Why is being a peacemaker so important? Isn’t it easier to just leave a situation or a relationship the way that it is? Isn’t it easier to just deal with it yourself and hope the other person or side figures it out?
I said in my sermon on Sunday, the reason why it’s so important to be peacemakers is because God has made peace with us and has given us the message of peace.
We see this truth in 2 Corinthians 5:18 NLT.
18 And all of this (This=new life, child of God, etc. see context) is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ (Jesus) And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.
God brought us back to himself through Christ. All of us at some time in our life, and maybe some of you now, were not or are not at peace with God. There was a friendship, a relationship, broken between you and God. But what did God do about it? He confronted the issue appropriately. Then he humbled himself by sending his only son Jesus to earth to live a perfect life that we could not live and die the death that we deserved to die. While we were separated from God, Jesus loved us unconditionally. Then he sacrificed everything he had, yes, even his very life, out of love for you. He died, was buried, but rose again the 3rd day. Now he offers to anyone forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
Anyone far from God stays far from God. But Jesus made coming back to Him possible. So, for those that have trusted in what Jesus has done to make that relationship possible you are at peace with God and he has given you, and each one of us believers, the task of reconciling people to him. We have the task of showing more people that peace with God is possible. That is what that word reconciling means. To make peace between two people, to bring back into relationship.
But how is this all possible? How can you or I or anyone have peace with God? What if you always feel like you are not living as good as you should be? Maybe you feel like you are always letting yourself down, let alone letting God down.
Well Paul goes on to explain how this is all possible. He writes,
19 For God was in Christ (Jesus was God), reconciling the world to himself (He was the peace maker), no longer counting people’s sins against them (How Paul? How come God doesn’t count people’s sins against them?... Well, because of what Jesus has done for them.)
And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us.
When believers in Jesus go to their jobs. When they go home. When they are at the store. They are God’s representatives. Jesus is not there, but they are, and they represent Him!
Paul goes on to say that,
“We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”
That means I speak for Christ right now as I plead with you to come back to God. Maybe you think that Jesus isn’t for you. I plead with you, come back to God. Maybe you gave church a try but now you are done with it. I plead with you, come back to God.
Everyone. Come back to God. Have peace with God.
This is all possible because of one amazing truth. It’s nothing that we can do. God is the peace maker.
2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT
21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
That’s the gospel. That’s the good news. Jesus became separated from God so that we wouldn’t have to. Jesus experienced broken peace with God so that we could have peace with God. Jesus in my place. I was the sinner and Jesus paid for my sin. Jesus was the one right with God and now I am made right with God because of what He has done.
If you are believing that, maybe for the first time this morning, or a first time in a long time I would love to hear from you. You can have peace with God.
For those of us who have made that decision to trust in Jesus and what he has done for us as the sole reason that we can be forgiven and have a relationship with God, here is the question we have to wrestle with. How can someone have peace with God if they aren’t at peace with you? How can you point someone to a relationship with God if they have a bad relationship with you?
That is why we need to be peacemakers. We have the responsibility of helping people find peace with God and that is very hard to do if those people are not at peace with us.