Advent season focuses on the promise of peace

This Sunday, many churches will observe the second week of the Advent season. The word “advent” means “coming.” Because of the coming of Jesus the Messiah, we now have peace with God. The sad thing is, millions of people don’t even know there was a conflict.

In less than two weeks, many will sit in a church on Christmas Eve and hear the gospel accounts from Matthew and Luke and the angel’s proclamation: “Peace on earth, good will toward men.” With the current hostilities in our own country and across the globe, some question the Bible’s proclamation of peace. What many don’t understand is that the angels were not referring to wars between nations, but to the end of the war between God and man.

Because of Adam’s disobedience, sin came into the world. God is holy, and mankind was not, and therein lay the hostilities. This is why Jesus came — to bridge the gap between sinful man and a holy God. Because of his birth, sinless life, crucifixion and resurrection, our sin would now be paid for, and peace with God could finally be obtained. That was God’s only plan.

Jesus is peace personified. He calmed the storm by saying, “Peace, be still.” He calmed troubled hearts when he said, “Peace I leave with you.” He wasn’t talking about some worldly, manufactured peace that people try to gin up. He was speaking of real peace with God, the heavenly Father. The gospel itself is called “the gospel of peace,” not “the gospel of condemnation” or “the gospel of guilt and shame,” and certainly not “the gospel of earn your way to heaven.” Almost every letter the apostles wrote in the New Testament begins with “Grace and peace unto you.” That should tell us something about the will of God for our lives.

The peace we now have with God can spill into other areas of our lives. We no longer have to wrestle with the inner turmoil of wondering, “Am I doing enough to please God?” Jesus did the pleasing, and it pleases the Father that we believe in his name. We are simply called to walk worthy of the grace he has placed in our lives and grow in our salvation. We owe him that much.

Advent — the coming of peace. Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, was crucified and resurrected. The war between God and man is over, and we owe it all to the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.

Ken Staley is pastor of Faith Church of Pleasant Grove, 9:30 a.m., and Harrisville Methodist Church, 11 a.m. Both are Global Methodist congregations. Text him at 918-852-9797.