Christmas Peace is not Worldly, but it is Forever

by Pastor Paul Wolff

King Herod wanted to kill Jesus as soon as he was born. The holy family fled to Egypt because Christ’s time had not yet come.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end …”
(Isaiah 9:6-7a)

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The prophesy given to Isaiah (above) was fulfilled when Jesus was born in Bethlehem hundreds of years later. In the evening after Jesus was born, an angel announced the birth to shepherds in the rural Bethlehem area, and he was joined with a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased.” (Luke 2:14)

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead the Pharisees plotted to kill Lazarus with Jesus instead of rejoicing that God had done this marvelous good deed.

Because of these prophesies, Christmas is frequently associated with wishes of peace. The peace and joy of the birth of the World’s Savior was short-lived, however, as word got out and King Herod heard of it and felt threatened by the true King of Israel (God) even though the Incarnate Jesus was less than two years old, and Herod ordered all baby and toddler boys in Bethlehem to be killed.

Although the Holy Spirit directed Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt, this was a foreshadowing of what was to come for Jesus in His life, though God would use that to accomplish our salvation. Jesus later taught, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-36) Jesus was not advocating violence. Jesus always lived at peace with everyone, and taught His disciples to act peacefully also, even toward their enemies. What Jesus was talking about was that unbelievers live at enmity with believers, but they may be members of your own family.

Sinful people have wrong ideas of peace. We think that it is enough for peace that other people do what we want, and we can live in peace. The problem with that is that what I want is not necessarily beneficial for you (and vice versa). Sinners also think that peace comes from not telling others that their behavior is wrong and self-destructive. The world’s view of peace is, “Don’t tell me of my sins, and I won’t tell you of yours.” This may work with unbelievers for a while (until their favored sin adversely affects someone else), because unbelievers don’t love one another, but it ignores the fact that our sin is primarily actions against God, not our neighbor. Scripture says, “There is no peace for the wicked.” (Isaiah 57:21)

When Jesus proclaimed that He was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophesy the people wanted to throw Jesus off a cliff.

God cannot turn a blind eye to sin. God loves us and doesn’t want us to do things which destroy ourselves and our neighbors. When we sin we become enemies with God, and when God is your enemy you have no peace, even if the whole world sides with you. When God is your enemy you will always lose. Because of this, we see that true peace, as the Bible describes it, is peace with God, first and foremost.

Our problem is that it is our sin which destroys our peace with God. God rightly condemns our sin, saying, “The wages of sin is death,” (Romans 6:23) and “The soul who sins must die.” (Ezekiel 18:20) Once we are a sinner, we are under a death sentence and cannot do anything to save ourselves because we are guilty of sin. Our problem is that we inherit our sinful condition from our parents and so we are sinners from the very first moment of our conception. This is why there is no peace in our sinful world, and there never will be lasting peace.

This is why Jesus said He did not come to bring peace to the earth. For there to be peace on earth He would have had to do away with sinners, and He doesn’t want to do that, yet, because He loves us despite our sin, and He has a better solution that deals with our sin, while providing lasting peace between us and God the Father.

Christ’s solution was to become a man so that He could keep God’s Law perfectly and be the one obedient man in all of history who obeyed God in everything He did. Then Jesus offered His perfect life in payment and exchange for our sinful lives. The life of Jesus can redeem the whole world because, as the Son of God, Jesus is of the same “substance” as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

Jesus won reconciliation and peace between us and God through His suffering and death on the cross.

At the beginning of Holy Week, as Jesus approached Jerusalem, Luke records this, “When (Jesus) drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.’” (Luke 19:41-42) For our part, the things that make for peace with God is repentance of our sin and trust in God to forgive our sins. But for God to forgive our sins, He had to live and die as a man in our place. The people ought to have been sorrowful for their guilt which caused God to have to suffer for their sins. Instead, the believers rejoiced as if Jesus came as a conquering hero, and the enemies of Jesus rejoiced that He had put Himself in a position where they could take advantage of Him and murder Him. However, even this was part of God’s plan. Jesus was abandoned by both friend and foe, and had to trust that what He was doing was good and pleasing to God the Father, and all part of His plan to save us. Jesus was faithful, and in offering His life for our sins, He won redemption for all our sins so that all who believe in Him are saved from sin and death.  

This Christmas, and throughout the year, when you think of peace, know that true peace is peace with God through the forgiveness of your sins. Jesus is God, in the flesh, who became a man just so He could pay the price of our sins through His innocent suffering and death. This is why we Christians celebrate Christmas (and Good Friday). Through Jesus we have true peace with God. Even if the whole world turn against us we will have peace because Jesus has reconciled us with God the Father, and has made us His beloved children through the Holy Spirit’s miraculous work through Holy Baptism.  

Christ give you His peace this Christmas season, and even forever.
 

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Here are some quick links to some of my other Christmas articles:

Shepherd Visitors
The Incarnation of God
Does Jesus Sing?
God is With Us
Christ is For You
Is Christmas Offensive?

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Here are some Bible passages which deal with peace (both positively, and negatively)  

In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. - Psalm 4:8  

Do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts. - Psalm 28:3  

In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. - Psalm 37:10-11  

Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other. - Psalm 85:10  

In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given to you, and what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue? A warrior's sharp arrows, with glowing coals of the broom tree! Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar! Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war! - Psalm 120  

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed. - Proverbs 3:13-18  

“‘They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,’ says the Lord.” Jeremiah 6:14-15  

Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but those who plan peace have joy. - Proverbs 12:20  

When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. - Proverbs 16:7

The Friendly Church vs. the Loving Church

“Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4:4)

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One extremely common truism in American Christianity is that “In order for your church to grow the members must be friendly to visitors.” This is at best a half truth, but as we know – a half truth is a whole lie. What I mean by the “friendly church” is the one that seeks to attract members primarily through their friendliness and not through the Word of God alone. This is not how a church should act. This is how a social club acts.

Holy Scripture never says that we must be friendly above all other considerations. In fact, James shows that “friendship with the world is hatred toward God.” Christ says that we must love our neighbor. Now, you might think that to be friendly is loving, but that is not always true. If a fellow Christian is openly sinning then the “friendly” Church wouldn’t dream of confronting the sinner to call him to repentance. That would seem “unfriendly.” However the loving church wouldn’t hesitate to call the sinner to repentance to save him from destroying himself. Yes, there is the risk that the sinner might become offended and break off the friendship, but it is the nature of love to take that risk in order to save the beloved.

It is no wonder that churches are abandoning their doctrines in order to gain members. They have chosen to be friends with the world rather than followers of Christ. Yes, your social club (I mean, “church”) may grow, but when you seek to gain members by being friendly, you don’t get Christ’s disciples, you get social climbers. The tyranny of filling your church with social climbers is that in order for the institution to continue you must continually keep the social butterflies happy because the minute they aren’t happy they fly off to some other social club more willing or able to slavishly indulge their fleshly desires. In this way the social club (church?) turns their members into idols and spends too much time serving their desires and too little time serving Christ. For the sake of “friendship with the world” many churches would rather be social clubs than call sinners to repentance in order to save their souls.

There are many reasons why church members would rather be friendly than loving, but all of them are sinful. It is much easier to be friendly, but that won’t lead anyone to their salvation in Christ. Loving your neighbor will sometimes make him angry at you. That can’t always be avoided. Sinners often enjoy their sin even when they know it is wrong. The loving Christian is sometimes ridiculed for calling the sinner to repent, even when they do it in the kindest possible way.

This is not to say that the loving church is unfriendly, though sometimes it may be perceived in such a way. The Good Samaritan pictured above would likely be considered friendly, but he was more than that. He not only treated his enemy as a friend, but he did so at considerable personal expense and self-sacrifice. On the other hand, both John the Baptist and Jesus (pictured to the left) lovingly preached God’s Law to unrepentant sinners and were assassinated for their trouble. Neither King Herod nor the Pharisees thought John and Jesus were friendly, but both John and Jesus were willing to die rather than let sinners continue to head toward their destruction unaware. It is likely true that King Herod and many of the Pharisees still continued in their sin to their eternal torment, but others likely repented and found their salvation in Jesus.

Another reason why Christians ought not seek to attract members simply by being friendly is that it is dishonest. Even the best Christians in the best churches are still sinners. There will be conflict and hurt feelings and all sorts of nasty sinful things going on wherever people (i.e. sinners) gather together. The church that intends to cater to the “friendly” crowd must cover up these natural occurrences of sinful human behavior. This is because when we admit we are sinners, even to forgive one another, we admit that we aren’t as good as we would like others to think we are. The loving church, however, deals with sin as if they expect people to sin against one another – even the “best” people! Most often this repentance and forgiveness occurs privately between individuals, but sometimes it must be brought out into the open. It is not unloving to call a sinner to repentance just as it is not unloving to forgive the repentant sinner. In fact, to repent and forgive is exactly why Christ established the church.

The consequences of seeking friendship with the world are also shown in James 4. The people to whom James writes have “quarrels” and “fights” among themselves because their desires are at war within themselves and they seek to indulge their sinful desires rather than control them. James says, “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.” (v. 2-4) This is the state of “church growth” churches in American Christianity (and elsewhere). Pastors desire the big churches so that they can indulge themselves in a luxurious lifestyle such as big homes, fancy cars, etc. Church members ought to reject this worldliness, but they, too enjoy the prestige of belonging to a large, fancy church rather than something more modest.

James warns us that this will end in conflict. Seeking friendship with the world always results in conflict, though the effects are often not seen for a long time. This does not mean that there isn’t conflict from day one. Whenever false teachers come into a church and preach their lies the true believers will resist. The heretics then use various forms of spiritual violence to intimidate and silence the faithful. The “friendly” heretics often try to persuade the faithful that what they are teaching is indeed God’s Will and that by resisting the changes in doctrine and practice the faithful are resisting progress, and maybe even the “progressive” work of the Holy Spirit Himself. If the faithful stubbornly persist in their resistance (as they often do) then the friendly heretic will denounce their views, and maybe even their persons, publicly. If the faithful cannot persuade the congregation that if they follow the friendly pastor they are like the proverbial lemmings running headlong for the cliffs, then the faithful people will get discouraged or tire of the battle and leave quietly.

It’s hard to love and forgive sinners. That is why most people would rather be friendly. Yet, the power of forgiveness is greater than anything that can be gained by friendliness. It wasn’t easy for Jesus to forgive sinners either. In order for Jesus to forgive us it took Him, the Son of God, to become incarnate as a man, live a perfectly obedient life and it took His suffering and death on the cross. If you think that is easy then just imagine what it takes to kill the Son of God! Yet, the life and death of Jesus shows the greatness of God’s love and how important forgiveness is to Him. Jesus doesn’t ask us to suffer the punishment for our sins – He did that in our place – so that He could save us from that same punishment. Since Jesus did this hard work for us, can’t we forgive one another? It isn’t easy, but Jesus did the hard work, and when we forgive we show that we, too have been forgiven.

Click here to listen to the Issues Etc. Blog of the Week segment from May 28, 2010