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. (ESV)

One day, my daughter, who loves to draw, came to me with a peculiar problem. The colored pencil she wanted to use would not sharpen. After several attempts to sharpen the color core, the pencil still showed half the point as a colored tip and half covered in the wood surrounding the core. Baffled, I held up the pencil to study it and realized it was misaligned. The core was off center, and the whole pencil would never sharpen properly. I could not fix the pencil but was struck by the parallel to our lives. At our core, we are misaligned with God. No matter how many self-help books we read, how many classes we take, degrees we earn, experiences we have, there is no way to sharpen ourselves into usefulness if we are not aligned with God, the One who gave us our purpose. Thankfully, we’re not some useless colored pencil that cannot be fixed; Jesus knew our tendency to be out of alignment with God. Through his sacrifice, he aligned us with God – he justified us.  

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The idea of being aligned with God, or justified, reminds me of the world of printing. In this context, justified means aligning text so that the print fills a space evenly or forms a straight line at the margin. In other words, the print is aligned to create a straight and visually pleasing document, not chaos. Similarly, when we are justified or aligned with God, we gain so much clarity in our relationship with our Creator and his intended purpose for us. Our scripture today states that by faith we stand in his grace, and we can rejoice.

So, let's hash out what we gain in our relationship with God by being justified or aligned with him. First, it's important to note why we need justification. Romans 5 goes on to tell us that sin entered the world through one man and affected all mankind, but God offers us the gift of justification through Jesus’ act of righteousness for all men. If we look back at our scripture today, we can identify a few of the many gifts we have because of Jesus.

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The first is peace. If you’re newer to your faith, how peaceful were you before knowing Jesus? My guess is probably not at all. Your circumstances may not have changed, but with Jesus, we can experience peace we cannot explain (Phil. 4:7).  

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Another gift is faith. Did you know that on your own you don’t have the capability to have faith to believe? God gives us the very faith we need to believe.  

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And finally, the last gift mentioned here is grace. Grace, simply put, is getting what we don’t deserve. Not only do we no longer receive death as our payment for sin, but we get Heaven instead. I like the analogy of a child getting in trouble for something, but instead of punishing them, they get ice cream. That’s us. We’re the child, in trouble, deserving punishment, but getting a treat instead, except on a much grander scale.

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Without looking closely, we may miss that justification is also a gift in and of itself. Our working definition has been related to printing, which means aligned, but in scripture, the word justified means declared or made righteous in the sight of God. When we understand our sin and the chasm that exists between us and God, we realize that being justified is a big deal. To be made righteous, through absolutely nothing we have done but what Jesus did, should make us ponder, why?  

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Well, Our God is a God of order. Being declared righteous or having been aligned with God’s intended purpose and his heart for us is, among many things, a restoration of order. He never wanted us to be caught up in chaos. Like a well sharpened pencil, he has a precise purpose for us, but our full potential cannot be realized until we are justified or aligned with him. You are right with God because Jesus aligned you with God through his righteousness.  

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I love that these verses end with rejoicing. How else do you feel when you’re aligned with the Creator, for the very purpose you were intended for, at peace in your heart, showered with grace that covers all your sin, and now you even have the faith (the eyes) to see it? I have peace with God in being aligned with him through faith; because of his gift of grace, I have his righteousness. If you could put this scriptural truth in your own words, why are you rejoicing today?

Lord, thank you for your grace. Thank you that we can rejoice in your love for us and the hope we have in you. We are so grateful you have justified us and aligned us to your purpose. Help us to live a life of rejoicing in the hope we have in you. Amen.