The Hebrew term for peace, Shalom, is used over 200 times in the Old Testament and the Greek equivalent 91 times in the New Testament. It was/is a term used in Israel and among the Jewish people as a greeting or farewell – “shalom aleichem” (peace be unto you), response – “aleichem shalom” (unto you be peace). Such a greeting expresses the desire for the other to be filled with peace of mind, physical health and material prosperity. Inherent in the greeting was the desire for the recipient to have peace with God, who is the source of all Shalom, peace with our fellow man and peace within every aspect of our being, a peace that transcends time and circumstances.
Unfortunately, it is a Shalom that will never be known in what the Bible refers to as “this present evil age/world”, a world which Jesus, God the Son, came into as a man to deliver us from (Jeremiah 8:11) (Galatians 1:4).
As I have noted in my previous two posts, the Shalom that marked God’s “good” creation in the beginning has been vandalized as a result of mankind’s sin, our rejection of God’s purpose for and rule over our lives and our opposition to His order and design for Shalom (Romans 3:23). And as long as sin continues, we remain without Shalom, enemies of God, subject to His wrath and judgement in a world filled with violence, disorder and strife (Isaiah 63:10) (Romans 1:18) (Romans 3:9-17), a world much like the world described in Genesis 6:11-13, that resulted in God’s first worldwide judgement (Genesis 7:17-24).
A second and final worldwide judgement, referred to as the “day of the Lord”, is coming that will end forever all opposition to God’s purposes and rule, out of which a new world of perfect righteousness, void of sin or any vestige of sin’s corrupting consequences will emerge (2 Peter 3:5-7) (2 Peter 3:10-13) (Revelation 21:1-4).
However, until that day, the corruption, perversion and disintegration of the beauty, excellence and magnificence of God’s “good” creation, of man in particular, and the related consequences, all brought about by sin continues, with death and the fear of death intruding into every life (Romans 8:22) (Hebrews 9:27). It does so because all mankind continues to harbor the same evil thoughts and intents in our hearts first noted by God in Genesis 6:5 and confirmed in Jeremiah 17:9 and Mark 7:21-23.
That evil is manifested in disordered desires, vile passions and a debased mind that govern our destructive and self-destructive behaviors (Romans 1:21-28), as well as in the natural catastrophes and physical disorders and disabilities that are beyond our moral control (Luke 21:10-11). From these proceed the full range of human miseries that are only mitigated by God’s common grace by which we continue to enjoy a measure of the goodness He intended in the beginning (Matthew 5:45) (Isaiah 30:18). However, our present miseries brought about by our sin will only increase and continue in Hell forever with unbearable intensity (Revelation 14:9-11), apart from God’s saving grace, which is promised to those who put their faith in and entrust their lives to the one who is revealed in Isaiah 9:6-7 as the “Prince of Peace”, the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9) (2 Thessalonians 3:16) (Luke 7:48-50).
In Jesus we will know a true, unshakable Shalom (John 14:27) that comes from God who is in absolute control of all that occurs in His creation and in our lives (Isaiah 46:9-11) (Isaiah 45:7) (Romans 8:28). God the Father, in love, sends His beloved Son (Matthew 17:5) into this sin-cursed, sin-corrupted world to reconcile and restore peace between God and man (Luke 2:11-14), so that whoever would believe in the Son to where He becomes the object of our deepest love and source of our greatest joy, would not perish in Hell, but receive the gift of eternal life – of true and everlasting Shalom that God has promised to those who love Him above all else (John 3:16) (Luke 10:25-28) (1 John 4:19).
As we fully trust in His love, submitting to Him as our Lord, the one who alone is the source of our Shalom (Romans 10:9-13) (Ephesians 2:14), we are reconciled to God, through Jesus shed blood on the cross and adopted as His beloved children such that nothing can ever separate us from His love and the Shalom that proceeds from that love (Galatians 4:4-5)(Colossians 1:20) (Romans 8:31-39). Thus, it is only in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ that we can know true peace with God which is essential for the restoration of Shalom in our lives individually and in the creation as a whole (Romans 5:1) (Isaiah 11:6-9) (Romans 8:18-22).
It is a peace that we can begin to know now as we keep our heart and mind stayed upon Jesus, beholding by faith His glory as it is revealed throughout the Bible ((Isaiah 26:3) (John 1:14). In the midst of the conflict and chaos, fears and anxieties around us, we can know peace of mind (Philippians 4:6-7), ease of conscience (Romans 8:1-2), rest for our souls (Matthew 11:28-30), and joy unspeakable and full of glory (1 Peter 1:3-9) in a heart made new by the Holy Spirit, from which we can now look forward with great anticipation to “the day of the Lord,” when the Kingdom of God will be consummated and Shalom restored by the Prince of Peace and Lord of Glory, our Lord Jesus, who will reign in peace forever (Luke 10:20) (Ezekiel 36:25-27) (Romans 14:17 (Colossians 3:1-4) (Psalm 24:7-10).
However, although this Gospel (Ephesians 6:15), this good news of peace with God both now and forevermore comes to us by grace, as a free gift (Romans 6:23), it did not come without a cost (1 Peter 1:18-19). It was achieved at an infinite cost to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave His life for us (Galatians 2:20). And it is His willing and even glad payment of this cost that I will look at in my next few posts, that we may grow in our understanding of and trust in His great love for us, and come to love Him more and more each day with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength as He commands and deserves (Hebrews 12:1-2) (Mark 12:30) (1 John 4:19).
In the meantime, I would encourage your meditation on and enjoyment of the classic hymn, It is Well with My Soul.
Grace and Peace ×
It is well, it is well,
🙌🏻 With My Soul🙌🏻