I DESIRE to put before you, dear reader, the subject of Peace, and the way to possess it: what it is, whence it comes, and who has it. This 21st verse of Job 22 is very sweet. There is no doubt that till the heart is acquainted with God there is no peace; but to know Him is peace, because one learns what He is in goodness, what He is as absolutely righteous, but at the same time the sinner's Friend; One who has acted in such a way that the soul, however guilty and depraved, when it gets to Him, and knows Him, has peace.
Eliphaz says (v. 15), “Hast thou marked the old way? The old way, is the way we have all trodden. What was the old way? Away from God, not towards Him. There is the new and living way, and that way is Christ, but we have all been in the old way.
Are you still in the old way, my reader? Sooner or later, then, the judgment of God must overtake you. God is very patient, but sooner or later He must judge. Do you say, "Oh I but it is the wicked that He will judge"? Mark well, my reader, you may be very nice outwardly, but in the sight of God there is but one word that marks the unregenerate soul, and that is, "Wicked." Look at verses 16, 17, "Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood; which said unto God, Depart from us; and what can the Almighty do for them?" Perhaps you say, "What a dreadful thing" But have you never said to God, "Depart from me"? It may be someone has sought to speak to you of Christ, and you have not cared to listen. Is not that saying, Depart. But oh, consider, my reader, you may say Depart" now, but there is another who will one day say to every soul that knows Him not, "Depart from me." Oh, think of it. You may be careless, my friend, but you have not peace; there can be no real peace without the knowledge of God, therefore He comes and says to you, "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace.”
Do you say, "I am afraid of Him"? Why? "Because I am such a sinner." That is the very reason that you should come to Him, for who can forgive sins but God? who can wash away your transgressions but God? therefore He is the very one to come to, and to come to now, for by-and-by it will be too late.
By-and-by you will acquaint yourself with damnation; if you wait till you are dead and buried, you will acquaint yourself with hell and the devil then, and surely you have had quite enough to do with the devil already; part company with him now, once and forever, and acquaint thyself with God.
Do not put it off till to-morrow. At this very moment you may get to know God, and it will be eternal life to your soul. Scripture says, “Acquaint now." It does not say, "Acquaint tomorrow." To get to know God is the most wonderful thing in the world, and you may get to know Him in the way He delights to be known in this day—as the God of peace.
In the Old Testament He was the God of creation, and the God of government, and God the lawgiver; but now He is the God of peace,—not the God of judgment, or wrath, or vengeance. Nay, nay; He who is love, has expressed His love in the gift of His son, and now He can show Himself in this new and lovely character— the God of peace. "Acquaint now thyself with him," this God of peace, "and be at peace; thereby good shall come unto thee.”
There is a very solemn contrast between the man who knows God, and the man who does not know Him. Psa. 37:37,37Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. (Psalm 37:37) says, —"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace." Who does the Psalmist mean? Why, the man that knows God, and the end of that man is peace. What would your end be, my reader, if God cut you clown to-day? Would it be peace? or would it be the pit of hell? Look at it. “The transgressors shall be destroyed together; the end of the wicked shall be cut off.” What is the end of the righteous? Peace. What is the end of the wicked? He is cut off; eternally separated from God, in outer darkness, having the company of Satan and his angels forever.
The Psalmist tells you what the end of the wicked is, and the prophet Isaiah speaks of what the present state of the wicked is. “The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked" (Isa. 57:20, 2120But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. 21There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. (Isaiah 57:20‑21)).
Is not that your state, my reader? You cannot rest. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." What a description. I daresay you may have seen the sea sometimes, and have thought how beautiful the foam on the waters looked; but take up some of the foam in your hand on the shore, and what is it? All mire. Yes; and you may Took very nice at a distance, but bring you into the presence of God, and how is it with you? What does He see? Sin coming out moment by moment, and hour by hour, and no peace.
But oh, He would delight to give you peace. He has a way of meeting your uneasy conscience, your troubled soul, your restless heart. “I will heal, "He says. Do you ask," How does He do it?” Turn to a few scriptures in the New Testament and you will see.
Look at Luke 1 What is the Lord doing? God visits the earth. What to do? To guide your feet into the way of peace. Read Luke 2 The Son of God is born into this scene. What to be? A Saviour for you. With the birth of this blessed babe there comes into this weary wretched scene, where evil had been rampant for four thousand years, where the devil seemed to be getting it all his own way, something quite different-Peace. “On earth peace, goodwill toward men.”
In Luke 19:3838Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. (Luke 19:38) we read, "Peace in heaven.” In the 2nd chapter it was "on earth peace." Why is it peace in heaven in chapter 19? Because the Saviour had been refused and rejected, and He was then going to the Mount of Olives, and from there to Calvary to die. Men were about to cast Him out of earth, and God was going to take this blessed One, whom earth would not have, to heaven; and now, if your heart seeks peace it must follow Him to heaven, for it is no longer "peace on earth," but peace in heaven.
He was rejected by the world, and He goes to the cross, and there He dies. And what was the work that He then accomplished? Col. 1 gives you the answer. The 20th verse tells you that He "made peace through the blood of his cross.”
Between God and man there was no peace. There could not be peace on man's side, because there was enmity in his heart towards God. There could not be peace on God's side till the cross, because He must judge sin. Sin had not been put away, and He could not have sin in His presence.
Sin had come in and marred the relation between God and man. Righteousness on God's side forbade any thought of peace, because sin must be judged and put away, and enmity on man's side precluded the thought of peace; but on the cross Christ did a work, whereby peace could be between man and God. He went down into death, that He might make peace through the blood of His cross.
God desired that a righteous way might be made, that your feet and mine might be turned into the way of peace, and how could this be? While any question of sin remains unsettled, not to my satisfaction but to God's, I cannot know peace. What makes peace? My tears? my prayers? No; nothing I have done or could do, but what Christ has done. His sufferings, His death, have availed, so that there is nothing shining from that throne of God to-day but the smile of perfect satisfaction. He, the blessed Son of God, after we have sinned, and before God judges, steps in, bears the sin, pays the debt, lays down the ransom, and makes peace by the blood of His cross.
Peace, then, is made by Christ. What does God do? Raises Him from the dead. In Heb. 13:2020Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, (Hebrews 13:20) I get God's answer to the work of Christ. He is “the God of Peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus." He takes this beautiful character of the God of peace, because His Son has done a work that takes away from Him the character of God the judge, and that establishes peace between Himself and the believer.
The "Prince of peace" is raised from the dead by the "God of peace," and His first action in resurrection is to come and say to His own, “Peace be unto you” (John 20:1919Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. (John 20:19)). He has made it, and therefore, as Acts 10 puts it, He is "preaching peace.” He who makes peace for the poor sinner proclaims it, and I ask you, my reader, Have you got it? Christ made it, Christ comes and preaches it, but there's more than that, "He is our peace" (Eph. 2:1414For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; (Ephesians 2:14)).
The work of atonement gives God liberty to come out and proclaim peace. I want your heart to be at home with me, He says.
This peace, too, is eternal, everlasting; and it is not a feeling, it is a wonderful blessed fact. Christ has drained the cup of judgment, that I ought to have drunk, to the very dregs, and He has filled the cup for me with peace and blessedness. I ask you, Is there a question between God and the Lord Jesus? Not one. Is there a question between you and God at this moment? If you are His, not one. Jesus answered every question for you when He died on the cross, and God showed His satisfaction with what Christ had clone when He raised Him from the dead, and now He is our peace. Christ made peace, preached peace, is our peace; and now, how do I get it?
Rom. 5 gives the answer, “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." There are two wonderful facts upon God's side, and two upon our side. Christ was “delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification." Then, I say, if Christ was delivered for my offenses, I am delivered from them; and if Christ was raised again for my justification, then, I say, therefore I am justified; thus the apostle goes on to say, "Therefore, being justified by faith." What is faith? Taking God at His word. My faith turns to God, and I say, I believe God, believe He has an interest in me; for He gave His Son for me, and His Son has died for me; and God shows His satisfaction with the work of His Son, for He raised Him from the dead. He who bore my offenses was raised without them, and I can turn round and acquaint myself with God and be at peace.
Christ then has made peace, preaches peace, is peace; and now the question for you is, Have you got this peace?
It is Christ risen gives me peace, for that is the evidence to me of God's entire satisfaction. My sin, which marred the peace, was eternally obliterated when God's Son died on the cross.
There can be peace between my soul and God, because there is nothing left to judge. I stand on the spot where the fire of judgment has been.
The Gospel puts me in Christ; and if I am in Christ, I am in One who has borne all the judgment already, and there is nothing left to judge; and therefore, being justified, I have peace, and the Lord wants us to be filled with it. The apostle says, in Rom. 15:13,13Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. (Romans 15:13) “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing." The Lord would have us not only to know peace as a fact, but would have us joy in it also.
There is another scripture which speaks of the peace of God—that is the Christian's portion.
How sweet! I acquaint myself with Him, and am at peace, for I find He is my Saviour and my Friend; He Himself is my peace, and the Holy Ghost comes in to shed it abroad in my heart, and to give me the enjoyment of it all the way along. Oh, who would not be a Christian?
W. T. P W.