An Unexpected Peace

An Unexpected Peace

Have you ever felt an intense rivalry with someone? It may seem that peace can only be found with that person by defeating him or her or by winning an argument. If you’ve studied history, you know that’s how most wars end. The victorious nation wins a battle and accepts the surrender of the defeated. The winner decides the terms of peace, while the losing country has to pay a great cost.

But in the peace between humankind and God, the opposite is true. God won by “losing.” We win by giving up everything to follow him. What is remarkable about our relationship with God through Jesus is that we find peace not by us winning anything over God, but by him losing everything for us. We didn’t defeat God in some battle. We didn’t force him to accept our terms. If anything, we were vulnerable to being defeated by God because our sinfulness couldn’t be overcome. If he chose to, he could have wiped out humanity as his sinful enemies. But he loved us and brought peace by flipping it all upside down.

We can now “have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us” (Romans 5:1). That peace means no war with God. It means comfort and rest from the weariness of a sin-filled world. It means hope for eternal life instead of death.

Peace usually comes by strength of will, determination, and dominance. Yet our peace with God comes from the sacrifice of his Son for us. Unexpected? Yes. To us, it seems backward. But to God, it’s the only way a lasting, eternal peace could have been won. And our God is always victorious.

Daddy-Daughter Time

Can either of you think of a war that ended with the losing side gaining more than the victor? Isn’t it amazing that Christ’s victory over death gives us victory in a battle over sin that we never could’ve won? Are there areas of your lives where you would like peace . . . an end to fighting, to conflict, to anger, or to damaged relationships? What can we learn from Christ’s example of how he earned peace for us with God? Talk about how that might apply to your situations.

What’s The Word?

Since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.   Romans 5:1-2