He Is Our Peace

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us . . . to make in himself of twain one new man . . . that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.

Ephesians 2:14–16

Outside the work of the cross, there is bitterness, intolerance, sedition, ill will, prejudice, lust, greed, and hatred. Within the efficacy of the cross, there is love and fellowship, new life and new brotherhood. The only human hope for lasting peace lies at the cross of Christ, where all men, whatever their nationality or race, can become a new brotherhood.

Recently a university professor said, “There are two things that will never be solved—the problems of race and war.” I say that these and all other problems can be solved, but only at the cross. The cross of Christ is not only the basis of our peace and hope; but it is also the means of our eternal salvation. The object of the cross is not only a full and free pardon; it is also a changed life, lived in fellowship with God. No wonder Paul said two thousand years ago, “We preach Christ crucified.” This is the message for the world today. This is the message of hope and peace and brotherhood. This is what the world calls foolishness but what God has been pleased to call wisdom.

The poet John Greenleaf Whittier put it well when he wrote:

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,

Till all our striving cease;

Take from our soul the strain and stress,

And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of Thy peace.

He is our peace!

Our Father and our God, I lay my burdens down at the cross. And I pick up in their place the bundle of peace and joy You have for me. Help me, Father, to relax in Your quiet peace and to develop a calmness, even in the midst of trouble, that is evident to all. Thank You for Jesus, who delivered Your peace to earth and in whose name I pray. Amen.

Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).