A dead and risen Christ is the ground work of salvation. He "was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification." Rom. 4:2525Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25).
To see Jesus, by the eye of faith, nailed to the cross and seated on the throne, gives solid peace to the conscience and perfect liberty to the heart. We can look into the tomb, and see it empty; we can look up to the throne and see it occupied, and go on our way rejoicing.
The Lord settled everything on the cross in behalf of His people. The proof of this settlement is that He is now seated at the right hand of God. A risen Christ is proof of accomplished redemption. If redemption is an accomplished fact, the believer's peace is a settled reality.
We did not make peace! We never could make peace. Indeed, any efforts on our part only tends more fully to manifest us as peace-breakers. But Christ, having made peace by the blood of His cross, has taken His seat on high, triumphant over every enemy. By Him God preaches peace.
The word of the gospel conveys this peace; and the soul that believes the gospel has peace—settled peace before God, for Christ is his peace.
Through the finished work of Christ God has not only satisfied His own claims, but in so doing He has made a divinely-righteous way through which His boundless affection may flow down to the guiltiest of Adam's guilty progeny.