When Jesus
Christ (Yeshua ha Maschiach, in Aramaic) was born in Bethlehem, angels appeared to very
ordinary shepherd folk looking after their sheep on the hills of Bethlehem and
declared.
Glory to God in the highest! Peace on Earth and Goodwill to
all men!
The
angels proclaimed peace for all of
mankind at the birth of the divine child Jesus.
In fact the Holy Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. This “peace” is not just a mere cessation of
hostilities, nor is it just political peace between two warring parties, it is
a peace that goes beyond this, it is a peace that brings wholeness to the
individual, a community, a nation. It
brings prosperity, it brings rest, and it removes worries. That is the kind of peace that God was
offering mankind through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hence Jesus Christ is rightly called, the “Saviour of the World” and the
“Prince of Peace.” Because He is
the One who can bring that peace that everyone’s talking about – between
nations, individuals and within individuals – but no one’s able to bring about.
The
Holy Bible also exhorts us,
Do not be anxious about anything but in everything with
prayer and petition present your requests to God and the peace of God that transcends
all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. [Philippians
4:6, 7].
We can
look at it like this, if we have peace within ourselves, we can have peace with
others. People everywhere are trying
hard to find this peace, they are searching for this for generations, every
individual is searching for it, but real peace has been so elusive.
Even
nations are searching for this peace, they form peace treaties and pacts, but
they still keep developing weapons of ever higher sophistication, of greater
destructive capability.
What
does this tell us about human nature?
There’s something that’s gone badly berserk – something that needs an
eternal fix, otherwise these conflicts between nations and our internal
conflicts will never cease.
The
Holy Bible has a special insight into the human nature. It clearly tells us that:
There is no difference, for all have sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God. [Romans 3:22,23].
This
thing called “sin” is at work in human nature which is robbing every individual
of peace. This “sin” is rebelliousness
of man against his/her Creator. For
through disobedience and denial of the Living God, man is separated from His
Creator. But God in His mercy and
unfailing compassion for mankind, set about in motion a plan to rescue us, to
bring us back to Him, to remove sin and to establish peace. He came down to
earth and became one of us.
He came and preached peace to you who were far away and
peace to those who were near. [Ephesians 2:17].
And
Christ paid the ultimate price for
our sin. He stood in our place before
God and took all the punishment we deserve for our sin.
For the wages of sin is death. [Romans 6:23].
Christ
Jesus died on the cross for us, paid all that is due of us to God because of
our sin. Jesus Christ brought us: peace
with God, peace between individuals and peace to have in ourselves.
For He Himself is our peace. [Ephesians 2:14a].
So,
despite all our shortcomings, God is continually working to bring about peace
within our inner-selves, peace between us and Him, and so to bring lasting
peace to all earth.
But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we
were still sinners Christ died for us. [Romans 5:8]
How can anyone now say: "God hasn't done anything for me!" We can see from what we read so far that God has done everything for us. He realised our need for peace with Him, peace within ourselves, peace with our family members and peace with our neighbours.
If only we would welcome Christ Jesus (Yeshua ha Maschiach, Issy Mahsee, Yeesu Masih) into our hearts, we would begin to experience this true, all elusive peace in our hearts and in our lives.
