The Peace of God

Jesus said in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world give I give to you.”

What Jesus gave to His disciples was a forever promise.

The word peace in Greek is eirēnē. The Hebrew is salom or shalom. It appears about 429 times in the King James Bible.

The word has several meanings: wholeness, completeness, welfare, health, freedom from war, unharmed, prosperity, et al.

It’s a wonderful thing that Jesus would leave His peace with us, but what is His peace? Does everyone have this peace? Can anyone obtain it? Peace is such a broad term.

God’s peace is varied.

Ultimate or Godly peace would have to be connected to salvation. No one can have true peace unless their soul is saved. The peace the world gives is temporal, a mirage. It will ultimately fail.

The peace that God gives is an everlasting peace. His peace gives us assurance in this life and the next.

I want to explore some wonderful features of God’s peace.

In Ephesians 6:15 says we are to have our feet shod with the gospel of peace. This is part of our spiritual armor when we war against our unseen demonic enemies in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12). So in this verse, God’s peace is an adjective for it describes the gospel.

Why is the gospel called the gospel of peace?

Let’s go back in the book of Ephesians to chapter two: “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in the place of the two so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing hostility. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and peace those who were near (vv 12-17).

The word peace appears four times in these six verses. The first appearance declares Christ is our peace. Peace is personified – a pronoun. The second appearance He made peace by bringing Jew and Gentile together in one body, one family – peace is a verb. And the third and fourth appearances He preached peace – peace is a noun.

Any wonder why the prophet Isaiah called Jesus the Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6)?

  

Another way God offers peace is through prayer. In Philippians 4:6-7 we read, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

In these two verses God is telling us to place all of our cares on Him for He cares for us (I Peter 5:7). We are to petition Him in prayer with thankfulness with the full confidence that whatever we are going through His peace will sustain us – a wonderful comfort and reality.

What is peace with God?

Romans 5:1 declares we have peace with God because of our justification in Christ Jesus. Peace with God grants the believer complete access to God as priests whereby we can go to throne of God anytime we want to and offer spiritual sacrifices to our Heavenly Father by faith. God will not grant anyone this access to Him unless they are sanctified, washed and cleansed in the lamb of God’s blood.

Peace with God is synonymous with forgiveness of sins when one believes on the completed work of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross.

Summation

We live in a world full of turmoil. Civil unrest, poverty, slavery, human trafficking, disease, starvation, war and death. With all of this evil, it seems impossible we can experience any level of peace, let alone an everlasting peace. When I look at the news, there is an ongoing war between the Israelis and Palestinians (Arab Muslims). They are shedding blood over a small piece of real estate less than 200 miles long from north to south – the land of Israel. Both nations say they have rights to it.[1] The Oslo Accords peace agreement of 1993 failed between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat because of the wickedness of Arafat – it was a false peace. The four-year terror war ensued shortly thereafter between 2000-2004.

The peace of God delivered to us came at an incalculable cost – the cost of the life of the Son of God. I must go back to Isaiah 53:5, “He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed.”

Our peace cost the Father His only begotten Son, and it cost the sinless, spotless lamb of God His life.

Jesus had to be punished as if He was a sinner to satisfy the Father’s wrath for our sins ( 2 Cor 5:21).            

Only God can bring the world true and lasting peace. That peace must first be within us. So that we can then conquer the world with the gospel of peace, offering the world the love of the Prince of Peace so that they will have peace with God, and possess the peace of God.

The holy scripture is God’s peace treaty. Use it! It never fails.     

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[1] The land of Israel (formerly called Canaan) was given to Abram (later re-named Abraham) and

His descendants. See Genesis chapters 12, 15, 17 and 22. Arab Muslims argue that God promised

The land to Abraham’s son Ishmael (not Isaac) who some believe was the progenitor of the Arab nations.