By Brad Jolly

Peace…the word itself makes you long for all that it embodies.  Complete harmony with rest and trust and love – nothing that stands between two persons.  Yet, that’s not what we have today in our world, is it?

After Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden there was no longer peace, between God and humanity, nor between Adam and Eve.  In fact, the complete breakdown of peace displayed itself in the hatred Cain had for Abel, resulting in Cain killing his brother.  Where there is sin, there cannot be peace.

So how did sin affect you and me?

The Bible tells us that we are all sinners.  “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”  Romans 3:23

And in Colossians 1:21, it says, “You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.”

In short, there is no peace between God and humanity because of our sin.  We are enemies of God, with no ability to resolve this state of separation.  But God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to solve this problem of separation and enmity between us and Him.

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16

“Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.”  Colossians 1:22

When Jesus died on the cross and took upon Himself the sins of all humanity, he made peace between God and those who come to Him through faith in Jesus.

In Revelation 1:5, it says, “All glory to him [Jesus] who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us.”

“For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.”  Colossians 1:19-22

Now, through Christ, there is complete peace between us who have trusted in Christ as our Savior and a holy, righteous God.  Christ’s payment for our sins is so complete that we can stand before Him as “holy and blameless”.  Yes, through Jesus, who lives inside us now, we can experience the peace of God completely now and for all eternity.