Christ, the Prince of Peace

Learning Objectives

By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:

1. Identify the threefold peace Christ gives — with self, with others, and with God.
2. Name sin as the one disturber of that peace.
3. Show that the peace of God is found only in Christ, through reconciliation and submission.

Thesis

Christ is the Prince of Peace, who alone gives peace with God, peace with others, and peace within; sin is the disturber of all three, and that peace is enjoyed only by being reconciled to God in Christ and submitting to His terms.

Burden

Everyone is hunting for peace, and almost no one is finding it, because they look for it where it cannot be kept — in circumstances, in distraction, in getting their own way. Scripture says peace is a Person before it is a feeling: "He Himself is our peace" (Eph. 2:14). Until a man is right with God he will not be right within or with anyone else, no matter how he rearranges his life. This lesson aims to send people to the only Prince who can actually give what they are chasing.

Introduction

Jesus comes to us under many names and figures — the good shepherd, the way, the truth, the life, the light, the resurrection, the Savior — and here, the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6). Boles unfolds a threefold peace, the breadth of God's peace in Scripture, the one thing that disturbs it, and how it is enjoyed.

I. A Threefold Peace

The peace Christ gives reaches in three directions:

1. Peace with self — a quiet conscience, the inner war ended.
2. Peace with others — peace with one's fellow men.
3. Peace with God — reconciliation, the deepest of the three and the root of the other two. These are not independent. A man at war with God is at war within, and his unrest spills out onto everyone around him. Set the third right, and the first two become possible.

II. The Peace of God Runs Through All of Scripture (Phil. 4:9; Rom. 14:17)

This is no minor theme:

• God is "the God of peace" (Phil. 4:9);
• Christ is "the Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6);
• peace is "the fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22);
• the message is "the gospel of peace" (Acts 10:36);
• the kingdom is one of "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17);
• the angels announced "on earth peace" (Luke 2:14). From the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, in the gospel, in the kingdom — the New Testament is saturated with this peace. It is woven through the whole of God's revelation, the steady note under the gospel.

III. The Disturber of This Peace Is Sin (Rom. 5:12)

There is exactly one thing that breaks this peace, and it is sin.

• Sin first disturbed the peace of Eden, and through it death entered the world (Gen. 3; Rom. 5:12).
• It broke the first family at the altar, in the worship of Cain and Abel (Gen. 4).
• It disturbs every relationship of life.
• It shatters the threefold peace — within, with others, and with God.
• And it leaves no peace of its own: "There is no peace for the wicked" (Isa. 48:22; 57:21). Whatever name we give our unrest, the root is sin — ours or the world's. Remove the sin and the peace returns; leave the sin and no technique will buy peace.

IV. How to Enjoy the Peace of God (2 Cor. 5:19)

The peace is real and available, on God's terms:

1. It is found in Christ, the Prince of Peace — outside Him there is none.
2. It comes through reconciliation: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself" (2 Cor. 5:19). The barrier was our sin; Christ removed it, and we are summoned, "be reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:20).
3. It is kept through submission to the laws of peace — walking in obedience, where the peace of God guards the heart (Phil. 4:6-7). Peace is not the absence of trouble; it is rightness with God maintained in the middle of trouble.

Application

If you have no peace, do not first change your circumstances — examine your standing with God. Peace with self and others is downstream of peace with God, and that peace has one source. Stop trying to manufacture calm while the sin that disturbs it remains unconfessed and unforsaken. Come to the Prince of Peace, be reconciled, and then keep the peace by submitting to Him daily. And as one at peace with God, become a peacemaker among men (Matt. 5:9), carrying the gospel of peace to people still at war within.

Conclusion

Christ is the Prince of Peace, and the peace He gives reaches within, outward, and upward. Sin is the only thing that breaks it, and reconciliation in Christ is the only thing that restores it. The world will keep hunting for peace in every wrong place. We can point them to the Person who is our peace.

Invitation

The peace your soul is missing begins at the cross, where God reconciles sinners to Himself. He calls you to lay down the rebellion, believe in His Son, repent, confess Him, and be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38; 10:36) — and to receive a peace the world cannot give or take away (John 14:27). If your peace with God has been broken by sin, come and be restored today. Come to the Prince of Peace while we sing.

Word Study

• "Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6, Heb. Sar-Shalom): shalom is not mere absence of conflict but wholeness, well-being, everything set right; Christ is its ruler and giver.
• "Reconciling" (2 Cor. 5:19, Gk. katallassō): to change from enmity to friendship — God removing the barrier of sin so peace can stand.

Scripture Interlock Table