Focus: The Peace of God

Text: Rom.16:20

"And the GOD of PEACE shall bruise SATAN under your feet shortly. The GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen."

Our world is broken. Things have fallen apart. Nothing is the way God originally made it. Eugene O'Neill, a Nobel laureate said, "Man is born broken; he lives by mending. The grace of God is the glue."

From our text you can see that in all spheres of life Satan is behind our brokenness and God is behind our mending. Peace is the absence of fragmentation and brokenness. It's not hard to feel and notice the presence of Satan wherever and whenever you see confusion and chaos. Satan is trouble everywhere he is. There's no iota of peace in him.

The heart of man yearns for God's shalom. Our souls long for peace and in Christ the believer has found peace. Through justification we have peace WITH God. Through sanctification we have the peace OF God in us, and in the midst of our storms we receive peace FROM God. In the believer's heart God has already bruised Satan. The believer in Christ has a new world coming, a world in which Satan has no part at all. It's a world in which every broken thing has been mended and restored to wholeness. Shalom is wholeness. Peace is harmony and symphony. Paul says, "And the very God of peace sanctify you WHOLLY; and I pray God your WHOLE spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1Thes.5:23). Peace is wholeness - nothing missing, nothing broken, and nothing out of place. The God of peace has applied the glue of grace into the fabric of our lives.

In Christ we have received the birthright of peacemaking, and because we have peace, we're in this life committed to the ministry of peacemaking. We pursue peace at all times and by all means. We are enjoined to "follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" (Heb.12:14). Peace is horizontal; holiness is vertical. The holiness in us produces peace about us. Again Paul exhorts us to "be at peace among yourselves" (1Thes.5:13).

Menachem Begin, a Jewish politician, said, "Peace is the beauty of life. It is the sunshine. It is the smile of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a family. It is the advancement of man, the victory of a just cause, the triumph of truth." Hallelujah!

Let me close by joining Paul in prayer for you: "Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all" (2Thes.3:16). I pray you experience peace in the Holy Spirit. I pray you pursue after the things that make for peace. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, and let me assure you that the God of peace is with you! Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter