The Gospel of Peace, The Chastisement of "Our Peace"

The Gospel of Peace

The Chastisement for “Our Peace”

Once a man is delivered from unrighteousness, he can have peace with God.

Because he has peace, he can have fellowship.

Fellowship can happen only when enmity is resolved.

Rom 5:1  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

Justified has the same root as righteous.

So Romans 5:1 could read – Therefore being made righteous by faith, we have peace with God.

If one knows he is righteous, he will be at peace with God.

More importantly, God will be at peace with him.

The person will no longer live in fear of judgment and death.

Isa 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Jesus did not suffer of His sin; He never sinned.

He suffered for our transgressions and iniquities.

He died for mankind, but He was more than a “sin offering.”

Paint a very vivid picture in the next few paragraphs.

For thousands of years, the Jews had gone to the priest and presented an offering that was symbolic of Jesus. Their offering was a type, a shadow; it had no real power to cleanse. Jesus was the real thing. His death was not symbolic; it was the fulfillment of the shadow.

For years, the Jews had stood over their offerings and confessed their sins. They would witness and participate in the killing of the sin offering. With their own eyes, they would see this innocent animal receive the death of which they were worthy.

Next, they would watch this animal undergo mutilation and burning as payment and appeasement for their sin.

They would exercise their faith and believed that God would turn His judgment from them because judgment was satisfied in the death of the animal.

The blood of the animal did not bring forgiveness, but it did turn away, or appease, God’s wrath.

Thus the blood signified the judgment of the sin. The sentence of death was passed upon this animal that died as a substitute for the sinner.

Heb 9:22 In fact, under the Law almost everything is cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of the blood there is no forgiveness.

An important part of presenting a sacrifice in the old covenant was confessing sins over the offering.

Matthew Henry said, “They had to be very specific in their confession, and it had to be done in faith, of God would not receive it.”

There was never any doubt about this animal being judged for the sins of another.

All of this was a symbol of the actual event that would one day take place in the Lord Jesus.

While this was the type, the real thing happened at the cross.

End of picture.

At the cross, God made peace with man through a new covenant. This covenant was not secured by the blood of an animal, but by the sinless blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This covenant was established in His blood. But what does that really mean?

2Co 5:21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that God's righteousness would be produced in us.

Phillips translation – “For God caused Christ…actually to be sin.

Jesus literally became sin! He was not a mere offering. He literally became sin.

Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, each of us, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

In the old covenant, sinful man confessed their sins over their substitute.

In the new covenant, a loving God confessed the sins of the world over Jesus.

Yet, unlike any other sacrifice, the sins of the world actually came upon Jesus.

He became sin!

At this, we begin to understand why Jesus had to become a man. A man brought sin into the world; only a man could bring righteousness into the world.

In Jesus the sins of all men were met, and in Him they all were judged.

When Jesus died on the cross, He drew the judgment that all men would deserve to Himself. He paid the price that we could not pay.

1Jn 2:2 and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

The word propitiation has several meanings, but it is best understood as appeasement. Jesus is the appeasement for our sins.

To appease something means to satisfy. What was it that Jesus appeased? He appeased the wrath of God, which is the righteous penalty of the law.

Rom 5:9 Now that we have been justified by his blood, how much more will we be saved from wrath through him!

In Jesus, we are made righteous (justified). In Him, the wrath of God is satisfied. How did He do that? He suffered the wrath that we deserve.

Rom 5:8 But God demonstrates his love for us by the fact that the Messiah died for us while we were still sinners.

The death of Christ shows God’s love for man only when we truly understand the price He paid.

Because the price has been paid for your specific sins, you have no reason to fear the judgment of God. You have no reason to fear rejection.

1Jn 4:18 There is no fear where love exists. Rather, perfect love banishes fear, for fear involves punishment, and the person who lives in fear has not been perfected in love.

If we are expecting God to chasten us when we fail, it means that we do not believe in His quality of love and that we reject the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross

Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

The word here for chasten is not a word that means to beat or whip. It is a word that is used of training, teaching, and compelling a child to go in the right direction.

Let’s accept the reality, and with no longer any fear of an angry God chastening us in wrath, we can have peace in our hearts. We can accept peace between us and God.