Peace with God

Supposing God had made peace with Adam, the peace could not have lasted; the enmity in the heart of man, or that produced by the power of circumstances thwarting his will, would very soon have broken it again. Look at Israel. They were placed in outward peace with God, owned as His people, favored in every way, yet, what was the result? Continual murmuring on their part, constant rebellion. As to moral peace with God, they had scarcely undertaken to keep His law when they set up a golden calf to worship, and thus failed directly. And it would always be the same; it must be so, for the very will of man is altogether wrong; the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Now "counsel of peace" is between God and Jesus, instead of man, and hence security. It is not merely peace, but "counsel of peace." The word "counsel" implies deliberate purpose. What solidity must there be in that peace which God had a "counsel" about, and all the engagements of which the mind of Jesus fully entered into and accomplished!
I have said that peace is our proper portion as the children of God-peace both as to sin and as to circumstances. Now it is true that the latter we do not yet have outwardly, but God is taking up all that concerns us, and has taken upon Himself to make "all things work together" for our good. The knowledge of this gives peace (if we will use our privilege) in all circumstances, be they even those of trial, perplexity, and sorrow. Was it not so with Jesus? Who can be so tried as He? "Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds," yet He had always peace. And so might we: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.”
It is most important to see that "counsel of peace" is entirely between God and Jesus. The moment we begin to rest our peace on anything in ourselves, we lose it. And this is why so many saints have not settled peace. Nothing can be lasting that is not built on God alone.
How can you have settled peace? Only by having it in God's own way: not resting it on anything, even the Spirit's work, within yourselves, but on what Christ has done entirely without you. Then you will know peace: conscious unworthiness, but yet peace. In Christ alone God finds that in which He can rest, and so it is with His saints. The more you see the extent and nature of the evil that is within, as well as that without and around, the more you will find that what Jesus is and what Jesus did, is the only ground at all on which you can rest.