The Cross Brings Peace

 

The cross is the symbol of Christianity.

The cross is displayed prominently on almost every church. Christians often wear it and display it in their homes and when you see the cross you assume that it signifies something Christian. What exactly does this Christian symbol mean though? Most people recognize that the cross looks backward to the death and resurrection of Jesus. While there are many aspects of the cross and Jesus’ work on the cross, one of the major things that the cross means for Christians is peace. The cross brings peace into the lives of all believers. This may come across as a strange thing, because the cross was originally an ugly instrument on which men were hung to die. Yet today, for the Christian, this former instrument of death and torture means peace.

Peace is something that we all need. We have only to look at the news to recognize that our world is constantly in a state of strife. Nations are fighting against one another, men and women are scheming to defraud each other, many things are not as they should be. We do not even need to look beyond ourselves to recognize this: each of us has an inward sense that things are not quite right. We cannot control ourselves. Even at our best, we are still lacking. We have a sense that things should be better than they are.

Our Lack of Peace is a Result of Sin

This lack of peace is not something new. It has been around since the time of Adam. When Adam sinned, he separated himself from God and lost peace and fellowship with the Almighty. Our situation is still the same as Adam’s and our problem is deeper and more intense than most of us realize. Apart from God, our lives, and our world is chaotic. Without the Lord of the Universe, we are completely unable to do good and turmoil reigns.

Sin brings many divisions in our lives. Firstly, because of sin, we are separated from God. We experience spiritual death, and we are enemies of the Creator (Gen 3:8, 24, Rom 5:10, 6:23). Secondly, sin also means that we are separated from ourselves; we have inner turmoil. In the garden, when Adam and Eve sinned, they immediately felt shame for their condition and they sought to hide and cover themselves (Gen 3:7, 10). Still today sin brings shame and guilt and means that we struggle to even know ourselves and to live lives that are harmonious and abundant.

Thirdly, sin also ultimately leads to death. It separates us from life itself. God told Adam and Eve that because of their sin, they would return to dust (Gen 3:19, 22). This is the ultimate separation of the self. And indeed because of sin, all people will experience physical death (Rom 6:23). There are even more ways in which sin destroy our peace though. Fourthly, It separates us from one another. In the garden, sin brought enmity between Adam and Eve. They immediately began to shift the blame for their actions and indeed part of the judgment on them is the continued animosity that will exist between them (Gen 3:12, 16). As a result of sin look at how much effort governments around the world put into controlling things like household violence, racism, prejudice, nationalism as well as crimes of many other kinds. Sin breaks the shalom, the peace, that existed in the Garden of Eden. We no longer get along well with one another.

Finally, Sin also brings about a separation of us from the natural world. When Adam sinned, God told him that he the ground would be cursed, and he would have to painfully toil in it (Gen 3:17-18). The struggle with nature continues today as we destroy some animals and protect others, as we struggle to produce food for the people of the world. Dams, irrigation, fertilizer, sciences (hybrids, genetic engineering), farm equipment, agricultural labor, game and nature preserves and parks, pollution, garbage, nuclear waste, natural resource and ozone depletion, global warming, etc. We are constantly at tension with the world around us. We are not at peace with nature. Moreover, as we struggle against nature, we are continually reminded of nature’s struggle against itself. Animals compete against one another for limited resources, flash floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and tidal waves are a reminder that all of creation is groaning and longing for redemption.

It seems a fair assessment that ever since sin came into the world, humans have been struggling to reverse the effects and to mend the divisions that we created. Mankind is enmity with the world around us. We need rest, we need peace. The peace that we so desperately desire is the peace that Christ gives us on the cross. The cross brings peace.

The Peace Found at the Cross

In the cross we are reconciled to God. Romans 5:1 tells us that, “since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (ESV). Formerly we were enemies of God, but when we come to the Lord in faith, we are brought into his family and given his peace (Col 1:21).

With Jesus’s work on the cross, we are also united to one another. In Ephesians, we are reminded that different people groups that were formerly enemies have been brought together as one people in Christ (Eph 2:14, 4:3). Jesus himself is our peace. On the cross he opened the way for all people to come to him and have unity with one another, through him.

Besides bringing peace with God and with one another, the Cross also brings inner peace to each of us. In Philippians 4:6-7, the apostle Paul writes: “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (ESV). Our sin causes us to be anxious. It leaves us in a state of inner turmoil. We do not even understand ourselves; we often do things that we wish we had not. Yet the peace of Christ brings us relief. It provides inner comfort and alleviates the worries of our heart.

Christ Bears our Separations and Brings us Lasting Peace

Christ brings peace to us because at the cross he bore our separations for us. In his death, he was separated from God the Father so that we would no longer have to be. He was separated from life itself when he died and was buried. Before his death, he was separated from others. The world rejected and refused him. Even his own did not accept him (John 1:10-11). Jesus also bore the curse of nature. He was crowned with thorns and then nailed to a tree – the very source of the original temptation. He was given bitter wine. At his death the sky turned black, there was an earthquake, and rocks were rolled away. The images from the crucifixion clearly point back to the original effects of sin. Jesus bore them so that he could free us and bring us peace.

As believers all over the world look forward to celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus this Easter, let us remember that the cross brings peace. Because Jesus died and rose again, we can have peace with God. We can rely on him to bring us inner peace and peace with others around us. We can look forward to a time when the peace of Christ will reign, and all will be set right because the cross brings peace.

The above Resurrection Sunday devotional is written by the Dean of Students, Matthew Winslow, who also teaches Theology and Church History at East Asia School of Theology. He is married to Sze Chieh and they have three children Hudson, Amber, Alethea and a dog Caspian.