JESUS Is Our Peace with God: Conclusion

JESUS Is Our Peace with God

Conclusion

We have finally come to the place from which we started. We have examined our natural state before God, who His Son is and what He did for us, and the importance of believing in the name of Jesus. If we believe in Him, we know that we will be raised with Him (2 Corinthians 4:14).

However, before concluding this series, I'd like to discuss one last point. One thing that continually amazes me is the relationship of Gentile (non-Jewish) believers to God through Jesus Christ. As a Gentile believer myself, I find this topic to be quite staggering.

In the letter to the Ephesians, after explaining that we who believe in Jesus are saved by the grace of God and that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, the Apostle Paul addresses Gentile believers specifically:

Ephesians 2:11-12

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh,
called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision,
which is made in the flesh by hands —

remember that you were at that time separated from Christ,
alienated from the commonwealth of Israel
and strangers to the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world.

Jews, God’s chosen people, were given the Jewish Law by God. Circumcision showed that they belonged to Him and were entitled to the benefits under His covenant with them.

However, Gentiles like myself had no such connections to God. We had no Law and no hope. We were “separated from Christ ... strangers to the covenants of promise [found in the Jewish Law], having no hope and without God in the world”.

But something happened to allow us Gentiles, who didn't know God, to have access to Him.

Ephesians 2:13-18

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off
have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For He himself is our peace,
Who has made us both one
and has broken down in His flesh
the dividing wall of hostility
by abolishing the Law
of commandments and ordinances,
that He might create in Himself one new man
in place of the two,
so making peace,
and might reconcile us both to God
in one body through the cross,
thereby killing the hostility.

And He came and preached
peace to you who were far off
and peace to those who were near.

For through Him we both have access
in one Spirit to the Father.

Now that Christ Jesus has accomplished the work of "abolishing the Law of commandments and ordinances," only those who trust Jesus will have peace with God. Jesus is the only one who perfectly obeyed and fulfilled the Law to God's satisfaction. Again, a Jew's obedience to the Law cannot save him or her; otherwise, God would not have sent Christ to save us all.

Even before He obeyed His Father by going to the cross to die, Jesus spoke to the Jews who wanted to kill Him after He had healed a man on the Sabbath:

The Jews therefore marveled, saying,
"How is it that this man has learning,
when He has never studied?"

So Jesus answered them,
"My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.

If anyone’s will is to do God’s will,
he will know whether the teaching is from God
or whether I am speaking on My own authority.

The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory;
but the One who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him is true,
and in Him there is no falsehood.

Has not Moses given you the Law?
Yet none of you keeps the Law.
Why do you seek to kill Me?"

The crowd answered,
"You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill You?"

Jesus answered them,
"I did one work, and you all marvel at it.
Moses gave you circumcision
(not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers),
and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.

If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision,
so that the Law of Moses may not be broken,
are you angry with me because on the Sabbath
I made a man’s whole body well?

Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment."

(John 7:15-24)

While these Jews were angry that Jesus had healed a man on the Sabbath, ostensibly breaking God's Law, Jesus argued that He was perfectly in line with God's will and that the Jews themselves did not keep the Law. I think these Jews had lost sight of the fact that obedience to God has more to do with the heart than it does with outward appearances.

We cannot be saved by observing the Sabbath, or by offering animal sacrifices, but only by trusting the One who became our ultimate sacrifice and who is also Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8).

The writer to the Hebrews argues powerfully for the superiority of Jesus over obedience to the Law as a means of earning or receiving peace with God.

Hebrews 10:1-14

For since the Law has but a shadow of the good things to come
instead of the true form of these realities,
it can never, by the same sacrifices
that are continually offered every year,
make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered,
since the worshipers, having once been cleansed,
would no longer have any consciousness of sin?

But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year.

For it is impossible
for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said,
"Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have You prepared for Me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings
You have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.' "

When he said above,
"You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in
sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings"
(these are offered according to the Law),
then He added, "Behold, I have come to do Your will."

He abolishes the first in order to establish the second.

And by that will we have been sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And every priest stands daily at his service,
offering repeatedly the same sacrifices,
which can never take away sins.

But when Christ had offered for all time
a single sacrifice for sins,

He sat down at the right hand of God,
waiting from that time
until His enemies should be made
a footstool for His feet.

For by a single offering
He has perfected for all time
those who are being sanctified.

Jesus was not born to offer animal sacrifices. He was born to offer Himself, in a life of perfect obedience to God and a sacrificial death to atone for the transgressions of both Jewish sinners and Gentile sinners. And Jesus' offering for sins was completely sufficient. It was superior to all animal sacrifices, since, unlike those offerings, Jesus' offering actually took away our sins, and only needed to be done once. His offering truly pleased God.

After His offering of His own body and blood was complete, "Jesus sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet." Jesus Christ reigns today as Lord of all, Jew and Gentile alike.

The Apostle Peter, having been convinced by the Lord Jesus that God's grace had indeed extended to those outside of Israel, preached the following message to a group of Gentiles.

So Peter opened his mouth and said:

"Truly I understand that God shows no partiality,
but in every nation anyone who fears Him
and does what is right is acceptable to Him.

As for the word that He sent to Israel,
preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ
(He is Lord of all),

you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea,
beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed:
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and with power.

He went about doing good and healing all
who were oppressed by the devil,
for God was with Him.

And we are witnesses of all that He did
both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

They put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree,
but God raised Him on the third day
and made Him to appear,

not to all the people
but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses,
who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.

And He commanded us to preach to the people
and to testify that He is the One appointed by God
to be Judge of the living and the dead.

To Him all the prophets bear witness
that everyone who believes in Him
receives forgiveness of sins through His name."

While Peter was still saying these things,
the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.

And the believers from among the circumcised
who had come with Peter were amazed,
because the gift of the Holy Spirit
was poured out even on the Gentiles.

For they were hearing them
speaking in tongues and extolling God.

Then Peter declared,
"Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people,
who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?"

And he commanded them to be baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ.

Then they asked him to remain for some days.

(Acts 10:34-48)

The Lord Jesus Christ validated His sovereign decision that the Gentiles should be added to His body in a visible, audible manner. He poured out His Spirit on these new Gentile believers, and they began "speaking in tongues and extolling God."

This "amazed" the "believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter" - that is, the Jewish believers who had come with the Apostle Peter. They witnessed firsthand the amazing grace of the Lord Jesus in saving Gentiles through the simplicity of the Gospel.

The Apostle Peter did not preach about the Jewish Law to these Gentiles; he merely told them the good news about Jesus Christ. These believers, having been baptized with the Holy Spirit, were subsequently baptized in water in the name of Jesus Christ.

Let's return to Ephesians to conclude this series.

Here, the Apostle Paul continues to address Gentile believers.

Ephesians 2:17-22

And He came and preached peace to you who were far off
and peace to those who were near.

For through Him we both have access
in one Spirit to the Father.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,
but you are fellow citizens
with the saints and members of the household of God,
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone,
in Whom the whole structure,
being joined together,
grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In Him you also are being built together
into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

We who trust Jesus for our salvation, whether we are Jew or Gentile, are truly blessed!

• We have His Holy Spirit indwelling us.
• We have access to the Father in that one Spirit.
• We are continually being “built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
• We are a part of God’s glorious redemption of mankind through Jesus Christ.
• We have peace with God.

But none of this is because of something we did that impressed God.

Notice that Christ Jesus Himself is "the cornerstone" - that is, the most important stone in the entire building, the one without which the building could not and would not exist.

That building is the church, composed of God's adopted children. Not a physical brick-and-mortar building, nor a church organization or denomination, nor a political party, but "those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours" (1 Corinthians 1:2 b).

• Only in Jesus are we “joined together” and grow “into a holy temple in the Lord.”
• Only in Jesus are we “being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
• Only in Jesus do we have peace with God.

Jesus is our peace.

Glory to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, our Peace with God.

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All emphases are mine.
All Bible quotes are from the English Standard Version (ESV).
All pronouns for God and the Lord Jesus Christ are Capitalized.

For the previous part of this series, go here.
This is the last part of this series!
To go to the beginning of this series, go here.