The God of Peace (Romans 15:33)

As we have suggested in previous studies, Paul in this section of chapter 15 provides several features of what he regarded as crucial areas of Christian living, and which he regarded as appropriate for Christian leadership to focus on. They are six in total and we have thought about five of them: including mutual encouragement, having a vision, engaging in mercy ministries, enjoying fellowship, and specific prayer. Now we come to the sixth, which is God’s presence in a particular way, that of peace.

I suppose we can see the importance of this blessing in that the church in Rome was bothered by issues connected to those described as weak and strong. In addition, they would need peace in whatever situations came along in the Lord’s providence, and we know from other references by Paul, such as in Philippians, that all was not well in the church in Rome. It may also be the case that Paul mentions this blessing last because it is dependent on the other five being present in their outlook. Certainly we can see how peace must be the atmosphere that should precede communal prayer and it also should be one of the outcomes of such prayer.

So Paul closes this section of his letter with a short benediction. It is possible that by ‘God’ he means the Trinity. Yet it is more likely that he means the Father, although our awareness of his presence is conveyed to us by the Holy Spirit. Paul usually begins his letters by praying that his readers will know grace and peace, so it was a blessing that he knew they could and should have.

What does Paul not mean by peace?

We are familiar with its modern usage which commonly means the absence of hostilities. Two countries may have been at war, but they make a treaty of peace that brings the war to an end. Yet the treaty does not make them into friends – they may still hate each other, mainly because of the damage the other side had caused during the conflict.

It was also the case that the Roman empire claimed to have provided peace through the pax romana. Yet when we think about it, that kind of peace was attained by cruel force, by fierce implementation of laws, by intoleration of dissent, and by lack of contact with those in power. The one thing that Paul and the Roman Christians were aware of was that the Roman empire could not provide real peace.

Having said that, we also know that people want true peace and try to have it. The peace they want is both inwards and outwards, a sense of peace within and a state of peace with those they are in contact with. Yet despite their best efforts, this search of peace does not result in something satisfying, which points to the fact that they must be searching for it in the wrong places or people. So where can peace be found? Paul tells us that it comes from God and he mentions this reality to people in various situations as well as to individuals and groups.

As we think about this subject, I will use two areas of peace in order to help us think about it. First, we will focus on how we are able to enter this state of peace and then we will think about different aspects of peace once we have entered this state.

Finding peace from God

There are several details that we need to consider as we think about the reasons why we have not got this peace and how we can obtain it.

The absence of peace

The first detail that we can note about this desire is that it is a surprising one, given that the wisher and the recipients are sinners. Their sinnership can be looked at in two ways – vertically and horizontally. Vertically, there was no peace between them and God because they belonged to a race that had rebelled against him. This state of dispeace is true of all of them whatever their status or age. They had been separated from God and were alienated from him. Instead of peace, there was animosity on their part against God and there was anger on his part with them because of their attitudes and actions.

Horizontally, Paul and his readers would not have been at peace with one another by nature. He was a Jew and most of them were Gentiles. There was antagonism in their hearts towards each other racially. In a sense, Rome being the capital city of the empire was a symbol of the oppression and bondage that the Jews endured as a captive people. Ethnically they despised one another, but here we have Paul the Jew praying that his Gentile and Jewish contacts in Rome would together experience the peace of God.

Author of peace

Where does peace come from? It is located originally within the Trinity. This has been their experience always. They have equal experiences of peace as far as the amount is concerned. When we think of the divine Persons they have delight and contentment in their attributes, aims and activities. When each of them sees the divine attributes in the others, they are fully satisfied. They rejoice in what they plan to do and in what they actually do. So they have peace.

Avenue of peace

How did God make peace? What was the road he used or provided for the believers in Rome and for us living centuries later to obtain peace? He made peace by sending his Son into the world. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the angels sang about peace between God and man. Jesus came into the world to deal with the cause of the absence of peace, which is our sins. Those sins had to be punished in order for there to be the possibility of peace. So Jesus went to the cross in order to pay the penalty that was demanded because of sin. There on the cross he made peace and made it possible for sinners and God to be reconciled. So we can see that this peace is suitable for all periods as well as for all people.

Announcement of peace

God wants the availability of peace to be made known to those who are estranged from him. He could have done this by himself, but he prefers to do it through those who have experienced this peace themselves. Some of them are called by him to do it in a full-time way and all others are commanded by him to share the same message of peace. There is no difference between the message stated by a preacher and the witness given by a Christian to an unbeliever. The message of both of them is that sinners can find peace with God. It is a message that is simple and suitable for everyone. We have no business in making the path to spiritual peace between a sinner and God complicated. God expects his message to be conveyed in the beauty and bounty with which he declares it, which is that any sinner will have all their sins forgiven if they repent of their sins and trust in Jesus.

Experiencing the peace of God

Of course, we know that there are various alternatives regarding peace. The topic of peace is one that is always at the centre of discussion or desire because people are looking for it, even if they cannot always describe it. So we need to consider some aspects of the peace that the Bible describes.

Authentic peace

The reason why we desire peace is because we are made in the image of God. Yet because we are sinners we will want the wrong kind of peace and search for it in wrong places. This means that from God’s viewpoint we can be searching for inauthentic peace. The Lord reminds us that there is no peace, that is, real peace, for the wicked. So how do we find real peace?

We do so when we ask the Lord to deal with the cause of the absence of peace, which is our sins. Through the gospel we discover that he has provided the way to peace through the death of Jesus on the cross when he paid the penalty for our sins. It is not enough to hear the gospel, however. We have to turn to God and ask him to forgive the wrong things of which we are guilty and at the same time embrace Jesus and trust in him.

When we do so, we will discover that we have peace with God because, as Paul put it earlier in Romans, we have been justified (forgiven and given the righteousness of Jesus) by him. In other words, we need to be in a state of authentic peace with God before we can enjoy his peace in our souls. It is amazing that the way to enter this peace is so straightforward given the degree of hostility that was shown by us to the God who offered peace to us.

Abundant peace

This then leads us to think about the presence of peace in the Christian life. Why should Christians have peace? Here are two reasons. The first is that Jesus promised his disciples on the evening of his betrayal that they could know his peace (John 14:27). What makes that promise so unexpected was the expectation that Jesus himself was experiencing at that time as he anticipated the cross. Connected to this is the fact that a dominant feature of the reign of Jesus as predicted in Psalm 72 and Isaiah 9:6-7 is peace.

The second reason that peace should be in the experience of Christians is because it is part of the fruit of the Spirit, as listed by Paul in Galatians 5. Yet sometimes we do not have a strong degree of peace. One reason, and probably the main reason, for the lack of peace in Christians is disobedience to God’s commandments. God says to Israel through Isaiah (48:18) that if they had listened to his commandments their peace would have been like a river, continually flowing. If we are Christians without peace, we should examine our obedience because disobedience grieves the Holy Spirit.

It is likely that this verse in Romans 15 closes the section of the letter that began in Romans 12:1 (chapter 16 is mainly about personal greetings). Paul began this section by instructing his readers to be dedicated to the Lord; then he explained various ways in which they could do so; now he assures them that they could know the presence of the God of peace. It is not hard to deduce that he is saying that those dedicated to God will know this peace.

Appropriate peace

Thinking about abundant peace can lead some to ask if we can have peace in all situations. The answer from the Bible is that we can, even in the most difficult of conditions that we encounter. We will not get peace from looking at the circumstances, but from reminding ourselves that changed circumstances don’t mean that God has changed in his character. He is always working things for our good, which means that we can have peace even when our minds are puzzled and our emotions are disturbed.

This may seem impossible to those who don’t understand how God is able to do this in the lives of his people. Perhaps the best known example of having such peace is given by the psalmist when he sees the Lord as his shepherd even when going through the valley of the shadow of death. In the darkest of our situations the Holy Spirit can convey to us the sense of still trusting in God in times of prolonged crisis and he often does this by causing us to think about God’s promises concerning his great purposes of blessing for his people. So we should make it our aim to know as many of God’s promises as we can.

We know peace by using our minds to control our feelings. A biblical passage that makes this clear is Paul’s words in Philippians 4:8-9: ‘Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me – practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.’ Those verses make clear that if we think about inappropriate things we will not have God’s peace.

Another verse that links peace with a proper use of the mind is Isaiah 26:3: ‘You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.’ The thrust of that verse is obvious. In order to know peace in our souls we have to think about God. There are many things about him to think about – his power, his wisdom, his promises, his purpose. It is good to let our minds dwell on the God who has made peace through his Son and who gives peace by his Spirit.