PEACE

^[p. 269] PEACE

Colossians 1: 19, 20; Ephesians 2: 13 - 18

My desire has been to present subjects with which we are all more or less familiar, from a moral rather than a dogmatic standpoint. I have spoken of righteousness, and now I come to another element in Christianity, and that is peace. I want to show what peace is, for like many Scripture terms, it is more or less relative, and it must be so, because it has come in consequent upon sin being here. Had sin and confusion not come into the world, there would not have been the same occasion for the light of grace to come in; and if grace has come in to meet certain things existing in the world, many terms must, of necessity, be relative. They must refer to something which is opposed and contrary to them here.

The term “righteousness” stands largely in contrast to sin, and “holiness” in contrast to defilement, impurity and uncleanness. Peace has come in in contrast to confusion and disturbance existing here.

The Lord spoke of peace, contrasting it with tribulation. “In the world ye have tribulation, but in me ye have peace”. It has come in in contrast to confusion of which God is not author. “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace”. We are in the midst of a world of confusion. Men may try to cover things up: they do this to the best of their ability, but confusion is there in spite of all they do, and will come out. In spite of legislation and political arrangements all the time confusion is in the world.

I speak of these things, because undoubtedly peace is a blessing which we are entitled to enjoy down here. Peace is the heritage of the people of God and the proper portion of the church at the present time.

^[p. 270] You get the true idea of peace in “Let the peace of Christ preside in your hearts, to the which also you are called in one body”. It is our blessed privilege to know God as dwelling here, Jew and Gentile having been builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit; and I am sure that everybody will allow that one element which must characterise God’s dwelling is peace. I would not like my own house to be all confusion. I would like my household to be characterised by peace; and if my house should be marked by peace, what about the house of God? If my servants or my children were to take control of my household, it would bring in confusion, and the same is true in regard to God’s house. The Lord said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you”.

Now before I go further I may say that, of necessity, peace must follow upon righteousness. I made the remark on a previous occasion that righteousness is the law or rule of the moral universe, and the secret of righteousness is, that God is love. You cannot understand righteousness except you see that God is love and that love is of God, and it is intelligible that love gives its character to the rights of God. The rights of God are derived from what He is, and therefore I can very well understand that righteousness — the rights of God — is the necessary rule of the moral universe. An evidence of that is, that we are told of new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells. Peace is the effect of righteousness, and cannot be without righteousness. It is vain to look for peace unless God has His own proper place in the affections of every intelligent creature, and every subordinate relationship is maintained in its integrity according to God. The effect of righteousness is peace — and I do not simply accept the statement, but can see that you could not have peace except there were righteousness, and the first principle of righteousness ^[p. 271] is, that God has His rights: the supreme place in the affections of every intelligent creature.

Now just a word as to confusion. I have no doubt whatever that peace prevailed in Eden, God could look on His work and pronounce it all very good: there was no confusion when God had created all things and placed man in the midst according to His mind. And when He made the woman and brought her to the man, there was no confusion, such an element was not there. What brought the disturbance in was sin, the act of will; there was the breach of peace, and confusion became connected, from that moment, with alienation of man from God. God turned him out of the garden of Eden, and then everything was out of course; righteousness had been broken through and lawlessness was there. Then there was confusion, for wherever man seeks his own glory there must be confusion. Man makes himself an object and a centre, and that adds to the confusion: there can be no peace in that. If the creature gets out of the place of the creature, there cannot be peace. We can understand that in natural things. If a servant undertakes the control of a house there is confusion, things are upside down. If man exalts himself, and pride and arrogance thus come in, he has got out of the place of the creature. He does not look for the glory that comes only from God, but seeks His own, and there is confusion, the beginning of it being in man departed from God at the outset. Man was bent on building the tower of Babel. The meaning of the word ‘Babel’ is confusion, for there God brought in confusion of language. Man brought moral confusion in at the beginning, and was adding to it in his purpose to build a city and a tower to make a name for himself, and God came in, confounding their speech. In result there came into the world national antipathy and all that kind of thing, which has filled the earth with confusion. God allowed that to come in as a ^[p. 272] check upon the development of evil on earth; but the confusion was not of God, it was on the part of man. When man arrogates to himself glory which belongs to God, it seems to me that there must be confusion. There can be no true glory of which God is not the fountain.

Now the climax of confusion is found in the man of sin. What will mark his time will be that men say “Peace and safety” when there is no peace, for God will have no peace in that order of things. We read in 2 Thessalonians of the apostasy, and of the man of sin being revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he himself sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God; there is the climax of confusion. There is every possible element of disturbance, and if men say “Peace and safety”, God will not allow peace, the whole thing will be blown upon, and it will be a moment of persecution undoubtedly for the people of God, and, as far as man is concerned, it will result in sudden destruction, which will come upon the world as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.

So far I have touched on two or three salient points in connection with moral confusion in the world. It came in through man becoming alienated from God: it brought trouble into every relationship of life down here. You get the progress of it in Babel, and the climax in the man of sin. Not only will God be refused, but there will be a grave breach of the relationships which God has established in the world. We get striking thoughts of that in the book of Revelation.

Now we have the contrast to that in what is proper to Christians. God is the God of peace, and the God of peace will bruise Satan under our feet shortly. God is not the author of confusion but of peace. He is spoken of many times as the God of peace, and also ^[p. 273] as the author of peace. If God is the God of peace, surely peace belongs properly to God’s house, and I want to bring before you how peace can be enjoyed by us in the midst of a scene of moral confusion. I do not expect, in the present time, to see any improvement in the scene: if men refuse what is of God they must have confusion. But it is a great thing to apprehend that God’s mind, in regard to His people, is peace.

If you refer to the verses in Colossians 1 again (Colossians 1: 19, 20), you read, “For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, 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”. That passage makes it plain that the object in making peace was to bring about reconciliation, and reconciliation was to be brought about by Him. These two little words are often overlooked in the passage.

In Ephesians 2: 13 we get, “But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace” — it does not say He made peace, but He is our peace — “who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace”. That is not the thought of making peace by the blood of His cross, it is making peace in Himself.

In connection with Christ there are evidently three thoughts as to peace. The first is, that He made peace; the second, that He is peace; and the third, He gives His own peace. “My peace I give unto you”, He said to His disciples.

In regard to the first, I suppose the reference is to the peace-offering. There were three offerings which went together — the burnt-offering, the meat-offering,

^[p. 274] and the peace-offering. I leave aside for the moment offerings which were connected with restoration: offerings for sin; they were of a different character; the normal offerings were the three I have named.

The meaning and value of the burnt-offering was acceptance with God. Man by it obtained acceptance with God. The burnt-offering took account of sin in its consequence of death. Sin was met, and righteousness established by the offering, and man found acceptance with God in righteousness. In the meat-offering the point is of pure humanity in the righteous One. In order to have the series completed, we get the peace-offering, and that sets forth that peace is made, the source of disturbance having been removed. In the death of Christ, not simply has God been glorified in regard to righteousness, but confusion has been removed, and there is peace both for God and for man.

Most will remember that the burnt-offering was never eaten: it was all, save the skin, burnt upon the altar; it was a question of the establishing and witnessing the righteousness of God. As to the peace-offering, it was eaten partly by the offerer and partly by the priest. The offerer came into communion with God in the peace-offering, and there you get the beginning of peace; and, it seems to me, a blessed thought that, whatever we see in the world, the removal of the cause of the existing confusion has been effected before God in the death of Christ.

What do you think is the cause of disturbance in the world? It is man after the flesh, and man has been removed in the death of Christ. He has made peace by the blood of His cross, for sin in the flesh has been condemned before God and for God. Peace subsists for God and for those who eat the offering.

If I look at things with the sight of my eyes, I see plenty of confusion; but, at the same time, if I withdraw my attention from things around, and have regard to what has been effected for God, I see that ^[p. 275] the source and cause have been removed sacrificially from under the eye of God: that man is gone. Sin has been put away by the sacrifice of Christ; and not only that, but the man who sought his own glory has been removed in the death of Christ.

But after all there is a weak point in every type. No type can come up to the reality. You never could get in any type the priest and the victim consisting in one. Under the law such a thing was an impossibility. In Christ it is essential that they are One. He offered Himself without spot to God by the eternal Spirit, and this is a point of the last moment, for though you could not get the revival of the victim, you do of the priest.

You do not get a type of resurrection in the offerings, and resurrection is not in the victim, for even Christ, as Victim, was not revived. Sin was condemned in the flesh, and it is in that connection that Christ stood as Victim. He is revived as Priest in the power of an endless life. The Victim has gone, and in the Victim is the end of all the moral confusion. The One who offered Himself without spot to God is revived, not as victim, but as Priest, and that One is our peace. Peace is made by the blood of His cross — the disturbance has gone. It is a great thing to eat the offering and to enjoy it with God, for our souls delight in the way which God has taken to remove the confusion, we can enjoy that even in the midst of this world. I can retire into communion with God, and feed upon the offering of Christ; and the One who offered Himself by the eternal Spirit without spot to God, is revived from the dead, and is our peace.

We come now to Ephesians 2, “He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition ... For through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father”. The One who is revived from the dead has communicated of His Spirit to all who believe in the testimony of ^[p. 276] God. Jew and Gentile have received the Spirit to set aside practically in them the flesh. Do you think that Christ, raised again from the dead, can tolerate that which He has died to set aside? It is a moral impossibility. If we allow the will of the flesh to intrude, we bring about distance between Christ and ourselves practically, because Christ has given to us of His Spirit that we might participate in Himself; that we might be attracted and drawn to Himself, to be led by Him in the way of righteousness. That is what Christ has wrought to do.

We ought to have the most profound delight in the One who offered Himself for us without spot to God. All that was represented in the Victim has been removed for God, and the One who offered Himself has been revived as Priest; and all that He did, before He went back to God and since, has been to attach the hearts of His people to Himself that they may be led in the way of righteousness, and the effect of that is peace. Peace is God-ward, but there is also peace between Jew and Gentile, and that could only be brought about in one way — by Christ.

Christ came preaching peace. He virtually preached Himself. It is the bringing in of another Man. He came preaching peace to them who were far off — that was the Gentile; and to them who were nigh — the Jew; and now we both have access to the Father through Him. We enjoy access to the Father as we are attached to Christ. The closer we are to Him the more we enjoy it. You will remember the words of the Lord Jesus in John 16: 27, “For the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God”. What we want in order to enjoy access to the Father, and what ought to mark us, is faith and love. This is the effect of Christ having His proper place in the hearts of His people.

We are not to judge of things in the world by the ^[p. 277] sight of the eyes. If we do we are in danger of being affected by that which is passing around us. There is an element in man which answers to any kind of excitement abroad, and man, at the bottom of his heart, does not care much for peace: he is more at home in disturbance. Men may talk about peace, but it really is not wholly congenial. I think that men would almost prefer to live in the atmosphere of disturbance and excitement. When the Lord cast the legion of devils out of the demoniac, the Gadarenes desired Him to depart out of their coasts. He brought about peace, but they were more content with the demoniac and the swine than with the presence of Christ. I do not think people want peace in a general way, and for the reason that man is lawless, and has too much concern for his own will.

We want to stand apart from all that is passing in the world, taking care that our spirits are not affected by it; to watch and be before God that we may be kept free in spirit from the things about us, whatever they are, for no influence in the world tends in the direction of peace. And we eat the peace-offering: so as to be in the sense of that which has been effected for God and for man in the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not only that we have acceptance with God, but that the cause of disturbance and confusion has been removed in the death of Christ from under the eye of God to make room for Christ, who is our peace. If God removed the old man in the death of Christ, it was in order to make room for Christ, that He might occupy the place where the old man had been. If our old man is crucified with Christ, Christ is to get the place with us. Unless we are in the light of divine love I am sure that we shall not walk in peace with one another. If we walk in the presence and light of God as He has revealed Himself then we can, in the Spirit, be in peace with one another. Disturbance may come in between saints, and then ^[p. 278] we have to judge ourselves in regard of righteousness. But there is no disturbance in the Spirit of Christ. There is peace in Christ, and He is our peace, and there is not the possibility there of confusion and disturbance coming in. These can only come in from the man who is alienated from God; and if, on the one hand, we accept that the cause of confusion and disturbance has been removed, on the other, it is for us to give place to the Spirit of Christ, to walk in the light which Christ has brought, and, in the Spirit, so to order our conduct toward one another.

Supposing you find two saints alienated from one another, it is a practical denial of what we get here. Christ has made both one, and there must be something there which is not of Christ. We shall never get at peace in regard to one another except by the practical exclusion of the old man in the introduction of the Spirit of Christ. There is nothing more important to impress upon saints than that, righteousness being established, they are entitled to walk in the light of divine love, and the effect of that is peace, not only in regard of God, but in regard of one another. There is nothing which practically excludes the flesh except the light of divine love. You may depend upon it, if there are differences between one and another down here they never come from divine love. Those under its influence would not be content to nourish differences.

Just a word now in regard to Christ’s peace. In Colossians 3: 15 it says, “Let the peace of Christ preside in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful”. What I understand by the peace of Christ is what must, of necessity, be within, that is, perfect complacency in the will of God. I am speaking now of Christ as Man who could say, “Thy law is within my heart”. Another element of it is knowledge of divine power to give effect to that will. Those two things must, I judge, go together to ^[p. 279] make up the peace of Christ. The will of God is good and perfect and acceptable, and there is complacency in that will; it could not be otherwise with Christ. He was in that will, having become man to give effect to it. Then there is not simply intelligence in the will but complacency, and the consciousness of divine power to give effect to it. That is the secret of the peace of Christ. If I had the idea that the will of God is good, perfect and acceptable, but had not the consciousness of the power which can give effect to that will, I would not have peace. We want confidence in the power of God to give effect to His will; and that is what governed in the mind of Christ in His pathway through this scene.

We are to stand complete in all the will of God, and in assurance of heart that God has power to give effect to His will, and the result will be that we shall be without disturbance, the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts to the which also we are called in one body. Christ gave that peace to His disciples. “My peace I give unto you”, He said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in me ye have peace”.

Peace is a moral element in Christianity, and it must be the effect of righteousness. If there be not righteousness, the maintenance of divinely-appointed relationships in integrity, God will not tolerate peace. “There is no peace for the wicked”. If there be righteousness, then I can understand that peace follows upon it, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”.

It is most important to see the place that Christ has in relation to peace; how He has come in, in the cross, to remove the cause of confusion, and there is now peace by Him between those who were by nature very far separated, Jew and Gentile. We were all very far separated from one another, we were not of the same kindred, but Christ has come in to displace practically in us what He removed in the cross. The ^[p. 280] old man was removed in the cross, and the Spirit of Christ is come in to effect the setting aside of the old man in us, that there may be no room for anything but Christ. If there is distance between saints there is a defect on the point of righteousness, not simply on the point of love. There is the allowance of the flesh, that which has been removed in Christ’s death, and that is not righteousness. The great part of our difficulties is not as regards affection, but as regards righteousness, practical righteousness, the fruit of which is peace.

Christ has made peace, He is our peace, and He gives to us His peace that we may walk in quietness and sobriety down here, having complacency in the will of God, and, at the same time, confidence in God that He is able, in due season, to give effect to His will. Thus will the peace of Christ rule in our hearts.