Peace With God
This the sinner possesses and enjoys in believing. He is justified by God on the ground of the blood-shedding of Christ, who has “made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:2020And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (Colossians 1:20)). Faith lays hold of and believes in an already completed work, which has answered for the sinner and satisfied the claims of God, and thus has a cloudless, never-ending, unalterable peace. This peace does not depend upon the enjoyment of its possessor, but upon the work of Christ who made peace by the blood of His cross. A “God of peace” it was who “brought again from the dead... that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant” (Heb. 13:2020Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, (Hebrews 13:20)).
A risen Christ is our peace in the presence of God (Eph. 2:1414For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; (Ephesians 2:14)). All this is true for the believer, without his feelings or his enjoyment of it entering in at all. Apart from all these things, he possesses this unalterable peace with God. It depends not on his enjoyment of it, but on its reality before God. It was the parting gift of Christ to His people: “Peace I leave with you”; “peace be unto you” (John 14:27; 20:1927Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)
19Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. (John 20:19)). He had made peace by His blood. The God of peace had brought Him again from the dead, and He had nothing but peace to leave them.
The Peace of God
This is God’s own peace in which He dwells the peace of that God whom nothing can change, who knows the end from the beginning and who has ordained everything from the beginning to the end, and though man may strive and hinder His purposes for a while, all will eventually be brought to pass.
Can we not for a moment contemplate the perfect, unruffled, conscious peace in which God dwells? And yet this peace is promised that it shall keep the believer’s heart and mind who has committed all his anxieties, all his cares by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving to God. “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Phil. 4:66Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. (Philippians 4:6)). And what is promised? “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” God’s own peace, in which He dwells, keeps guard over the heart, and the heart rests in the midst of every trial and every difficulty, and the mind is not on the rack of anxiety, but is filled with God’s peace, when all has been laid out before Him and committed to Him.
The Peace of Christ
This is yet another thing. To be sure, Christ is God, but still God’s peace and Christ’s peace are not the same. Hence the difference in John 14:2727Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27) between “Peace I leave with you” and “My peace I give unto you.” Christ did not need peace with God, as we do as sinners. He “knew no sin.” He gives us this through His precious blood. This He did not need for Himself. The spotless Lamb of God “did no sin” and was “separate from sinners” while among them. We receive the changeless portion, peace with God through His precious blood. But as a Son with His Father, He passed through the world in the conscious communion of perfect peace (My peace) in every step.
His was a life of sorrow here, but there never was a cloud during His whole pathway between Him and His Father. It was a life of perfect unity of thought and object, as He lived by His Father. “I live by the Father” (John 6:5757As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. (John 6:57)). There was one solemn moment when the three hours’ darkness, sin-bearing and judgment on the cross shut this out, when He was atoning for our sins. It was but for that moment, for all the rest was unvarying peace. “My peace.” This, then, is the peace of Christ.
Summary
The first (peace with God) is the portion of the sinner who believes, his unalterable portion.
The second (God’s peace) is that which the Christian has when he has unburdened his heart of every care and committed every thought to Him who knows the end from the beginning.
And the third (Christ’s peace) is what we enjoy when living by Him, even as He enjoyed when living by the Father. “I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me” (John 6:5757As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. (John 6:57))—communion with Him and with the Father, who has been revealed in the Son. And more: When we are thus enjoying Christ’s peace, we have the enjoyment, too, of that peace with God which, as saved sinners, we possess through His work on the cross.
F. G. Patterson