Articles
Are You At Peace?
What is your first reaction to the word “peace”? How you answer that question is influenced by any number of factors including the current state of your life, your psychological makeup, your faith in God, etc. Is peace an unreachable goal? Does it always seem to slip through your fingers, wrecked by circumstances you can’t control? Is there too much evil, misery and failure in the world to achieve real peace? Are you afraid to acknowledge the peace in your life for fear of jinxing it? Do you subtly create chaos so that peace doesn’t render you irrelevant? Genuine peace is elusive, and there’s a reason for that. Thus peace is something that must be deliberately sought and developed if we are ever to truly attain it.
God’s desire for peace. God’s desire for peace with mankind certainly didn’t begin with Jesus’ entrance into the world, for God had been working throughout time to bring that great event about. But it is beautifully expressed by an angelic vision to the shepherds in the fields around Bethlehem: “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!’” (Lk 2:13-14). Thus commences in the form of a newborn babe the life, both human and divine, that will become the ultimate sacrifice of God to secure that peace.
Make no mistake: God wants peace with mankind, but it is the actions of man himself that undermine that peace. Sin brings alienation from God, but left unchecked it continues to grow both within the individual sinner and, consequently, society at large.
God has implemented various corrective measures throughout history to moderate this tendency, the most dramatic and sweeping, of course, being the flood wherein all mankind except eight souls was wiped out. Ponder that for a moment in all its reality, not as a child’s toy or picture book.
But beyond the flood there have been countless judgments against nations; the institution of civil government to curb excessive violence and injury; the occasional, untimely removal of heinous individual sinners by the direct punitive judgment of God (Nadab and Abihu, Korah, Achan, Hananiah, Ananias and Sapphira, Herod Agrippa I, et.al.). Such people evoked God’s wrath, but His “default” setting regarding man is to seek peace with us and provide a way for that peace to be realized.
And what is that way? Nothing else but the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf: “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one … so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body … And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near” (Eph 2:14-17); “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1); “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (Jn 14:27).
Jesus’ desire for peace. Of course, Jesus wasn’t the reluctant lamb being led to slaughter against its will; rather, He came both at the will of the Father and by His own love for His creation: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep … No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself …” (Jn 10:11, 18); “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends …” (Jn 15:13); “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us” (1 Jn 3:16).
But in addition to His sacrifice, Jesus spent the three years leading up to it in immersive service to God and man. He repeatedly traversed Palestine teaching on hillsides, in synagogues, in the temple, etc. He healed multitudes of the desperately ill, even those who took advantage of Him and cared nothing for the higher spiritual message embedded in those wondrous works. He endured abuse, blasphemy, murder plots, physical and emotional exhaustion all in an effort to prepare men for the deeper significance of His coming crucifixion. All because He loved us and wanted us to be saved.
Our desire for peace. As noted in the questions in the opening paragraph, sometimes we sabotage our own peace or do not understand how to achieve it. One of the main messages of Scripture is that much of mental and emotional disturbance and distress arises from disharmony with God. We often lack inner peace because on some level we have compromised or neglected our relationship with God. Whether it is the atheist who boldly trumpets his disbelief in God, or the skeptic who just can’t bring himself to process the ramifications of spiritual thought or even the believer who has sacrificed trust in God’s redeeming grace for his own record of achievement (which he knows to be inadequate), spiritual discord robs us of the peace that only comes via fellowship with God.
We are all on a psycho-spiritual quest for peace, whether we realize it or not. Our conscience condemns us for our inconsistencies and hypocrisy; our efforts constantly fall short; our best intentions often result in negative, unintended consequences. Our true agendas may be hidden to ourselves and. All of us do less than we should and worse than we intend (Rom 7:13ff). We often feel, as Paul did of himself, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me form this body of death?” (Rom 7:24).
The forfeiture of peace being man’s universal lot, how can anyone regain it?! Fortunately, Paul doesn’t leave the above question hanging: “I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! … There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus …” (7:25; 8:1). It is only through forgiveness that the conscience can truly be calmed; it is only by trust in God’s grace that we can accept our chronic inadequacies; it is only in receiving God’s love that fear can be overcome: “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But one who fears has not been made perfect in love” (1 Jn 4:17-18).
Are you at peace with God and yourself? If you do not have “boldness” in thinking about the Lord’s return and judgment day, you have work to do in your heart. God has done everything to bridge the gap between you and Him. You do not have to suffer through this life in anxiety, dread and self-condemnation. Accept His peace, love Him back and live without fear.
