New Morning Mercies #47

In Christ, you have everything you need to live in peace with God and the people he has placed in your life.

Grace produces what you and I desperately need but have no power to produce on our own—vertical and horizontal peace. Jesus really is the Prince of Peace! Sin alienates us from God and one another. Sin makes us the enemies of God and casts us into constant conflict with other people. Sin cuts us off from the two communities of love that we were created to live in—loving and worshipful community with God and loving community with others. Sin makes us better fighters than lovers. Sin is antisocial; it is fundamentally destructive to the relationships that are to shape our lives. We desperately need peace, but it often seems as if there is no peace to be found. This is why Isaiah’s Old Testament prophecy of a Prince of Peace who was to come was so important, so exciting, and so encouraging (Isa. 9:6). The world was groaning, burdened and broken by vertical and horizontal conflict. The world and the people in it could not fix themselves. Peace seemed to be a distant and delusional hope. But then came the words of Isaiah.

God had a solution. It would not be a negotiation. It would not be a call to action. It would not be a strategy for peace. No, God’s solution would come in the gift of his Son. He would bring the peace that eluded our grasp. He would live the life we could not live, fulfilling God’s requirement. He would bear our punishment, satisfying God’s anger. He would rise from the grave, defeating sin and death. He would do it all so that we could experience what we could never have achieved, earned, or deserved—peace with God. And peace with God is the only road to lasting peace with one another. It is only when the peace of God rules my heart that I can know real peace with you.

This is the good news of the gospel. Peace came. Peace lived. Peace died. Peace rose again. Peace reigns on your behalf. Peace indwells you by the Spirit. Peace graces you with everything you need. Peace convicts, forgives, and delivers you. Peace will finish his work in you. Peace will welcome you into glory, where Peace will live with you in peace and righteousness forever. Peace isn’t a faded dream. No, Peace is real. Peace is a person, and his name is Jesus.

For further study and encouragement: Ephesians 2:11–22