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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.
Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a Son, and the rest of His brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then His greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And He will be our peace.
Micah 5:2-5
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
The words of Jesus to His disciples found in John 16:33
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. Romans 5:1-2
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
We are in the second week of the Advent season where the central theme is peace. It’s our focus for a series of seven messages that kicked off yesterday as we saw where the Lord God is peace, the One who brought peace into existence as something attainable just as He did all things.
Well, since we are in a period of excited anticipation for the day of Christ’s birth, we see one of the key reasons why we do so. Because His coming, which would eventually lead to His death by crucifixion and subsequent resurrection, ushered in the best peace ever, the peace between mankind and the God who made all people.
You see, since the great fall and the introduction of sin in Eden’s garden, everyone born after has been afflicted with the disease of iniquity, incapable of maintaining God’s expected standard of living and therefore living as enemies in separation from Him. This chasm between the Creator and all created people meant that all were destined for Hell but God so loved the world that He didn’t wish for that to happen. And so He sent His one and only Son, a perfect unblemished Lamb of God who would serve as the substitutionary sacrifice so to atone for the sin of all mankind, once and for all. The Apostle Paul summed this up in the fifth chapter of his second letter to the church in Corinth. There, we wrote this:
God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. v.21
Through Jesus’ redeeming work on the cross, anyone who believes in Him is justified, appearing before God the Father just as if they had never sinned, their pardon purchased by His Son who washes their sin-stained souls white with His shed blood. Going pack to Paul, we find this truth affirmed in these words to the Hebrews:
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. Romans 5:1-2
Jesus resolved the conflict between whoever would believe in Him as Savior and His Father God. He was the Instigator of the greatest peace we could ever gain and this is why the prophet Isaiah properly foretold Him as the One who was coming to be the “Prince of peace”, the Son of the One who breathed peace into existence to begin with.
It was this blessed Savior Jesus who overcame the world so all of His disciples could one day do likewise, gaining total victory over death, the grave, and the torment of Hell while gaining the eternal glory of life in Heaven forever. Indeed, He is our peace.
And so as we continue to step ever closer to Christmas day, let us do so with a sense of calm and comfort within the busyness of the holiday season, knowing that the little baby born in Bethlehem, as foretold by the prophet Micah, is our peace, now and forever more.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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