GREAT PEACE

Biblical Peace is about harmony and wholeness. Biblical peace is the restoration of a broken world and broken relationships. Peace requires maintenance.

We’ve experienced the counterpart of peace sometime in our life. You may remember what it felt like because it probably wasn’t too long ago where you experienced conflict, agitation or distress. The world we live in is far from peaceful. Just take a short glance at the news, drive your own car at any given time of day, or simply ride the MTA. It’s crazy here. Peace as we define it often sounds like a state where things are no longer in disarray. Where things are no longer being disturbed.

But we as children of God are met with the biblical definition of peace as we see it unfold in the scriptures and then it means more. Peace becomes more than just the absence or lack of fighting and disharmony. Peace becomes the actual presence of harmony and wholeness. It brings completeness and the restoration of things once broken made whole again. Isaiah speaks of the one they were waiting for and He is described as such.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭9‬:‭6‬ ‭(ESV)‬‬

Reconciliation is an active form of peace being brought and Jesus’ arrival in Bethlehem shouts it from the rooftops! He is the Prince of Peace. Jesus arrives as the Prince of Peace who not only promises to give His peace freely but restores the shattered relationship between humanity and their creator.

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭1‬ ‭(ESV)‬‬

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭13‬-‭14‬ (‭ESV)‬‬

Jesus not only removes the hostility but restores our familiarity with God and our neighbor.

So here in this season of Advent, as we celebrate the first coming of our Prince of Peace and remember the restored relationship He purchased for us through His life, death and resurrection let us in our waiting be peacemakers who not only strive to avoid conflict but live in perfect harmony.

“Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭12‬:‭14‬ ‭(ESV‬‬)