The Prince of Peace

The Prince of Peace

Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. However, He isn’t just the Prince of Peace, He rules over all disturbances of peace. The angels’ song in the night of jubilation, “Peace on earth!” was a prophetic song concerning the work that awaited Him. He, the Son of Man, was to create a peace that no one had known, but was now to be made accessible in Christ, by faith, for everyone. Therefore Jesus could say, “Peace I leave with you . . . .” John 14:27. The peace of which He speaks here is the peace he had gained with His life. But in Matthew 10:34 He instructs us as to how we ourselves shall achieve the peace He left us: “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” In other words, it is by using the sword that we would achieve peace. Jesus was a warrior—not against people, but against the one who disturbs the peace and all his helpers.

What was it that had made the law weak? It was the flesh! What, then, did Jesus have to do? He had to come in flesh and attack and overcome sin in the flesh. Rom. 8:3. “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of division between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” Eph. 2:14-16.

Here we see the great work that Jesus did. Because of sin in the flesh, every single human being was in Satan’s power. Therefore we must fight, for that is what Jesus did, and He finished the work to God’s honor. There couldn’t be a peace settlement; on the contrary, the sword had to be used, and Satan’s power had to be crushed. This is the only way out of this impasse. Jesus did that, so He could say, “The ruler of this world . . . has nothing in Me.” John 14:30. He “disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them on the cross.” Col. 2:15.

You cannot be Jesus’ disciple as long as you love sin in any shape or form. You cannot fight on two fronts simultaneously. No one can justify his lusts and his Christian faith simultaneously. No one can serve two masters, etc. Matt. 6:24.

Song #118 in Ways of the Lord begins like this: “The man of peace, blest of God is he! He hates unrighteousness fervently. But hand in hand with the God of peace, he fights till sin does cease.”

The man who can tolerate unrighteousness is not a man of peace; neither has he received the sword of Christ so that he can begin to separate the evil from the good. It is not that difficult to make the right choice when the sword, which is God’s Word, has separated the good from the evil. However, most people never succeed in using the sword; consequently they never get to taste the peace of Christ. But all those who are fighting this blessed war experience an eternal peace that no external circumstances can take away from them.