John 14:27: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to
you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled,
neither let them be afraid.
John 16:33: “I
have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you
will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."
In this second meditation of all
that God is for us in Jesus Christ our Lord, I wish to consider how He is our
peace, both through the written promises, and in our actual, spiritual union
with Him and our Father.
In the above verses, we see one
of the things He has spoken to us that we may have peace is the fact that He
has overcome the world, and this takes place in a context that also promises
that we will have tribulation in the world of unbelieving people. That this is
the meaning of world in this context is apparent, for it takes place during the
promises of the Holy Spirit coming to be with us and in us – John
14-16 verifies the fact that the world cannot receive the
Spirit of truth, so all subsequent promises of His presence, indwelling each
believer and being with all believers, cannot speak to His work on unbelievers,
other than His convicting work of sin, judgment and righteousness (John
16:7-11), and I would go so far as to say that the convicting
work of the Spirit is primarily through the means of those members who comprise
the visible body of Christ, since in these chapters, it is revealed to us that
He comes to help us to do the ministry of our Lord’s will in the gospel.
Please note that in the foregoing
meditation on acceptance with the Father, the mechanics of that acceptance
which we are to manifest are not to procure that acceptance, but rather, are a
result of that acceptance, as all works of faith are the result of being placed
in vital union with our Lord and brethren by God’s gracious work of
regeneration through His Spirit; results do not merit this acknowledgment, but are a visible proof
of it whereby we are assured of our acceptance of our Lord and His confession
of the same before His (and our) heavenly
Father.
It is the same with this peace,
which we could not even realize but that we were joined in union with our Lord
and each other through the Spirit, who gives us the result of peace as one of
His fruits. This is why it is so important for us to realize the things
our Lord has said to us, that we may have His peace, are intricately and
intimately tied into the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives, both as
individual members of the body, and functioning rightly in this way, as the
body corporate – these promises were made to those who would bring forth the
New Covenant community of our Lord’s church, not as solo assurances of such
peace by living apart from that entity universal which is the church unseen,
yet is the church seen in local gatherings. We cannot realize these things
unless we are a part of the His body in a good New Testament believing church –
the bond of peace we are to strive
for mightily is that very peace that our Lord gives those who are His, and is a
result of being part of His body.
In these chapters of the gospel
of John, we have those things which our Lord spoke to His disciples that they
might have that peace He gives that is in them, and as already stated, these
are part and parcel, and entirely dependent upon the Holy Spirit, whom He has
given to us, to realize and live according too; therefore, we will briefly
consider some of the things in these chapters that our Lord spoke to His
disciples that they would realize that peace in Him (briefly, because to expound completely upon every verse in these three
chapters is beyond the scope of this present meditation).
Notice, first of all, that our
Lord had already spoken to the fact that He would be betrayed, even to the
person among the twelve that would betray Him, in previous chapters. It might
seem odd that this would be one of those things He spoke of regarding the
disciples having peace that He gave to them, but it is with the promise of
persecution, and He Himself is the example.
Notice, also, that He spoke of
His coming betrayal, condemnation and crucifixion as that which glorified both
Himself and the Father, and He spoke of it such before it had actually happened
in time and history (John 13:16-25). Within
these things He spoke to them, the preeminence of His love for them was spoken
to them, and the commandment that they have the same love for each other was
given (John 13:1; 34-35; 15:12-13).
Herein is the peace He gave them
and left with them: When they witnessed these things taking place, they would
know He is God (John 13:19).
What could make us experientially
know the peace of our Lord better than to know He is God, who brought all into
being, and keeps all together and moving along by His sovereign will (Colossians
1:16-18)?
That God the Son took on flesh in
order to fulfill all righteousness, then suffer for the sins of His people whom
He came to save, and rise again to give them that justification which is the
righteousness which is not our own that God imputes to us, is a great way of
understanding the peace He gives to those who are His (Romans
5:1). It is as humbling a truth as can be, to know our Lord
and Creator served us, as He did His apostles (even the betrayer!) as a precursor to that ultimate service which
He would render to redeem us (Matthew 20:28), and a
standard for our mutual interaction of behavior in the body He formed as His
covenant people by that sacrifice. This brought together all those for whom He
died, as the grace of God was extended beyond the nation of Israel to all tribes,
tongues, peoples and nations, and this means that the peace our Lord left with
His disciples, and so the peace He gives to us, is Himself (Ephesians
2:14-16).
To get back to our context: I
hold that the things which our Lord spoke to the disciples are inclusive of His
self-revelation of His deity and His humanity (John
13:19, 31-32; 14:1, 9, 12, 28; 15:25; 16:5-6; cf. Matthew 20:18-19; 26:2).
The comfort of His peace He gave to them could not be understood or experienced
if He had not been put to death in place of those whom He came to save (Matthew
1:21), or if He had not risen from the dead to proclaim their
justification by His own imputed righteousness (Romans
3:24; 4:23-25; Philippians 3:9). To
understand that our Lord is both fully man and fully God, it is understood that
He could sacrifice Himself and, being raised from the dead, give that righteous
justification He earned by the perfect life He lived as a man before God with
eternal benefit, therefore, the disciples – and we who are His disciples now –
must understand these things. That the full understanding and experience of
these things would come later is also understood, as we go through the gospel
narratives (John 16:19-22).
There is much else to consider within
that portion of Scripture we are pondering, and throughout the Scriptures, but
this concludes the present meditation of the peace our Lord gives to us,
although we will seek to expand upon this reality and topic in further meditation.
What we have thus far, concerning
this peace:
- We have it because of His spoken Word and promises - inclusive of those regarding persecution.
- We have it because of the preeminence of His love contained therein.
- We have it because we see the glory of God in such persecution.
- We have it because all these things spoken beforehand by our Lord prove His deity.
- We have it because He has overcome the world.
- We have it because of His indwelling Spirit.
- We have it as members individually joined in corporate union.
- We have it because He procured it by His death, and declared it by His resurrection, due to His being both the perfect man and God the Son - an infinitely effectual atonement.
What we have, thus far, of all that God is for us in our
Lord Jesus Christ:
- Acceptance with God.
- Peace with God.
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