¹ Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: ² By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

This 38-word verse from Paul’s masterpiece on the Christian faith exemplifies the Bible’s amazing ability to convey broad and deep meaning with an impressive economy of words. Here is what this scripture means:

being justified – to be declared righteous in the sight of God and reconciled to Him. Righteousness is to be morally perfect, a condition required to enter heaven. Reconciled means that our relationship with God has been made right, and we are no longer adversarial with Him.

by faith – Justification occurred by the whole-hearted confidence and trust in the word of God. This is to believe the word of God and the resulting submission to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Abraham had the same type of faith as he hiked Mt Moriah with his son Isaac. It is belief and conviction that Christ Jesus died on the cross for our sins and whose resurrection proved his diety and validated his substitutional atonement for us.

we have peace with God – the state of hostility with God is over; we are now at peace with him. We are reconciled to him and will not be subject to his wrath. There is no way we are capable of achieving this without Christ.

into this grace wherein we stand – grace is the free, unmerited, and undeserving favor of God, the underserved gift of forgiveness of our sins. We are in a favorable position with God to develop a personal relationship with him. He is our spiritual father, and we are welcome to bring him our needs, problems, and praise.

and rejoice in hope of the glory of God – hope is the conviction of certainty (not a wishful hope), and glory is the full manifestation of God. We will radiate the glory of God, his perfect, holy character; our sanctification will be complete, sin removed from our existence, and we will finally be like Christ. This is looking to the future when we will be with him in heaven.