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“War and Peace, Part 7” by Romans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc0DKzPdv44
We are continuing in our Discussion, “War and Peace.” Last week, we completed six Installments of the topic, “War.” Tonight, we are moving ahead, and will be examining the other side of the coin of this Discussion, namely, “Peace.” As you will soon see, the Bible has much to say about Peace. Much more, in fact than the average person, even the average Christian might imagine. I would have to think long and hard before I could remember a sermon or series that touched on some of the aspects of Peace that I plan to be covering.
That says nothing about me, personally. I have nothing to boast about, nor do I want to leave any of you with the impression that that is what I am doing. I have merely been the beneficiary of having attending, when I was living in Philadelphia, a Church for some twenty years where these aspects were regularly preached. I left Philadelphia over twenty years ago, and have not, since then, heard these aspects ever spoken about from any pulpit, in person, on the radio or on television. I will share those aspects with you that I was blessed to hear and be made aware of, as we proceed into our “Peace” Installments.
The chapter and verse references I will be using were primarily found under the heading, “Peace” in Nave's Topical Bible. I fully expect to, as I begin this Discussion, supplement that list with other verses of my own, as well as cross-references from various Commentaries I will be using. As I look over my notes as they exist right at this point of development, I have four full pages of Scripture references that list only the chapter and verse, (i.e. only the notation, “Luke 2:14”), and not what the verse, itself, says. While I am not going to be using every last verse that was provided by Nave's List, when you add notes from Commentaries and my own observations and remarks, I think we are going to be here for a good while examining Peace as it occurs in Scripture.
The first cited Scripture is found in Leviticus 26:6: “And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.”
This is one of the many things God promised to Israel as He gave them the Commandments and Statutes to follow. If they did, they would experience “peace in the land.” There are countries that have endured centuries of war and invasion and enslavement, such that the word peace is not even in the vocabulary of their nation. Viet Nam is such a country. For centuries, they only had the term that means “no war,” but not “peace” because they fully expected that uneasy quiet to be broken, and for a new wave of invaders and conquerors to ravage their land, and enslave their people.
In the verse we just read, God offers Israel, if they observe His Statutes and Laws, that no other human leader or government or pagan god could ever offer or deliver for its people: peace. Lasting peace where none would make them afraid.
As Christians, we are also to be obedient, put away evil in our lives, and seek that peace that God offers, as we read in Psalms 34:14: “Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.”
John Gill writes, “Depart from evil,.... This denotes that evil is near to men; it keeps close to them, and should be declined and shunned: and it regards all sorts of evil; evil men, and their evil company; evil things, evil words and works, and all appearance of evil; and the fear of the Lord shows itself in an hatred of it, and a departure from it,
and do good; not only acts of beneficence to all in necessitous circumstances, but every good work; whatever the word of God directs, or suggests should be done; and which should be done from right principles of faith and love, and to right ends, the glory of God, and the good of his interest; and Christ should be looked and applied unto for grace and strength to perform; all which are evidences of the true fear of God;
seek peace, and pursue it; in the world, and with all men, as much as possibly can be; in neighbourhoods, cities, and states, and in the churches of Christ, and with the saints, as well as with God through Christ; and which in every sense is to be pursued after with eagerness, and to be endeavoured for with diligence;
There is a cross-references to see Romans 12:18: “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” Adam Clarke writes, “If it be possible - To live in a state of peace with one’s neighbors, friends, and even family, is often very difficult. Sometimes, we even find this difficulty among our spiritual brethren. 7But the man who loves God must labor after this, for it is indispensably necessary even for his own sake. A man cannot have broils and misunderstandings with others, without having his own peace very materially disturbed:
he must, to be happy, be at peace with all men, whether they will be at peace with him or not. The apostle knew that it would be difficult to get into and maintain such a state of peace, and this his own words amply prove: And if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably. Though it be but barely possible, labor after it.”
As we previously read, we should seek peace even though those with whom we do seem to be much happier in a state of hostility and conflict. This is brought in in Psalms 120:5-7: “Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar! My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.” The Preacher's Homiletical writes of this, “A man can hardly be subjected to a greater trial than to be compelled to mix in society with which he has no sympathy and which has no sympathy with him,—e.g., a scholar with those who despise learning, an artist with those that have no taste, the pure with the impure, the sober with the degenerate, and vice versa.
So the Psalmist felt himself unhappy amongst men with whom he had no spiritual affinity. This is the case with the godly through all time. They dwell in a world that does not acknowledge their God, and with men who cannot appreciate their worth. Heaven is the place where all is harmony, and whose pursuits, &c., are congenial to all. Hell is the opposite.
II. Unrighteous contradictions. “They will listen to nothing. They are for discord, variance, strife. All my efforts to live in peace are vain. They are determined to quarrel, and I cannot prevent it. (a) A man should separate himself in such a case as the only way of peace. (b) If this cannot be done, then he should do nothing to irritate and keep up the strife. (c) If all his efforts for peace are vain, and he cannot separate, then he should bear it patiently as divine discipline. There are few situations where piety will shine more beautifully. (d) He should look with the more earnestness for the world of peace; and the peace of heaven will be all the more grateful after such a scene of conflict and war.'—Barnes.”
Being in the company of people, even just one person, who, as described above, who is for discord, variance and strife, can make one's life miserable in spite of everything else going well. It can happen in a family, a neighborhood, a school or a workplace. Under such circumstances, Jesus calls upon us to do what is humanly impossible: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” (Matthew 5:44 ). I say this is humanly impossible because it is... but it is not impossible to God Who gives us the mind of Christ which manifests itself when we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Albert Barnes writes, “Love your enemies - There are two kinds of love, involving the same general feeling, or springing from the same fountain of good-will to all mankind, but differing so far as to admit of separation in idea. The one is that feeling by which we approve of the conduct of another, commonly called the love of complacency; the other, that by which we wish well to the person of another, though we cannot approve his conduct. This is the love of benevolence, and this love we are to bear toward our enemies. It is impossible to love the conduct of a person who curses and reviles us, who injures our person or property, or who violates all the laws of God;
but, though we may hate his conduct, and suffer keenly when we are affected by it, yet we may still wish well to the person; we may pity his madness and folly; we may speak kindly of him and to him; we may return good for evil; we may aid him in the time of trial; we may seek to do him good here and to promote his eternal welfare hereafter. This seems to be what is meant by loving our enemies; and this is a special law of Christianity, and the highest possible test of piety, and probably the most difficult of all duties to be performed.
Bless them that curse you - The word “bless” here means to “speak well of” or “speak well to:” - not to curse again or to slander, but to speak of those things which we can commend in an enemy; or, if there is nothing that we can commend, to say nothing about him. The word “bless,” spoken of God, means to regard with favor or to confer benefits, as when God is said to bless his people. When we speak of our “blessing God,” it means to praise Him or give thanks to Him. When we speak of blessing people, it “unites” the two meanings, and signifies to confer favor, to thank, or to speak well of.”
There is a cross-reference which tells us, from the pen of the Apostle Paul, what doing good to an enemy looks like. If, as we read in Proverbs 15:1 that “a soft answer turns away wrath,” consider how taking these actions has the potential to bring peace where formerly there was only strife, conflict and misery. We looked at one of these verses earlier, but we see it now in a wider application, here: We read in Rom 12:17-20: “Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.”
Alexander MacClaren writes of these verses, “The closing words of this chapter have a certain unity in that they deal principally with a Christian’s duty in the face of hostility and antagonism. A previous injunction touched on the same subject in the exhortation to bless the persecutors; but with that exception, all the preceding verses have dealt with duties owing to those with whom we stand in friendly relations. Such exhortations take no cognisance of the special circumstances of the primitive Christians as ‘lambs in the midst of wolves’; and a large tract of Christian duty would be undealt with, if we had not such directions for feelings and actions in the face of hate and hurt.
I. Hostility is to be met with a holy and beautiful life.
The Authorised Version inadequately translates the significant word in this exhortation by ‘honest.’ The Apostle is not simply enjoining honesty in our modern, narrow sense of the word, which limits it to the rendering to every man his own. It is a remarkable thing that ‘honest,’ like many other words expressing various types of goodness, has steadily narrowed in signification, and it is very characteristic of England that probity as to money and material goods should be its main meaning. Here the word is used in the full breadth of its ancient use, and is equivalent to that which is fair with the moral beauty of goodness.
A Christian man then is bound to live a life which all men will acknowledge to be good. In that precept is implied the recognition of even bad men’s notions of morality as correct. The Gospel is not a new system of ethics, though in some points it brings old virtues into new prominence, and alters their perspective. It is further implied that the world’s standard of what Christians ought to be may be roughly taken as a true one. Christian men would learn a great deal about themselves, and might in many respects heighten their ideal, if they would try to satisfy the expectations of the most degraded among them as to what they ought to be.
The worst of men has a rude sense of duty which tops the attainments of the best. Christian people ought to seek for the good opinion of those around them. They are not to take that opinion as the motive for their conduct, nor should they do good in order to be praised or admired for it; but they are to ‘adorn the doctrine,’ and to let their light shine that men seeing their good may be led to think more loftily of its source, and so to ‘glorify their Father which is in heaven.’ That is one way of preaching the Gospel. The world knows goodness when it sees it, though it often hates it, and has no better ground for its dislike of a man than that his purity and beauty of character make the lives of others seem base indeed.
II. Be sure that, if there is to be enmity, it is all on one side.
‘As much as in you lieth, be at peace with all.’ These words are, I think, unduly limited when they are supposed to imply that there are circumstances in which a Christian has a right to be at strife. As if they meant: Be peaceable as far as you can; but if it be impossible, then quarrel. The real meaning goes far deeper than that. ‘It takes two to make a quarrel,’ says the old proverb; it takes two to make peace also, does it not? We cannot determine whether our relations with men will be peaceful or no; we are only answerable for our part, and for that we are answerable. ‘As much as lieth in you’ is the explanation of ‘if it be possible.’ Your part is to be at peace; it is not your part up to a certain point and no further, but always, and in all circumstances, it is your part. It may not be possible to be at peace with all men; there may be some who will quarrel with you.
You are not to blame for that, but their part and yours are separate, and your part is the same whatever they do. Be you at peace with all men whether they are at peace with you or not. Don’t you quarrel with them even if they will quarrel with you. That seems to me to be plainly the meaning of the words. It would be contrary to the tenor of the context and the teaching of the New Testament to suppose that here we had that favourite principle, ‘There is a point beyond which forbearance cannot go,’ where it becomes right to cherish hostile sentiments or to try to injure a man. If there be such a point, it is very remarkable that there is no attempt made in the New Testament to define it.
The nearest approach to such definition is ‘till seventy times seven,’ the two perfect numbers multiplied into themselves. So I think that this injunction absolutely prescribes persistent, patient peacefulness, and absolutely proscribes our taking up the position of antagonism, and under no circumstances meeting hate with hate. It does not follow that there is never to be opposition. It may be necessary for the good of the opponent himself, and for the good of society, that he should be hindered in his actions of hostility, but there is never to be bitterness; and we must take care that none of the devil’s leaven mingles with our zeal against evil.
There is no need for enlarging on the enormous difficulty of carrying out such a commandment in our daily lives. We all know too well how hard it is; but we may reflect for a moment on the absolute necessity of obeying this precept to the full. For their own souls’ sakes Christian men are to avoid all bitterness, strife, and malice. Let us try to remember, and to bring to bear on our daily lives, the solemn things which Jesus said about God’s forgiveness being measured by our forgiveness. The faithful, even though imperfect, following of this exhortation would revolutionise our lives. Nothing that we can only win by fighting with our fellows is worth fighting for. Men will weary of antagonism which is met only by the imperturbable calm of a heart at peace with God, and seeking peace with all men. The hot fire of hatred dies down, like burning coals scattered on a glacier, when laid against the crystal coldness of a patient, peaceful spirit... It takes two to make a quarrel; let me be sure that I am never one of the two!”
As we move along through the Psalms, we come next to Psalms 133:1: “A Song of degrees of David.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” This verse has both physical and spiritual applications: The brethren with whom it is pleasant to dwell together in unity may be the brothers in our physical family or our spiritual family. When we experience this, there is a peace and a sense of serenity that cannot be put into words. It is a peace that surpasses the agreement we may achieve with people outside the family because there is a bond of blood or spirit, and sometimes both that gives this unity an additional sense of calm and blissfulness that we wish would never end. If you have experienced this, you know what I am saying...
Albert Barnes writes of this: “Behold - As if he looked upon such a gathering, and saw there the expressions of mutual love. This may have been uttered in the actual contemplation of such an assemblage; or it may have been a picture of the imagination. How good - How good in itself; how proper; how suited to promote happiness, and to diffuse good influences abroad. And how pleasant - The word used here means lovely, charming, attractive; that which fills the mind with delight, spoken of one beloved; of a friend; of a place; of words; of beauty or glory, as of Yahweh. It is descriptive of the pleasure which we derive from a picture, from a landscape, from sweet sounds and gentle voices, or from love.
For brethren to dwell together in unity - Margin, even together. Hebrew, “The dwelling of brethren also together.” Perhaps the idea in the word “also” may be, that while the unity of brethren when separate, or as they were seen when scattered in their habitations, was beautiful, it was also pleasant to see them when actually assembled, or when they actually came together to worship God. As applicable to the church, it may be remarked (1) that all the people of God - all the followers of the Redeemer - are brethren, members of the same family, fellow-heirs of the same inheritance; (2) There is a special fitness that they should be united, or dwell in unity;
(3) There is much that is beautiful and lovely in their unity and harmony. They are redeemed by the same Saviour; they serve the same Master; they cherish the same hope; they are looking forward to the same heaven; they are subject to the same trials, temptations, and sorrows; they have the same precious consolations. There is, therefore, the beauty, the “goodness,” the “pleasantness” of obvious fitness and propriety in their dwelling together in unity.
(4) Their unity is adapted to produce an important influence on the world. No small part of the obstructions to the progress of religion in the world has been caused by the strifes and contentions of the professed friends of God. A new impulse would be given at once to the cause of religion if all the followers of the Lord Jesus acted in harmony: if every Christian would properly recognize every other Christian as his brother; if every true church would recognize every other church as a church; if all ministers of the Gospel would recognize all other ministers as such; and if all who are Christians, and who walk worthy of the Christian name, were admitted freely to partake with all others in the solemn ordinance which commemorates the Saviour’s dying love.
Until this is done, all that is said about Christian union in the church is a subject of just derision to the world - for how can there be union when one class of ministers refuse to recognize the Christian standing, and the validity of the acts, of other ministers of the Lord Jesus - when one part of the Christian church solemnly refuses to admit another portion to the privileges of the Lord’s table - when by their actions large portions of the professed followers of the Redeemer regard and treat others as having no claims to a recognition as belonging to the church of God, and as left for salvation to his “uncovenanted mercies.”
One of the good things about using a Topical Bible to look up words and themes (such as Nave's), is that it quite frequently provides verses that capture the idea, even though the word “peace” is not used in the verse provided. This is true of our next verse, Proverbs 15:17: “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.” We may not fully appreciate the King James rendering of this concept, so I will share with you this verse from the New Living Translation: “A bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate.”
The Preacher's Homiletical shares this with us: “Hatred takes away all enjoyment from any of God’s gifts. If a rich man bears malice against the guest whom he is entertaining at his table—if while he feeds him upon the best, he desires for him the worst—he knows nothing of the pleasures of hospitality... But love is a large compensation for a dinner of herbs. Love to husband or wife, to parent or to child, makes sweet every family meal, however homely the fare—that charity which “seeketh not her own, thinketh no evil, beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things,” is a sauce to the humblest dish which one man can set before another, and more than lifts it above the rich man’s feast given for the sake of custom or expediency to guests to whom he has not a particle of goodwill.”
As we continue in Proverbs, we read Proverbs 16:7: “When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.”
Of this, Matthew Henry writes, “Note, 1. God can turn foes into friends when he pleases. He that has all hearts in his hand has access to men's spirits and power over them, working insensibly, but irresistibly upon them, can make a man's enemies to be at peace with him, can change their minds, or force them into a feigned submission. He can slay all enemies, and bring those together that were at the greatest distance from each other.
2. He will do it for us when we please him. If we make it our care to be reconciled to God, and to keep ourselves in his love, he will incline those that have been envious towards us, and vexatious to us, to entertain a good opinion of us and to become our friends. God made Esau to be at peace with Jacob, Abimelech with Isaac, and David's enemies to court his favour and desire a league with Israel. The image of God appearing upon the righteous, and his particular lovingkindness to them, are enough to recommend them to the respect of all, even of those that have been most prejudiced against them.”
Our next verse from Proverbs is, again, one which does not use the word “peace,” but conveys it nonetheless: “Proverbs 20:3 It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling.”
Matthew Henry writes, “This is designed to rectify men's mistakes concerning strife. 1. Men think it is their wisdom to engage in quarrels; whereas it is the greatest folly that can be. He thinks himself a wise man that is quick in resenting affronts, that stands upon every nicety of honour and right, and will not abate an ace of either, that prescribes, and imposes, and gives law, to every body; but he that thus meddles is a fool, and creates a great deal of needless vexation to himself.
2. Men think, when they are engaged in quarrels, that it would be a shame to them to go back and let fall the weapon; whereas really it is an honour for a man to cease from strife, an honour to withdraw an action, to drop a controversy, to forgive an injury, and to be friends with those that we have fallen out with. It is the honour of a man, a wise man, a man of spirit, to show the command he has of himself by ceasing from strife, yielding, and stooping, and receding from his just demands, for peace-sake, as Abraham, the better man...”
Next, we come to a Messianic Prophecy of the peaceful state the earth will experience at long last, when war will come to an end. In this Prophecy, the word peace is not used, but pay special attention to the picture that it paints: Isaiah 2:4: “And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Spears, and the effort that goes into making weapons will cease. There will be worldwide abundance to feed the world necessitating the manufacture of “pruninghooks,” or, harvest equipment. Weaponry will be obsolete as waging war will no longer no longer be learned, because it will no longer be taught.
John Gill adds, “This clearly proves that this prophecy belongs to future times; for this has never yet had its accomplishment in any sense; not in a literal sense; for though there was an universal peace all the world over, at the birth of Christ, in the times of Augustus Caesar, yet there afterwards were, as our Lord foretold there would be, wars, and rumours of wars, and nation should rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and so it has been, more or less, ever since; nor in a spiritual sense, for though Christ has made peace by the blood of his cross, and came and preached it by his ministers, and wherever the Gospel of peace takes place, it makes men of peaceable dispositions, and reconciles them, as to God and Christ, and the way of salvation by him, so to one another; and it is peace saints are called to, and, when grace is in exercise, it rules in their hearts;
and yet there have been sad contentions and quarrels among the people of God, and which yet still continue; but in the latter day glory, or spiritual reign of Christ, this prophecy will be fulfilled in every sense; for after the hour of temptation is over, that shall try all the earth, after the slaying of the witnesses and their rising, after the battle at Armageddon, when the beast and false prophet will be taken and cast alive into the lake of fire, there will be no more wars in the world, nor any persecution of the saints; and then will the peaceable kingdom of Christ appear, and all his subjects, and the members of his church, will live in the utmost unity and harmony together; they shall no more envy and vex one another; and of this peace there will be no end, these words are applied to the times of the Messiah, both by ancient and modern Jews.
(q) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 63. 1. (r) R. Nachman. Disputat. cum fratre Paulo, p. 41. R. Isaac. Chizzuk Emuna, par. 1. cap. 1. p. 43, 44. Kimchi in Isa. lxv. 19.”
I am amazed to find that the next verse was not included in the list. But it is significant enough that I added it to the Discussion. It is another Prophecy of the Messiah. This time however, it is not regarding His return but, rather, His appearance as a man to live an exemplary life of sinless service and sacrifice, and to die for sins. We read in Isaiah 53:5: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
John Gill writes, “But he was wounded for our transgressions,.... Not for any sins of his own, but for ours, for our rebellions against God, and transgressions of his law, in order to make atonement and satisfaction for them; these were the procuring and meritorious causes of his sufferings and death, as they were taken upon him by him to answer for them to divine justice, which are meant by his being wounded; for not merely the wounds he received in his hands, feet, and side, made by the nails and spear, are meant, but the whole of his sufferings, and especially his being wounded to death, and which was occasionally by bearing the sins of his people; and hereby he removed the guilt from them, and freed them from the punishment due unto them:
he was bruised for our iniquities; as bread corn is bruised by threshing it, or by its being ground in the mill, as the manna was; or as spice is bruised in a mortar, he being broken and crushed to pieces under the weight of sin, and the punishment of it. The ancient Jews understood this of the Messiah; in one place they say,
the chastisement of our peace was upon him; that is, the punishment of our sins was inflicted on him, whereby our peace and reconciliation with God was made by him; for chastisement here does not design the chastisement of a father, and in love, such as the Lord chastises his people with; but an act of vindictive justice, and in wrath, taking vengeance on our sins, of our surety, whereby divine wrath is appeased, justice is satisfied, and peace is made:
and with his stripes we are healed; or "by his stripe,” or "bruise": properly the black and blue mark of it, so called from the gathering and settling of the blood where the blow is given. Sin is a disease belonging to all men, a natural, hereditary, nauseous, and incurable one, but by the blood of Christ; forgiving sin is a healing of this disease; and this is to be had, and in no other way, than through the stripes and wounds, the blood and sacrifice, of the Son of God. Christ is a wonderful physician; he heals by taking the sicknesses of his people upon himself, by bearing their sins, and being wounded and bruised for them, and by his enduring blows, and suffering death itself for them.”
(o) Mechilta apud Yalkut, par. 2. fol 90. 1. (p) Zohar in Exod. fol. 85. 2. See also Midrash Ruth, fol. 33. 2. and Zohar in Deut. fol. 117. 3. and R. Moses Hadarsan apud Galatia de Arcan. Cath. Ver. I. 8. c. 15 p. 586. and in I. 6. c. 2. p. 436. (q) בחברתו "per livorem ejus", Munster; "livore ejus", V. L. Montanus, Vatablus; "tumice ejus", Junius & Tremellius; "vibico ejus", Cocceius; "vibicibus ejus" Vitringa.”
Is there a peace more significant than the Peace that is ours when we are forgiven of our sins? I think not.
Alexander MacClaren writes of that Peace, “The issue of the Servant’s sufferings is presented in a startling paradox. His bruises... are the causes of our being healed. His chastisement brings our peace. Surely it is very hard work, and needs much forcing of words and much determination not to see what is set forth in as plain light as can be conceived, to strike the idea of atonement out of this prophecy. It says as emphatically as words can say, that we have by our sins deserved stripes, that the Servant bears the stripes which we have deserved, and that therefore we do not bear them.
III. The deepest ground of the Servant’s sufferings.
The sad picture of humanity painted in that simile of a scattered flock lays stress on the universality of transgression, on its divisive effect, on the solitude of sin, and on its essential characteristic as being self-willed rejection of control. But the isolation caused by transgression is blessedly counteracted by the concentration of the sin of all on the Servant. Men fighting for their own hand, and living at their own pleasure, are working to the disruption of all sweet bonds of fellowship. But God, in knitting together all the black burdens into one, and loading the Servant with that tremendous weight, is preparing for the establishment of a more blessed unity, in experience of the healing brought about by His sufferings.
Can one man’s ‘iniquity,’ as distinguished from the consequences of iniquity, be made to press upon any other? It is a familiar and not very profound objection to the Christian Atonement that guilt cannot be transferred. True, but in the first place, Christ’s nature stands in vital relations to every man, of such intimacy that what is impossible between two of us is not impossible between Christ and any one of us; and, secondly, much in His life, and still more in His passion, is unintelligible unless the black mass of the world’s sin was heaped upon Him, to His own consciousness. In that dread cry, wrung from Him as He hung there in the dark, the consciousnesses of possessing God and of having lost Him are blended inextricably and inexplicably.
The only approach to an explanation of it is that then the world’s sin was felt by Him, in all its terrible mass and blackness, coming between Him and God, even as our own sins come, separating us from God. That grim burden not only came on Him, but was laid on Him by God. The same idea is expressed by the prophet in that awful representation and by Jesus in that as awful cry, ‘Why hast Thou forsaken Me?’
The prophet constructs no theory of Atonement. But no language could be chosen that would more plainly set forth the fact of Atonement. And it is to be observed that, so far as this prophecy is concerned, the Servant’s sole form of service is to suffer. He is not a teacher, an example, or a benefactor, in any of the other ways in which men need help. His work is to bear our griefs and be bruised for our healing.”
The Peace that is made possible by that Atonement, or at-one-ment that was accomplished by the death of Christ, enabling us to be forgiven, adopted into the Family and Kingdom of God, and made at one with God is a Peace that, without even a close second, transcends anything and everything else that we may think of when we think of Peace. The reason for this is that it is an everlasting Peace, not like, as Jesus told us in John 14:27 which the world gives. The world can provide nothing that even compares. It is a Gift of inestimable value, costing more than anything other gift that has ever been bestowed: the very Life of the Prince of Peace. And it is ours for the asking.
This concludes this Evening's Discussion, “War and Peace, Part 7.”
This Discussion was originally presented “live” on June 6th, 2018.