PEACE WITH GOD
There are some things you have desired from God in the past, thinking, “If only I get this thing from God, my peace will be guaranteed,” but the peace we get from God is perfect and everlasting. Peace with God is the highest level of peace anyone can have.
Romans 5:1 reveals that the basis for our peace with God is that we have been justified by faith. This peace that we have with God is through our Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah spoke about this in Isaiah 9:6. Jesus was described as the prince of peace.
Romans 10:15 reveals that there is a gospel of peace which is the gospel of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18,19, Ephesians 2:11-14 reveals that Christ is our peace.
Jesus came to preach peace. In actuality, the hostility between God and humanity was killed on the cross.
The primary assignment of Jesus’s coming to the world is to be the prince of peace. His coming to save the world from their sin established peace with God and man.
The significance of this is that man now has access to God.
Peace with God is the greatest level of peace that a man can have. We can’t have any other peace if we have not have peace with God. The ministry of reconciliation is what the Bible refer to as “Jesus coming to stop the fight between man and God”
He has given us the ministry of reconciliation; while we are not the ones putting an end to the conflict, we are announcing to the world that it has ended and that peace has been achieved. He gave us the ministry of reconciliation and the word for it, which is, that God is no longer at war with us; rather, the conflict has been resolved, and that Jesus came to earth to accomplish this.
The word ‘reconciliation’ in Greek means to change from a state of enmity to that of friendship.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19 reveals that Christ himself is reconciling men with God and he is not crediting men’s account anymore because there’s no more fight between man and God, there is peace. It’s an assurance that strife is over. There’s no more hostility, we are now sons.
There’s a common song that’s usually sung at funerals…
“The strife is over, the battle won,
Now is the victor’s triumph song
Now be the song of praise begun
Hallelujah!”
It’s believed that at the demise of a person, he has stopped fighting. But as believers, you have stopped fighting before you die.
It’s a song for people who are alive in Christ. The song is a testament to what Christ has done, testament to what God has accomplished through Christ. He is our peace. There’s no more battle, no more strife.
That is the height of peace a man can experience on this side of eternity. If you have not reached a stage in your life and understanding where you know that you are at peace with God, then whatever you believe to be your source of peace is not. It eventually turns into a weapon in your hands, and when the adversary tells you that God is angry, you boldly announce that God is not at war with you. Our justification by faith brings us to this peaceful position. Man is justified by faith when he accepts, believes, knows, and receives what God has done through Christ, which results in peace between God and humanity.
Isaiah prophesied about it that he will be the counselor, everlasting father but among all the things he will do, he will be the Prince of Peace.
Jesus on the cross was him preaching peace. When Jesus was hung on the cross, God was establishing the reconciliation between man and God. Not only did God restore man to himself, but he also bestowed upon him the ministry of reconciliation. The ministry of reconciliation is the preaching of peace.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (KJV).
We are telling the world that He has been made our righteousness. He made who knew no sin as the righteousness of God.
We cannot claim we are in the ministry of reconciliation and we do not know the word of reconciliation yet we keep preaching condemnation. Although hell fire is for those that refuse to accept the truth concerning this peace, the message still holds that God is not at war against us. It is called the gospel of peace. The day He ended the fight was when His Son chose to die, hung on the cross and the fight was over.
The first provision of peace that God will give anyone is peace with God. It is the first level of peace anyone should have, walk and operate in.
It is the primary understanding we should have that God and man are not fighting again.
Romans 2:4
Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?(KJV).
The only way God used to persuade mankind is through goodness. God will show a man mercy and make the man bend down on his knees.
If God is merciful and kind, how then are we not submitting to His peace? Rather than threatening men with hell fire, we should show them that they are reconciling with God and their job is to believe what God has done through Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:12-17
That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh (KJV).
Even while on the cross, the Bible says, the veil was torn from top to bottom.
Galatians 4:6
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father (KJV).
Now we can cry Abba Father.
John 20:17
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God (KJV).
He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our God. The fight is over. This understanding of peace can settle. The fight is over. We must settle that before God.
Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?(KJV).
Who can lay a charge against the elect? The person that qualifies to lay a charge is Christ himself.
We should settle that when anything contrary is going on in our lives, it isn’t God.
When we come to an understanding that we are at peace with God no one can lay a charge against us.
Ultimately, God is not angry with us.
We can’t improve the peace God has with us.
The peace we have with him is settled. What settled our peace is the death of Christ.
What enacted the peace we have with God is sufficient and enough to establish this peace once and for all. Christ is our peace. He has broken every wall of partition.
Halleluiah!