Peace, Creational and Christian

By P. Andrew Sandlin

Of all Christian qualities, perhaps none is as rare in our world as peace. Righteousness, though rare, is exhibited in pockets. Peace, however, at times seems extinct, even in the most devout homes and churches – and certainly nationally and globally. Currently the Middle East and Russia and Ukraine are embroiled in war, not to mention scores of other less publicized regional conflicts. Social media is routinely ablaze with verbal savagery. Prescription of anti-depressants is at an all-time high. Conflict is the glut, peace the scarcity.

But in the Bible peace isn’t simply the absence of conflict. The Hebrew and Greek terms for peace denote completeness, soundness, wholeness. Peace is the prior quality that assures absence of conflict. 

Peace is the original normative condition of God’s creational order. It was first spoiled by humanity’s sin. Sin, provoking God’s righteous curse, created multidimensional conflict: between man and creation; between man and his fellow man; within man himself; and, most momentously, between man and God. Because there is no peace for the wicked (Isa. 48:22; 57:21), all peace hinges on remedying this final dilemma.

When man sinned, he made himself an enemy of God (Rom. 5:10). The state between God and unbelievers is one of relentless conflict, despite God’s sacrificial love in his Son. Because we live in such an existential, man-centered world, sinners often look to God for a cure to their internal conflict, not understanding that they can have no internal peace without external peace with God himself. In other words, there can be no peace of God apart from peace with God (Rom. 5:1). Just as, in the teaching of James (4:1), man’s external conflict derives from his internal conflict, so internal peace is a consequence of external peace. 

In our sins, we stand outside God’s covenant people:

You lived in this world without God and without hope. For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. (Eph. 2:13b–14, NLT)

God is no longer our enemy, because his Son has suffered the penalty for our sins on the cross. We who were once God’s enemies are reconciled to him. We’re now his friends:

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. (Rom. 5:8–10, NLT) 

It should come as no surprise, therefore, that St. Paul describes the Good News of salvation as “the gospel of peace” (Eph. 6:15, NIV), or that seeking peace is an imperative of the saints (Ps. 34:14; Zech. 8:16, 19). That’s the peace of God. As a result, we enjoy peace with God, for in Colossians 3:13–15 Paul assures us peace can rule in our hearts due to Christ’s forgiveness of our sins, which forgiveness we should grant to others. 

But this gospel-produced peace in the hearts of Christians can’t be limited to individuals. The Bible promises that one day God’s peace will once again pervade the created world, including even the animal kingdom (Isa. 11:6–9; 32:15–18).

The restoration of creational peace is the objective of redemption.