Romans 15:33 - The God of Peace

Romans 15:33 - May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

Message: The God of peace and the God of Peace be with us all

Time: Written in AD 57 from Greece, to the Christians, both Gentile and Jewish in Rome

What the Lord is Saying:

The God of Peace
Paul ends this chapter by asking that the God peace be with you all. It is prayer to these Christians after he has spoken to them about how they are treat other Christians that have different convictions or are at different levels in their walk with Him. In Romans 14:19, he made a point to say that peace needs to be what Christians are about with one another. He knows differing viewpoints will result but peace needs to be the goal of our relationships. 

Peace is the word eiro which means to join together or bind together that which has been separated. It is the opposite of division or discord. It is a word speaking of the state of harmony. 

This is a frequent title for God in the New Testament. Peace is of God's nature. In Philippians 4:7, "the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension" is mentioned as coming from God. If there is one thing that I should want in life, it is to have the peace of God. Ephesians 2:14 says that "He Himself is our peace."

I read a sermon online from Charles Spurgeon that was delivered on November 4, 1855, on this verse. He states that although God permits war to occur in this world, he is ultimately a God of peace.

Peace is His delight. God did not create war. The evil angel brought it first. Left to his free will, he fell. Satan of himself conceived the rebellion, but God was not the author of it. He may from all eternity have foreseen it, and it may even be said in some sense that he ordained it to manifest his justice and his glory, and to show his mercy and sovereignty in redeeming man; but God had no hand in it whatsoever. The Eternal abjures war; he was not the author of it. Satan led the van, that morning star who sang together with the rest, fell of himself, God was not the author of his confusion, but the author of eternal and blessed order.

He announced, upon creating his creation, "it is very good." There was no division present. It was all peace. It was a peaceful creation. The serpent came into the garden and presented an option that would result in discord. Yes, God foresaw it and yes God allowed it, but peace is still God's ultimate and highest appointment and good for us.

Jesus repeated this idea in the sermon on the Mount when he said, "Blessed are the peacemakers; they are the children of God." In this world, in this life, there is discord and disunity, and Jesus puts forth the idea that it is a blessing to those individuals that want to see peace in relationships.

Spurgeon states the following, to describe how God is the great Peacemaker:

Man transgresses. Poor man! Mark how God goes after him to make peace with him! "Adam, where art thou?" Adam never said "God, where art thou?" But God came after Adam, and he seemed to say with a voice of affection and pity, "Adam, poor Adam, where art thou? Hast thou become a God? The evil spirit said thou wouldst be a God, art thou so? Where art thou now poor Adam? Thou wast once in holiness and perfection, where art thou now?" And he saw the truant Adam running away from his Master, running away from the great Peacemaker, to hide himself beneath the trees of the garden. Again God calls, "Adam, where art thou?" But he says, "I heard thy voice in the midst of the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." And God says, "Who told thee that thou wast naked?" How kind it is. You can see he is a Peacemaker even then; but when after having cursed the serpent, and sent the cursed obliquely on the ground, he comes to talk to Adam, you see him as the Peacemaker still more. "I will," said he, "put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." There he was making peace through the blood of the cross.

Jesus was our peace, not the maker of peace, but he became our peace through the death on the cross. He allowed the forgiveness of God to occur in the life of every person who believes. He provided the means for there to be peace between God and man again, after sin resulted in discord.

The God of Peace be with you all
Spurgeon in his message cites Petrarch, 14th century poet, who has been called the father of humanism, mentioning his words that there are 5 great enemies of peace: avarice (greed), ambition, envy, anger, and pride. Spurgeon alters this list slightly.

1. Error instead of avarice - he says that one of the biggest threats to peace is error and more specifically error in doctrine. "Error in doctrine leads to the most lamentable consequences with regard to the peace of the church." I agree wholeheartedly with this. I think about the theme of the past 2 chapters of Romans (14 and 15) and I see that theme has been peace. Paul understands that differences are present amongst Christians and he instructs the strong Christian to not get in dispute with the weaker Christian. Isn't it crazy how some people want peace so bad, that they kill to get it? He mentions Calivinists and their quarrelsome identity. They have the main part of the truth, but they are missing something huge. God has sent the Gospel, but God needs to send peace to those that have the Gospel now.

I think this is a hard application because we do want to have good doctrine, obviously. But, in the midst of this, we must be careful about how we discuss differences. Differences are erected and then people are trained in those differences over years and decades and then centuries. Do we think that through one word it will all come crashing down? God must be the anchor for true doctrine. If there is anything we need to do more of is pray that God would be peace and through His peace people would have sound doctrine.

2. Ambition - It is not so much that we seek and want per-eminence over all, but when someone comes in and wants his way over ours, discord then results, and we want to put that one down. On the contrary, our ambition should be to be a servant of one another. Yes, decisions should be made and we need decision makers, but we also need to see the value in one another.

3. Anger - This has been a plague in my life. I have struggled with anger very much. I have not done a good job dealing with it. It is often also about control and not getting what I think is best or right. I've struggled this with my children. I have been impatient with them and have had unfair expectations for them. I have had the same towards my wife. O to be more understanding. O to have more of a desire for peace than who is right.

Spurgeon quotes from a poem by Robert Burns from 1790 called, "Tam O'Shanter." It is a poem about one man's, a Scotsman, adventure with Satan's crew. Tam is making his way home after drinking at a tavern. Men gather, after work to drink, to not simply refresh themselves, but to escape what awaits them at home. His wife has good advice for him at home, but he is proud and wants to escape it drinking. Spurgeon's quote is from the last line of the 1st paragraph: "Nursing her wrath to keep it warm." This man sat and drank, keeping warm the wrath of his wife. He made matters worse the longer he stayed away. It went from advice to anger. Isn't this how it often is in life? We give advice and then that advice is not heeded and it erupts into anger.

4. Envy - We envy often what people have. I do this all the time. I look at how God has provided for one person and want him to provide for me in the same way, or often even better. Envy is a longing to possess something that another person has or owns. I can do this with property as well as emotions and people or status or position.

5. Pride - This also doesn't work in a church and does not make for a peaceful existence. It gives rise to ill-feelings and bad blood between people. 


Promise: Peace is not possible until all are at peace with God.