Peace - It Is Well With My Soul Series

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The text here may best be called a collection of notes from http://www.higherpraise.com/outlines/series.htm. As the message for this sermon was shared, it was a skimming over major points rather than a run down of everything in this document.

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This sermon can be listened to online by visiting:

http://www.cayafellowship.com/2007/07/13/peace-it-is-well-with-my-soul/

Ga 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

“I’m living, but I’m not doing the living”, Paul cried out. “I’m dead. Christ is alive, and I am watching Him live His amazing life through me”. And then Paul gives us God’s definition of love: He says, “He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” That’s love: God giving Himself away for those who do not deserve it, cannot repay it, and may not understand it. That same Paul, in the midst of years of imprisonment, persecution, hardship, and the facing of certain death, used a prison cell as his personal post office, and wrote letters from his heart to the hearts of those outside who were wondering what kind of fear and frustration Paul was suffering from inside those cells of death. In every case, Paul began those letters the same way: He wrote:

“Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor 1:3, 2 Cor 1:2, Eph 1:2, Phil 1:2, Col 1:2, 2 Th 1:2) Grace and peace. The Pauline twins. Like two hearts that are woven together by threads of divine design, grace and peace seemed to be both the cause and effect of each other. Only the grace of God can bring about the peace of God, and oh, how the peace of God draws upon the grace of God for its strength and power. Grace and peace. Two sides of the coin of the enabling life of Christ in us.

And as we draw towards the conclusion of our study of God’s amazing grace, we need to take a Biblical look at this subject of peace. We need to steal away into that place of quiet rest near to the heart of God and see what there is about it that makes it so special, and what there is about us that causes us to rush from that garden so frequently and leave behind the serenity we found there. Just what is “the peace of God”? Why did Paul pray for it so earnestly? Why did he so often couple it with the word “grace”? Such are the issues we need to explore as we seek to have God’s wonderful grace an experiential part of our daily existence.

There is basically one Hebrew word in the Old Testament and one Greek word in the New used to describe this unusual quality. They are:

Mwlv shalowm {shaw-lome’} or shalom {shaw-lome’}

completeness, soundness, welfare, peace

1a) completeness (in number)

1b) safety, soundness (in body)

1c) welfare, health, prosperity

1d) peace, quiet, tranquillity, contentment

1e) peace, friendship

1e1) of human relationships

1e2) with God especially in covenant relationship

1f) peace (from war)

1g) peace (as adjective)

One hundred seventy-five times in the Old Testament this word is translated “peace”. It is used a total of 236 times in all. The Greek word is:

eirene eirene {i-ray’-nay}

1) a state of national tranquillity

1a) exemption from the rage and havoc of war

2) peace between individuals, i.e. harmony, concord

3) security, safety, prosperity, felicity, (because peace and

harmony make and keep things safe and prosperous)

4) of the Messiah’s peace

4a) the way that leads to peace (salvation)

5) of Christianity, the tranquil state of a soul assured of its

salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and

content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is

6) the blessed state of devout and upright men after death

Peace. It seems obvious, then, that it has four facets in Scripture. They are intertwined, and similar in definition, but vastly different in expression. They are:

1- The cessation of hostilities between two warring nations.

I Kings 22:44 And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.

Joshua 9:15 ¶ And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live:

2- The cessation of hostilities between two people.

Psalm 34:14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

Psalm 37:37 Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.

3- The cessation of hostilities between man and God through Jesus Christ and His atoning death:

Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.