Peace amid war

Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

"All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

"You heard me say, `I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe" (John 14:23-29).

Peace is very much on the minds of most Americans these days. There seems to be so little peace in the world right now. Conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. Acts of terrorism by Al-Qaeda. Sporadic threats from the leader of North Korea.

But the need for peace isn’t just overseas. All across our country, marriages are dissolving due to conflict. Violence in schools and in workplaces make both young and old fear for their safety. Whole neighborhoods lock their doors at night because of gang violence and drive-by shootings.

Peace is something that we need desperately, and yet peace is something very hard to come by. Thankfully, our Lord Jesus promises to give us peace. But He is careful to qualify that promise—He says I do not give to you as the world gives. What does our Lord mean? What makes His peace different than the peace that the world offers?

Let’s start with considering just what peace really is. Peace is what we experience when we are free of stress. Conflict is stressful; peace comes when conflict is ended. Being angry at someone is stressful; peace comes when we let go of anger. Being afraid of getting hurt is stressful; peace comes when we stop worrying about the future. When we are under stress, we experience anger or fear; when we are freed of these emotions, that is when we feel at peace.

Human effort can bring limited peace. A truce can bring about a cease-fire between two countries at war. A marriage counselor can help a couple to reconcile through mutual compromise. Management and labor can end a strike or a lock out through arbitration. There are thousands of people who are trained as negotiators, counselors, and peace envoys.

But such efforts offer only limited success. Truces end and wars resume. People who have divorced and remarried often end up divorcing again. Employers soon ask for concessions from their staff, and employees soon demand increased benefits from management. In spite of human efforts to bring about peace, conflict soon rears its ugly head again, bringing anger and fear back into our lives. Human efforts at peace-making never offer a permanent solution.

The other way in which human peacemakers fail us is that they cannot negotiate a truce between us and God. The ugly fact of the matter is that we all enter life at war with God, and most people alive today are waging war with Him even as we speak. In Romans chapter 8 Paul tells us, the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. Notice Paul’s choice of words: the sinful mind does not submit to God's law. That is the heart of the problem. The apostle John puts it this way: Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4).

It is not in our sinful nature to willingly submit to anyone, let alone God. Isaiah said we all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way (Isaiah 53:6). God has clear expectations for us, summarized neatly in the Ten Commandments, but we chafe at having anyone tell us what we should do. So we rebel; we make decisions that please us, even though at the same time we are angering God. And the result is that we declare ourselves to be opposed to God’s will. By our rebellious choices in life, we announce ourselves as God’s enemies.

Which, in all honesty, is a very foolish thing to do. God created the universe. God gave each of us life. God can end our lives at any moment. God can send our souls to hell, if He so chooses. God is all-powerful. How arrogant, how foolish to think that we can go against Him and somehow get away with it? In a war with God, we can’t expect to win, we can’t even hope to negotiate a non-aggression treaty. In a conflict with the King of creation, all we can expect is to meet utter defeat and an eternity locked away in the prison camp of hell.

Thankfully, our almighty God is also a loving and merciful God. God created the universe as a place for mankind to live. God created mankind to populate His kingdom—to love Him and each other in peace forever. So even though we have declared war against God by our selfishness, God has sent us a peace envoy—God has sent us His Son, Jesus the Messiah. The Messiah’s job was to offer us terms for peace, thus ending our war with God. The terms of that peace are simply this: Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved (Acts 16:31). Believe that Jesus is God’s only Son, encased in a human body. Believe that when Jesus speaks, He represents His Father’s wishes. Believe that when Jesus suffered and died on the cross, He suffered His Father’s punishment for our lawbreaking. Believe that Jesus has risen from the grave our sins put Him in. Believe that when we admit that we have done wrong and ask for another chance to live a life that honors God, He will give us that opportunity for Jesus’ sake.

This is an offer of peace that the world cannot give us. Only God’s chosen representative can bring us an offer of peace with the almighty King of the universe—and that representative is Jesus. Peter says, Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Furthermore, only Jesus can arrange a peace that is permanent; our Lord promised, though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed (Isaiah 54:10). A covenant is like a peace treaty; through our relationship with His emissary Jesus, God offers us an everlasting treaty of peace.

We have heard the terms of the treaty--Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. But what are the benefits? What kind of peace does our Lord offer to us through His beloved Son? The benefit is this—we are freed of the stress of having God angry with us. We are freed of the fear that God will punish us for the things we do wrong. We are reassured that when things get desperate in our lives, we are not left alone on our own because we know that God cares about us, listens to us, and promises to support us through thick and thin. And we are spared the terror of facing death, because we know that Jesus has defeated the hold of the grave and He lives to pull us out of our graves as well. Because Jesus has triumphed over sin and death, we need not stress over God’s anger in life or His eternal punishment—and being freed of that stress results in peace.

Which is not to say that the Christian has no stress in life. Quite the contrary. By accepting Jesus’ terms of peace, we have become law-abiding citizens in God’s eternal kingdom—but God’s kingdom is a kingdom that is at war. God’s Kingdom—our kingdom—is under constant attack by the forces of evil, lead by the devil himself. Satan’s forces commit acts of atrocity against God’s people—acts of spiritual terrorism, designed to make us lose confidence in God’s ability to protect us. And so we, as citizens of the kingdom of God, are called upon to arm ourselves for warfare. In Ephesians chapter six Paul instructs us, Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes…Stand firm…with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Isaiah called Jesus the Prince of Peace. But the peace that Jesus brings is not earthly peace. Jesus does not bring temporary peace—His peace is an everlasting peace. And Jesus does not give us peace with those who are aligned with Satan—those who reject Jesus will also come after we who stand with Him, and Jesus expects us to stand firm in the faith even when such loyalty results in earthly conflict. Jesus does not bring us peace with sin or those who embrace sinful behavior, but peace with God. And this is a peace that we are expected to show to others as well. God’s peace comes from faith in Jesus; we are to spread that peace by telling everyone we can about the peace envoy from God named Jesus the Messiah. God’s peace is characterized by forgiveness; we are to demonstrate the beauty of that peace by apologizing to and forgiving each other when our sinful behaviors result in hurts. God’s peace is about the love of God that reaches into our lives to encourage, uplift and help; we are to live lives that build peace by nurturing and assisting each other in times of need. While such actions will not end all stress and conflict in this world, it will make it a better place for us all to live until Jesus returns to end misery forever.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. To this, I can only add the words of St. Paul from Philippians chapter four: the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.