Making Peace with What Paul Does Not Say

“Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…”–Romans 5:1

As Baptists, we rightly acknowledge the authority of every word of the Bible. There is not a statement, not a word, no jot or tittle of Scripture that is unimportant. After all, Jesus did base one of his arguments against the Sadducees on the very tense of a verb (Mk 12:26). But we rarely talk about the authority of what the Scripture does not say. Take, for example, the above verse. When Paul reminds us that believers now have peace of God, he only supplies one reason as the basis for our peace, justification by faith. Paul finds no other source for our peace. He does not look to our works. Indeed, “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight” (Ro. 3:20). Neither does he look to some natural state of goodness by which we may please God, for “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God” (Romans 3:10-11). Neither does he say that our peace is based upon some hybrid justification that combines both our faith and our works. To claim that our peace with God comes from both works and faith gives too little credit to Christ’s work and too much credit to ours. It proclaims that Jesus’ life and sacrificial death is not enough to procure peace with God. Ultimately, such a position demonstrates a lack of true faith in Jesus’ life and sacrifice. Wanting to add our working to Jesus’ finished work is akin to an amateur painter desiring to “touch up” a Rembrandt; the amateur thinks too much of his ability, too little of the master’s, and fails to realize that his actions will sully the masterpiece.

You see, implied in what Paul does not say is the word “alone.” He is not just speaking of having been justified by faith, but of having been justified by faith alone. He offers us no other basis for peace with God than justification by faith. Here, what the Bible does not say makes all the difference.