Who is your Peace?
Jesus continued His message of comfort to His disciples – “’Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard Me say to you, I am going away and coming back to you. If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, I am going to the Father, for My Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.’” (John 14: 27-31)
Jesus wanted His disciples to share the peace that He had. It would not be long before Jesus would be arrested and brought before the Jewish high priest, then turned over to the Roman governor of Judea, Pilate. Pilate asked Jesus – “’Are you the King of the Jews?’” and “’What have You done?’” Jesus answered him – “’My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.’” (John 18: 33-36) Jesus knew that He was born to die. He was born to give His life as a ransom for all those who would come to Him. He was and is the King of the Jews, as well as the King of the world, but until His return, the enemy of everyone’s soul, Lucifer, is the ruler of this world.
Describing Lucifer, Ezekiel writes – “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.” (Ezek. 28: 14) Isaiah wrote of Lucifer’s fall – “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.” (Isaiah 14: 12-15)
Lucifer, by deceiving Adam and Eve, took control of this fallen world, but Jesus’ death overcame what Lucifer had done. Only through Jesus is there peace with God. Only through Jesus’ righteousness can we stand before God. If we stand before God clothed in our own righteousness, we will come up short. It is critical to understand who Jesus is, and what He has done. If you are in a religion that teaches something different about Jesus than what is in the Bible, you are being deceived. It is vital that you understand that Jesus was God come in the flesh to rescue us from our sins. There is no one else that can ransom you for eternity. Consider how amazing what Jesus has done for us all – “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned – (for until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)” (Romans 5: 12-17) Jesus has overcome the world. We can have His peace if we are in Him.
