justification. Chapter 4 has given a
name a few. Even much of OT poetry is historical argument that God is right to
marked by a parallelism that twice re- justify and, indeed, continues to justify
peats an equivalent thought. The concept on the basis of faith. Having established
of receiving “two or three witnesses” is this legal authority, Paul can now present
consistently carried out in the OT canon, the riches of justification. Chapter 5 begins
and the Jewish reader was commanded to with four incredible aspects concerning
receive that witness! So, it is a revelation the results of justification. Some have
to enter through the gates of the New suggested the pithy but paltry definition
Testament and discover four presentations that justification is “just as if I had never
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels. sinned.” But to dive into these four rivers,
Like four rivers from Eden to water the which flow from the mountain of justifica-
whole earth or four winds to blow upon tion, is to grasp that I have entered into
every corner of the heavens, a fourfold something that far exceeds the blessedness
presentation offers a comprehensive and of innocence.
encompassing revelation. This wider
description invites us not just to obey but Aspect #1: Peace with God
to delight, yea, saturate our minds in the Justification means “we have peace with
expansive teaching we have received. The God.” The gospel divides men by truth,
apostle Paul capitalizes on this concept of and yet it is “the gospel of peace” because
giving four aspects of a subject in many it unites with God (Rom 10:15). In 5:10,
of his epistles. In this series of articles, the Paul looks at our past and considers the
various writers will draw your attention goodness of God to sinners marked by
to uses of this convention in Paul’s church enmity: “For if, when we were enemies,
epistles. With great interest we notice that we were reconciled to God by the death
he often employs this strategy when we of his Son, much more, being reconciled,
stand on the threshold of the most famous we shall be saved by his life.” The gospel
1
verses to flow from his pen. Let’s move to points us to a future filled with peace: “For
Romans 5 to consider an example. the kingdom of God is not a matter of eat-
The Romans epistle leads us along the ing and drinking but of righteousness and
stepping stones of the gospel of God and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (14:17
its manifold demands on our lives. We
move doctrinally from condemnation to 1 Bible quotations in this article are from the KJV
justification to sanctification to glorifica- unless otherwise noted.

292 TRUTH kTidings October 2024