Did Jesus come to bring peace on earth?

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.

81 These sentences cannot be too much weighed, as the heavenly statement of what is in Christ in power and prophetically, and when the prophetic word shall have passed away. We may weigh too, as to its prophetic import, the force of that expression: "Think ye that I have come to give peace in the earth? I tell you nay, but rather division," or as otherwhere, "not peace but a sword." We look then surely to some other revelation of Christ yet in the earth, and by Him, yet not of His first coming, for that brought division, yet flowing from it, for His birth was celebrated as the dayspring of it. The end, as to this, of His coming was peace; the fruit of His first coming was, by virtue of it, division. But this rests only in dispensation, and, though we may be exercised in that, we cannot dwell too much on the simple weight of these words which are beyond the fruit of all dispensation, and imbibe the Spirit of them, that we may be ourselves of that day, when the restitution of all things shall be; yea, of that day now, in the spirit of our minds, already restored to God. We shall find doubtless, practically, its present place on earth, but blessed are we if we find it. We may measure our portion in eternity by our apprehension of these words. Oh! who can tell what the praising presence of God will be? We may say: "It is good for us to be here." Why, this is already effected! If peace were not wrought, why should the angels of God be celebrating it here on earth? So here we are with angels celebrating peace and reconciliation We say: "What hath God wrought?" O wondrous and surpassing love! Enlarging itself on every side, beyond our thought, yet ever carrying it on through infinitude, so that we can only be silent before it!

The Lord pursues the effect of the gospel of a rejected Saviour. He was come to send a fire on the earth, not the crown of natural creation earthly blessing among His people. Messiah - the Head and Crown, but cast out and rejected by the will of man and the rejection of His people - He stands in the place, not of the Head and Bond of Creation, but of the occasion of ill-will, division, and animosity and judgment. "I am come to send a fire on the earth." This would be by the testimony to Him rejected but accepted of God. But what could He now seek or think of, if before the time, as it were, even then in His lifetime, the living Messiah who, in form at least, came as the Head of blessing and the Bringer of peace, was the Kindler of this fire? He could wish now for nothing. His natural mission was turned (and necessarily) into the opposite. His other glory was not come. Nothing could come of the first, and the second was yet with the Father. But the truth was there was something needful before Him; He had a baptism to be baptised with. He had His own portion to go through in this, and all the results must be deferred till then. The blessing, and the title of blessing and peace, and over creation depended on the accomplishment of that which set Him in redemption power through suffering in that; see Hebrews 2. Thence, as became God the Sovereign, for whom and by whom are all things, He could assert His title to bless, and bless in spite of the power of evil; here, creation being ruined, He could not. Hence, how was He straitened till it was accomplished! He could neither bless in the ruin (now fully discovered in His rejection, for He came to bless, or to present blessing, while because so come it was proved irreparably bad, and actually rejected it by its will, in the nearest point to Himself, the favoured Jews) nor in spite of the ruin from a new source, for His baptism of this, to wit, of death and consequent resurrection, was not yet accomplished. But, though He could not bless yet in spite of the evil (though He might heal a few sick folk) at any rate the evil and opposition was fully manifested in the race He came amongst, so that He could say: "From henceforth" (v. 52), for we have seen all this discourse was on His rejection. In the sense of this His rejection, the discovery of the state of things by it, the Lord says: "Suppose ye that I am come to send peace on earth?" Though peace on earth was the nature and essence here of His coming, if received, and shall be when in power, and therefore producing effect, and not seeking it - "I tell you, Nay, but rather division." This opposition of effect and principle opens a vast field of view on the judgment of the condition of the world into which He came, and its entire state of ruin and alienation, and the presentation of the good only making this active.

Here not the birth of a King is announced as in Matthew, but the birth of a Saviour. The wise men from the East looking for the newborn King are not mentioned by Luke. Poor shepherds hear the glad tidings first. Heaven is opened. The Glory of the Lord shines round about; angels' voices are heard, telling out in heavenly praise, what will be the ultimate result of the work of the Second Man. "Glory to God in the highest, Peace on Earth, good will toward men." But the world rejected Him. Good will toward men sounds forth in the glad tidings, but "Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth" is yet to come, when He, the Son of Man, appears again. The shepherds were obedient. They made haste. How simple their faith; how great their reward!

When the message was given, then the angel was joined by a multitude of others lifting their voices in praise to God, but adding also, "on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" Sadly, peace on earth did not immediately follow this announcement, but man is to blame for this. From the heart of God peace has been offered toward men in the person of His Son, but they have refused His Son, and peace cannot be known by the world until it receives the Prince of Peace. Such peace is absolutely certain, but in the future.

But if such was the place of obscurity that He entered, all the world being really out of course and God unwilling to allow such a thought as a sanction by His Son of the state of men in sin; if He gives Him, therefore, a place, as it were, outside, on the other hand there was suddenly "with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men." This is comprising in a few words the whole scope of Divine purpose. The manifestation of the Son, now man, leads to this, not exactly the moral ground of it, or the means by which it will be brought about, but the result as illustrating to their unjealous eyes God's good pleasure in men (not angels). First of all there is, "Glory to God in the highest." Up to the birth of Jesus all had been disappointment in man. The creature had broken down under the best circumstances, and every attempt by any other means to correct it had brought either destruction to men or rebellion against God, growing worse and worse. The deluge had not mended the world, but simply destroyed men. The law had only aggravated the condition of man, provoking their sin into open transgression and sealing them up in condemnation. "Good pleasure in men": so ℵcorr LΔ and all later uncials, cursives. Syrrpesch hcl (sin.: "good will to"), Copt. Arm. Aeth., with Basil, Gregory, Naz., etc.; but Revv. with Edd. adopt "peace to men of good pleasure" after ℵpm Bpm AD, Old Lat. Vulg. Goth., with Iren. Origen (Jer.), Hill, etc. See, further, note 52 in Appendix.

But the birth of the Lord Jesus is at once the signal for the angels to sing [say], "Glory to God in the highest." It would not be merely "Glory to God below," but "in the highest," throughout the whole universe of God, and expressly in its highest places — glory to God at length, everywhere. On earth, where nothing but war had been against God, and with man, confusion, misery, and rebellion — "on earth, peace." Nothing less than this would ensue from the birth of the Messiah, though not all at once; but the heavenly host take in the magnificent issues of His birth who is Father of the age to come. (Isa. 9:6). That birth, too, was the expression that God's complacency is in men.52 There could not be a greater proof of God's good pleasure than this; for the Son of God did not become an angel but a man. He was God from all eternity, but He became man. This bore witness, irrefragable and evident to every one who reflects, to what an object of love men were to God. The heavenly host therefore only sing of these great outlines. They did not enter into detail; perhaps they did not know how any one was to be brought about. But the great fact was there before them; the Lord from heaven was this Babe, the object of contempt to man, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, perhaps as no other babe was. No wonder it drew out the loudest songs [praises] of the angels. They see God's glory in it; they see men thus the object of His infinite love and condescension; they anticipate peace for the earth, spite of all appearances, spite of Caesar Augustus or his decrees, spite of the Roman armies, those massive iron hammers that battered down the nations, the beast that trampled what it could not devour (Dan. 7:7) — spite of all this, "peace on earth." They looked at things as the scene for displaying in man (because the Son was now man) God's glory and grace; and they were right.

Go back with me in your thoughts 1,900 years in the world's history. In the village of Bethlehem a Babe was born of whom it was written centuries before: "Unto us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace" (Isa. 9:6). Outside in the fields the angelic host celebrated His birth thus: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men" (Luke 2:14). He came from heaven to bring peace into a scene long distracted by sin. Judgement was not His mission. As Peter put it in Acts 10:36, God was "preaching peace by Jesus Christ." Aged Simeon, as he beheld the wondrous Babe, blessed God, saying: "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." The sight of the Saviour dispelled from his mind all fear of death, and filled his soul with peace.

But men rejected the Prince of peace. "Depart from us was men's cry to God before the flood" (Job 22:17); the cry was the same when the Son came to earth. Since the Son was the revealer of the Father, the rejection of the Son involved the rejection of the Father also. "They have both seen and hated both Me and My Father" (John 15:24). This explains the Saviour's words in Matt. 10:34: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." His mission was peace, but men's refusal of Him has made peace impossible, and they have to suffer the sword instead. When the Lord Jesus thought of the consequences to men, He wept, saying: "if thou hadst known … the things which belong to thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes" (Luke 19:42). And so it has become true of men everywhere: "the way of peace have they not known" (Rom. 3:17).

Seven centuries waited for the fulfilment of this prophetic word, but they did not wait in vain. The due time arrived at last, and the Angel of God announced the blessed fact to the shepherds of Bethlehem saying "Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord … And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, PEACE ON EARTH, goodwill toward men.'" This Man shall be the peace, for He is more than man. His goings forth were of old, from everlasting. He belonged to eternity, He was its very centre. The Father's bosom was His undisturbed abode, and He brought the peace of that sinless and unchanging Eternity into a storm-tossed and peace-less world. "This Man shall be the peace," for in Him God intervened to bring light into the world's darkness and to establish peace.

The connection and place of peace in Luke, and as to the last or application to us, in John also, is extremely interesting. As soon as Christ is born, the unjealous delight in the divine glory in man's blessing celebrates His birth. They pass over man's fault in putting the Saviour born into the manger, and, filled entirely with the divine thoughts in it, celebrate His praise. And what was this? "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good pleasure in man." That was the result in its own nature of the birth of the Saviour. This presence of the Lord, the fruit of infinite grace, was in itself, if received, peace and blessing - carried it necessarily in what it was in itself - and will produce it finally.

But the Lord was rejected, and as some received Him, He had to say, "Think ye that I am come to send peace on earth; I tell you Nay, but rather a sword. Five shall be in one house, two against three, and three against two."

THE PRINCE OF PEACE. There is not much said about peace in Matthew's Gospel, it belongs more to Luke's and the latter part of John's, but the reason is not far to seek. As the Prince of Peace He sent forth His messengers preaching peace in every house into which they went, but the people were not worthy of that peace for they rejected the Prince of it, and the peace they would not have returned to those who carried it (10:13), and the Prince of Peace had to say in view of this stubbornness and blindness, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace but a sword” (10:34). Nevertheless He was the Prince of peace, and Peter proclaimed this when He told the first Gentiles that ever heard the gospel, “The word which God sent unto the children of Israel , preaching peace by Jesus Christ; (He is Lord of all)” (Acts 10:36). And all who owned His Lordship entered into peace then as they also do even unto this day.