21. Chapter Eighteen: Peace — at Last
Chapter Eighteen PEACE — AT LAST Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusted in Thee. —Isaiah 26:3
YOU know now what it means to be at peace with God. You know what it means to be a Christian. You know the price that has to be paid to get this illusive thing called peace and happiness. I know men who would write a check for a million dollars if they could find peace. Millions are searching for it. Every time they get close to finding the peace that you have found in Christ, Satan steers them away. He blinds them. He throws up a smoke screen. He bluffs them. And they miss it! But you have found it! It is yours now forever. You have found the secret of life.
There are many things you still do not understand. There are many mysteries. There are many problems that baffle you. But down underneath it all is that inward relaxation and peace that will lead to confident living. You have found that there are many advantages to the Christian ideal that challenge any other philosophical concept. Materialism, Communism, and all the other philosophical interpretations do not hold a candle to what Christ offers.
Dr. Thiessen in his work on Christian Ethics has listed several advantages which we will give here: First, there is sonship. The moment you accepted Jesus Christ as personal Savior you were adopted into the family of God. You are now His child. You have certain privileges and responsibilities that only royalty can know. Royal blood is in your veins by adoption. You have become a member of the family of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Second, you are an heir. The Bible teaches that when you were born again, your new position in Christ has made you a joint heir with Christ. You are now heir to all things.
Third, there is peace. Peace can be experienced only when you have received divine pardon—when you have been reconciled to God and when you have harmony within, with your fellow man and especially with God. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked” (Isaiah 57:21). But through the blood of the cross, Christ has made peace with God for us and is Himself our peace. If by faith we accept Him, we are justified by God and can realize the inner serenity that can come to man through no other means. When Christ enters our heart, we are freed of that haunting sense of sin. Cleansed of all feeling of contamination and unfitness, we can lift up our heads secure in the knowledge that we can look with confidence into the face of our fellow men. “When a man’s ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” Even more important, we know that we can stand before God in the hour of our death with this same feeling of peace and security. Communism nor any other philosophy can promise as much. The fourth great benefit that is derived from a knowledge of Christ is spiritual life. In his natural state, no man is fully aware of the wrongness of his past life, but he is aware of the deadness of his soul. Those not acquainted with theological terms may not express their inner feelings in quite this way, but they are conscious of them. All natural men wonder at times at their own indifference to right and wrong. They are disturbed at their own willingness to compromise in the face of obvious injustices, to settle for the expedient thing rather than the right thing. Even the most calloused sinner experiences moments when he wishes he could be good. The most hardened criminals, the most brazen prostitutes are all aware of the deep, all-but-smothered longings within themselves to be something better than they are. Unconverted men and women who try to live a decent life are acutely aware of how far short they fall of their goal, and the tragedy is that so many of them do not even know that they are failing because they are dead in sins and trespasses and must be made alive through Christ before they can live according to spiritual laws.
Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). And Paul stated, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). To be born anew in Christ means to be born to new ideals, new aspirations, new hopes, and new abilities to achieve these fresh new goals. Christ as Lord and Master has given you a new life. You have been born again.
Fifth, there is the joy of Christian fellowship that comes from being a Christian. Loneliness is one of the great terrors, the great tragedies of mankind. How often we speak of feeling alone in the midst of a great crowd. How many men and women have experienced a greater sense of loneliness in a huge city than they have when walking down a country road all by themselves. How often we long to find someone who can understand and share our innermost feelings, someone to whom we can talk, who sees life as we see it, who is guided by the same motives, who judges by the same values. When in the popular phraseology of the day we talk about finding someone who speaks our language, we are really repeating the same longing that the Psalmist expressed when he said, “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me; refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul” (Psalms 142:4).
You have found Christ to be the one Friend who understands your every thought, and once fellowship has been established with Him you can never be alone again. When Christ takes the rightful place in your heart, all sense of separation from God disappears. Once more you stand in the presence of God. This fellowship is a joy unspeakable and full of glory. No man-made philosophy can bestow this glorious benefit.
Sixth, there comes a new strength in following Christ. Man by himself is unable to attain his own standards, let alone attain the far higher and more exacting standards of God. The Mosaic laws were laid down as the minimum of behavior acceptable to God, and you are in yourself too weak to maintain even this standard unaided. Throughout history man has made resolution after resolution, hoping he would have the strength to keep them, but knowing in his heart that the best he could achieve would be a temporary reform and not a permanent change. This human weakness is so widely recognized that New Year’s resolutions have become a world-wide joke and mans ability to turn over a new leaf without the help of God is subject to open scorn. It is only through rebirth in Christ that man can achieve, not just an alteration in his present way of life, but the creation of a new personality.
We are all familiar with the transformation that took place in Saul on the road to Damascus, when Christ entered his heart and changed him from one of His most destructive enemies to one of His mightiest advocates. Many equally dramatic changes in human personalities are taking place today, and they are being brought about by the self-same means that transformed Saul into Paul— birth again through Jesus Christ!
There is no human philosophy that can achieve such changes or provide such strength. This mighty strength stands ready to be available at your beck and call at all times. God said, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness” (Isaiah 41:10).
Whatever the circumstances, whatever the call, whatever the duty, whatever the price, whatever the sacrifice — His strength will be your strength in your hour of need.
Seventh, there are physical benefits that accrue from Christian living. Sin and the sense of inner unworthiness impair physical and mental well-being. The sense of physical impurity and physical immorality, the sense of hatred directed toward our fellow men, the awareness of our own inadequacy and frustration and our inability to achieve the goals to which we aspire—these are the real reasons for physical and mental illness. The sense of guilt and sin that natural man carries within himself renders him unfit for the performance of his duties, renders him sick in both mind and body. It was no accident that Jesus combined healing with His preaching and teaching when He was on earth. There is a very real relationship between the life of the spirit and the health of the body and mind.
Peace with God and the peace of God in a mans heart and the joy of fellowship with Christ have in themselves a beneficial effect upon the body and mind and will lead to the development and preservation of physical and mental power. Thus, Christ promotes the best interest of the body and mind as well as of the spirit, in addition to inward peace, the development of spiritual life, the joy and fellowship with Christ and the new strength that comes with being born again.
There are certain special privileges that only the true Christian can enjoy There is, for example, the privilege of having divine wisdom and guidance continually. The Bible says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5).
Also the Christian has a sense of true optimism, the assurance that according to divine revelation everything will turn out well in the end. The Christian also has a world view. This world view sets forth God’s purpose and the end toward which all are proceeding. It assures us that in spite of men’s war upon each other and in spite of the destructive forces of nature which seem to hold us in their grip, God is still on the throne and in command of everything. Satan himself is held back by God’s power and given an opportunity to exercise his evil influence only as God sees fit and only as long as God sees fit to let him do it. The Scriptures teach us that God has a definite plan for each period of history, for every nation and for every individual. The Scripture discloses God’s plan for the return of Christ when His kingdom shall be established, as we have already seen. Thus, for the Christian, life has a plan and an assurance that God will ultimately triumph over all unrighteousness. In summing up the superiority of the Christian life over all other ways of living we cannot overlook the advantage that the Christian will have for all eternity. Job said, “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14). He answered his own question when he said, “For I know that my Redeemer liveth and that He will stand at the latter day upon the earth” (Job 19:25).
What a prospect! What a future! What a hope! What a life! I would not change places with the wealthiest and most influential man in the world. I would rather be a child of the King, a joint-heir with Christ, a member of the Royal Family of heaven!
I know where I’ve come from, I know why I’m here, I know where I’m going—and I have peace in my heart. His peace floods my heart and overwhelms my soul! The storm was raging. The sea was beating against the rocks in huge, dashing waves. The lightning was flashing, the thunder was roaring, the wind was blowing; but the little bird was asleep in the crevice of the rock, its head serenely under its wing, sound asleep. That is peace: to be able to sleep in the storm! In Christ we are relaxed and at peace in the midst of the confusions, bewilderments, and perplexities of this life. The storm rages, but our hearts are at rest. We have found peace—at last!