Beloved
in Christ, we are now ready to look at the third aspect of the fruit of the
Spirit, namely, peace. To help us understand peace better we have these two
passages, one from Romans and the other from John. Let me begin with the second
passage, since there Jesus explains the role of the Holy Spirit in a
Christian’s life. After all, we have been talking about the fruit of the Spirit
for the past couple of Wednesdays, but we haven’t really explored who the Holy
Spirit is or how He works in us to bear this fruit.
In
fact, you may ask, “If we are Christians, then what does the Holy Spirit
have to do with anything? We are not Holy Spirit-ians, after all, but
Christians. So why don’t we speak of the fruit of Jesus Christ instead of the
fruit of the Holy Spirit?” Well, we are taught by Scripture to acknowledge not
only Jesus Christ as God and Lord, but to acknowledge the Father and the Holy
Spirit as God and Lord, too. And yet there are not three Gods, but one God.
There are three distinct persons in the Trinity and none can be blurred with or
equated with another, but they remain distinct. Furthermore, each person is
fully God, not just part of God. But in an awesome mystery beyond our ability
to explain, there is one God. And so just as we acknowledge the divinity of the
Father and of the Son, so too we acknowledge the divinity and authority of the
Holy Spirit.
Of
course, we acknowledge the special role that the Son has played in humanity’s
salvation. That is why we are rightly called Christians rather than Father-ians
or Holy Spirit-ians. Unless the Son of God had taken on our human flesh, we
would have been ignorant of God’s truth. All our theology centers around Jesus
Christ. His words are the absolute standard of the Christian faith. His very
existence as God in human flesh and His work of holy living, dying, and rising
for us teach us all we need to know about God.
I
am not saying that the only part of the Bible that is authoritative for us is
the four gospels and then only the words printed in red. After all, Jesus
pointed to the prophets of the Old Testament as people who knew of and foretold
His ministry. He cited them as authoritative, and well He should, for He, the
Word of God, also spoke to the prophets before His incarnation. Moreover, Jesus
commissioned His twelve apostles to preach and to write down words for the next
generation and made their witness authoritative. Thus, throughout the entire
Bible we see the words of our Lord.
But
there was something unique, we have to admit, about those three years that our
Lord conducted His ministry with the apostles. As He concluded His earthly
ministry, He said, “These things I have spoken to you while I am still
with you.” There was nothing that our Lord failed to teach His disciples
that they or we need to know. Yes, there are some things He didn’t reveal, such
as the exact day when He will return in glory. But everything that was
necessary for our life here on earth and for our eternal salvation He has
revealed. There is no need of new revelation to supplement what Christ has
spoken. In fact, Jesus makes this point clear: “The Helper, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and
bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Notice how the
Holy Spirit works. He teaches us by “[bringing] to [our] remembrance all
that [Christ has] said.” The Holy Spirit brings no new revelation, but
gets us to believe what Christ has already taught us.
Do
not despise the Holy Spirit because He seems to have a subordinate role, as if
the Son is the teacher and the Holy Spirit is merely the teacher’s aide or a
tutor. Every person in the Trinity delights in the work of the others and
honors them for it. The Son does not reveal any truth other than what the
Father has given Him. The Holy Spirit reminds us only of what the Son has
originally taught. The Father glorifies the ministry of the Son and the Holy
Spirit in bringing mankind back to Him.
Wherever
the Holy Spirit does His work of reminding us of our Lord’s words and
convincing us to believe them, He not only brings about faith in God but also
godly fruit. One aspect of that fruit is peace. Our Lord says four things about
that peace. First, it is His gift to us. He is the one who leaves that peace in
our midst. This peace is not something we can acquire on our own, but He must
give it to us—and He freely does so.
What
exactly that means is illustrated by the next thing He says: “Not as the
world gives [peace] do I give to you.” In other words, Christ’s peace
is different from the world’s peace. How does the world give peace? First of
all, it knows of peace that is based on external circumstances. If we can get
all the warring parties to lay down their weapons and cooperate like grownups,
then we will have peace. Or if life is going well for us, then we might have a
feeling of peace and contentment inside of us. But Christ acknowledges
elsewhere in the gospel of John that the world will hate us and fight against
us. So the peace that He gives cannot be based on our external circumstances.
Moreover, the world knows peace only as a temporary thing. It lasts for a
while, then disappears. Historians have analyzed every peace treaty that they
could find, and pretty much every one of them has been broken, in spirit if not
in letter. Peace, as far as the world is concerned, is just a delay of war
until one or the other party thinks that it has become strong enough to defeat
the other side. But the peace Christ gives lasts forever.
That
leads us to the third point: Christ’s peace helps us not to be troubled or
afraid amid a troubled and scary world. That is because Christ has conquered
all the forces of evil. He atoned for our sins that could have separated us
eternally from God. He has defeated the devil, who has been raging against us
from eternity. He has forced death to surrender its hold on humanity by His own
resurrection from the dead. He has overcome the world, even though the world
had condemned Him to die.
We
know that we can put up with all sorts of things on a temporary basis if we
know that there will be something good coming thereafter. We have all moved
into an apartment or house that we really love. We put up with boxing
everything up for a week or more before the move and with living out of those
boxes for a week or even a month afterwards. We do this because we know that
there will be something good that results, if we can be a little patient. In
fact, we might be so excited about being in the new place that we don’t even
think of how bad it is to be living out of those boxes. In the same way, we
know that Christ has gained the victory and so we don’t need to worry and fret
because of our circumstances now. As our reading from Romans tells us, God wants
us to live so that “through endurance and through the encouragement of
the Scriptures we might have hope.” The Bible encourages us, which
leads us to endure the bad things, so that we might have the hope that peace
gives.
The
last thing Jesus says about the peace He gives is that it causes us to rejoice
in Christ’s exaltation. Because Christ has conquered evil in this world and
given us an inner peace to deal with the troubles of this world until He comes
in glory, we can actually rejoice that He has triumphed. Yes, even when things
are difficult for us, the fact that He is exalted gives us peace and joy.
Having
looked at length at the second reading, I would like to look more briefly at
the first reading. You might say that in John we learned what the peace of God
consists of, while in Romans we learn how that peace looks like in practice. If
we have peace with God and a peace within ourselves despite what is happening
on the outside, we are free to live in peace with one another. That sort of
peace will show itself through the strong “[bearing] with the failings of
the weak.” The world teaches us that those who are strong should force
the weak to do their will. Might makes right, or so we are told. But those who
live at peace will strive to bear with the weak and to build them up.
That
is because we do not strive “to please ourselves.” Those who war
do so because they want the world to be more to their liking. They want weaker
powers to obey them. They want the lowly to build them up. But if we are at peace
with God and others, then we are free to love and serve our neighbors.
That
is true even if the world around us is very ornery and hard to please. As Paul
reminds us, our Lord Himself was scorned and cursed. But He sought the world’s
good, not His own, and so He let the world’s scorn roll off of Him. He, the
Giver of all peace, couldn’t have His peace disturbed, not even by the most
unruly of people.
And
so, beloved in Christ, turn away from your warring impulses and submit to the
Prince of Peace. Let His peace cast out your selfishness. He has battled the
forces of evil and conquered them so that He could establish a lasting peace.
Enjoy that very peace that He has come to give you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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