Peace: More Than an Emotion
This excerpt by Joe Tyrpak comes from Gospel Meditations for Christmas (Day 1: “He Is Our Peace”).
“And he shall be their peace.” (Micah 5:5)
Peace is a word that can describe relatively insignificant experiences such as a nice morning commute or a quiet moment in the living room after the little ones have been tucked in bed. Peace can also describe experiences that change your life, such as what occurs when a husband and wife are reconciled after unfaithfulness. Or peace can describe events that change world history such as the Paris Peace Treaties that brought a formal end to the Second World War.
When Micah prophesied that the Lord would send a King Who would bring peace to His people, what kind of peace was he talking about? The New Testament reveals that Jesus was this long-awaited Savior Who brings rich, multi-faceted peace to all who follow Him.
First, the Bethlehem-born King makes possible our peace with God.
Humanity’s fundamental problem is that God’s just judgment is against us because of our disobedience. Our Creator gave us laws to live by. He said, “You must never love anything more than you love Me, never disrespect your parents, never lie, never flippantly speak My name, never desire things I haven’t given you.” Yet all of us disobey Him in these ways. So, God is at war with us because rebellion characterizes our lives.
But God graciously sent His Bethlehem-born King to be our Peace. Jesus came to make a way for us to be reconciled to God. He lived in perfect obedience to God the Father, then died as the God-appointed Substitute for all who would turn from their rebellion and trust in His sacrifice. Paul wrote that disobedient sinners who trust Jesus are declared “not guilty” in God’s sight, and all who are “justified by faith…have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Experiencing this peace with God is the fountainhead of every other kind of peace we can experience.
Second, the Bethlehem-born King gives us peace with others.
To make peace among people in a dog-eat-dog, look-out-for-number-one culture requires a Leader Who can transform individual hearts from being driven by self-centered ambition to being controlled by unselfish love. Jesus can bring such relational peace (Ephesians 2:14), and every blood-bought local church should be a little (albeit imperfect) demonstration of Jesus’ ability to do so (Colossians 3:15).
Third, the Bethlehem-born King gives us peace through trials.
While Christians live in a cursed, tumultuous world, knowing Jesus gives us “peace that surpasses all human comprehension” (Philippians 4:7). Jesus “guards our hearts and minds” with many “soldiers” of peace.
One soldier is Jesus’ sovereignty: We know that Jesus is in control and is coming soon to set things right, so we can “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4).
Another soldier is Jesus’ assuring presence: Through every tribulation, Jesus is with us by His indwelling Spirit to assure us that we are God’s children (Romans 8:15–23); He is with us in experiential empathy (Hebrews 4:14–16); He is with us in mystical union (Acts 9:4–5).
Further, the soldier of Jesus’ likeness guards our peace of mind: We know that every ounce of hardship we endure is ordained by God to make us more like Christ in our character.
Finally, the Bethlehem-born King will soon bring complete peace on earth.
Let the gospel of peace “guard your heart and mind” with peace today.
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Christmas, rightly understood, is about the incarnation. God becoming man in the person of Jesus Christ is one of the epic events of human history. The incarnation is no less essential to the Christian faith than the crucifixion or the resurrection. These 31 daily readings are theological, devotional, and practical. They will help you move beyond the mere nostalgia of Christmas and worship the Lord Jesus—the Word made flesh!
