Faith in the News Christian News
When we see the news today, it’s just about all bad, so how can you have peace in a world that’s anything but peaceful?
The Peace of God – Romans 5:1
It’s one thing to pray for peace in the world, but if a person’s never trusted in Christ, the first need is to be at peace with God, because you cannot have the peace of God until you’ve first made peace with God, and that comes only through trusting in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1), however, that peace was costly to Jesus Christ, but it is only “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom 5:2). When a person recognizes their sinful state before a holy God, they will run to the cross and ask for forgiveness, so God brings them to repentance (2nd Tim 2:25), after which they place their trust in Christ.
The Coming Peace – Isaiah 9:7
When we look at the world, brim full of sin, suffering, and violence, we might begin to crave peace, or at least we should. The world doesn’t have the peace we need because the world’s peace comes and goes, but the time is coming when the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, will bring peace to the world by a strong arm. Isaiah the Prophet wrote about a coming time of peace with the King finally comes, and “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this” (Isaiah 9:7). Not only will the kingdom continue to grow, there will be no end of the peace that Jesus Christ will bring to the world.
Peace in the Storm – Mark 4:39
When the disciples were in panic mode and thinking they were about to die in a storm in the middle of the sea, they woke Jesus up and asked Him a ridiculous question: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing” (Mark 4:38)? Think about that question. Was Jesus, Who was preparing them to go into all the world, really allow them to die before they began their work in the first century church? Obviously, no. Jesus was not about to let them die by drowning. Didn’t they realize that Jesus was in the boat with them? So Jesus “awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm” (Mark 4:39). In this world, there will be storms, but Jesus is with us in the storm and will take us through the storm, and if necessary, rebuke the storm. That should give us a deep, abiding peace.
Lord of Peace – 2nd Thessalonians 3:16
Near the end of 2nd Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul prayed that to the church; “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all” (2nd Thess 3:16). If you unpack this, you can see that this is a prayer of Paul. He prays that the Lord of peace will give them His peace, since He is “the Lord of peace himself.” Earthly leaders can promise peace and perhaps even bring peace for a time, because this is not our world, and the god of this world (little “g”) is never going to bring a lasting peace (2nd Cor 4:3-4). His goal is to bring enmity, hate, strife, violence, and even worse; war, however the “Lord of peace” is going to change that. He gives us peace in our hearts because we have been justified before God through Him, but someday, He will bring a final and lasting peace to this earth…and a peace that even mankind cannot destroy.
The Man of Peace – Ephesians 2:15
The only way we can have the peace of God is by trusting in Christ. In this way, Jesus made peace between us and God “by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace” (Eph 2:15). Without Jesus, we’d still be an enemy of God (Rom 5:10), so when Jesus kept the law perfectly, and made unnecessary the old sacrificial system found in the Mosaic Law, it was so that Jesus “might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility” (Eph 2:16). At one time, like the curtain or veil that blocked our access to the Holy of Holies, now, “he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph 2:14). Jesus took the hostility of God on the cross so we wouldn’t have to in hell, so having peace on earth, or at least peace in a person’s life, can only come when you have made peace with God through the Son of God.
The Plan of Peace – Luke 19:38
During Jesus’ last week, while entering Jerusalem on His Triumphant Entry, the people shouted, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest” (Luke 19:38)! Of course, this angered the envious Pharisees because they sought the praise of men, so they said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:39b-40). The Pharisees couldn’t have peace about this because they were jealous and were enemies of God, but for those of us who are God’s children, we have peace now, because we’re at peace with God. There might be peace in heaven, but there is no peace on earth, at least yet, but it is coming…and it can come today for those who have trusted in the Prince of Peace; the Son of God Who died for us.
Conclusion
I hope these verses give you peace because there isn’t much peace in the world…in fact, it’s sorely missing, but there is peace in having a relationship with Jesus Christ because a relationship with Christ allows us to have a relationship with the Father, but not only that, we can have fellowship, and that fellowship will extend into eternity, when Jesus Christ “shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4).
May God richly bless you
Pastor Jack Wellman
Republished by Blog Post Promoter