Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ
~ Romans 5:1 (NKJV)
It is sin that breeds the quarrel between us and God, creates not only a strangeness, but an enmity the holy righteous God cannot in honour be at peace with a sinner while he continues under the guilt of sin. Justification takes away the guilt, and so makes way for peace. And such are the benignity and good-will of God to man that, immediately upon the removing of that obstacle, the peace is made…. And surely a man needs no more to make him happy than to have God his friend! But this is through our Lord Jesus Christ–through him as the great peace-maker, the Mediator between God and man, that blessed Day’s-man that has laid his hand upon us.
~ Matthew Henry’s Commentary on Romans 5:1
A Prayer Life 