2 Thessalonians (13): The Lord of Peace

Paul’s Authentication of the Epistle and the Problem of False Letters

In our Bibles to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, and we want to consider the last few verses. And so today, Lord willing, we'll complete our study of 2 Thessalonians. We have a concluding salutation for us in these three verses.

Paul first expressed to the church, to the Christians of his church, his desire, in that's what we have in verse 16. And then there's a word from Paul that the Lord would be with them. Interesting statement when you think about it.

This is followed by an expression of Paul's desire for them to be confident that this was an authentic epistle of Paul. He signed it with his own hand. And then we read of Paul's final word, an expression of Paul's desire that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ would be with them.

And so these are the concluding words of the Apostle. Let's read these verses. And again, there are really four divisions here. Now, may the Lord of peace himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all.

The salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is a sign in every epistle, so I write, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. And thus concludes the epistle. We might address these matters that Paul wrote in an order perhaps more conducive to our understanding.

Because after verse 16 is expressed, it's almost like verse 17 is inserted within it, almost dividing up the salutation between a desire for the Lord of peace to give peace, and for the Lord Jesus to grant them grace.

Right in the middle of that, you have Paul acknowledging that he had signed this epistle with his own hand. And so we're going to take these matters in a little different order for our understanding. We will consider the contents in this way.

First, we'll speak of Paul's self-authentication of this epistle. In other words, verse 17. And then we'll move back to verse 16. We'll address the Lord of peace as a giver of peace. Third, we'll just say a few words about Paul's desire that the Lord would be with them.

And then lastly, if we have time, we'll say a few words about the grace of our Lord Jesus being with these people. Interestingly, Paul opened the epistle with an opening salutation that grace and peace would be given to them.

And he closes the epistle similarly, that the Lord would grant them peace and grace. And so let's first look at verse 17 and consider Paul's self-authentication of his epistle. We've spoken about this matter somewhat before today.

Back when we read about Paul alerting the church to beware of false letters, as though they were attributed to his authorship, as though Paul had written them. That was a problem that some of the churches had.

And so Paul, in his own words, Paul was concerned that they not embraced his false teaching as though he were teaching it. Paul had warned the church about those who taught wrong teaching about the second coming of Christ.

They were teaching that the second coming was an imminent event. It was going to happen at any moment. That teaching is common today. It would happen very soon. But Paul wrote that no, that's not the case.

It's not going to happen very soon. It's not imminent. And so we read in verses 1 through 4 of chapter 2, now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together with him, that's the second coming.

You hear often about the rapture of the church. The rapture of the church and the second coming are the same event. He's talking about the coming, our gathering to be with him. That you not, brothers, that you not be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word, and here it is, for a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is come.

Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first, or the great apostasy, and should be the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God.

And we argue that that's the professing church, the church of God, proclaiming himself to be God. And so Paul said, don't let anybody deceive you about this. The Lord's not going to come until these two things take place.

And so Paul was always contending with those who sought to discredit him and his gospel message. He not only had to impart truth and dispel ignorance, but he had to correct error and errant teachers, and there were many of them.

False teachers commonly even followed the apostle wherever he went. And they would come into a city that he had recently evangelized and started a church, and they would come in and be part of that church and corrupt the church with its teachings.

And so these heretics would come into a new assembly of Christians, young Christians who didn't know any better, and they were easily deceived. They taught another gospel, which Paul argued in Galatians 1 is really not another, there's only one gospel, but they teach another one.

And sometimes they were quite successful in their efforts. I don't know how many churches were in the region of Galatia, but there were several, or more than several, and Paul had written about the false teachers who had corrupted the gospel among them.

Galatians 1, I marvel you so that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another, it's not like there's more than one gospel. But there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, and there are people that claim they have direct revelation from the Lord, angels communicating to them, even if an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we've preached to you, let him be accursed, let him be damned.

As we've said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you've received, let him be accursed. And so these heretics, these travelers of the churches were Jewish men, some of whom claimed to believe on the Lord Jesus as the Messiah, they claimed to be Christian.

But they taught that salvation was not through faith in Jesus Christ alone, but through faith along with works of righteousness, that is works of the law. And in some ways this is very subtle error, in some ways it's very blatant error.

Paul's epistle to the Galatians was Paul's major corrective of this heresy. In his epistle he contrasts his gospel in which people are saved through faith alone in Jesus Christ, and with the gospel of those false teachers who were teaching salvation was obtained through faith in Jesus, plus, in addition, performing meritorious works of the law.

Both were necessary, they argued, and brought about salvation. And so the error they taught was in some way subtle, but the heart of their teaching was blatant heresy. It was subtle, for it's true that Christians are to order their lives according to God's law.

A lot of evangelicals don't understand that today. Paul wrote in Romans 7 about this, and Romans 8, the law is holy, the commandment holy, just and good. He said the law is spiritual. The problem is we're not, we're carnal.

But the law is spiritual. Paul taught that the law of God, as directed by Jesus Christ as he empowered his people with the Holy Spirit, continues to serve as the rule of Christian living. Romans 8, we didn't put it down here, but in Romans 8 Paul reasons and argues the law could not produce holiness in people because it was weak to the flesh.

Unregenerate people cannot keep the law. And so that's why God sent his Son to condemn sin in the flesh. So that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, we who do not walk after the flesh but who walk after the Spirit.

Christians are law keepers, not perfectly but generally. The law of God governs us through the kingship of Jesus Christ. And so Paul, the Christian, could write, I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.

That verse used to trouble me back in my antinomian days. I've been through everything in the last 45 years. And in my antinomian days that verse troubled me. How can Paul write that? Because I saw the law only as a negative.

I'm going to cast it away from you. I did not distinguish between the law as a rule and the law as a covenant. And that was my fault. He delighted after the law of God according to the inward man. But at the same time he saw another law in his members or a principle.

Warrant against the law of my mind bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am who will deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And then he summed up his Christian experience. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God. The law of God governed Paul's thinking and his life. But with the flesh the law of sin. But though the law continued to be the standard of God's righteousness for the believer through the death of Jesus Christ, the law as a covenant, you must understand what that means.

The law as a covenant, in other words as a basis of relating to God as mediated through Moses to Israel, was no longer in force. Prior to the death of Christ the law of Moses as a covenant had set apart ethnic Israel, the Jewish people, the nation of Israel as the people of God.

At Mount Sinai that's what took place. God set apart ethnic Israel as a nation distinguishing them from the Gentile nations and the Gentile nations excluded. God's blessing was promised through the Mosaic covenant upon the ethnic people of Israel.

But upon Israel having transgressed the law as a covenant, having broken their covenant with God incurring his wrath, the Jews then became as guilty as the Gentiles. In fact the Jews were exiled out of the land because they had become even worse than the Canaanites whom God expelled when they first came into the land under Joshua.

Through Jesus Christ therefore the former law of the Mosaic covenant between God and Israel was rescinded, removed. Hebrews talks about that because of the weakness of the flesh. That covenant was problematic.

As long as that legal covenant had been enforced the Gentiles were strangers to God's promises and aliens to God's people. If you wanted to be right with God you had to become a Jew. Like Ruth the Moabites became Jewish.

Gentiles apart from the Israelite nation were without hope, without God in the world. But after the Lord Jesus died upon the cross and rose from the dead to become Lord, Israel was reconstituted under a new covenant.

Israel is no longer defined as an ethnic people, physical descendants of Abraham, but reconstituted under the new covenant in Christ. Those who have faith in Jesus Christ now, those who have the same faith as Abraham as Paul reasoned in Romans 4 are the people of God.

Like children of promise, they are children of promise, children like Isaac was. In other words those who have faith in Jesus whether you are Jewish or Gentile you are members of God's nation, Israel.

Whether you are Jewish or Gentile if you have faith in Jesus. Then Paul reasons in Romans 4, this is in fulfillment to what God declared to Abraham, you will be a father of many nations. And Abraham is our spiritual father with regard to our covenant relationship with God.

And so when the Lord Jesus died upon the cross formally Gentiles had been alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, the household of God. But now they were brought into the household of God, the commonwealth of Israel.

And Paul wrote this extensively in Ephesians 2. And he is writing to the church at Ephesus which was primarily comprised of Gentile Christians. Therefore remember at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision.

See the Jewish people held the Gentiles off, you are not among the people of God, you are not in covenant relationship with God. Which was made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel.

At that time you were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. Implying not now, now you are part of the commonwealth of Israel. Strangers to the covenants of promise having no hope without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus.

You who once were far off, that would have been Gentiles, have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, that is Christ. Who has made us, that is Gentile believers and Jewish believers, both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.

That dividing wall of hostility was the Ten Commandments as a covenant, because it separated the Gentiles from being among the Jews as the people of God. By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, again that is as a covenant, so that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace.

And might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility, that is between Jewish and Gentile Christians. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off, that is Gentiles, and peace to those who were near, those would be Jews.

And so for through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father, so then you, Gentile Christians, are no longer strangers and aliens, for you are fellow citizens with the saints. All the Old Testament Jewish saints, King David, Solomon, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, all of them, were now fellow citizens with them and members of the household of God.

There is one church comprised of all the people of faith throughout history. It is not Israel and the church, as so many emphasize, and the two will never mix. There is one people of faith, although God was dealing with physical ethnic Israel in a covenantal way for several thousands of years, that has been set aside and now in Christ anyone, anywhere, who believes on the Lord Jesus becomes one, a member of the Israel of God, the family of God, the household of faith, the church of Jesus Christ.

That's what Paul was declaring. But these false teachers had corrupted Paul's gospel. They taught the people that they needed to have faith in the Lord Jesus in order to be saved, well that's right so far, but then they taught that faith alone was not enough.

They taught that believers in Jesus Christ were also required to keep the Law of Moses as a covenant of works in order to be saved. And I put that in bold and italic font because it's very important. Because again, elsewhere the Lord taught the need to keep the Law of God.

Don't think I came to destroy the Law, I didn't, I came to fulfill it and establish it is what the Lord Jesus indicated. But what these false teachers taught is that it was through faith in Christ plus the addition of the merit of your works.

Sounds like Roman Catholicism doesn't it? It sounds like a lot of liberal Protestant churches too. Through the merit of the works you perform you are saved. And apparently these false teachers even resorted to writing letters as though they were written by Paul and sent them to his churches.

You can imagine the trouble that he was dealing with as he was trying to correct them and keep them in the true gospel. And so in order for Paul to protect these churches and assure them that his letters were authentic, Paul signed the epistles with his own hand.

Probably just a sentence, you know, or two. For Paul had commonly transcribed his epistles, dictated them to a secretary, a scribe, one of his companions. And on occasion these secretaries would insert a personal word.

One clear example is in Romans 16 .22. The actual man who wrote down the epistle to Romans was Tertius. And Paul had dictated the letter, the epistle to the Romans to Tertius. And then Tertius inserts as he is closing the epistle, he inserts a word from himself in verse 22, I Tertius who wrote this epistle greet you in the Lord.

And so these epistles might have been written by Tertius, might have been written by Silas or, you know, not in Paul's hand. And so you can see how easily a false epistle could be circulated as though it were from Paul.

And so in order for Paul to authenticate his letters, he would take pen in hand and write a few words at the end of the epistle in his own handwriting so that the recipients could be confident they had before them an authentic Pauline epistle.

Paul had indicated this practice in several places. Paul wrote at the end of 1 Corinthians, the salutation with my own hand, Paul's. At the end of the epistle to the Galatians, he wrote, see with what large letters I've written to you with my own hand.

You can imagine the very neat, perhaps all uppercase Hebrew or Greek letters rather of an epistle, no spaces in between, very little punctuation here and there. And then all of a sudden you've got this large letters written, you know, almost I can envision like a, you know, like a small child writing in large letters.

And hey, that's Paul writing. And I believe by the way, the way when Paul said in Galatians, you see what large letters I've written. He wrote that way because he had problems with his eyesight. That's a personal opinion.

I kind of think that was his thorn in the flesh. And so he wrote in with large letters. But when people saw that they knew this, this is a letter from Paul. And so it was like, you know, today having a notary, you know, with a seal indicating this is legitimate.

Did that the other day for the church at David Benenz's office, got a seal, David stamped the seal to prove to the tax people in Washington State that the word of truth is sponsored by the church. And so they had, they need an authentic word and Paul would, you know, authenticate his epistle by doing so.

The Lord of Peace Who Gives Peace in Every Way

Well, let's move back now to verse 16, which is really the beginning of this ending salutation. And here we read Paul's desire for these Christians. Now, may the Lord of peace himself give you peace always in every way.

Let's first consider the title, the Lord of peace. And then we'll consider what it is to experience this peace always in every way. Hopefully that's what you and I enjoy. Not everybody does, but every Christian may, if we were thinking rightly and living rightly.

The Lord of peace. Paul makes reference to the Lord of peace. Now there are a number of occasions when the scriptures refer to the God of peace. And I listed some of them. I'm not going to read those because of the time, but the God of peace is a rather common expression.

Interestingly, however, the phrase, the Lord of peace is only found here in second Thessalonians should be three, not five, 316. Paul's desire for this peace on most occasions, the reference to the Lord is a reference to Jesus Christ, the Lord of peace.

He's probably talking about Jesus Christ. Sometimes the word Lord is a reference to God, the Holy Trinity, all three persons of the Trinity. But Paul commonly would use the term Lord to refer to Jesus.

Earlier in this chapter, Paul used Lord specifically for Jesus Christ. In the first five verses, finally, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored. But the Lord is faithful and we have confidence in the Lord about you.

May the Lord direct your heart to the love of God and steadfastness of Christ. And so I think Paul's reference to the Lord here in verse 16 is a reference to Jesus Christ. William Hendrickson thought so.

The Lord of peace is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's he who established peace through the cross. I'm noticing Hendricks makes these very clear, oftentimes assertive statements. And I always want to put a little question mark by them.

You know, how does he know this for absolute certainty? And I think James Moffat who dealt with the, well, they both dealt with the Greek text, but I think he wrote it probably a little better. Kouros, that's the Greek word for Lord, is probably in accordance with Paul's usual practice to be taken as Jesus Christ.

But the language of verse 5 of 1 Thessalonians 5 .23 makes the reference to God quite possible. And I think to make that allowance, Moffat is more accurate. Although Hendrickson is probably right. The word Lord, Kouros, is a title of Jesus Christ.

And it speaks to his deity. How is that? Well, Kouros, the Greek word, was used by the translators of the Old Testament, the Hebrew Old Testament, into Greek. Commonly known as the Septuagint. Don't know when that was translated.

Maybe the third quarter of the second century B .C. We don't really know. Probably in Alexandria in Egypt. They translated the Hebrew scriptures from Hebrew into Greek. And so they would use the word Kouros, the Greek word Kouros, for Lord.

And so most of the time it would refer to Jehovah of the Old Testament. Jesus in the New Testament is Jehovah of the Old Testament. And Jehovah is referred to as Kouros, Lord, and Jesus in the New Testament is referred to Kouros, Lord.

Most of the time, not in every case, but most of the time when the Greek word Kouros, Lord, is used of Jesus, it's asserting his deity in the New Testament. Now Paul calls our Savior the Lord of Peace.

Recently we spoke about the difficulty at times to interpret a phrase that begins with the preposition of. There are a lot of nuances. And I even put in an appendix today of that genitive case, is what it's called.

And the various options or alternatives, often times you can render, even in an English translation, of, and then a noun following. And so the phrase has a few possible meanings. The Lord of Peace may speak about the Lord who is himself at peace.

The Lord is at peace. May the Lord who is at peace grant you peace. That may have been what Paul intended. However, it may mean, simply the Lord of Peace is the Lord who gives peace. And that's probably what is being suggested here.

May the Lord of Peace, who is characterized by peace, who can give peace, give you peace. That's probably what Paul was asserting. Now, when we consider the Lord as the Lord of Peace, we should understand he's not the Lord of Peace to everybody without distinction.

He's not the Lord of Peace to an unbeliever. He's only the Lord of Peace to those who have faith in Jesus Christ. This is very important. Often times, you know, the Christians, well-intentioned Christians take the promises of God, the blessings of Christians, and apply them to non-Christians.

And they tell a non-Christian, well, the Lord is the Lord of Peace, and you can have peace. Well, yeah, if you repent of your sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, yes, you can have peace.

But until and unless you did, you're like those Gentiles in Ephesians 2. You're without God. You're without hope in the world. And we need to make that clear. You're on your own. Now, this is what you could have if you'll become a Christian.

The Lord is the Lord of Peace. And he can give you peace. But until you, until Jesus Christ is your Lord, he's not a Lord of Peace to you. Rather, the scriptures present the Lord as the Lord of War. And we talked, actually, the Lord of Peace, we talked about how that's unique here.

And I did a search in my Bible computer software, the Lord of. And so I searched the entire Bible and really the expression Lord of and then a noun is not a very common expression except for one phrase, the Lord of Hosts.

And if I remember right, there was like 216 verses in the Bible where the Lord of Hosts is mentioned. And that's speaking, of course, to the Lord of forces and armies who's able to execute judgment and justice in the earth and come to deliver his people.

That's not the Lord of Peace. When the Lord of Hosts is presented, he is the Lord who is powerful to deliver his people and to overthrow his enemies. And so please understand that only his people, those who are Christians, who are now in a state of peace with God through Jesus Christ, may look to Jesus as the Lord of Peace.

Very important. The fact is we're in need of peace with God, even as Christians. Now this blessing of peace that the Lord of Peace gives his people can really only be appreciated when we fully consider the state of the non-believer who's not at peace with God.

And that's the way most of the world is. Is that not right? We ought to be afraid on behalf of people that we encounter and see. It ought to scare us when we consider what it is to be without Christ within God's world.

And a certain fate, everlasting hell, awaits them. We believe that. Now I know just to say that in these days, you know, we're castigated, perhaps marginalized, viewed as the most arrogant and self-righteous and mean people as you could possibly be.

But this is how the Scripture sets forth the world, isn't it? People who are outside of Jesus Christ are without God. They do not have peace, because you can only obtain peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

People who are outside of Jesus Christ are not in a state of peace with God. Rather, there exists a state of war between God and man. He is the Lord of hosts to the non-Christian. We believe the Gospel is good news, because it's good news to people that are perishing, who have no hope, no future.

I think driving down to church, you know, on a Sunday morning, you know, and as far as you can see, the only car here, they're, you know, on Route 2. And then I drive down on a Monday morning, you know, at 8 o 'clock, and it's bumper to bumper, people going to work.

And I see people out running, you know, as we're coming to church. And I think, oh, these poor people, you know, who are without Christ, and they're clueless. And the Lord's coming. And it ought to, we ought to be broken-hearted toward them.

And certainly, since we have such a glorious answer for their need, we should seek to proclaim it, and look for opportunities to do so. Jonathan Edwards was so articulate, you know, in his expression of the reality of things.

He wrote, he lived in the 18th century, pastored in the Congregational Church out in Northampton. And he wrote a sermon once entitled, Natural Men in a Dreadful Condition. So he's talking about non-Christian people as they're born into this world.

They are not only without God, but the wrath of God abides upon them. There is no peace between God and them. But God is angry with them every day. That's a merely quotation of scripture. He's not only angry with them, but that to a dreadful degree.

There is a fire kindled in God's anger, and it burns like fire. Wrath abides upon them, which if it should be executed, would plunge them into the lowest hell and make them miserable there to all eternity.

They have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger. God has been angry with them ever since they began to sin. He's been provoked by them every day, ever since they exercise any reason. And He's provoked by them more and more every hour.

The flame of His wrath is continually burning. There are many now in hell that never provoke God more than they, that is, those who are living today that are provoking God. Nor so much as many of them, wherever they go, they go about with the dreadful wrath of God abiding on them.

They eat, they drink, and sleep under wrath. How dreadful a condition, therefore, are they in. It is the most awful thing for the creature to have the wrath of his creator abiding on him. The wrath of God is a thing infinitely dreadful.

The wrath of a king is as the roaring of a lion, that's scripture. But what is the wrath of a king who is but a worm of the dust to the wrath of the infinitely great and dreadful God? How dreadful is it to be under the wrath of the first being, that is, God, the being of beings, the great creator, the mighty possessor of heaven and earth.

How dreadful is it for a person to go about under the wrath of God who gave him being in whom he lives and moves, who is everywhere present, without whom he cannot move a step or draw breath, natural men, inasmuch as they are under wrath or under a curse.

God's wrath and curse are continually upon them. They can have no reasonable comfort, therefore, in any of their enjoyments, for they do not know that they are given them in wrath. In other words, even the blessings of God come to those under his wrath as a curse.

As it is said in Job 18 .15, brimstone should be scattered upon his habitation. How can they take any comfort in their food and their possessions when they do not know that all are given them to fit them for the slaughter?

That's the direct approach. But, you know, the Lord blessed that message and the great awakening broke out. And there is peace, however, with God, but only through Jesus Christ. And then to the Christian, may the Lord of peace give you peace, is what the apostle is declaring.

I'm not going to read Gil's quote, because it's lengthy, he is wordy, but he's good, he's accurate too. Drop down to the bottom of page 6, and there we see reconciliation through Jesus Christ brings with God, a peace with God to the believer.

We were in a state of war. I don't know about you, some of you were raised in church, maybe you've never known it. That doesn't make you less Christian, by the way, necessarily. But some of us who were in the world, and the Lord pulled us out of the world, brought us through a condition of conviction of sin.

And I tell you what, every word of Edwards was what I felt in my soul for several months, in November and December of 1971, and it came to a state of peace in the second week of January 1972. And what a peace that was, because I was keenly aware, the Holy Spirit made that clear.

I read gospel tracts daily, prayed the sinner's prayer daily, but still lost in my sins, until I exercised faith, as the scriptures say, the faith of God's elect, faith produced and born by the Holy Spirit, and then peace came.

There's reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ alone. Only in this way can a state of peace exist between Almighty God and a sinner. Reconciliation is a wonderful word that describes a cessation of hostility between two warring factions, resulting in peace between them.

And how does this reconciliation take place? Well, it can only take place when their former hostility and rebellion ceases, and the justice of God toward their crime has been satisfied. And so God is at war with sinners, and His purpose to punish them for their sins, because they have transgressed His laws, not only in the things we do, but the things we fail to do.

Sins of omission, sins of commission, things we do. And God's justice must be executed. His creatures must answer to the judge of all the earth. And the reason that Christians alone can escape the condemnation of this unbending, inflexible justice is that Christ Jesus bore their punishment on their behalf when He died upon the cross.

And so that should make the cross of Christ lovely to us, precious to us, and the Lord Jesus Himself who gave Himself for our sin. And so through faith in Him, not through faith in Him plus the merit of our works, that's damnable.

Paul said, let the man be accursed who teaches that kind of thing. We won't tolerate him whatsoever, Paul said. He's damning people's souls by teaching that nonsense. Reconciliation with God is only possible when God works reconciliation on behalf of His people.

And that's what God did. You and I can't reconcile ourselves to God. That's not possible. He has to bring about reconciliation or it's not going to take place. And so we read in Colossians 119 and following, it pleased the Father.

See, it started with Him, that in Him Christ, all the fullness of the Godhead would dwell. And by Christ to reconcile all things to Himself. Reconciliation between God and His people who are in rebellion to Him is only possible through Jesus Christ.

And the Father did it. We shouldn't think that the Father was against us but Jesus was for us and Jesus won over the Father for us when He died. No, it's the Father who loved us and sent His Son. It pleased the Father and so it was through Christ having made peace through the blood of His cross.

The justice of God was satisfied with regard to those for whom Christ died. Those who believed on Him. And so thankfully He is the Lord of Peace but He is only the Lord of Peace to those to whom He is Lord.

And maybe that's what Paul was intending to emphasize. Well let's consider quickly that the Lord of Peace with His people may impart peace to His people. Not all of His people enjoy peace in their souls, do they?

And that's sad. This was Paul's desire and prayer for these Christians. He wrote, Now may the Lord of Peace Himself give you peace always in every way. It's good for Christians to have a sense of well-being, a settled confidence, an assurance of peace regardless of what's going on in their lives and in the world about them.

All disciples of Jesus Christ may enjoy a subjective peace with God. Don't let that word subjective trouble you. Subjective just simply means me, my, and what I personally enjoy. And so this is a feeling of peace.

A sense of well-being. And it is beyond knowledge and understanding. Sometimes this peace will settle your heart when you've got no business being settled. All you have is the Lord. But the Lord imparts this peace to you.

He gives you this peace. And you're at peace when, you know, one moment you're troubled, distressed, freaking out, and, you know, two minutes later the Lord settles your soul. And you can handle it. Philippians 4, 6, and 7 describe this subjective peace.

In nothing be anxious. What are you anxious about? Make a list. In nothing be anxious, Paul wrote to the Christians. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

And the peace of God. This is not talking about objective peace. It's talking about subjective peace that belongs to the Christian, that the Christian may enjoy. The peace of God which passes all understanding.

I'm at peace and it doesn't make sense. I ought to be panicked. But I'm at peace because the Lord of peace gives peace to his people. And the peace of God which passes all understanding shall guard your heart from distress, from fear, from anxiety, from worry which will consume you, cause you to lose your health, cause you to make wrong decisions, your fears governing you.

But this peace will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. Our peace was secured for us through the death of Jesus Christ on our behalf. That objective peace, it's the same for every one of us who are Christians.