Christ’s Peace. Your Peace.

“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.”

Greetings Reader.

Do you both understand rationally and know experientially this peace that the Lord Jesus references in John 14:27? This verse is one many a Christian readily recites, but is its reality actually lived or just referenced? Dear reader, do you know Jesus’ peace yourself? Can you name one Christian you’ve met who lives Christ’s peace? If not, why?

The context for this verse was Jesus’ last supper with his closest disciples. He was about to depart from them. Knowing His departure would usher in feelings and thoughts of doubt, concerns and fears, that it would seemingly leave them alone in subjection to the world, He graciously informs them of this special gift. He was going to provide to them something that was His, something He Himself both knew and lived. The relationship would continue and do so in new fashion (they would all share something that was His with Him). What He would give them and leave them was His own personal peace. Consider that? How does anybody give away his or her peace to another? You and I, if honest, could never give away peace. Left to ourselves, would we even ever truly know peace? We seem to be in constant search of it, and most will face their grave never having truly known it. Can you imagine the depth of such loss?

At the moment, the disciples did not understand His words, nor did they immediately experience the reality He knew and understood would be theirs because of His loving and lasting relationship with them. But His words “Let not” should have carried enough effect to immediately impress upon them that Jesus, the One who calmed the raging sea, made right the demon possessed man, and faced the cross, cared for them both to provide them something (which the world had no resource nor interest in providing) and to tell them of this provision in advance of its need. His love for them did this.

If you are Christ’s, this provision is yours. If you are not Christ’s, you may read Jesus’ words but not receive nor experience His peace. If you are Christ’s, and you can state these words, do you experience His peace? If not, why? If you are not Christ’s, how do you seek peace? Where do you seek it? Will it comfort you at the grave? Does it comfort you sufficiently now and will it give you confidence at the grave? Jesus faced and overcame the grave. Is your peace of the same quality as His? Can you give your peace to another? Do you desire His peace? Do you desire Him?

Below I share with you a quote from an old book I’m rereading which spurred the thoughts above. The book was published in 1892, the pages are hand cut at the edges (it has much character), and it’s a gem. The book is titled The Central Teaching of Jesus Christ, by Thomas Bernard (p. 185-186 quoted). It expounds the nature of Jesus’ relationship to the disciples (and all Christians) as given in John 13-17. Enjoy the insights into Jesus’ peace. God’s mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you.

Carl


“’Peace I leave with you: my peace I give unto you’ (...—peace that is mine), that which I possess, which is realized in Me, and which is proper to the life that is in Me. We see at once that the peace intended is peace within; for outward peace was not the portion of Him who was ‘a man of sorrows,’ and bore ‘the contradiction of sinners against Himself,’ and for Whom at that moment the terrible crisis was at hand. Yet all the more, as He moves through trial and conflict, do we feel the serene majesty of a deep-seated peace. The enemy cannot trouble it; the world cannot disturb it; for it consists in the composure of holy affections, the calmness of a settled purpose, and the sunshine of unclouded union with God. The peace which He imparts He calls ‘my peace,’ because it is to be an effluence from his own, and therefore will share its nature and bear its likeness.

Again, as the peace is thus distinguished, so also is the giving. ‘My peace I give unto you.’ The world is free with its conventional wishes, and those not always sincere. Certainly its own spirit is not the spirit of true peace; and it cannot give what it does not possess. At its best, its well-meant words are ineffectual, either to confer a right to peace, or to communicate peace itself. But Jesus does both. The right to peace, which did not belong to men as sinners, He purchases for them by his atoning blood, and now by this deed of gift leaves it to them as a bequest for ever. The peace itself, as profession and experience, He imparts to his people by continuous gift, carried on to the end of time.”