Peace With God

Peace is defined by Websters dictionary as freedom from disturbance. All over the world, people seek peace for their soul. The problem is that natural man has a disturbance and an unrest in his soul that is caused by a war that exists between him and God. This war is a result of rebellion on our part, not God. God did not chose to be our enemy, rather we chose to be His enemies when we consciously turned our back on Him and contemptuously, went our own way.

Our conscience accuses us continuously, and this causes an uneasiness in our soul. This uneasiness also comes from the knowledge that if there is a coming judgment after death, we don't know how we will fare. In fact, we are down right uneasy about the idea of standing before a righteous and holy God. This knowledge causes us no end of grief. The best we can do to dull this soul disturbance, is to try and drown it out with the many distractions of the world. We ignorantly have a hope that in the future, that one self indulging pleasure will bring us peace. But when the day is done and we rest our heads on our pillows and everything is quiet, the questions and uneasiness arise again. Trying not to think about it only lasts so long.

Thoughts arise... If there is a God, what does He require of me to have peace with Him? Thoughts immediately turn to the experience you had at church. The prayer you prayed, the aisle you walked down... it just didn't bring the peace that you hoped for. Still you lay there night after night, month after month thinking what to do?! No peace!

When we consciously made a decision to ignore God's demand to do right and chose instead to do evil, we openly declared our independence from God and showed our disdain for His law, his glory, and His very person. The only path then to peace is for someone to surrender and it must be on God's terms. You see, God's peace can't be bought. You can't earn it, you can't buy it. The only place you can find it is God. No one else has it. Apart from God there is no peace. You can seek it in pleasure or religion, no peace. Brief feelings of peace will not suffice. All us humans can bring about is a brief cessation from hostilities.

God cannot justly make peace with man and man cannot make peace with God. No religious act can satisfy God's demands. You could finger your prayer beads or pray to a rock, and it might make you feel better, but it won't bring peace with God. Praying a prayer and walking an aisle won't bring peace with God. Joining a church and getting baptized won't satisfy the wrath and justice of God. It might make you more comfortable with that group of people, but it won't bring peace with God. Religion won't satisfy the wrath of God. It might ease your conscience and make your family life run smoother but it won't satisfy the demands of a Holy God. The only way to end the hostilities that have brought about our enmity with God, is that God must pour His wrath and punishment on hell deserving sinners. Or else, someone has to come and pay a price sufficient to satisfy God demand for justice. Sin cannot go unpunished.

God sent His Son to do just that. Jesus died on a cross and shed His blood to pay the penalty that the law demanded. God was satisfied with the sacrifice, and proved it by raising Him from the dead. The payment has been made and all God demands from us in order to be saved, is to believe that. That is the question... are you satisfied that the payment has been made? Do you believe in the depths of your soul that the war is over between you and God? God made peace with us through Jesus Christ. We need to stop fighting with God. We need to cease hostilities and surrender to Him. We need to surrender and turn from ourselves, our life of independence, our own righteousness, and turn to God and acknowledge that the sacrifice and payment was made in full. Jesus made peace for us. God demands blood to be shed for sin and our blood is too polluted. We need perfect righteous blood, and Jesus provided that. His blood is sinless. It is perfect. It is so precious that it is able to pay for the sins of the whole world! There is no peace outside of Jesus. There is no forgiveness outside of Him. We need to believe that! The war is over! That's awesome!