There are kinds of peace which last only while nothing disturbs them.

We feel peaceful because the bills are paid, the medical result was reassuring, the family is well or tomorrow appears predictable. These are real mercies, and we should receive them gratefully. But circumstances change. A telephone call, a diagnosis, a loss or an unexpected conversation can overturn in minutes the security we spent years constructing.

On the night before the cross, Jesus spoke to men whose circumstances were about to become terrifying. He did not promise to prevent their bewilderment or remove every approaching trial. He promised something the world could neither produce nor take away:

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

John 14:27

Every part of that sentence deserves our attention.

Christ leaves peace. He gives His own peace. He does not give as the world gives. Then He speaks directly to the troubled and frightened heart.

Words spoken on the eve of the cross

We can easily detach John 14:27 from its setting and turn it into a pleasant saying for a quiet room. Jesus spoke these words while the shadow of the cross lay immediately before Him.

He had told His disciples that He was going away. One of them would betray Him. Peter would deny Him. The little company which had followed Him through Galilee was about to be scattered.

The chapter begins:

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me."

John 14:1

Their hearts were already troubled. Jesus was not addressing people who had mastered their emotions. He was preparing distressed disciples for events they did not yet understand.

Yet the One comforting them was not sheltered from suffering. He knew precisely what awaited Him. He would be betrayed, falsely accused, mocked, scourged and crucified. Nevertheless, He spoke of His peace.

This was not the peace of a man who had avoided danger. It was the peace of the Son who trusted His Father completely and was willingly accomplishing the work He had been given.

“Peace I leave with you”

These words belong to Christ's departure.

A person going away might leave possessions, instructions or final words with those remaining. Jesus leaves His disciples peace. He will not leave them abandoned, although they will no longer see Him as they had before.

In the same discourse He promised:

"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."

John 14:18

“Comfortless” carries the thought of being left as orphans. The disciples feared that Christ's departure would mean the loss of His presence. Jesus assured them that they would not be abandoned.

The peace He leaves is therefore more than a polite farewell. People may say, “Go in peace,” while having no power to provide it. Christ does not merely wish peace upon His disciples. He leaves it with them as something secured by His own presence and work.

His visible departure will not mean that they have been deserted.

“My peace I give unto you”

Jesus then makes the promise even more personal:

"My peace I give unto you."

He does not merely offer an improved form of human composure. He gives what is His.

Christ possessed a settled confidence in His Father which the hostility of the world could not destroy. He knew where He had come from, why He had come and where He was going. The prince of this world was coming, but had nothing in Him. His enemies could seize His body, yet they could not turn Him from the Father's will or frustrate the purpose for which He came.

His peace did not depend upon a painless path. It rested upon His perfect relationship with the Father and His confidence that the Father's purpose would be fulfilled.

We must not conclude that Jesus was untouched by sorrow. He wept. He groaned. In Gethsemane He was deeply distressed. Biblical peace is not emotional numbness, and trust does not make suffering unreal.

Christ's peace was not the absence of grief. It was the settled obedience, confidence and communion which grief could not overthrow.

That is the peace He calls My peace.

The promised Comforter

The promise of peace cannot be separated from the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Immediately before speaking of peace, Jesus said:

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."

John 14:26

Christ was going away, but God would not become distant. The Holy Spirit would dwell with the disciples and be in them. He would teach them, bring Christ's words to their remembrance and bear witness to Christ.

The peace remains Christ's gift, but it is known and enjoyed through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit does not draw attention away from Christ. He makes Christ and His words precious to His people.

This means that Christian peace is personal before it is emotional. It does not begin with our ability to create a particular state of mind. It begins with the reality that Christ has not left His people as orphans. God dwells within them by His Spirit.

Feelings can rise and fall. The Comforter has not departed every time the heart becomes distressed.

What peace does the world give?

The world can give a kind of peace. Jesus acknowledges the comparison, but He exposes its limitations.

The world can produce treaties, laws, medicine, financial security, comfortable homes and periods of public order. These can all be genuine goods. Christians should not despise ordinary means of help or pretend that earthly safety has no value.

But the world can give peace only within its own limits.

Its peace is usually conditional. It lasts while circumstances permit it.

Its peace is often external. It may quiet the surroundings while leaving the conscience unsettled.

Its peace is frequently transactional. It depends upon agreement, payment, performance, compromise or control.

Its peace is temporary. What is secure today may disappear tomorrow.

Its peace can become distraction. Noise, pleasure, work and entertainment may help us avoid the questions we cannot answer.

Its peace is finally powerless before guilt and death. The world may teach us to manage regret, but it cannot remove sin. It may postpone death, but it cannot defeat it. It cannot reconcile us to God.

The world can offer peace when the threatening thing has been removed. Christ can give peace while trouble remains.

The world may rearrange our circumstances. Christ deals with the deepest cause of our unrest.

Peace with God

Before peace can settle the heart, there must be peace with God.

Our greatest problem is not that life is unpredictable. It is that sin has placed us in rebellion against the God who made us. We cannot obtain lasting peace merely by calming ourselves while remaining estranged from Him.

Scripture says:

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Romans 5:1

Christ did not make peace by ignoring our guilt or pretending that sin did not matter. He made peace through the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20). He bore our sins, died and rose again so that those who come to God through Him may be forgiven and reconciled.

This peace is not negotiated between equals. We do not persuade God to overlook our wrongdoing by offering improved behaviour. Christ has accomplished what we could not accomplish.

The world's peace depends upon conditions we are continually trying to preserve. Peace with God rests upon Christ's finished work.

That is why Christian peace begins with a Person rather than a technique. We do not first need to discover the correct breathing exercise, arrange a trouble-free life or convince ourselves that everything will work out as we wish. We need to be reconciled to God through Christ.

Those who want to understand this invitation more fully can read The Gospel.

Not as the world giveth

The manner of Christ's giving is also different.

The world often gives in order to receive. Gifts create obligations. Favour can be withdrawn. Approval lasts while expectations are satisfied. Even sincere human love remains limited by weakness, misunderstanding and death.

Christ does not sell His peace to the deserving.

It cannot be purchased through religious performance or earned by becoming calm enough. It comes from Him and is received by faith because He has borne its cost.

This does not mean that His peace is an impersonal entitlement which we claim while refusing Christ Himself. The gift cannot be separated from the Giver. He is not distributing spiritual tranquillity to help us remain comfortably independent of God.

He brings us into peace by bringing us to God. He gives His Spirit. He gives His Word. He gives Himself.

The world gives from resources which diminish. Christ gives from a fullness which cannot be exhausted.

The world may give and later regret its generosity. Christ knew the full cost of receiving sinners before He went to the cross.

The world can withdraw what it once supplied. Christ promises:

"I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

Hebrews 13:5

Not as the world gives, gives He unto us.

Peace does not mean a life without trouble

Later that same evening Jesus told His disciples:

"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

John 16:33

He did not say, “I have overcome the world; therefore you will never encounter tribulation.” His victory does not mean that every difficulty disappears immediately.

It means that tribulation cannot have the final word.

The world says that peace will come when every threat has been removed. Christ gives peace because He has overcome the world, even while His people continue to pass through it.

A Christian may grieve and still possess peace with God. We may feel anxious while learning again to entrust ourselves to Him. We may be confused without being abandoned. We may weep without having lost our hope.

There is no virtue in pretending to be unaffected. Some burdens require prayer, patient fellowship, practical help, medical treatment or wise counsel. Seeking such help is not necessarily a denial of faith. God often cares for us through ordinary means and through other people.

The promise is not that believers will always feel serene. The promise is that trouble cannot undo our reconciliation to God, remove the indwelling Spirit, overturn Christ's victory or separate us from His love.

When the heart is troubled

Jesus did not merely describe peace. He spoke to the heart:

"Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

This is not a command to deny what hurts. It is an invitation to bring the troubled heart under the truth He has just revealed.

When fear speaks, it narrows our vision to the danger immediately before us. The Holy Spirit brings Christ's words to remembrance. He directs us beyond the changing circumstance to the unchanging Saviour.

Paul later wrote:

"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."

Philippians 4:6

Prayer is not a performance through which we earn relief. It is the movement of dependence toward the God who is already near. We name the burden rather than pretending it does not exist. We ask for what we need. Thanksgiving remembers the faithfulness which fear causes us to forget.

Then Paul speaks of:

"The peace of God, which passeth all understanding."

Philippians 4:7

This does not mean irrational peace or a pleasant feeling without foundation. It is peace greater than our ability to calculate an escape from every difficulty. It guards the heart and mind because its foundation is God, not our control of tomorrow.

Sometimes this peace is experienced as remarkable calm. At other times it appears as the quieter grace to continue: enough light for the next step, enough strength for the present duty and enough confidence to pray again.

We should not despise that quieter form of peace.

Remembering what Christ has said

The disciples would soon look at the cross and believe that everything had been lost. They needed the Holy Spirit to bring Christ's words to remembrance and teach them to understand what they had witnessed.

We need the same ministry.

Our hearts often interpret God through our immediate circumstances. If life becomes painful, we wonder whether He has withdrawn. If prayer is not answered as expected, we question whether He is good. If we feel no peace, we fear that Christ has left us.

The Spirit teaches us to interpret our circumstances through Christ instead.

The cross looked like defeat, yet it was the means of reconciliation. The sealed tomb looked final, yet Christ rose. The departure which grieved the disciples made way for the coming of the Comforter and the spread of the gospel throughout the world.

This does not allow us to call every painful thing good. It teaches us that painful things cannot prevent God from accomplishing His purpose.

Christ has spoken. The Spirit has not ceased to bring His words to remembrance. The promises do not become less true when we need them most.

A peace the world cannot give

The world's peace says:

Everything is under control.

Christ's peace says:

Everything is in His hands.

The world's peace depends upon what we can see.

Christ's peace rests upon the One we trust.

The world's peace lasts until circumstances change.

Christ's peace rests upon a work already finished, a Saviour already risen and a victory which cannot be reversed.

The world cannot promise that we will never lose health, possessions, opportunities or people we love. Christ does not promise that either. He promises something deeper:

"I will not leave you comfortless."

He gives peace with God through His cross. He gives His Spirit to dwell within His people. He gives His Word to steady the troubled heart. He gives hope which reaches beyond death.

Not as the world giveth, gives He unto us.

The peace is His.

The gift is real.

And the Giver has not gone away.

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References for further review