Advent: An Internal Peace

Advent: Week 2, Day 2

Light two purple candles.
Read Col. 1:19-20

"For it was the [Father's] good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, [I say], whether things on earth or things in heaven." (Col. 1:19-20)

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Any study of the peace of Jesus Christ, in my opinion, must begin with the peace He earned through His death on the cross. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:12-13, "Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ."

This is the basic Gospel message. Every human being begins life in rebellion against his or her Creator. We are aliens; foreigners; strangers to God. And the truth is that we can have no real peace with man if we do not have peace with God. Oh, sure, we can get along with our neighbor but do we have a lasting peace? Do we have a deeper peace?

Apart from Jesus Christ we have no peace with God. We are His enemies; Paul says in Colossians 1 that even though God created us, we have been in rebellion against Him ever since Adam and Eve first sinned. And because of our sin and our broken nature, we were in need of someone to save us -- a person who did not need saving himself.

So God chose to become man in the form of Jesus, and through His blood shed on the cross He paid the debt and bridged the gap between God and man. It is through faith in Him that we now have our peace with God. He has "reconciled" us to God and now we can have a restored relationship with our Creator. Just accept what Christ has done and trust Him.

Be God's.