ROMANS 5.1: Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV)
A survey of the historical accounts written in the Bible, together with biographical insights of leading Bible personalities, and combined with God’s thinking recorded by the Old Testament prophets regarding the corrupt nature of the pagan religions, shows that men and women down through all of the ages have been at war with God. The great majority of people have always wanted to rebelliously fight against God’s Law and His righteous ways.
It is only by the work of God’s grace and kindness that the heart of a man or woman or girl or boy is changed from rebellion and war against God to obedience and peace.
Formerly I believed the verse above was communicating primarily that through Jesus we can have a calm and ease on the inside of us and upon our demeanor. Through Jesus this can be true. But in addition to the feeling and sense of repose that can come from knowing Jesus, I believe this verse mostly communicates that through Jesus our rebellious war against God comes to an end. The hostilities and condition of warfare waged by us are concluded and we enter into the time of peace with God.
Certainly thereafter we can choose rebellion or give regard to thoughts of selfish ambition and a state of war with God can arise all over again, but that is not to be the continuous, ongoing course of our lives after we accept Jesus as Savior. Through Jesus the conduct of our lives is to be marked by the absence of warfare with God. The choosing is ours.