“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will…” Hebrews 13:20
One of the great themes of the Bible is the matter of “peace.” There are in essence two sources of peace, the first and most important being the “peace of God,” communicated by the Spirit of God. One of the fruits of the Spirit’s presence and working is the influencing effect of the peace of God, but also, the manifestation of that peace in the heart of believers. The other “peace” is that arrangement that has its source in men whereby there is no war or conflict between men. It is a humanly inspired “entente,” or pause, a position taken by individuals towards other individuals, or nations towards other nations. Selfish aggression is put aside for a time for the mutual benefit of all concerned. This is not the peace of God, though God can work through men for its realization. However, most divinely inspired form of peace is this “fruit of the Spirit.” This peace, Divine in essence, can be received and known by men, when the Sovereign God by the Holy Spirit communicates, and imparts it to the heart. Why is the matter of peace, and the knowledge and experience of it so very important?
When Christ came into this world, and took upon Him human flesh, it was in large part because of what the Bible calls “enmity.” This enmity is by definition a “state or feeling of being actively opposed or hostile to someone of something.” We find it first mentioned in the Bible when the Lord God cursed the serpent (Satan) in the Garden of Eden. The Lord told him, “…And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heal.” (Gen. 3:15) Here God is speaking of Christ, the seed of the woman, who will bruise the head of the serpent, and this, because of a settled, irreconcilable opposition one of the other. Even when Christ walked the earth, and was tempted and resisted by Satan, there was no quarter given to him. Satan was rebuked, resisted, and rejected. And so this enmity that has existed between God and Satan before the creation, has spread between his seed, his descendants, and the seed of Christ. In other words, there is NO peace between God and Satan. This is born out in Isaiah when he writes: “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” (57:21) The expression of this enmity is revealed in the wrath of God “…from heaven against all ungodliness, and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” (Romans 1:18) It is for this reason that John the Apostle writes: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (Jn. 3:36)
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he writes of the wonderful news that Christ IS our peace (Eph. 2:14). How is this so? When Christ died on the cross, He abolished in his flesh the enmity that was between God and sinful man. By Christ’s shed blood on the cross, that enmity was “slain,” destroyed. That which took its place was the peace of God, that very settled absence of all wrath, and enmity. Paul writes to the Roman believers: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (5:1)
Again, in the book of Isaiah, we have a similar, beautiful picture of this, when God said: “In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment: but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee…the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.” (54:8,10)
Dear Father, Teach us Thy peace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.