JUSTIFICATION THROUGH FAITH
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: ROMANS 5: 1-11
When young people look around them they often see a world filled with many wars in different countries, arguments about COVID- 19 vaccines and who should get them, whether or not schools should open to give children face-to-face learning, the increasing difficulty young people have of getting part-time jobs after school or during summer holidays, and all different kinds of problems.
So Young people often will ask whether there is any hope for human beings on this earth, and if there is one what the hope looks like. Young people would like to know for sure about that hope for the world. They know that everybody likes peace, peace among nations, among tribes, among political parties, and among people. But they also know that there is very little peace anywhere. They know there is a lot of bullying going on and they do not like that.
The position that many young people are in and the way they look at things is very interesting. Some of them know that the turmoil in the world is nothing new for when they read the Bible they see that in the days of Isaiah and the other prophets the same bad situation existed.
Interestingly today our Study tells us about peace and hope. It tells us that God promised peace and hope and how these good things are to be found in Jesus Christ and they are the result of the salvation to men that He brought. These good results are the results of justification given by God. God is absolutely holy and He does not like even a little bad thing in us. He knows that people want to be perfect and without any big offence so that they can use their creativity and bring blessing to others and to the Creation. For them to be able to do this they have to come back into a good relationship with God the Father and we call this reconciliation. This can only come about if human beings believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour and commit themselves to following Him and doing what He instructs us to do. Then when we believe in Him as the Saviour who died for us then He covers us by giving us His righteousness and He declares us righteous so that we can come into a new relationship with God the Father. When God the Father looks at us He sees the righteousness of Jesus, not the things that we have done, He sees the righteousness of His Son Jesus Christ and so we call that Justification by Faith in Jesus Christ.
Then with this righteousness we have Then we have Peace with God, the ability to be blessed by the grace of God more and more power we hope to be there with God and enjoy the glory of God, the beautiful and magnificent things that happen around God the Father.
Because we know that all of this is certain and we are secure we will have joy no matter some of the difficulties that come to us. We will develop strength, character, and hope for the future for we know that everything depends on the absolutely limitless power of God. We are no longer at war with God and we are no longer enemies of God and so we have a permanent peace.
All the questions that we have are answered by the Lord Jesus. We are guaranteed that there is hope for human beings. They will not be wiped out by war and strife, and the Earth will not be totally destroyed. There will be peace and no arguments and fighting among people. Jesus Christ would bring that to pass. Then all that believe in Jesus will have a beautiful relationship with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and the angels in heaven. We will be able to enjoy all the great things that God has prepared for us.
Heaven will be a beautiful place. We can hardly imagine what it will be like. But even before then we know that God has promised us that He will change the Earth and what it looks like and it will be changed in due time. There will be no water shortages, there will be no terrible storms, tornadoes, or hurricanes or tsunamis that kill people and sweep away their houses when there are under the sea volcanoes that erupt. We will not suffer from bullying. There will be no shortages of food, clothing, or a good place to live. So now that we believe in Jesus Christ and are now justified by faith we can rejoice. We can invite others to get the benefits we have been given by our God.