1| In the Isle of Wight massive cliffs rise hundreds of feet above the sea, and seem as if they were as solid as the framework of the earth itself. But they rest upon a sharply inclined plane
1 W. B. Selbie.
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of clay, and the moisture trickles through the rifts in the majestic cliffs above, and gets down to that slippery substance and makes it like the greased ways down which they launch a ship ; and away goes the cliff one day, with its hundreds of feet of buttresses that have fronted the tempest for centuries, and it lies toppled in hideous ruin on the beach below. We have all a layer of " blue slipper " in ourselves, and unless we take care that no storm- water finds its way down through the chinks in the rocks above they will slide into awful ruin.1
2. Is it not very beautiful to see how the Apostle here identifies himself, in all humility, with the Christians whom he is addressing, and feels that he, Apostle as he is, has the same need for the same counsel and stimulus as the weakest of those to whom he is writing have ? It would have been so easy for him to isolate himself, and say, " Now you have peace with God ; see that you keep it." But he puts himself into the same class as those whom he is exhorting, and that is what all of us have to do who would give advice that will be worth anything or of any effect. He does not stand upon a little molehill of superiority, and look down upon the Koman Christians, and imply that they have needs that he has not, but he exhorts himself too, saying, "Let all of us who have obtained like precious faith, which is alike in an Apostle and in the humblest believer, have peace with God."
3. The conception of peace is here distinguished by the addition of " with God," not merely from false peace, the peace with the world, which is destroyed by the operation of Christ (John xvi. 33), in that the latter calls forth a struggle against sin; but also from that higher degree of peace, that inward peace of soul, the peace with self, which St. Paul also calls "peace of God" (Phil. iv. 7; Col. iii. 15), and Christ in St. John's Gospel " my peace " (John xiv. 27). The two stand, in fact, in the same relation to one another as justification and sanctification ; justification, or the reckoning for righteousness, gives at once reconciliation, and with it peace, the consciousness of being in a state of grace, the contrary to which is enmity against God. (See Eom. viii. 7.) No doubt this state contains within itself sanctification in the germ, but also only in the germ ;
1 A. Maclareu.
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because the old man still lives, inward harmony of life is at first only partially restored. The completeness of this harmony is only a. fruit of life in the Spirit (Eom. viii. 6 ; Gal. v. 22), whilst the life of faith begins with peace with God, because this flows at once from the first act of grace. As the author of peace in every form, God Himself is moreover called " the God of peace " (Eom. xv. 33 ; 2 Cor. xiii. 11 ; 1 Thess. v. 23 ; 2 Thess. iii. 16).
TJ There is a clear distinction between peace with God and the peace of God, though they are so intimately connected that they are rarely if ever separated. There are doubtless some cases in which there is peace with God, while the poor trembling heart, not being assured of the blessing, is not enjoying the peace of God; but there are none who know the peace of God without being first brought to peace with God ; for the peace of God is the holy, happy, peaceful rest which is granted to the heart which is no longer at enmity, and no longer under the burden of unforgiven sin. It is clear, therefore, that there must be the forgiveness before there can be the peace.1
4. Peace with God is reconciliation. It is the blessed fellow- ship between God and the sinner, when every barrier is removed, and the two, instead of being at variance, are at one. God's law being satisfied and His righteousness maintained, He is no longer called to shut the sinner out from His presence, but can, without the compromise of His own holiness, give him a welcome to His home in all the fulness of parental love. And the sinner is reconciled to God, for his hard heart is softened, his rebellion is at an end, his affections are changed, he hates that which he once loved, and loves that which he once hated, so that instead of being an enemy to God by wicked works, he loves Him, he delights in Him, he seeks Him, he follows Him ; the joy of his heart is to do His will, and his great sorrow is that he cannot serve Him better. And thus it is that instead of enmity there is peace, instead of separation union, and instead of a conflict which involved rebellion on the one side and condemnation on the other, there is now such a union that we are able to say, " Truly our fellowship is with the Father."