“The fruit of the Spirit is… peace…” (Gal. 5:22)

As soon as we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1). That means that the hostility between ourselves and God has ceased since Christ has effectively dealt with the cause of that hostility—our sins.

We also have peace of conscience knowing that the work is finished, Christ has paid the penalty of our sins, and God has forgotten them.

But then the Holy Spirit also wants us to enjoy the peace of God in our hearts. This is the serenity and tranquility that come from knowing that our times are in the hands of God and that nothing can happen to us apart from His permissive will.—

This fruit of the Spirit enables a Peter to sleep soundly in jail, a Stephen to pray for his murderous assailants, a Paul to comfort others in a shipwreck.

When a plane flies into clear air turbulence, and is thrown around like a feather in the gale, when the wing tips flex thirteen feet, when most of the passengers are screaming as the plane lurches, falls, rises and dips, peace enables a believer to bow his head, commit his soul to God, and praise God for whatever may be the outcome.

Or to change the illustration, the Spirit of God can give peace to us when we sit in the doctor’s office and hear him say, “I’m sorry to tell you but it’s malignant.” He can enable us to reply, “I’m ready to go, Doctor. I’m saved by the grace of God, and for me it will be ‘absent from the body, at home with the Lord.’”

And so in the words of Bickerstith’s lovely hymn, we can have “Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin…by thronging duties pressed…with sorrows surging round…with loved ones far a way…our future all unknown” because “Jesus we know, and He is on the throne.” — William MacDonald

How is it possible for the righteous God to declare the unrighteous to be righteous without either compromising his righteousness or condoning their unrighteousness? This is our question. God’s answer is the cross.

Without the cross the justification of the unjust would be unjustified, immoral, and therefore impossible. The only reason God ‘justifies the wicked’ (Rom. 4:5) is that ‘Christ died for the wicked’ (Rom. 5:6). Because he shed his blood (Rom. 3:25) in a sacrificial death for sinners, God is able justly to justify the unjust.

According to the Christian revelation, God’s own great love propitiated his own holy wrath through the gift of his own dear Son, who took our place, bore our sin and died our death. Thus God himself gave himself to save us from himself. This is the righteous basis on which the righteous God can ‘righteous’ the unrighteous without compromising his righteousness. –John Stott

Belonging to God is the basis of every blessing from God. With Him we have it all.So, understanding our position, who we are and what we have, in Christ is the key to living a life of victory. These thoughts by John MacDuff (1856) helps us with this:

God says, “I will be their God–and they shall be My people.” 2 Corinthians 6:16. This is a promise in which every other promise is included. Sometimes God says to the Christian: I will be your strength, your righteousness, your deliverer, your shield, your reward; but these are nothing but modifications of the former.

Believer! endeavor to realize something of the blessedness involved in having God for your God. For this purpose, think of the representations He gives of Himself in His word. Think of Him . . .
  in all the perfections of His nature
  in His unsearchable riches,
  in His unspeakable glory,
  in His omnipotent power,
  in His universal dominion,
  in His spotless purity,
  in His eternal veracity,
  and, above all, in His infinite grace and mercy!
And having viewed Him thus, you may venture to say, with unwavering faith and adoring gratitude, “For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even unto death!” Psalm 48:14. How great then is the blessedness of true believers!

Like a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.–Psalm 103:13-14

“HE knoweth our frame.” The Bible abounds in such gracious and tender words. “He remembereth us in our low estate.” “I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” “He will not permit you to be tempted above that ye are able.” The burden is suited to our strength. The revelation is determined by our experience. The pace is regulated by our years. “He carrieth the lambs in His arms.” He “leads on softly.” Nothing is done in ignorance. “The Lord is mindful of His own. He remembereth His children.”

And so I must practise the belief in God’s compassionate nearness. In my childhood I used to sing “There’s a Friend for little children, Above the bright blue sky.” I know better now. He is nearer to me than I can dream. I used to sing “There is a happy land, Far, far away.” Now I sing, “There is a happy land, Not far away.” The good Father and His home are not in some remote realm. They are very, very near to me, and He knows all about me. “He knoweth our frame.”–John H. Jowett

My dear friends, regardless of what you are going through today, Jesus knows, He is near, He cares, and He can help. It is my prayer that you will sense His presence, and surrender yourselves to His Lordship. Seeking Him above all else we can be assured that all our needs shall be supplied (Matt. 6:33).

He who affirms that Christianity makes men miserable, is himself an utter stranger to it. It were strange indeed, if it made us wretched, for see to what a position it exalts us! It makes us sons of God. Suppose you that God will give all the happiness to His enemies, and reserve all the mourning for His own family? Shall His foes have mirth and joy, and shall His home-born children inherit sorrow and wretchedness? Shall the sinner, who has no part in Christ, call himself rich in happiness, and shall we go mourning as if we were penniless beggars? No, we will rejoice in the Lord always, and glory in our inheritance, for we “have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but we have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” The rod of chastisement must rest upon us in our measure, but it worketh for us the comfortable fruits of righteousness; and therefore by the aid of the divine Comforter, we, the “people saved of the Lord,” will joy in the God of our salvation. We are married unto Christ; and shall our great Bridegroom permit His spouse to linger in constant grief? Our hearts are knit unto Him: we are His members, and though for awhile we may suffer as our Head once suffered, yet we are even now blessed with heavenly blessings in Him. We have the earnest of our inheritance in the comforts of the Spirit, which are neither few nor small. Heritors( heirs) of joy for ever, we have foretastes of our portion. There are streaks of the light of joy to herald our eternal sunrising. Our riches are beyond the sea; our city with firm foundations lies on the other side the river; gleams of glory from the spirit-world cheer our hearts, and urge us onward. Truly is it said of us, “Happy art thou— O people saved by the Lord?”–“Morning and Evening”