Knowing God .... What is peace? Think of Gods gift of peace. What does the gospel of God offer us? If we say the peace of God, none will demur--but will everyone understand? The use of right words does not guarantee right thoughts!! Too often the peace of God is thought of as if it were a feeling of inner tranquility, happy and carefree, springing from knowledge that God will shield us from lifes hardest knocks. But this is a misrepresentation, for, on the one hand, God does not featherbed His children in this way, and anyone who thinks he does is in for a shock, and on the other hand, that which is basic and essential to the real peace of God does not come into this concept at all. The TRUTH which this account ignores is that the basic ingredient in Gods peace, without which the rest cannot be, is PARDON & ACCEPTANCE INTO COVENANT--that is, adoption into Gods family. But where this CHANGE OF RELATIONSHIP with God (out of hostility into friendship, out of wrath into the fullness of love, out of condemnation into justification) is NOT SET FORTH, the gospel of peace is not set forth either!!! The peace of God is first and foremost peace WITH God; instead of God being against us, is for us. No account of Gods peace which odes not START here can do other than mislead. One of the miserable ironies of our time is that whereas liberal ad radical theologians believe themselves to be RESTATING the gospel for today, they have for the most part REJECTED the categories of wrath, guilt, condemnation, and the enmity of God, and so have made it impossible for themselves ever to present the gospel at all, for they cannot now state the basic problem which he gospel of peace solves! The peace of God, then, primarily & fundamentally, is a new relationship of FORGIVENESS & ACCEPTANCE & the source from which it flows is PROPITIATION. When Jesus came to his desciples in he upper room, the evening on his resurrection day, he said, Peace be with you; and when he had said that, he showed unto them his hands and side. WHY did he do that? Not just to establish his identity, but to REMIND them of the propitiatory death on the cross---whereby he had made PEACE with his Father FOR them! He now came in his risen power to bring that peace TO them! It is here that the TRUE knowledge of the peace of God begins!
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 15:14:07 +0000
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