Our God is a God of Peace; in the World we have Affliction but in Christ we have Peace

Our God is a God of peace, and His peaceful nature is in us; the peace of God is the God of peace infused into us through our fellowship with Him in prayer, and even though we have affliction in the world, in Him we have peace.

We need to come to the Lord so that He may open the Bible to us, open our eyes to see Him, and open our minds to understand His word.

Our natural human mind is small, narrow, biased, and closed, and when we come to the matter of the peace offering, we have a very limited natural view about it. Christ is the reality of all the offerings in Leviticus.

We are not for God, we cannot be absolutely for God, but Christ as the burnt offering is the solution; when we are one with Him, in union with Him, we apply Him.

Our humanity has been damaged, and we are unable to fulfill God’s purpose; Christ as the meal offering is the solution to this problem, and as we partake of Him, digest Him, and assimilate Him, we become His reproduction.

We have sin in the flesh and we even are sin; Christ as the sin offering has thoroughly dealt with sin and everything related to it.

We have a long history of sins, trespasses, defects, and evil deeds, so Christ came as the reality of the trespass offering to take care of our sins.

But what is the problem that the peace offering solves?

Christ as the Peace Offering Reconciles us, the Enemies of God, with God, and He is our Peace

The most serious problem fallen mankind has in relation to God is enmity; sinners need redemption, propitiation, forgiveness, cleansing, and justification by faith, but enemies need reconciliation.

Christ came as the peace offering to reconcile us, the enemies of God, back to God through His death on the cross.

The one who is the source of sin is Satan; he hates God, and he is actively opposing God. The children of the devil produced by him are sons of disobedience, and we all are enemies of God. Through the death of Christ we, the enemies of God, have been reconciled to God.

Enmity is a deep-rooted hatred, a state of being or a feeling of being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something. For example, today there are many atheists who not only say why they don’t believe in God but they wage war, with many allies in the courts and government, to prove that there’s no God and to convince all.

Because of the rebellion of the archangel Lucifer, now there’s enmity in the universe; this enmity has been injected into our being, and it is being institutionalized by our culture and the enforced differences among nations, races, and social classes.

There’s enmity all around the world. The peace offering addresses this serious situation. We need to realize that our enmity with God is our most serious condition or situation we have toward God.

Fallen people don’t want God, they oppose God, and they are enemies of God; God still loves all the human beings, and so He sent Christ to be the peace offering.

On the cross, Christ made peace through the blood of the cross. He made redemption, which brings in reconciliation so that we may be brought back into harmony with God. With reconciliation we have peace, and this peace is a matter of the Body.

We may think that reconciliation is an individual matter, and there is an aspect of being individually reconciled to God; however, according to the picture in the Old Testament and the reality in the New Testament, peace is a matter of the Body, and reconciliation is a corporate matter.

We have peace in the Body of Christ. When we are in the Body and are properly related to the Body, we have peace with God and with man.

The goal of Christ being the reality of the peace offering is that we would corporately be in oneness with the Triune God, which makes possible for there to be on earth the Body of Christ as the one new man.

However, we need to realize that there may also be “unreal peace”, or “counterfeit peace”. For example, the world may try to have peace, there may be a “peace process”, and peace may be sounded far and wide, but actually there’s no peace.

Furthermore, we may create a subjective self-made peace; we may trust in our subjective view, criticize others, yet say we are at peace with God, at peace with ourselves, and at peace with everyone else.

Brother Nee calls this obsession; when we breach or violate the truth yet claim to be at peace, this is obsession. Oh Lord Jesus!

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming as the reality of the peace offering to reconcile us to God. Hallelujah, our God is a God of peace, and even when we were enemies with God living in sin, Christ died for us to reconcile us back to God! Thank You Lord for dying for us to redeem us and reconcile us to God from sin. We are no longer enemies: now we have peace toward God through Jesus Christ! And this peace is in the Body and of the Body. Amen, Lord, keep us in the Body, being properly related to the members of the Body, so that we may live in peace!

God is a God of Peace; in the World we have Affliction but in Christ we have Peace

The Triune God is a God of peace: God is a God of peace, Christ is our peace, and the Spirit is a Spirit of peace, bringing in peace (see Rom. 15:33; 2 Thes. 3:16; Gal. 5:22).

The God of peace crushes Satan under our feet as we remain in the Body and experience Christ as our peace (Rom. 16:20). The peace of Christ – which surpasses every man’s understanding – will guard our hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:7).

The peace of God – which is actually God as our peace – is infused into us through our fellowship with the Lord by prayer, and this peace is the counterpoise to troubles and the antidote to anxiety (John 16:33).

Our God is a God of peace, and Christ is our peace; the peace of God and the God of peace are one, for when we have God, we have peace. As believers in Christ, we were reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and our Father is the God of peace.

Our Father has a peaceful life with a peaceful nature, and we are sons of peace, peacemakers, those who live in peace with all men and with God by living according to the divine nature within us.

Our God is a God of peace, the divine nature within us is a peaceful nature, and we need to live according to this nature. When we confess our sins to God, we receive the Lord in us as our Savior, we are justified by faith, and we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now Christ is our peace toward God. Because we have been justified by faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1). Our experience of Christ as peace is not related to the outward circumstances.

We may be weak yet feel strong, we may have difficulties in our environment yet within us we live in another realm, the realm of peace. We may feel pain as we meet the tribulation outside of us, but we have a sense of peace within us because we meet the Lord and touch Him from within.

If we have persecution and hardships outwardly and have no peace inwardly, something is wrong.

The Lord told us that in the world we will have affliction but in Him we have peace (John 16:33). We need to live in the spirit and walk according to the spirit, and any tribulation outwardly will not distract us from having peace inwardly.

When we live in spirit, we may meet much tribulation from without, but inwardly we will have peace. But if we lack inward peace, this is a sign that we need to turn to the Lord and take Him as our peace inwardly, and walk in the spirit.

It’s almost as if there are two different realms that the Lord speaks of in John 16:33 – a realm of troubles and affliction in the world, and a realm of peace in Christ. When we live in the realm of troubles and hardships, we have no peace; but when we are in the realm of peace in spirit, nothing can disturb our peace.

The physical realm is the realm of troubles, and the spiritual realm (the divine and mystical realm) is the realm of the Triune God, where peace is.

Our heart is troubled because we are in the world, and the way for this trouble to be resolved is for us to enter into Christ by believing into Him (John 14:1).

The Lord is training us day by day to live in two realms at once: outwardly we live in the physical realm and take care of many necessary things, and inwardly we live in Christ as peace and we enjoy Him as peace.

Thank You Lord, in You we have peace. In the world we have affliction, but our God is a God of peace, and in Christ we have peace. Lord, we come to You to receive peace and enjoy You as our peace. We want to walk in peace by walking according to the peaceful nature of our Father in our spirit. Amen! We want to remain here, in fellowship with You, to be infused with You as our peace through prayer. Oh Lord Jesus, You made peace, You are our peace, and when we are in You, we have peace!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, msgs. 17, 27 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 11, Experiencing Christ as the Peace Offering for the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Therefore being justified by faith / We have peace with God / Through our Lord Jesus Christ / Because the love of God is shed abroad / In our hearts, by the Holy Spirit / Which is given, which is given / Unto us, to us, to us. (Scripture song)
  # He speaks, and by His word is giv’n / His peace, a blessed gift of heav’n; / Not as the world He peace doth give, / ’Tis through this hope my soul shall live. (Hymns #562)
  # They walk upon the earth, and dwell in heaven, / Though pow’rless, guard the world with arms unseen; / Deep peace to them in midst of strife is given, / And all they wish they have, though poor and mean. (Hymns #598)