Why Work for Peace?

Often times the word “peace” conjures up several different images in our minds. For many of us who grew up in the millenial generation, those who we hear of who practice and try to promote peace oftentimes produces in our heads pictures of obsolete, burnt-out idealists, “hippies”, or naive “do-gooders” who are out of touch with reality (which says something about us when we become so cynical that we think a world with war, injustice, and conflict is normal (or “business as usual”). For others, peace has only one definition: non-violence between warring parties. In governmental terms, we call that simply a “cease-fire”. But for us as Christians, this is not enough nor should it be.

All throughout Scripture, there is a concept of what is known as shalom. Although this is translated “peace” in the English, like many Hebrew words and ideas, the English translations could probably combine about nine different words to really grasp the concept. One of the best ways I have heard it explained in one word is this: wholeness. When you ask a Christian, “How do you word for peace?” We could give them a few tried and true answers: “be informed”, “pray for your enemies”, “raise awareness”, “do good to those who hate you”. But when you hit us with that most crucial question, “Why”?, well I know that for a time in my life, I was so dumbfounded to find an answer that I either A) Had no answer and stood there with my jaw hanging open or B) replied simply “well…Jesus did it…and why shouldn’t we?” That is an excellent start for believers but what do we say to others? to ourselves? when we desire to take the above answer to a fuller, more robust understanding? Does all of Scripture call us to be peacemakers? What about those “dark parts” of the Old Testament that talk about war? Theses are all important questions, and this is where I start this three-part blog series.

The first part is titled “Vertical Peace”…Peace between us and God.

This is where theology builds the bridge and lays the groundwork for peace, and it answers that most fundamental question…why?

The beginning of the Bible recounts a God brining everything into existence out of nothing (Gen. 1:1). Sometimes people get so caught up in the creationist/evolutionist/old earth/young earth/literal/poetic debates, that we forget about some of the most joyful and powerful truths of this story. 1) God, and only God is the Creator of the universe. As much as we humans are called to follow God’s command and example to use our gifts to create (and perhaps procreate), it is still humbling to remember that no human being ever created something completely out of nothing (ex nilhio). The best we have succeeded in doing is manipulating raw materials into a finished product. 2) God is both wholly seperate and above His creation yet is still deeply involved in it. It is God who does the creating and He himself is not the creation. Likewise, it is not the creation we worship but He whose hands have formed it. 3) God values order rather than chaos. It is in His nature to enjoy when His creation acts to fulfill its purpose and He ordered it to do so when He formed the cosmos and gave structure to chaos. He did not just create. He organized. 4) He created the world in peace. There was once a time when there was no striving, no conflict, no hate.

C.S. Lewis (I am paraphrasing) once wrote that if humanity has a yearning that we once knew a better existence and our desire is to return to that existence, then it is plausible that such was/is a reality. Jesus Christ, through His death and resurrection gave all who would come to Him a glimpse of that new reality: the Kingdom of God. When we come to Christ and give Him the place of lordship in our lives that He desires and deserves by the degree of His goodness, and make Him our Savior, then He gives us forgiveness from our sins, purpose for our lives, healing from our pain, and new life and peace. The way to have peace with God is to come to Christ and submit to His lordship and to be washed clean of the stains of sin and death.

There is no other way to peace because sin impacts everything, and it is like a cancer: it feeds on itself. No amount of “self-surgery” (good deeds, self-discipline, etc.) can remove this blight. Like cancer that can only be killed by a trained physician, sin can only be destroyed by the great Physician, Jesus Christ. It is this love He has shown to us most fully in Jesus that is the foundation for peace between us and God. The familiar Scripture verse proclaiming the announcement by the angels, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14 NIV).

In Christ, we lack nothing. We are made complete through His life and power. Through Christ’s atonement being the key to God’s forgiveness, we now have peace with God and this is the only foundation with which we can work for peace with others. For if a person in their heart does not have peace with God, then even if they are at peace with neighbor and enemy alike, there is no shalom, no complete peace, no wholeness. But because God loves all humanity and invites them into His new way of living, then peace with God is a joyful result and then this can be shared with others so that they too will realize that they were meant to live for so much more.

Loving God and Loving neighbor, these are the things that make for peace….

Pt 2 to come, Horizontal Peace