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.

Are our wills free or do we have free will?

The answer to this question is yes and no. When God created Adam and Eve He created them with a free will, to choose between good and evil. Before the fall, man’s will was absolutely free from sin – it was perfect. However, since man has peccability (i.e. the ability to sin), his will is always challengeable – particularly to sin which Adam and Eve committed plunging the entire the human race into sin and death.

Here is the status of our will/and or choices now; we are still free to choose, but due to our sin nature, we will not always choose what is right. Sadly, our choices are bound because of our sin so in essence our choices are not always free to choose what is ultimately right and good.

Our will is conflicted because of internal evil.  Listen to the Apostle Paul’s words:

“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me (emphasis added).

For I know nothing good in me dwells, that is in my flesh. For I have a desire to what is right, but the not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep doing (Rom 7:15-19).

This is a masterpiece of instruction by Paul. It gets right to the heart and soul of our problem. 

Paul clearly admits that he desires to do the right thing, but does not because of the sin that dwells in him. His will to do good is bound by his sinfulness. What is the result? He does what he hates to do. In other words, sin often prevails over his desire to do good and please God.

Paul’s will like ours is free to choose, but sadly we often choose evil although within our spirits we desire to do good. Do you understand now how our wills our free and bound at the same time?

Yes, we are free to choose, but because of sin, our wills our incarcerated because of evil.

Is there any wonder Paul cried out, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Answer? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Here’s the scenario: I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh the law of sin (Rom 7:24-25).

  

There is another passage worth mentioning to amplify my point regarding the human will. We find it in Galatians 5, but I say, “walk in the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit against the flesh, for these (the Spirit and the flesh) are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (vv 16-18).

This is revelation knowledge here! Once again Paul is revealing to us our dilemma. We as believers have an internal struggle, a tug-of-war going on within our own being. Our flesh is warring against the Spirit of God! Can you guess who’s going to lose?

What’s the answer to winning this war? We MUST walk in the Spirit (the Holy Spirit)!

Terrific! How do we do that?

Let’s look further in Galatians 5, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things there is no law (vv 23-23).

Practicing these virtues from God, will earn us this victory we need to subject our will to the will of God. This way we want what God desires for us and not our own often selfish desires.

Insisting on our own way is always a losing battle. We see how tragically things ended when Adam and Eve exercised their choice to disobey the Lord – they were expelled from the Garden of Eden.

Yet, we continue to do what we want. Why? Because as Paul stated, sin dwells within me (Rom 7:17,23).  We are wretched human beings (although we sometimes do human benevolent things), that is a fact. No one is essentially good or seeks God (Rom 3:10-12).

Concluding, someone has said our wills our free in the sense that we are only free to choose our sin, but our wills are not free to choose what is good because we are by nature corrupt.

This is a sad commentary of mankind, but is also true.

The person who does not realize this about themselves is blind and will never call on the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, and salvation of their soul.

The Significance of the Old Testament Offerings

The third book of Moses is called Leviticus. It means, “matters of the Levites” The title and meaning come from the Latin Vulgate version of the Greek OT (LXX or Septuagint which means seventy). The Levites were the priestly tribe of the twelve tribes (or sons) of Israel. The Levites are the descendants of their ancestor Levi who was the third son born to Jacob with his wife Leah (Genesis 29:34b).

Moses and his brother Aaron the High Priest were from the tribe of Levi or the Levites.

Now, what was the purpose of the OT offerings? What did they signify? The short answer is the OT offerings were a foreshadowing that prefigured the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ dying on 

Calvary’s cross for mankind’s sins.

The sacrifice was accompanied with great ceremony and had to be executed the right way for God to accept it.

Let us take a look at a couple.

The Burnt Offering

Now the Lord called to Moses, and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of the livestock of the herd and of the flock. If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish (italics added for emphasis), he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He shall kill the bull before the Lord; and the priests, Aaron’s sons shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And he shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and lay the wood in order on the fire. Then the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar, but he shall wash its entrails and its legs with water. And the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord” (Leviticus 1:1-9).

The Sin Offering

Now the Lord spoke to Moses saying, “Speak to the children of Israel saying, ‘If a person sins unintentionally against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which ought not be done, and does any of them, if the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, then let him offer to the Lord for his sin which he has sinned a young bull without blemish (italics added for emphasis) as a sin offering. He shall bring the bull to the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord, lay his hand on the bull’s head, and kill the bull before the Lord.

Then the anointed priest shall take some of the bull’s blood and bring it to the tabernacle of meeting. The priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of the blood seven times before the Lord, in front of the veil of the sanctuary. And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of meeting; and she shall pour the remaining blood of the bull at the base of the altar of the burnt offering which is at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. He shall take from it all the fat of the bull as the sin offering. The fat that covers the entrails, the two kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks, and the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys, he shall remove, as it was taken from the bull of the sacrifice of the peace offering; and the priest shall burn them on the altar of the burnt offering.

But the bull’s hide and all its flesh, with its head and legs, its entrails and offal – the whole bull he shall carry outside the camp to a clean place where the ashes are poured out, and burn it on wood with fire; where the ashes are poured out it shall be burned (Leviticus 4: 1-12).[1]

Commentary

As we read, OT sacrifices involved the brutal killing of an innocent animal in place of the person offering it. Depending upon the sacrifice, the High Priest would sprinkle the blood of a bull seven times[2] on the altar of incense before the veil in the holy place if he was making atonement for himself and the people for sinning in ignorance, or if it was burnt offering, a bull or lamb, a male would be sacrificed with the blood being sprinkled all around the bronze altar used for sacrifice.

When one placed his hands on the head of the animal being sacrificed, it was symbolic of the sinner transferring his sins to that animal. As a result, the animal was killed instead of the person. Blood would always have to be shed. Why? Because blood atones for the soul (Leviticus 17:11).

This act of worship would be acceptable to God and the person would be forgiven (Leviticus 1:4).

Keep in mind certain sacrifices were compulsory or obligatory (i.e. the trespass and sin offering. The burnt, peace, and grain offering were freewill offerings).

The sacrifices were also a demonstration of the nation’s faith in their God to forgive them when they obeyed.

God used the most graphic illustration possible; the slaughter of countless innocent (would to have been in the millions over nearly fifteen hundred years) animals to die and shed its blood for the guilty.

Sin always kills.

Why did the Israelites have to offer sacrifices every day for centuries? What was the purpose of brutalizing, and killing so many animals?

The perpetual daily sacrifices were a constant reminder of the nation’s sinfulness, and as a result they needed perpetual forgiveness from God; the one who they kept offending with their sins. When could they stop offering these brutal sacrifices?

When Jesus Christ came and offered up Himself for the sins of the world. Once He died, the OT sacrificial system became obsolete.

In Hebrews we read some revelatory passages regarding the OT sacrificial system vs the sacrifice (singular) of Christ.

Who does not need daily, as those high priests to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself (Hebrews 7:27).

For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins (Hebrews 10:4).

In the OT sins were atoned for; meaning sin was covered with the shedding of an animal’s blood. The blood was the purifying agent.

With the sacrifice of Jesus’ shed blood, sin is removed forever, washed away when one repents and believes (Revelation 1:5).

That means sin is gone from a judicial, legal standpoint as far as God is concerned. Jesus took away our sin debt and placed it on Himself so we would not have to suffer its penalty – eternal death (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Hopefully, the reader sees the significance of the OT sacrificial system. It foreshadowed Christ’s perfect sacrifice for our sins. It was never meant to take away sins; only to drive those who practiced it to the cross, but no further. The OT law was holy and good in that it revealed to man his inability to keep all the commands it contained; reminding him of his sinfulness, and his desperate need for a deliverer – namely a perfect, spotless sin-bearer (Hebrews 7:26; 9:14).

“He will not always strive with us; Nor will he keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. As far as the heavens are high above the earth, so His great mercy toward those who fear Him; As far as the east is from the west, so far He has removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him.

For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.”

                                                                            Psalm 103: 9-14

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[1] The removal of the dead animal outside the camp of Israel was symbolic of removing sin from their midst since the animal was a sin sacrifice. The law of the sin offering prohibited consumption of the animal if any of its blood was sprinkled on the altar of incense in the tabernacle of meeting before the veil in the holy place. The entire animal had to be burned (Lev 4:13-21). If the animal’s blood was sprinkled on and poured at the base of the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle (not inside it), then a portion of it could be eaten by the priests for it is holy (Lev 6:24-30).

[2] The number seven in scripture represents perfection or completion depending

upon the context.