I was looking through my desk just now and found a paper I wrote over five years ago. The essay is on peace. Having quickly skimmed through it, I realized that I've been slowly beginning to lack peace in my day to day life. I think I just need to be reminded of all that YAHWEH my God has done to provide peace for me. So, I'm going to post excerpts of my essay here on my blog. I can't find the introduction so I'll dive right into the main body of the paper. I pray that this will lead me back into a place where I can truly experience God's peace. I also pray that, through this, God will bless each person who reads it. So here goes...
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How To Find Peace
By Bryan Johns
1. Peace With God
Peace with God is the most important part of our lives. Without it, we are at war with God and will not spend eternity in His presence.
Because of sin, we are unable to attain peace with God. We are sinful. We were born that way. In fact, we can trace our sin all the way back to our first grandfather: Adam. He committed the first sin. Because he is the human father of all mankind, we have inherited his sinful nature.
"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned." -- Romans 5: 12
God is perfect. He cannot look upon sin, nor can He accept any part of it. Therefore, because of our sin nature, we are incapable of redeeming ourselves into a peaceful relationship with God.
"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." -- Romans 3: 23
Our situation seems hopeless. However, God has provided a way for us to be saved from our horrible state. In order to find true peace, we must go to the source. Jesus Christ is the source of peace.
"For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation," -- Ephesians 2: 14
"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," -- Romans 5: 1
Jesus Christ is the second person of the Godhead (or Trinity). He is the Son of God, that is, God the Son. Though fully God, Jesus Christ came to the earth in the form of a man. He experienced everything that we experience. He felt pain, anger, fear, and sorrow. Because He is the Light of the world, Jesus Christ not only exposed our sin, but most of all, He revealed our need of a savior.
"Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, 'I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.'" -- John 8: 12
Every part of Jesus' earthly life revolves around one main event: His death and resurrection.
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up," -- John 3: 15
Jesus had one main purpose in coming to earth. He came to conquer sin, death, and the devil. God makes it very clear in His word that we deserve death. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord." -- Romans 6: 23. This isn't talking about just physical death, but also spiritual death. Spiritual death means to be totally separated, and completely shut off from God. Jesus Christ, however, was willing to take our place in spiritual death. He willingly laid down His life and was killed. God's wrath, the punishment we deserve, and payment for sin was inflicted on Christ Jesus. He was abandoned by His Father God so that we wouldn't have to be. Jesus Christ stood in our place.
"...who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness- by whose wounds you were healed." -- 1 Peter 2: 24
Jesus is perfect. He had no sin of His own to pay for. As a result, He conquered sin and rose from the dead. Through the resurrection, as pointed out by Billy Graham, we find that God accepted Jesus' work as sufficient payment for our sin.
"...who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification." -- Romans 4: 25. In this manner, Jesus Christ brought peace.
In order to enter a peaceful relationship with God, we must believe in Jesus Christ for who He truly is: God the Son, infinitely perfect and Holy. We must believe that Jesus died for us, and that there is no way to earn our redemption; there is no way for us to earn peace with God. Our redemption is a gift from God. All we have to do is receive it. It is as simple as putting our trust is Jesus to redeem us by what He did in dying for us. We have to accept Jesus' sacrifice as payment for our sin. The moment we do this, we can know that we've been bought and paid for. We are saved forever. And because we are no longer at war with God, we have peace with Him.
Peace with God is available to all who believe:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." -- John 3: 16
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That's it for this post. This was about how to have peace WITH God. My next post will cover the peace OF God.
May YAHWEH Elohim (the LORD God) bless you richly.
