“Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (Jam. 4:4)

Righteousness is peace, because our warfare against God was our sins that we cherished. But God has promised to place an end to our warfare; to place enmity between us and our sins (see Gen. 3:15; Isa. 40:1,2).

God’s life is righteousness, and He is the God of peace. Since the enmity is the carnal mind and its wicked works, peace must be the opposite, namely, righteousness. So it is simply the statement of an obvious fact, that being justified by faith we have peace with God. The righteousness that we have by faith carries peace with it. The two things cannot be separated.

The question is asked, “Can one have peace with God and not have a feeling of peace?” What says the Scripture? “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God” (Rom. 5:1). What brings the peace? The faith. But faith is not feeling. If there must be a certain feeling with peace, then if we did not have that feeling we should know that we are not justified; and then justification would be a matter of feeling and not of faith.

Peace must come by faith. Peace that depends on feeling will depart as soon as we begin to feel tribulation. But nothing can make any difference with the peace that comes by faith.

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33).

Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pp. 93, 94