Recently, infamous “pastor” and author, Joel Osteen, declared God’s peace on everyone
(“he likes you, he accepts you, he approves of you”) including homosexuals.
At Christmas time we so often hear part of Luke 2:14
proclaimed, but not the entire verse and context, thus everyone presumes that
God’s peace is bestowed upon all people, without qualification.
What does Scripture say about peace? Who gets it? Everyone?
Do we declare God is at peace with everyone? Does God bestow peace on all people? Is there no warring parties
between the two that must be reconciled?
Jesus Christ is the Prince of
Peace. It’s His to give or to withhold.
His Gospel is the Gospel of peace.
Isa 9:6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be
given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will
be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Eph 6:15 and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE
PREPARATION OF THE
GOSPEL OF PEACE;
Eph. 6:15 is a quote from Isa
52:7 How lovely on the mountains Are the
feet of him who brings good news, Who announces peace And brings good news of
happiness, Who announces salvation, And says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
And one of the most used verses
in Scripture to say God offers peace to all men:
Luk 2:14 "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace
among men with whom He is pleased."
With whom is
the Father truly pleased?
Mat 3:17 and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is My
beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."
This
is crucial to understand. The ONLY
one with whom the Father is absolutely and thoroughly well-pleased in and of
Himself is God the Son, Who is perfect in all ways and never did nor could sin
because of His absolute deity and holiness. From Adam, on, God has been
displeased with all men (remember the Flood?). Moreover there has be war
between Him and man since then. There is hostility between these two parties
that requires reconciliation. It is because of this hostility of all
unbelievers toward God that necessitates the absolute need for reconciliation on
our part toward God if we’re to ever be saved and go to Heaven. God has no
warring parties, no rebels, in His kingdom.
Col
1:20 and through Him to reconcile all things to
Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him,
I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. Col 1:21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind,
engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He
has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order
to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach--
Rom 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our
introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope
of the glory of God.
Rom 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on
the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because
the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not
subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please
God.
If we are in Christ, who is our peace, we are now at peace
with God the Father.
So
look a little closer to the famous declaration of peace we so often hear at
Christmastime.
John MacArthur notes on this
verse of Luke:
2:14 the highest. I.e., heaven. peace. This
is not to be taken as a universal declaration of peace toward all humanity.
Rather, peace with God is a corollary of justification (see note on Rom. 5:1).
goodwill toward men. Note the marginal rendering. The Gr. word for
"goodwill" is also used in 10:21. The verb form of the same word is
used in 3:22; 12:32. In each case, it refers to God’s
sovereign good pleasure. So a better rendering here might be "peace toward
men on whom God’s sovereign pleasure rests." God’s peace is not a reward
for those who have good will, but a gracious gift to those who are the objects
of His good will.
Quote:
The adoration of the angels over the good news of the Savior's birth.
This is pure, perfect, holy praise given to God alone because He is supremely
worthy because He has sent Jesus to save sinners. He has sent Jesus to bring
peace among men on earth. In the highest place, glory to God. In the lowest
place, salvation to sinners.
And then verse 14 ends
with an interesting statement, "With whom He is pleased." That can be
very misleading...very misleading if you're not careful. It sounds like He's going to give salvation to those who earn it...to
those who earn it. The King James Bible says, "On earth peace, good will
toward men." That also sounds like God is going to bring peace and good
will toward those who earn it, those who deserve it.
But the Greek literally
says, "Men of His good pleasure...Men of His good pleasure." It's a
genitive. There's an alternative reading here but the best reading would be "Peace among
men of His good pleasure." Or to put it another way, "Peace among men
of His good will." It's not...it's not men who have earned it. It's God
who has given it because it's His pleasure to give it.
Salvation peace belongs
to those whom God is pleased to give it to. That's what
it's saying. It's the same words in chapter 3 verse 22, for the Father says
about the Son at His baptism, "You're My beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased."
There are some in whom
God chooses, in whom He wills salvation. It's not the result of what good men
have done. Angels are
not rejoicing and glorifying God for what men have done or will do. Angels are
not rejoicing that some men will merit salvation. They're glorifying God
because though none can merit salvation, God is pleased to give it by His own
good pleasure. And there will be salvation peace among men of His good
pleasure.
If you are a person who
has been given the gift of salvation, you are a person of His good pleasure.
It's incredible, incredible truth. Men to whom He extends His good pleasure. He
gets all the credit. He gets all the glory. We couldn't
devise a plan of salvation. We couldn't earn a plan...we couldn't earn
salvation so if we're saved it's because God designed it and God was pleased to
give it.
Saying it another way, there is
salvation peace, peace between man and God, among those whom God has chosen to
delight in. And so the angels are praising God because He has chosen to delight
in bringing salvation peace to sinners.
End quote.
So, do we declare God’s peace to everyone? Is God actually at peace with all men,
accepting them, approving of them, and liking them, as Osteen declares?
MacArthur clearly shows from Scripture God is not at peace with all men based
on Luke 2:14, but there are more passages of Scripture.
Jer 23:16 Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Do not listen to the words of the prophets
who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into
futility; They speak a vision of their own imagination, Not from the mouth of
the LORD. 17 "They keep
saying to those who despise Me, 'The LORD has said, "You will have peace"';
And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, They say,
'Calamity will not come upon you.'
Mat 10:11 "And whatever city or village you enter,
inquire who is worthy in it, and stay at his house until you leave that
city. 12 "As you enter the
house, give it your greeting. 13 "If the house is
worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if it is not worthy, take
back your blessing of peace.
14 "Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of
that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. 15 "Truly I say to you, it will be more
tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than
for that city.
2Jn 1:9 Anyone
who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have
God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the
Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this
teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a
greeting; 11 for the one who
gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.
Scripture is clear that God’s
peace is not granted nor indiscriminately given to all mankind, because all men
are at war with God. Not all are chosen to be His children; most are to remain
His enemy. Hell demonstrates that God is not at peace with all people.
If God does not
indiscriminately grant peace to all people, then Christians shouldn’t either.
At best it softens the horrible and doubly sharp sword of Truth that convicts
men of their multiple offenses against the thrice holy God of Scripture. It’s
to lie about the real relationship between God and man. The only peace one has with God is found
solely in the Person and work of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
Outside of Christ we are at war
with God and He with us.
Inside of Christ we are at
peace with God and He is pleased with us because of Christ and His
righteousness (justification).
To lie to an enemy and tell
them “Peace, peace!” when there is no peace, while guns are pointed in his direction, is deceiving. Spiritually speaking, to tell the enemy of God "Peace, peace! There is no calamity that will befall you!" it is to hate their souls and hate
God. It is to lie about the holiness of God, His demand for holiness, our
inability of any righteousness, and our doom if we do not humbly repent of all
of our sins and turn to Christ alone for salvation, knowing there’s nothing
good in us at all.
Such liars are condemned by
God. They themselves war against the Word and God Himself, as did the Serpent in the Garden ("Did God really say you would die? You will not die!") and He will judge
them accordingly.
Heb 10:31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
No comments:
Post a Comment