Peace

October 18

Peace is an elusive commodity. Whether we’re talking about inner peace or peace between family members or neighborhood or business factions or peace among nations, the outlook is often unpromising. People wrestle within themselves over sins of omission and sins of commission. People dispute everything from property boundaries to world dominance. People are not given to peace.

But peace can be given to them. The only One who can give peace is the Prince of Peace. Jesus is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). To the degree that a man surrenders his life to the Lord, to that degree he will have “the peace of God that passes all understanding that keeps his heart and his mind in Christ Jesus,” Philippians 4:7.

In Romans 5:1, Paul explains this wonderful phenomenon by saying, “Since we have been made right with God by our faith in Jesus, we have peace with Him through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul presupposes here that there is only one way to be made right with God and that is through our acceptance of the sacrifice of Jesus of Himself to pay the penalty for our sins.

When men receive this wonderful inner peace, their outer relationships can be aligned with peaceful existence between brothers and neighbors and nations. Apart from His peace, there can be no abiding rest from disagreements of every sort. Apart from His peace, each man, each nation, demands his own will. When Jesus reigns in peace within, each man desires only the peaceful will of the Holy One.