THE GOD OF PEACE
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"Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until that day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again." 1 Thes. 5:23
It is a striking and suggestive fact, that the Divine Perfection associated by the angels with their Advent Song when announcing the birth of Christ was, the attribute of Peace. They might have placed in the forefront of their proclamation of glad tidings, the Love of God in originating, or the Wisdom of God in planning, or the Power of God in executing the great expedient of saving man by the Incarnation of the Son of God. But no! they bore from heaven to the inhabitants of a sin-tainted world over which the dark waters of the curse fiercely surged, the olive branch of Peace. Their mission was a mission of peace, their commission was to proclaim a divine amnesty– peace from heaven, peace with God, peace between God and man. Listen to their song- how entrancing its strains which broke the silence of that stilly night, and which floated in such melody over the plains of Bethlehem– Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God: "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors."
Such is the Divine perfection we invite you to consider– God not only proposing peace with the subjects of a revolted empire, not only devising the scheme by which a peace honorable to Himself and available by man may be received, but revealing Himself divinely and essentially as "the God of peace." Our subject is a great and comprehensive one, fraught with blessed instruction and hope to those who, convinced of their natural enmity against, and revolt from, God, are anxiously and earnestly inquiring how they may return to God, and in what way propitiate His regard and be at peace with Him.
About to celebrate, as we are, the Advent to our world of earth's Great Visitant- the Incarnate God, the Divine Savior of men– it will not be an inappropriate subject of meditation, the attribute and character of God as- "The God of Peace." The passage from where our subject is selected is a prayer of the apostle on behalf of the Thessalonian saints. He had been addressing to their minds holy and earnest exhortations, urging sanctity of heart and holiness of life to the extent even of avoiding the "appearance of evil." Then, as if remembering the impotence of these saints, unaided by a higher power, to reach the lofty standard he places before them, he concludes his exhortation with one of the most expressive and touching prayers ever breathed from mortal lips- "Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until that day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again."
What a prayer! what a motive! what an attainment!– perfect holiness unto the coming of the Lord! Thus the subject now engrossing our thoughts unites with our personal and complete holiness the two Advents of Jesus– the First Advent to make peace, and the Second Advent to consummate and crown it. The subject is of vital importance and of precious interest. The great event of human life is, to be at peace with God. So long as there is variance and alienation between God and the soul- holiness on the part of God separating Him from the sinner; enmity on the part of the sinner placing him in antagonism to God– there can be no peace, reconciliation, or fellowship. "How can two walk together except they be agreed?"
Oh, it is of the utmost moment that we know, and clearly understand, God's way of peace. And that thus knowing it, we are found walking in it in all the sweet consciousness of perfect reconciliation with God, holiness of body, soul, and spirit, the natural and the blessed consequent and fruit. Let us, then, briefly address ourselves to the opening up of this important subject, showing in the first place IN WHAT SENSE WE ARE TO REGARD GOD AS THE "GOD OF PEACE" and then, if our space permits, considering the prayer of the apostle founded thereupon.
Our first remark relates to God as, essentially the "God of peace." There could be no revelation of God in this particular apart from this fact. Peace with man originated with God. It was a divine thought, as its mode was a divine conception, and its execution a divine power. But this could only have been the case as it found its property essentially in God. If peace had not been a divine inherent, an essential perfection of God, no proposition of peace with men could have obtained a moment's hearing, and no expedient for its accomplishment the slightest shadow of success. Herein is seen the overflowing of God's mercy and grace to sinners!
With the injured, the outraged One– with Him against whom the appalling crime of revolt had been committed, against whose Being and government the sinner had uplifted his arm of treason and defiance, and poured out his deadly hate; originated the conception and the expedient, the offer and the proclamation of peace! Could this possibly have been the case had not peace been an essential perfection and quality of His nature? Oh, it is delightful, beloved, to trace the springs, the rivulets, the rivers of salvation up to the Divine and Infinite Ocean from where they flowed. To see GOD in our salvation, to refer it to His very essence, to know that, because He is what He is, there is salvation for the most lost of our race, pardon for the guiltiest sinner, peace for the greatest rebel that ever defied the power, trampled upon the authority, insulted the Majesty, and denied the very existence of God.
How earnestly and impressively has God Himself vindicated this perfection of His being, as if jealous of its existence and anxious to assure the mind of the rebel sinner that if he but return from the error of his ways, relinquishing his hostility, and grounding his weapons of rebellion, he shall find no hand outstretched towards him but the divine hand of peace. "Fury is not in me; who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. These enemies will be spared only if they surrender and beg for peace and protection." Thus God declares that He is not an angry God, but a God of peace, all day long stretching out His hand to a gainsaying and rebellious race, waiting to be gracious. Oh, what a God is our God!
As ORIGINATING AND DEVISING THE PLAN OF PEACE with sinners, He is the "God of peace." The negotiation of peace between God and man could only have its origin in God Himself. The thought of a reconciliation between the offended Creator and the offending creatures, no created mind, human or angelic, would ever have conceived; to a creature's eye, the breach appears too great ever to be repaired, the gulf too wide ever to be passed; the difficulties in the way of a reconciliation of too vast proportions ever to be overcome. Divine justice must be perfectly satisfied, Divine holiness perfectly secured, the Divine government fully upheld, the Divine law honored and magnified. What mere created mediator, what arbitrator less than Divine, could have met and answered this demand? Who shall reveal Jehovah as the God of peace? Who shall loosen the seals of His decrees, and make known His eternal thoughts of reconciliation and peace to man?
Ah! angels and men might have wept through eternity before the divine, the impenetrable secret had been discovered, if the "God of peace" had not assumed the initiative in the great matter; if He had not taken the first and only effectual step in declaring to the fallen world that He had looked within Himself, and there found, in the person of His beloved Son, dwelling in the bosom of the Father from all eternity, the Peace-maker between God and man, even the man Christ Jesus.
We cannot be too conversant with the truth that, "Salvation is of the Lord." While there is, essentially, the human element in our redemption, there is, and must as essentially be, the Divine element. All God's works are impressed with His divinity, all "declare His eternal power and Godhead"– from the atom dancing in the sunbeam, to the Alp piercing the clouds– from the hyssop that springs out of the wall, to the cedar tree that is in Lebanon– all witness to the wisdom, power, and goodness of Him who made them. Is it to be supposed, then, that His greatest, His master-achievement– that work which reveals and illustrates, unites and harmonizes, every perfection- of His being and attribute of His character, every thought of His mind and feeling of His heart- the redemption of man by the Incarnation obedience and death of the Son of God– should not be so manifestly a Divine work as shall awaken the homage and praise of His own people, and as shall extort, even from His enemies, the tribute of their wonder and admiration?
It is no light thing, beloved, to have our faith well confirmed in the Divine Inspiration of the Scriptures of truth, and in the Divine origin of the salvation of the Church. In no other work of our God does He appear so full-orbed in every perfection as here. Here is no shading, no obscuration of our Divine Sun. In the work of creation God is, as it were, in partial eclipse. We see only parts of His ways, His "back parts." But in the salvation of the cross, in the great expedient by which peace, reconciliation, and love are restored between God and man, God is seen in His full meridian majesty, every perfection of His being exhibited, every attribute of His character revealed– His mind and heart fully unveiled.
What confidence does this give to the poor, trembling faith of the soul that ventures itself upon Christ, that humbly sues for pardon and peace at the cross of Jesus! Because salvation is of the Lord, and because the blood that cleanses is the "blood of God", and because the righteousness that justifies is the "righteousness of God", therefore Jesus is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him. We are fully justified, yes, commanded, unhesitatingly to accept the peace God has provided, and Christ has made, and the Spirit imparts, on the ground that our God is the "God of peace." If He from whom we have so deeply revolted, and against whom we have so greatly sinned, is the first to make the overture of peace, the first to extend the olive branch of amity, who are we that we should disbelieve and hesitate, demur and refuse? Will not our very refusal fully to accept in humble faith and gratitude the reconciliation God has provided, increase our sin and augment our punishment? Away, then, with all vain excuses and puerile fears concerning your warrant in the Gospel to accept the overture of God's pardoning mercy in Christ Jesus, and, in the language of the apostle, "Be reconciled to God."
This conducts us to an essential part of our subject- GOD'S METHOD OF PEACE, the plan of reconciliation by which He has written His name as the "God of peace," as He nowhere else has written it. Concerning the NECESSITY of a Divine plan of peace, we need not enlarge. We must rather, seeing our space is limited, and how important it is that we have scriptural and clear views of God's way of peace, assume the fact as proved, than attempt its proof. All that we can venture to state is, that the wide severance between God and man created by the fall, renders a Divine method of reconciliation necessary, if peace be at all restored.
Prior to the fall, all was love and fellowship between the Creator and the creature. Every faculty of man was in harmony and communion with every perfection of God. The reign of perfect holiness was the reign of perfect love. Oh, what a paradise of peace and beauty was Eden! Not an alienated affection, or a discordant feeling, or a dissonant thought, or a jarring note! The song of peace filled every grove with melody, and the aroma of love every bower with sweetness. Oh, what will the New, the renovated Earth and Heaven be when sin shall be extirpated, love restored, and peace enshroud with her balmy wings a world in which will dwell righteousness!
But we have now to deal with a fallen race, a depraved nature. God is at variance with man, on the ground of Holiness, Justice, and Truth, and until these perfections of His nature are honored, and harmonized with Love, Mercy, and Grace, there can be no reconciliation on His part with man. Such is the wide and terrible breach, such the two extremes of being- the Infinitely holy and the totally sinful- between whom a reconciliation is to be effected. And how shall this breach be healed? By what expedient shall beings so opposite in nature, so extreme in purity, be reconciled and brought into a state of at-one-ment, without compromising holiness on the one hand, or in the least degree condoning the offence on the other? Such was the great problem the solution of which Deity alone could supply.
An expression of the inspired apostle gives us a clue to the unravelment of the great and glorious mystery. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." Here we are at once referred to Christ as embarking in the great work of the Peacemaker, undertaking and accomplishing His divine and pacific mission. Hence to Him belong, and most justly, the high and honorable titles of, "Our Peace," "The Prince of Peace," "The Arbitrator, laying His hands on both." It was the greatest work He ever embarked in, the adjustment of the claims of justice, holiness, and truth, with the yearnings of love, mercy, and grace, so as to maintain the dignity of God's moral government intact, and yet effect a full and perfect reconciliation between God and man.
But our divine and gracious Peacemaker- blessings forever on His name!- was in all respects fitted for the undertaking. Absolutely divine, God could negotiate terms of peace, through His beloved Son, strictly honorable and glorifying to Himself. Perfectly human, He was fitted to undertake the work of making peace on the part of man, and He is denominated the "One (and there is only One) Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." Thus our beloved Lord partook of the nature of both the parties between whom He mediated. As God, He mediated for God; as man, He mediated for man.
The question arises, 'In what way does the Lord Jesus become our peace?' The answer to this question leads us at once to the great plan of atonement. He presented to God a full, honorable, and accepted Atonement for our transgression. The only thing that could separate between God and man was sin. This removed- removed in a way that would secure the interests of justice and holiness- peace was made. By the offering of Himself as a sacrifice for sin, by His obedience to the law, and by His death-penalty to justice, He presented a full equivalent to all the demands of the divine government, bearing our sins, suffering, bleeding, dying, and so making peace by the blood of His cross.
And now, by the great sacrifice of Christ once for all, we are one with God, one with Him in mind, one in affection, one in will, one in fellowship, God and the believing sinner brought into a state of at-one-ment by the Atonement of "Christ who is our peace." "But now you belong to Christ Jesus. Though you once were far away from God, now you have been brought near to him because of the blood of Christ. For Christ himself has made peace between us Jews and you Gentiles by making us all one people. He has broken down the wall of hostility that used to separate us. By his death he ended the whole system of Jewish law that excluded the Gentiles. His purpose was to make peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new person from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death, and our hostility toward each other was put to death. He has brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and to us Jews who were near."
The great practical question which arises at this stage of our subject is, does God stand TO US in the relation of the "God of peace?" Is He at peace with us through Christ Jesus, and are we at peace with Him? It is of the utmost moment that we believe and are sure that our peace is made with God, and that we are in a state of friendship with Him. This peace is not a thing made by us- for no sinner can make his own peace with God- it is a peace made by Christ the Mediator for all those who believe, and is available to us as we accept the terms of God's reconciliation, which are that we believe in Him whom He has sent. "This is the commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ."
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