Romans 5:1 New King James Version (NKJV)
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
To obtain perfect peace you cannot start in any other place but in relationship with God. We are justified (made right with God) by faith, not by performance. By faith (what we believe and Who we believe in and trust) we are made “just-as-if-we’ve-never-sinned” (justified) and as a result, we have peace with God. Being justified will bring you to the place of experiencing peace with God and if you have peace with God, then you can experience peace in every area of your life. The sad thing is that many Christians are living lives of turmoil; they’ve got this constant feeling of condemnation, guilt, shame or fear which is ruling their lives. And it’s usually all rooted in them not knowing that God is not holding anything against them. They think that God’s angry with them for something that they’ve done wrong or something that they should have done that they haven’t done. Living like this will only cause inner turmoil which will manifest in sickness and destruction – you’re not going to experience the abundant life which Jesus bought for you. We need to realize that He didn’t pay such a heavy price at the cross for us just to live a mediocre life or a life just like the rest of the world. He wants us to live the abundant life (John 10:10), a life of victory and perfect peace.
3 John 2 New King James Version (NKJV)
Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.
True prosperity starts in the soul – in your heart and emotions. When we’re prospering in our hearts then we can start to truly prosper in our health and finances and our relationships. Our souls can only truly prosper when we’ve got peace with God. The only way to have peace with God is as a result of the gospel. The gospel is known as the gospel of peace. When we receive the gospel, we should be experiencing peace as a byproduct. Many Christians I know aren’t living a life of peace or experiencing peace because although they may be born-again, they don’t know the true gospel or haven’t accepted the truths of the gospel in their hearts. For example, many Christians are living their lives. begging for God to forgive them. Some Christians are even unsure whether they are truly forgiven, or not. Many feel like if they make a mistake, God will be upset and get offended or get in a bad mood (like they themselves act when someone wrongs them). But God is not like us and the bible clearly shows us that God is dealing with us in mercy and grace and is not holding anything against us (2 Corinthians 5:19) and has even forgotten our sins (Hebrews 10:17).
Luke 2:14 New King James Version (NKJV)
“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
When we look straight back at the angelic announcement of Jesus’ arrival we see that they’re announcing the gospel (the good news) to the shepherds. In verse 10 they say, “We’re bringing you good tidings of great joy, which will be for all people.” The gospel, good news message is good and it brings great joy. When you hear this message it should bring you joy. Then the angels started to sing and praise God saying “glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, Goodwill toward men.” Now some translations render that differently. They say peace on earth, peace among men or similar. Many Christmas cards carry that same message but it’s not entirely correct because if Jesus came to bring peace on earth, He would have failed miserably. If we look at the headlines of newspapers around the world we see that there is not much peace. Even if there is an absence of war there is still a lot of strife between men and women. Jesus didn’t come to bring peace on earth (Matthew 10:34) rather He came to bring peace between God and us. When we receive that peace it can cause us to live at peace with people (even though you will always have some people who choose not to be at peace with you). The angels were declaring the arrival of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, who would usher in peace between God and mankind. “Peace and Goodwill toward men” from God!
The word “goodwill”, if you look it up, it means “satisfaction, delight, kindness, and good pleasure.” The angels were saying that because of Jesus, God is satisfied with you. God delights in you. God is showing His kindness and His good pleasure towards you. This is the message of the gospel, and it is good news! This isn’t the message of religion and even religious Christianity. We need to start proclaiming the true gospel, the pure gospel, the good news that Jesus came to deal with sin so that it would not be an issue between God and us.
God’s not holding sin against mankind. Because of Jesus, God delights in us and He is kind towards us, He is satisfied with us and is showing His good pleasure towards us. If we will believe this (the gospel) it will transform our lives and we will start to live in perfect peace. When we receive peace with God, it causes us to be at peace with ourselves and then at peace with other people.
God is at peace with you, the question is, are you at peace with Him? The only way to be at peace with God is to receive His gift of grace and righteousness by faith. If you have never received Jesus and would like to simply pray out loud:
Jesus, I confess that You are my Lord and Savior. I believe in my heart that God raised You from the dead. By faith in Your Word, I receive salvation now. Thank You for saving me!
If you prayed that prayer, please let me know so that I can celebrate with you and send you some resources to help you grow in your relationship with God.