Peace with God
Humans are by nature enemies of God. We are rebel subjects who refuse to submit to our rightful king. Therefore we are traitors committing cosmic treason by seeking to overthrow the king and take his throne.
Paul makes clear that apart from Jesus Christ we are “dead in our trespasses” (Eph 2:1, 5) and thus “by nature children of wrath” (Eph 2:3). We suppress the truth in unrighteousness and thus the wrath of God is against us (Rom 1:18). We are not neutral. We are God’s enemies (Rom 5:10) who are “alienated and hostile in mind” (Col 1:21). Because of our sin we are estranged from God. We do not submit to him. We do not know him. We do not love him. He is not our God and we are not his people.
But God. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4-5). “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). God has taken the initiative through Jesus Christ to reconcile us to himself. He has come to us in order to establish peace.
Jesus Christ makes peace between us and God because by his death and resurrection he takes away all that stood between us. He takes our sin and enmity and dies in our place so that God pours out the wrath reserved for us upon his own son. Jesus propitiates God’s wrath so that God will look with favor upon us even though we are sinners. All who are united to Jesus Christ by faith are justified – declared holy and righteous in the sight of God. And this justification brings peace. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1). We were enemies of God, but by Christ’s blood we have been reconciled (Rom 5:10). Our relationship has been restored.
Even more, we have been adopted as sons and daughters. God does not merely turn us from enemies to faithful subjects through Christ’s death. He actually makes us members of his family. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4:4-5). Before Christ we did not know God, but now we not only know him, we are known by him (Gal 4:9). This is reconciliation language. We did not know God because we were estranged from him. But Jesus Christ has brought us near. He has made peace so that we have become sons and daughters.
In Luke 7:36-50 Jesus went and dined with one of the Pharisees. While he was there a woman, who was a sinner, came in and wept before him, wetting his feet with her tears. She wiped his feet with her hair and anointed him with expensive ointment. The Pharisee was indignant and personally scorned Jesus for not knowing what kind of sinful woman she was. Jesus challenged him, “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more” (Luke 7:41-42)? The Pharisee answered rightly, saying it was the one who was forgiven the larger debt.
Jesus then shamed the Pharisee by pointing out how the woman cared for him in ways that the Pharisee, as the host, should have but did not. He went so far to say to her, “Your sins are forgiven” (v. 48). Then he said, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (v. 50).
Saying “go in peace” was a common farewell greeting, but in this text it means much more. This woman had come and showered her love on Jesus even though she was a sinner. She believed and so her faith saved her. Her sins were forgiven. Now that she was saved and forgiven she could truly go in peace. She was at peace with Jesus and with God.
Peace with God is contingent on the forgiveness of our sins. Without forgiveness there is no peace. In the Old Testament we see that forgiveness of sins is costly. The people offered sacrifices, killing animals in their place, in order to have relationship with God. In Isaiah 53 the suffering servant will himself bear our transgressions. “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed” (Isa 53:5). Only blood could bring forgiveness and thus only death could bring peace.
Posts in this Series:
Introduction
Peace (shalom) in the Old Testament
Created in Peace and the Consequence of Sin
The Gospel of Peace and the Death of Jesus Christ
Peace with God
Peace Within
Peace with Others
Peace in Creation and the Cosmos
Excursus – Is Peace an Attribute of God?
Called to Be Peacemakers
