Early Missionary Work of Paul Washer – Documentary [VIDEO]
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Posted originally by Josef @ http://missionsevangelismtheology.blogspot.co.uk
What is the “Peace of God?”
The term peace is a term that is used a lot, in fact the term peace is searched for on Google 13,600,000 times every month! In this search for peace, a clear danger is to misunderstand what peace actually is, and go around chasing something that isn’t there! So for clarity’s sakes, let JI Packer define for us what Peace according to God is, and in reading, a question I would plead with you to set before your heart is have you found this true peace? or do you have a peace which will only prove to have been a fictitious when you breathe your last ?
What does the gospel of God offer us ? If we say “the peace of God.” none will demur – but will everyone understand ? The use of right words does not guarantee right thoughts! Too often the peace of God is thought of as if it were essentially a feeling of inner tranquility, happy and carefree, springing from knowledge that God will shield one from life’s hardest knocks/ But this is a misrepresentation, for, on the one hand, God does not featherbed his children in this way,and anyone who thinks he does is in for a shock, and on the other hand, that which is basic and essential to the real peace of God does not come into this concept at all.
The truths, after which this account of God’s peace is feeling (though it misrepresents them, as we said) is that God’s peace brings us two things: both power to face and live with our own badness and failings, and also contentment under “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” ( For which the Christian name is God’s wise providence). The truth that this account ignores is that the basic ingredient in God’s peace, without which the rest cannot be, is pardon and acceptance into covenant – that is, adoption into God’s family. But where this change of relationship with God – out of hostility into friendship, out of wrath into the fullness of Love, out of condemnation into Justification – is not set forth, the gospel of peace is not truly set forth either.
The peace of God is first and foremost peace with God; it is the state of affairs in which God, instead of being against us, is for us. No account of God’s peace that does not start here can do other than mislead. One of the miserable ironies of our time is that whereas liberal and radical theologians believe themselves to be restating the gospel for today, they have for the most part rejected the categories of wrath, guilt, condemnation and the enmity of God, and so have made it impossible for themselves to ever present the gospel at all, for they cannot now state the basic problem that the gospel of peace solves.
The peace of God, then, primarily and fundamentally, is a new relationship of forgiveness and acceptance – and the source from which it flows is propitiation. When Jesus came to his disciples in the upper room at evening on his resurrection day, he said “Peace be with you”; and when “he said that he showed them his hands and side” (John 20:19-20). Why did he do that? Not just to establish his identity,but to remind them of the propitiatory death on the cross whereby he had made peace with his father for them. Having suffered in their place, as their substitute, to make peace for them, he now came in risen power to bring that peace to them.
“Look, the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” John 1:29. It is here, in the recognition that, whereas we are by nature as odds with God, and God with us, Jesus has made “peace through his blood shed on the cross” (Col. 1:20), that true knowledge of the peace of God begins ?
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1–2, ESV)
Friend is this the peace you know ?
This excerpt was taken from a book Titled “In My Place Condemned he Stood” by JI Packer and Mark Dever
If this is not the peace you have, then let this video below tell you exactly how you can have peace with God! After all, if you have peace with all men in this world and do not have peace with God then you have NO true peace, because the most important being, the King of all Kings, and Sovereign ruler of the universe is at odds with you, and he is patient, but he is coming for you so take heed, humble yourself and listen to the message of the Peace of God whilst you still can!