Christ is Our Only Peace as a Christian

Peace is a word frequently accompanying Christian traditions. For those who celebrate the church calendar, peace is one of the four themes of Advent. Christians worship the messiah as the “prince of peace”. Peace is a watchword for guarding Christian conduct. In the pursuit of truth and in the midst of disputes, peace is to be a priority. Blessings that are pronounced between individuals and large groups of Christians often involve the “peace of God”. Even beyond the Christian tradition of peace, there is a broader desire for peace. An absence of peace in home environments is the reason for all sorts of non-profit programs and government budgetary expenses. A lack of peace abounds where wars and violence rage. Peace is seemingly cross-cultural. Peace is a desire of humanity. 

Yet, peace seems elusive in our present world. Families are torn apart by both internal and external reasons. Individuals suffer from a lack of peace regarding the past, present, and future. We have specialized words in English to describe the many multifaceted ways in which humans can experience a disruption or lack of peace. 

Do you have a lack of peace regarding your future? That’s anxiety. 

Is peace quickly fleeting from you? That is a disruptive disorder. 

Have you lost any hope of gaining peace? That is depression. 

Is your group willing to destroy peace with another group? That is a war. Is someone failing to provide sufficiently for the peace of those in their care? That is negligence. Are you deprived of peace when you seek sleep? That is insomnia. 

Peace is something easily observed when present, earnestly desired when absent, and blissfully enjoyed when possessed. 

The human desire for peace is perhaps the only thing that can rival the desire for happiness. One could even argue that the two desires are intertwined. Surely peace is one of the primary vehicles on the road to happiness. Peace is more than a state of mind or the absence of a disorder. Peace is something that can be experienced, tangibly shared, relationally received, corporately enjoyed, and continually delighted in. 

Source of Peace

Beyond the concept of peace within various expressions of Christian tradition is the source of peace. For the inspired writers of the New Testament, peace is not a state of mind, a moral to be kept, or even an outcome to be pursued. Peace is a person and a status. Jesus is peace in human flesh. Jesus has secured peace for all are united to him through faith in him. 

The peace which Christ has secured has ended the hostility between God and the redeemed of Christ. 

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him, we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. [Ephesians 2:14-18] 

John Calvin, commenting on this passage wrote “What a beautiful title is this which Christ possesses, — the peace between God and men! Let no one who dwells in Christ entertain a doubt that he is reconciled to God.”

There are two categories of peace secured by Christ that Paul references in Ephesians 2:14-18. The first category is the peace secured between Jews and gentiles within the community of believers as a united body (vs 14-15). The second category is the peace secured between that one united body and God himself (vs 16-18). 

Charles Hodge commenting on this passage wrote: 

“To reconcile is to effect peace and union between parties previously at variance. Neither the English nor Greek terms (διαλλάσσειν, καταλλάσσειν) indicate whether the change effected is mutual or only on one side. A child is reconciled to an offended father who receives him into favour, though the father’s feelings only have been changed. Whether the reconciliation effected by Christ between man and God results from an inward change in men, or from the propitiation of God—or whether both ideas are to be included, is determined not by the signification of the word, but by the context and the analogy of Scripture. When Christ is said to reconcile men to God, the meaning is that he propitiated God, satisfied the demands of his justice, and thus rendered it possible that he might be just and yet justify the ungodly. This is plain, because the reconciliation is always said to be effected by the death, the blood, the cross of Christ; and the proximate design of a sacrifice is to propitiate God, and not to convert the offerer or him for whom the offering is made. What in one place is expressed by saying Christ reconciled us to God, is in another place expressed by saying, he was a propitiation, or made propitiation for our sins.”  

Matthew Henry commenting on Ephesians 2 wrote: 

“Through the person, sacrifice, and mediation of Christ, sinners are allowed to draw near to God as a Father, and are brought with acceptance into his presence, with their worship and services, under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, as one with the Father and the Son. Christ purchased leave for us to come to God; and the Spirit gives a heart to come, and strength to come, and then grace to serve God acceptably.”

Notice that Ephesians makes an inseparable connection between Jesus and peace. For those who have faith in Christ, Jesus IS our peace. Jesus doesn’t unlock peace, or open a door to peace, or demonstrate a way of living which is peace. Jesus IS our peace. The cross was the mechanism by which Christ accomplished satisfaction between the sinner (you and me) and the righteous God. Yet the reason that mechanism was satisfactory to it’s task was because of the person on the cross. Peace, in the way Ephesians 2 speaks of it, is personal. Peace is the person of Jesus Christ. 

Peace, as far as Ephesians 2 is concerned, has been accomplished and is available vertically with God our maker, and with fellow believers horizontally through the person of Jesus Christ. 

In the midst of a fallen broken world that offers an ongoing treadmill of disruption, disorder, and distortion, Christ Jesus is peace. To chase peace apart from Christ will only lead to a hollow, temporary distraction. To truly pursue peace means to pursue Jesus who is himself peace.