This scripture should be applied to those people who believe in Christ, but who live without any joy or peace. Some of them may acknowledge their condition, while some them do not. Some of them may be sure that they have been saved, but others can be so depressed that they doubt that the Lord has the ability to save them despite their faith. And it needs remembered that sometimes there are physical problems which can keep people from joy. For example, some people can’t handle pain, blinding them to the blessings of the Lord. These people might only need some medicine for that pain to make their joy return. Others might have long-term chemical imbalances which, again, could be remedied by a doctor. But I think that these people may be far fewer in number than the medical profession wants to admit. Then again, very often people go through periods of depression because they are guilty of sin, and the Holy Spirit is actually doing His best to make those people miserable. The solution in their case, obviously, is to repent of their sins before the Lord and then to forsake them.
This verse was intended toward these kinds of people. It was directed toward all of us who from time to time, simply get down in the dumps. Maybe we haven’t been getting enough sleep, or we haven’t been eating well, and we are irritable. Maybe we are under severe pressure and stress over some passing thing. In the case of the church in Rome, it was because of controversy between members.
We begin by making a couple of observations – Joy and peace are exceedingly desirable things. We hope that you will never be satisfied until you get them – until you are filled with joy and peace. For your own sakes this is very desirable. It is also desirable for the sake of your Christian testimony. Most Christians would never specifically do anything to bring shame to the Name of Christ, but they sometimes inadvertently do so with the look on their face or the droop of their shoulders. Some unbelieving neighbors will even go so far as to attribute our despondency to our religion. As Spurgeon said, “You would consent, I believe, to the loss of your right eye, if your husband and children, if your wife and friends might be reconciled to God by the blood of the cross. At present, however YOU are standing in the way, and instead of assisting by proving that ‘her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace,’ you are doing an injury to those dear immortal souls by the misrepresentation which you give them. I grant again that this is done unwittingly, but alas! you are as surely injuring them as if you designed to do them the evil.”
On the other hand, while valuing joy and peace, these things must not be overestimated. For example, they aren’t proof of salvation. There are plenty of false peace and plenty of temporal happiness, which even Christians confuse with joy. Joy and peace are like fine sunny days. They come to unbelievers today, but they may not come to you who have believed. Or they may come and go to either one. Even the brightest Christians periodically lose their joy. True joy and peace may be evidence of a strong spiritual life, but the absence of joy and peace may not be evidence of anything. So it may not be a bad thing to yearn for peace and joy, but it is better to yearn for holiness and eternal life. What is better – to have a box of cherries or to own an healthy cherry tree?
Someone who understands this might run in the other direction. He might say, “After I’ve done all that I can do, at least I’ll be able to tell God that I’ve done my best.” But doing our best is not good enough for God – we are dead and we are dying. A drowning man may say “I have done my best,” but it won’t keep him alive. Some people try the religious plan for peace and joy, but it still doesn’t undo sin, nor remove the guilt which brings our spirits down.
This text also corrects another common error – turning things upside down. Believing in joy and peace is not the same thing as having joy and peace in believing. The Devil can give a person artificial peace and earthly joy – which can imitate or mask those of the Lord. You can get a tulip from a bulb, but you can’t get a bulb by planting a tulip flower. Have you ever met someone who professed to love Christ because He had given him happiness? Sure, these people are a dime a dozen. But what happens to those professed believers, when the joy is gone? Often so is their faith in Christ. To be joyful because of the salvation of the Lord is right and proper, but to think that we are saved because we are happy or joyful is foolish. There is no such thing as “feeling saved” or “feeling” that I am a Christian.
Here is a sinner who feels himself guilty before God, but he hears enough of the gospel to understand that God has devised a plan of salvation. The very believing of that must give some sort of peace. There have been some people who have said, “I thought I could not be saved, but now even the word, ‘Savior,’ gives me some hope. The black thought that it is impossible for me to be saved is gone. There is evidently a possibility; there is a desire on God’s part, or else He would not have provided a plan by which men might be saved.” But then when that sinner looks at the gospel more carefully, he sees even more cause for joy. He says, “I see that God will save me not on account of anything I do or am, but out of pure grace. I see that He has provided a salvation not for good people, but for the bad – for me. I am not worthy of salvation as I look at the gospel. And yet, there it is – offered to me – the chiefest of sinners.” Already he feels a certain sense of joy at the thought of such a plan. By works he felt he could not be saved, but he begins to hope that it may be by that plan of faith which requires neither good feelings nor good works.
When the sinner asks, “What is it I am to believe in order to have peace? In whom am I to trust?” …… … he is told that he is to look for his deliverance from sin in the person of Christ Jesus. Who? The man who is God – or perhaps I should say the God who chose to become incarnate – the God-man. Christ is the eternal Son of God, and we know that whatever God undertakes, He is able to accomplish. But Christ is man, like ourselves, and He has the love and tenderness necessary to deal with such poor sinners as we are. We trust him because of the perfections of His character. We have read the gospels, and we find the Christ there hating every sin and lie. His character seems to us to be filled with truth. “We beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Our Lord seems to us to be the most tender of men, and the most truthful of men, too. We cannot believe that he would lie to us. This is a good reason to trust Him even if there were other choices. He says, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” so that is what we do. But the primary reason that we believe him is that we are told of His great purpose. He was sent of God for the specific purpose of saving His chosen people. Christ did not undertake this work on his own account apart from heavenly authorization. He is called “Messiah” – “the Anointed and Sent One.” If God sent Christ for the purpose of saving many, and Christ came into the world and said, “Trust Me, and I will save you,” He has God to back him, and the everlasting honor of the Eternal Trinity to guarantee things. Unless you are willing to make God a liar, you must believe in Christ. If you are not prepared to trust Christ, as John said – “He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.”
Another reason why we trust Christ is because of what He suffered. His sufferings were certainly great enough to save us. Look at Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, and later before priests and then Pilate. Look at the beatings and mockings. Can you see Jehovah grind him to powder under His wrath? Can you hear Christ say, “It is finished”? Can you hear His cry out “Eloi! Eloi! lama sabachthani?” Can you believe that this is the Son of God? standing for sinners, and suffering all this weight of wrath and punishment for us, and yet think that He is not worthy of being trusted to do that for which He died?
We have still another reason to trust Him. After our Lord had died and was buried He was put into the tomb, but He could not be held there. On the third day He rose again from the dead, and now He ever liveth to make intercession for us. He is gone up on high with this resolve in his heart that he will plead for sinners, and that every sinner who seeks God through him shall find peace through Him. I hope that your faith believes that the Savior stands as a living priest before the Father’s throne, and this is his plea, “Father, forgive them, Father, forgive them.” “He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us.” Christ, the living Savior, being what He is, and having done what He has done, must be able to save, and we therefore trust him.
If you ask me, “Why do you personally believe that you are saved?” I will tell you. I believe I am saved; I know I am, and the ground of my declaration is this – It’s not because I feel that I am saved; nor because I can preach to you about it, nor because I sometimes or generally feel joy and peace. I believe that I am saved, because I believe – God knows I do. I trust myself wholly and entirely in the hand of Him whose business it is to save sinners. My name is right there in the Bible next to the word “salvation.” “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” That is my name and my nature. I know myself to be covered with iniquity, to be defiled with all sorts of sin in my holiest things. I have not one good work that I dare think of, much more trust to, but being what I am, unworthy, undeserving, and hell-deserving, I trust Christ to save me, and if He does not save me, He is not as good as His word. And yet, I don’t have the least suspicion about that. And now I have joy and peace. I haven’t waited for them and then learned to trust them. I have not put the cart before the horse. My faith and hope is in Christ, and He has blessed me with joy and peace.
Most people don’t expect this when they first bow their knee to Christ. But this doesn’t mean that they can’t have joy and peace while the fighting is going on. Is it possible to be fighting with inbred sins, and yet to have joy and peace? It is not only possible, but it is the only chance we have of victory. Let’s say that some unbeliever has a problem with lust. It is destroying his marriage and ruining his life. He is broken hearted about it, but there seems to be no ability to control it. In fact, the more that he fights his sin, the more miserable he becomes. But then there is a Christian with the same sinful problem. He has a weapon against sin which the unbeliever doesn’t possess. “Get thee behind me Satan, I have a Saviour now.” “Be off with you; I have something more to think of; I have something sweeter to cheer me than anything you can bring to annoy me.” “I have trusted Christ to save me, and I know he will do it, for he is no liar. Lord, help me to overcome this sin; enable me to be holy and like to thee. Since you have done so much for me already; now lend me strength, and give peace to my heart.” The only way that we can have this peace is through the blood of the Lamb of God. There is joy in victory over sin, and that victory is in Christ.
Remember that even after you are saved, you may sometimes get despondent. Christian men are but men, and they may have temptations, or trials, and then they get depressed despite the grace that they have received. This was true even of the Apostle Paul himself. What then? Why then you can get joy and peace through believing. Because He lives, we shall live also, and fight and serve the Lord. But what if the problem is personal sin? Then there is even the more reason that you should cast yourself upon Christ. Do you think Jesus Christ is only for little sinners? Is he a doctor that only heals hang-nails?
It is no faith to trust Christ when we don’t have any problems It is true faith when I am foul, and black, and filthy. When during the day I have tripped up and fallen, and done serious damage to my joy and peace, I go back again to that dear fountain and say, “Lord, I never loved washing so much before as I do to-night, for to-day I have made a fool of myself. I have said and done what I ought not to have done, and I am ashamed and full of confusion, but I believe Christ can save me, even me, and I will rest in him still.” That is the true way of Christian life, and the only way of getting joy and peace. Go to Christ even when sin prevails. Is that presumptuous? It is good to be afraid of presumption, but when you are most afraid of presumption, the true way to get joy and peace and to be kept from presumption is by believing. The presumption is removed when true humility is present.
Let’s say that you have committed the worst sin imaginable. Satan has come up to your face and threatens to spill your soul’s blood. The light of God’s countenance has been hidden as it was when Jesus was on the cross. There isn’t a Christian in the world who will speak to you. The world calls you a hypocrite; and your conscience is also ready to kill you. Yet, if in that bottomless pit of despair you believe that Christ can and does cleanse you – He will. He cannot be untrue to Himself or to His promise.