What does the Bible say about peace?

A word on peace. There are three statements about it, each expressing something which the believer is privileged to enjoy. 1st. Peace with God. 2nd. The peace of Christ. 3rd. The peace of God. The first concerns the conscience, the second the heart, and the third is to garrison the heart. The first, peace with God, the believer has consequent on being justified by faith, and it rests on the knowledge that every question between God and the guilty one has been settled, and settled for ever, by the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. The consciousness of guilt makes the sinner afraid of God, as Adam confessed (Gen. 3:10), "I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." The knowledge of the Lord's resurrection for our justifying, having been first delivered for our offences, assures us that all is settled; hence, justified by faith, we have peace with God. The second, the peace of Christ is Christ's gift to His people (John 14:27). It is what He enjoyed on earth in the midst of all that He passed through in His testimony for God, and it is to rule in our hearts (Col. 3:15). The third, the peace of God, reminds us of the unruffled atmosphere in which He dwells. This He has promised shall guard the heart of each weak, tried, and it may be persecuted saint, who in simplicity and reality unburdens his heart to God in prayer (Phil. 4:7).

Peace with God (Rom. 5:1). This is judicial. It comes to us from a transaction which took place between God and our Lord Jesus Christ, when Jesus was delivered up for our offences, when the chastisement of our peace was laid upon Him. The whole question of our sins having been settled by divine justice, God raised Christ from among the dead for our justification; and, possessing this on the principle of faith, peace with God is consequently ours. It is unchangeable. It rests upon a solid basis of righteousness. It cannot be altered. Though we have it, yet we did not make it. It was made between God and Christ for us, and it is eternal. God was the author of it and Christ the procurer of it. Wars can neither make it nor mar it. Peace with God is ours through the work of another. He made it, and we take it by faith. It is fundamental and abiding.

Not only in His day will the righteous flourish, there will be abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth (Ps. 72:7). He will make wars to cease to the end of the earth (Ps. 46:9). Men will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks (Isa. 2:4). There will be neither enemy nor evil occurrent (1 Kings 5:4). They will not hurt nor destroy in all God's holy mountain (Isa. 11:9). There will even be peace in the animal kingdom (Isa. 11:6). But what of Himself? He is the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6)! We often notice the difference between peace as defined in the dictionary and peace as we find it in the Bible. In the dictionary peace is the absence of war and this is what men look for. In the Bible however peace is the possession of adequate resource to meet every contingency, a very different thing. The peace of God which passeth all understanding, keeps hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, even when the circumstances are adverse. The God of peace also will bruise Satan under our feet shortly. It is a favourite appellation of our God. He is described as “the God of peace,” no fewer than 6 times in the New Testament. Nothing can disturb His steadfast throne, even an uprising at the close of the 1000 years reign. Fire will come down and devour the adversaries. “When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?” (Job 34:29). He is the Prince of Peace.

This scripture invites us to turn everything into a matter of prayer, and freely make known our requests to God. There is no guarantee, you notice, that all our requests will be granted. That would never do for our understanding is very limited and consequently we often ask for that which, if granted to us, would be neither to the glory of our Lord nor to our own blessing. What is guaranteed is that our hearts and minds shall be guarded by the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. Again and again when Christians have passed through trials, from which they had in vain requested to be exempted, we find them looking back and saying, "I am a wonder to myself. How I could have passed through so heavy a trial, and yet have been lifted above it into such serenity, I cannot understand."

"The peace of God," must be distinguished from "peace with God," of which we read in Romans 5:1. That is the peace in relation to God, which comes from the knowledge of being justified before Him. This is the peace, in character like to God's own peace, which fills our hearts when having committed everything to Him in prayer, we trust in His love and wisdom on our behalf, and consequently have anxious care as to nothing.

But now "the counsel of peace" is between God and Jesus, instead of man, and hence security. It is not merely peace, but "the counsel of peace." The word "counsel" implies deliberate purpose. What solidity must there be in that peace which God had a "counsel" about, and all the engagements of which the mind of Jesus fully entered into and accomplished! I have said that peace is our proper portion as the children of God - peace both as to sin and as to circumstances. Now it is true that the latter we have not outwardly yet, but God is taking up all that concerns us, and has taken upon Himself to make "all things work together" for our good; and the knowledge of this gives peace (if we will use our privilege) in all circumstances, be they even those of trial, perplexity, and sorrow. Was it not so with Jesus? who can be so tried as He? "Consider him that endured such contradictions of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds"; yet He had always peace. And so might we: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee."

Romans 12:18. "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." All who know what human nature is, what the affairs of life are, know the difficulty of living at peace with all men. The apostle acknowledges the difficulty and limits the injunction by saying, "If it be possible." But the precept is plain and the duty most important; and the believer, notwithstanding the difficulty, is to do all in his power to live at peace with all men. "As much as lieth in you" — as to what is of you, as far as depends on you, live in the spirit of peace with all. The Christian is called, not only to preserve peace, but to be a peace-maker; and a blessing of peculiar honour and dignity belongs to all such. "Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God." To recompense evil for evil necessarily leads to contention and strife, while peace is the happy fruit of a forgiving disposition.

But here, again, my soul, thou must weigh up things. Consider, I pray thee, that from the wickedness of those by whom thou art surrounded this may sometimes be impossible; but let nothing fail on thy part; ever guard against giving any occasion to any one to complain of thee. Living near to God is the surest way of living in peace with men; for when a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Avoid the snare of courting the favour and the praise of men, for this will surely lead thee to unfaithfulness in thy testimony. Some, in this way, may think themselves possessed of the spirit of peace; but it is rather a spirit of selfish indifference to the claims of Christ, and the salvation of our neighbours.

Verse 28 is worthy of special note, for it very definitely teaches that the soul is not subject to death, as is the body. God can destroy both soul and body in hell; but the word for "destroy" is different from the word for "kill," and is one meaning to cause to perish, or to ruin, and has in it no thought of annihilation. The exact words, "the immortality of the soul" do not occur in Scripture, but here are words of our Lord which assert that solemn fact. The words of verse 34 may seem at first sight to clash with such statements as we have in Luke 1:79; Luke 2:14; or Acts 10:36. But there is no real discrepancy. God approached men in Christ with a message of peace, but He was rejected. At this point in Matthew's Gospel His rejection is coming into view, and hence He declares the solemn fact that the immediate effect of His approach is going to be strife and warfare. Peace on earth will be established by Him at His second advent, and this the angels foresaw and celebrated when first He came. Peace is indeed the ultimate thing, but the cross was the immediate thing; and if He was about to take up the cross then His disciples must be prepared for a sword, and for the losing of their lives for His sake. That loss however was going to mean ultimate gain.

The makers of peace (Matt. 5:9). This is practical. The Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called sons of God” (N.Tr.). It is not that peace-making constitutes us sons of God. The relationship of sons is ours “by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26, N.Tr.); but it means we shall bear that character—that God-likeness; so we shall be known as sons of God. We read of sons of light, sons of the day, and sons of thunder. This is character rather than relationship. Peace-making is to be characteristic of us. The blessedness, happiness, and recognition of this will then be ours. Surely, beloved brethren, since we are recipients of such abundance of peace ourselves; since we belong to Him who is the God of peace; since we are eternally at rest through the work of the great Peace-maker, our Lord and Saviour; since we are called to follow Him, we should seek in every possible way to make peace consistent with the holiness of God. Happy are the peace-makers. It is difficult to think of any of the saints of God seeking anything different from this. They are all peace-takers; they should all be peacemakers; surely none can intentionally be peace-breakers. We are exhorted to “follow peace with all.”

Proceeding with the chapter, the positive side of the question appears. The Gentiles did not possess the privileges of the Jews by nature. "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made both one" — both Jew and Gentile — "and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us." There we have it plainly set forth that the very institutions God set up in His dealings with the Jews are now cast down. God Himself has destroyed the middle wall of partition. He alone is competent so to do. It would have been a sin for any one else to have attempted it. On the other hand, you will find persons who, in their ignorance of Scripture, will argue that, because God had commanded these things once, He must sanction them always. Nothing can be more unfounded. It is entirely limiting God, and shutting their eyes to the plainest statements of His word. Throughout a large part of the New Testament God Himself sets aside the Jewish institution, in all its parts. Doubtless there are moral principles that were true before the law — revealed ways of God from the first, that always must regulate man's conduct with God; but these have nothing necessarily to do with the law. Under the legal institution they might be more or less embodied into the law and take the shape of commandments; but their roots lie far deeper than the law given to Moses. It is founded upon this misconception, that when you speak of the Christian's deliverance from the law, some think you are going to destroy morality, and overthrow God's holy standard of good and evil. But it does not become us to judge what is most for the glory of God. Humility is found in, and proved by, obedience; and obedience depends on subjection to the word of God. The same act in different circumstances is a duty or a crime: the only unerring test for the believer is God's word. It was a sin in the Jews not to destroy all the Canaanites: God commanded them to do so — the only One competent to judge, and entitled to command of His sovereign will. For a Christian now to do the same thing would be to mistake His mind. The world is bound to deal with murderers as stringently now as ever: God has not revoked in any wise the word He uttered as to the sanctity of human life. That is what God had set up long before the law of Moses, or any distinction between Jews and Gentiles. It is annulled neither by the law given to Israel, nor by the gospel that now flows out in grace to the world. Government among men stands upon its own foundation and was involved in the commission given to Noah; but the Christian is outside and above it all. He is called unto a new calling and this we have here. "Now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Our task is not the preservation of the world's order or the punishment of its disorder; but a new building grows up on the blessed, holy, divine ground of the blood of Christ, by which we are brought nigh to God. Nor is it only what we shall be by and by, but what we are now. We "are made nigh by the blood of Christ."

Nothing can be more distinct, "For He is our peace;" a most wonderful expression. Our peace is not merely a thing of enjoyment within us, but it is Christ outside us; and if souls only rested upon this, would there be anxiety as to fulness of peace? It is my own fault entirely if I do not rest in and enjoy it. But even so; am I to doubt that Christ is my peace? I am dishonouring Him if I do. If I had a surety whose riches could not fail, why should I doubt my standing or credit? It depends neither on my wealth, nor on my poverty: all turns on the resources of him who has become responsible for me. So it is with Christ. He is our peace, and there can be no possibility of failure in Him. Where the heart confides in this, what is the effect? Then we can rest and enjoy. How can I enjoy a blessing before I believe it? And I must begin with believing before I enjoy. The Lord in His grace does give His people betimes transports of joy; but joy may fluctuate. Peace is or should be a permanent thing: that the Christian is entitled to have always; and this because Christ is our peace. He is not called our joy, nor God the God of joy, but of peace, because He Himself has done it: and it rests entirely upon Christ. "He is our peace who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us."

Few thoughts move the minds of men as much as the desire for world peace. And yet, despite all the efforts to achieve peace, we constantly hear of war and of the threats and fears of men. But we know from the Bible that, perhaps soon, there will be world-wide peace. This peace will not be the result of human efforts, but will be introduced by God Himself at the beginning of the millennium. The Kingdom of God, under the visible rule of the Lord Jesus, will be a Kingdom of peace (Isa. 9:6-7).