Message Five

The Gospel of Peace

Scripture Reading: John 14:27;
Rom. 15:33; Eph. 2:13-17; 4:3; 6:15; Col. 3:15

1. The Triune God is a God of peace—Rom. 15:33; 2 Thes. 3:16; Gal. 5:22:
   1. The New Testament speaks about both the peace of God and the God of peace; the peace of God and the God of peace are actually one—Phil. 4:7; Heb. 13:20.
   2. The peace of God is the God of peace infused into us through our fellowship with Him—Rom. 16:20; Phil. 4:9; John 14:27; 16:33.
2. Due to man’s fall, among mankind there are many ordinances, customs, habits, and ways to live and worship, all of which have divided, scattered, and confused mankind; there are partitions between every nationality and race, and thus among the human race there is no peace, only enmity, discord, and war—Eph. 2:14-15; cf. Psa. 46:9; Isa. 2:4; 9:6-7; 11:6-9; Micah 4:3; Zech. 9:10.
3. Because there can be no peace in the universe without Christ, the Peacemaker, we need Christ as our peace offering—Eph. 2:14-15; Col. 1:20; Lev. 3:1-11; 7:11-37:
   1. As the fulfillment and the reality of the type of the peace offering, Christ is our peace; through Him and in Him we have peace with God and with one another—Eph. 2:14; Col. 3:15; 1 Thes. 5:13b.
   2. Apart from Christ we cannot have peace with God or with others; we can have such peace only through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ—Rom. 5:1; 12:18.
   3. The peace offering is illustrated in Luke 15:23-24 by the fattened calf as a peaceful enjoyment between the receiving father, God, and the returning prodigal son, a sinner.
4. Christ is peace, Christ has made peace, and Christ came to announce peace as the gospel—Eph. 2:13-17:
   1. Christ Himself is “our peace,” He who has made both the Jews and the Gentiles one—v. 14.
   2. On the cross Christ abolished the law of the commandments in ordinances and broke down the middle wall of partition, the enmity; in particular, He died to remove the partition between the Jews and the Gentiles—vv. 14-15:
      1. Peace is possible only when everything contrary to God’s economy has been terminated—Col. 1:20; 2:14-15; 3:15.
      2. Through the blood of Christ we have been brought near both to God and to God’s people—Eph. 2:13, 18-19.
   3. In resurrection Christ came as the Spirit to preach peace as the gospel—v. 17:
      1. The Christ who died as the Peacemaker, shedding His blood in order to reconcile us to God, came to us as the life-giving Spirit, even as the preaching Spirit, to preach the gospel of peace—Col. 1:20; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17a; John 20:19, 21, 26; 14:27; 16:33.
      2. Jonah is a type of Christ announcing the gospel of peace—Jonah 1:1; 3:2:
         1. In Hebrew the name Jonah means “dove”; this indicates that God wanted Jonah to go out like a dove to preach the gospel of peace—1:1.
         2. Jonah typifies Christ preaching the gospel of peace to the Gentiles—3:2; Matt. 12:41.
5. The white horse in Revelation 6:2 is a symbol of the preaching of the gospel of peace, which is clean, pure, just, and approvable in the eyes of both man and God:
   1. On the cross the arrow was shot into the heart of the enemy, the battle was fought, and the victory was won; thus, the bow without an arrow is a declaration that the war is over and that the victory has been won for the constituting of the gospel of peace—Psa. 45:5; John 12:31; Heb. 2:14; Eph. 6:15.
   2. Now the fighting is over, and the gospel of peace is being proclaimed in a peaceful way—Acts 10:36; Eph. 2:17; 6:15.
6. In the Body life and for the Body life, we need Christ as our peace—2:14; 4:3; Col. 3:15:
   1. In the Body life we should keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace—Eph. 4:3:
      1. Christ abolished on the cross all the differences among mankind due to ordinances, and in so doing, He made peace for His Body; this peace should bind all believers together and thus become the uniting bond of peace—2:15; 4:3.
      2. If we remain on the cross in our practice of the church life, the peace that Christ made on the cross will become the uniting bond in which we keep the oneness of the Spirit—Matt. 16:24; Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 2:15; 4:3.
      3. The uniting bars of the tabernacle signify the mingled spirit—the divine Spirit mingled with the regenerated human spirit—to become the uniting bond of peace; in our experience, the uniting bond of peace is the cooperation of our spirit with the uniting Spirit, the crossing Spirit—Exo. 26:26-29; Eph. 4:3.
   2. For the Body life we need to allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate, to adjust, and to decide all things in our hearts in the relationships between the members of His Body—Col. 3:15:
      1. We have been called to the peace of Christ in one Body—v. 15.
      2. If we allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts, this peace will settle all the disputes among us; then we will have peace with God vertically and with the saints horizontally—1:20; 3:15.
      3. Through the arbitration of the peace of Christ, the friction between the members of the Body disappears, and the church life is preserved in oneness and sweetness—vv. 12-15; Rom. 12:4-5, 18; 14:19; Heb. 12:14.
7. In order to engage in spiritual warfare, we need to have our feet shod with the firm foundation, the establishing, of the gospel of peace—Eph. 6:11, 14-15:
   1. Christ made peace for us, with both God and man, on the cross, and this peace has become our gospel—2:13-17.
   2. This gospel of peace has been established as a firm foundation with which our feet may be shod; being thus shod, we will have a firm footing so that we may stand to fight the spiritual warfare—6:11, 14-15.