First Law: Where there is holiness, there is peace and eternal life.
Peace can never be separated from righteousness
or holiness; peace and righteousness go together. In other words, where there
is no righteousness, there would be no peace. Only where there is righteousness
or holiness will there be peace. God - Yehovah only takes pleasure in righteous
people.
Note: God was pleased with the lord Messiah
Jesus, His Son, because Jesus was the righteous one. 1 John 2:1: He is called
“Jesus the Messiah, the righteous one”. God was pleased with the lord Messiah
Jesus because Jesus said, “I always do those things which please Him.” [John
8:29]. His whole life was to please his God and his Father, Yehovah. We need to
follow the example that he has lived out before us!
The important thing to understand is that
holiness is a life that is pleasing to God, a life lived in obedience to him; a
life lived in accordance with his will. If you live a life like this, you will
become pleasing to God, become a man of God’s good pleasure. Luke 2:14: “Peace
on earth to men in whom God- Yehovah is pleased”
A disciple of the lord Messiah Jesus enjoys
deep peace if he is obedient to God- Yehovah.
You will not understand peace in its richness,
its depth, and its fullness until you learn to live a life that is pleasing to
God, until you commit your life totally to him, living in his way, walking in
his path.
Baptism is like walking through the door of the
kingdom of God, but you still have a long way. You don’t just stand inside the
door; you must live the life of a subject of God’s kingdom, or a member of
God’s family. If you make it your aim in life to say, “I will live a life that
is always pleasing to Him; I have come to do your will, O God,” as the lord
Jesus is quoted as saying in Hebrews 10:7, you are filled with deep inner
peace. A very important spiritual law to understand is: Where there is
holiness, there is peace.
If you are not enjoying peace in the depth of
your being, you are hiding sin somewhere in your heart, and sin is a very
disturbing element. The negative side of this spiritual law is: Wherever there
is sin, there is turmoil. There is no way you can get peace so long as there is
unholiness and unrighteousness in your heart.
Peace and holiness are inseparable
Peace and holiness always go together; you
cannot hold them apart. If you want peace, you must have holiness. If you have
holiness, you will have peace. They are intertwined.
Hebrews 12:14: “Strive for peace with
all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord-
Yehovah.” Without holiness, you will not see God- Yehovah; without peace, you
will not see God. Peace and holiness are inseparably tied. Philippians 4:7: “…
the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts
and minds in the Messiah Jesus.”
Notice: righteousness is at the beginning of
this list of four virtues, and peace is at the end. Righteousness and peace
always come together, with faith and love in between.” The righteousness that
Paul is talking about is the righteousness of a pure heart. Only the person
with a pure heart shall see God- Yehovah.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
see God” (Matthew 5:8).
Without holiness, no man shall see God (Hebrews
12:14).
2 Peter 3:14 is another passage that speaks
about peace: Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent
to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace.
While you are waiting for the new heaven and
the new earth, strive to be blameless, pure in heart, loving righteousness;
then you will find that peace.
The apostles Paul and Peter use expressions such
as “pure heart,” “spotless,” and “blameless,” which are simply different terms
for righteousness and holiness.
In Romans 14:17, we read: For the Kingdom
[Kingship] of God- Yehovah is not a matter of eating and drinking but of
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Joy and peace are inseparable companions. Where
you have peace, you will have a deep inner joy. The trio of righteousness,
peace, and joy is inseparable.
1 Thessalonians 4:3 and 7 tell us that we are
called to holiness. And Colossians 3:15 says that we are called to peace. So,
we are called to peace because we are called to holiness.
You will always find righteousness and peace
together; for example, Isaiah 32:17 or Isaiah 59:7-8:
17. And the effect of righteousness will be
peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.
7. Their feet run to evil, and they are swift
to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and
destruction are in their highways. 8. The way of peace they do not
know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads
crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace.
We read in Isaiah 57:21 [NJB], “No peace,” says
Yehovah, “for the wicked.”
The wicked cannot find peace anywhere in heaven
or on earth, or under the earth. To those who do not love righteousness, there
is no peace.
Notice those beautiful words in Psalm 85:10: Righteousness
and peace kiss each other.
Let us look at this amazing conjunction of
peace and holiness in 1 Thessalonians 5:23: Now may the God of peace himself
sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept
blameless at the coming of the lord Messiah Jesus.
God- Yehovah is the God of peace because he is
the God of holiness, of righteousness, and he sanctifies us [sets us apart]. He
keeps our spirit, soul, and body holy by His indwelling presence.
Evil and peace cannot go together. Sin and
peace do not go together. That is the fundamental spiritual law. Notice that
the angels, in speaking to the shepherds, did not say, “Peace on earth.”, but
“peace to men of good will” or “to men in whom God- Yehovah is well pleased,”
or “to men in whom God takes pleasure.” Why? Because they love
righteousness. There will never be peace on earth because mankind is in
bondage to sin.
Notice the warning in Hebrews 10:38 [CJB]: … the
person who is righteous will live his life by trusting, but if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him.
If the righteous man draws back from
righteousness, from God, God will not be pleased with him. His end will be
destruction in the Lake of Fire.
When you have peace, you have eternal life
In the Bible, peace is always associated with
life. Life and peace go together. For example, Romans 8:6 says: “To set the
mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” Or in Malachi 2:5,
God establishes: “a covenant of life and peace.”
Second law: Peace is found only in the lord
Messiah Jesus, who died on the cross
The second spiritual law is: Peace is found
only in the lord Messiah Jesus. The lord Messiah Jesus is our peace because he
is our righteousness. Even in this second principle, the first principle is
active – you cannot separate peace and righteousness. For example, Ephesians
2:14 says: The Messiah is our peace.
In 1 Corinthians 1:30, we read: The Messiah is
our righteousness and our sanctification.
Note: Sanctification: This is the lifelong,
ongoing process where the Spirit of God- Yehovah helps a believer grow to
become more like the lord Messiah Jesus. It involves turning away from sin and
practicing daily obedience and being totally committed to pleasing God!
He is our peace because he is our righteousness
and sanctification.
How did he become our peace and our
sanctification? What do those beautiful words in Isaiah 53:5: “the chastisement
of our peace was upon him” mean? This means he became sin for us, who know no
sin. He offered himself up as a sin-offering sacrifice in order the God-
Yehovah could reconcile [bring back] humanity to Himself.
Romans 5:1b says: We have peace with God-
Yehovah- through our lord Messiah Jesus.
And Colossians 1:19 [CJB] and verse 20 [ESV]
say: For it pleased God to have his full being live in His Son, and
through him to reconcile [bring back] to Himself all things, whether on earth
or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
The Messiah died to save us
by transforming us to be new and holy.
The Bible tells us that to be saved is to be
made into a new person; it is transformation. “If any man is in the Messiah, he
is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is what born from
above means: to become changed.
So not only are we acquitted, which is called
“justification,” not only are we declared righteous, but God- Yehovah
also makes us righteous. In Ezekiel 36:26, He [Yehovah] would
plant into us a new heart. He would take a heart of stone out of me and put in
a new heart of flesh. The dead heart is taken out, and a living heart is put
in. That is a genuine heart transplant!
We are totally transformed. We are made
righteous. That is why the apostle John says in 1 John 3:9: No
one who is born of God- Yehovah will continue to sin, because God’s
seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been
born of God. You have been transformed. What amazing grace!
However, transformation is a process. We don’t
become totally new in one day. As disciples of the lord Messiah Jesus, you know
you have not yet finished with your struggle against sin. The writer of the
book of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12:4: “In your struggle against sin you have
not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” We are fighting against
sin day by day. We are not yet perfect, as Paul says in Philippians 3:12: “not
as though I am already perfect, but I press towards the mark.” Sometimes in
your struggle with sin, you will find that your peace is being disturbed. For
example, if you allow sin to creep into your life and you don’t overcome it,
you are going to lose that inner peace. Your reconciliation with God- Yehovah
stands; that external peace is there, but the internal peace is lost if you
don’t determine to be victorious, enabled by the Spirit of God in your struggle
with sin.
We must ever depend upon God’s Holy Spirit to
constantly bring back that holiness and that peace into our lives. God’s Holy
Spirit is the Spirit of peace. For example, in Galatians 5:22 we read: “The
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.”
Psalm 119:165: Great peace have those who love
your law; nothing can make them stumble. As followers of the lord Messiah
Jesus, we are living out the New Covenant laws in our lives.
Be determined to love righteousness by the
grace of God, and you will find God’s peace flooding into your heart.
Notice: Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is
death, but the free gift of God- Yehovah is eternal life in the lord Messiah Jesus.
On the one hand you have sin and death, and on
the other hand, you have God’s gift, eternal life in the Messiah Jesus.
Romans 6:22: But now that you have been set
free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get
leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
Note: We are slaves of God because we are
bought and paid for by the blood of the lord Messiah Jesus, when he offered
himself up as a sin-offering sacrifice, acting as the agent of his God and
Father, Yehovah. We are also slaves of the lord Messiah Jesus.
You don’t have eternal life without
sanctification or holiness. You don’t have peace without holiness. It is
absolutely essential for us to understand this first spiritual law.
Notice Romans 6:22: “But now that you have been
set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap
leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. again.” Paul is speaking to the
disciples of the lord Messiah Jesus in Rome, to slaves of God, not to
non-Christians. The result of being a slave of God is holiness, and what is the
end of sanctification or holiness? It is eternal life. Understand clearly that
this gift of eternal life is given to the people who are slaves of God, who
have been set free from sin by the grace of God.
When I have died with Christ and also live with
him as the new man, God sets me free from the bondage of sin. He transforms my
life internally, so that I become his slave and delight to do his will. Then,
God’s gift of eternal life is at the end of this process of sanctification.
That is what Romans 6:22-23 is saying: But now that you have been set free from
sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to
holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in the lord
Messiah Jesus.
3. Third law: Good and evil can never co-exist
The third and final spiritual law is this:
Righteousness is bound to be opposed by wickedness. Or good and evil are
irreconcilable opposites. That is the reason why you can never have peace if
you allow righteousness and wickedness to co-exist in your life.
If the only true God is your God, be totally
committed to serving Him, with all your heart, mind, and inner being.
There will be no peace on this earth from evil
until God’s kingdom reigns. There will be evil until God’s kingdom reigns on
earth and eradicates it. Mankind simply doesn’t have the weapons to deal with
evil. There is no way that there will ever be peace in this world so long as
evil exists in it. Therefore, whether it is in your own life or in the world as
a whole, this fundamental law will always hold.
When Jesus came into the world, the conflict
between good and evil became even fiercer because a greater powerful good has
come into the world. And the reason why the conflict becomes fiercer is that
“men love darkness rather than light,” as the lord Messiah Jesus says in John
3:19: This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved
darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
People in the world today tend to prefer
darkness. It’s no use trying to change a country without changing its people.
You can change economics, military balance, educational positions, but as long
as the man himself is basically evil - he is still a sinner even though he is
educated; there will never be peace on the earth. Yet, there will be peace when
God’s kingdom comes. That is why we pray for “Your kingdom come; your will be
done on earth as in heaven.”
Righteous Christians will disturb evil and
suffer, but will have inner peace. The more righteous you are, the better
person you are, the more you will face opposition, bitterness, and persecution.
If you are disturbing evil, evil will rise up and attack you. Every person who
has made a stand for God and for the lord Messiah Jesus expects trouble,
because there is this law that good and evil cannot be reconciled.
The more righteous you become, the more you are
filled with God’s holiness, the greater will be the opposition and hatred
against you. As the lord Messiah Jesus says to his disciples, “Because the
world has hated me, it will hate you. So be prepared. Don’t be surprised when
these things come” (cf. John 15:18-19: “If the world hates you, keep in
mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the
world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world,
but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”).
The apostle Peter also said to the Christians: Dear
friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to
test you, as though something strange were happening to you. [1 Peter 4:12].
Understand this spiritual law: good and evil
stand irreconcilable.
The lord Messiah Jesus said to his disciples,
“In the world, you will have tribulation (suffering, persecution), but in me,
you will have peace” (John 16:33)
The keyword of Philippians is “joy.” In
Colossians it is “thanksgiving.” Why can you give thanks when you are sitting
in prison? Because of this wonderful inner peace. Outside, the world is falling
apart, but inside, your heart is defended by the peace of God like a fortress.
Paul says in Philippians 4:7: And the peace of God, which transcends all
understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in the Messiah Jesus.
Apply these 3 spiritual laws and enjoy peace
First, understand that you do not have peace
without holiness. You do not have eternal life without holiness. So, get right
with God. Confess every sin and say, “God, change my attitude. Enable me
by your Spirit to love what is good and righteous.”
Secondly, understand that peace is found only
in Christ through his death on the cross. Therefore, repent of your sins and
ask God to forgive you through the cleansing that comes from the lord Messiah
Jesus’ shed blood, when he offered himself up to his God and Father Yehovah as
a sin-offering sacrifice. The Messiah has reconciled us to God by his
sin-offering sacrifice; so draw very near to God and take hold of him, for
without him you will never have peace.
Thirdly, understand that peace comes to this
world only in your heart because there is evil in the world. Good and evil will
always be in conflict. Be prepared for the conflict, and rejoice in it, because
you know that you are standing on the side of what is good and righteous. Your
firm stance as a slave of righteousness will make a significant impact, which
is why evil forces will oppose.
Meditate on these three spiritual laws. They
can transform your life, so you will not go wrong spiritually. Then, the
message of the angels will become a reality to you: “Peace on earth to the men
of righteousness - who imitate the lord Messiah Jesus the righteous - in whom
God has pleasure!” In this way, God will be glorified!
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