Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah is called the Prince of Peace because He reconciles us to the Father. Through Him we have shalom, which is expressed in the wholeness and completeness of mankind on the Sabbath when God rested after His works were completed. This is the peace that is ours in the fruit of the Spirit. And we reach in for the Holy Spirit to pour out this expression of God’s emotion within us.
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Show Notes:
When we talk about emotions, we understand that there are human emotions and divine emotions. This includes the emotion of peace. And if we want to understand the emotion of peace only in human terms, we could find many ways that peace is defined and applied in the world today. However, the peace that we have in the fruit of the Spirit is not human peace but the peace that we receive from God. And we need to understand God’s definition of peace.
In Hebrew, the word for peace is shalom. And shalom means “to be whole, to be entire, to be complete, to be in safety, and to be in health.” These concepts are distinctly tied to the meaning of the Sabbath. God rested on the Sabbath from all His works because His works were completed. They were perfect. They were whole and entire. Therefore to have the shalom that is the fruit of the Spirit is to have the wholeness and completeness that enables us to enter into the rest or Sabbath of God.
Clearly there is no rest in the world because people are always striving to achieve or enforce peace according to their own definitions. But this striving is directly related to our lack of wholeness and completeness, which only comes through our reconciliation with the Father. And this reconciliation is only brought about by Messiah, who is called the Prince of Peace because He restores our oneness with God, allowing each of us individually to become whole and complete. Only when we individually have shalom in God will we be able to bring peace into the world.
Key Verses:
- Galatians 5:22–23. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.”
- Isaiah 9:6. “A son will be given to us; … His name will be called … Prince of Peace.”
- 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24. “May the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely.”
- 2 Corinthians 13:11–12. “Live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”
- Hebrews 13:20–21. “The God of peace … equip you in every good thing.”
- Philippians 4:8–9. “Practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
- 2 Thessalonians 3:16. “May the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace.”
Quotes:
- “When we look at human striving that exists around us in the world today, we understand that all striving exists because of our lack of shalom, our lack of completeness. And that of course comes because of our separation from God.”
- “From now on when we greet one another with the word shalom, we realize that we are releasing the ability to be made whole and complete by the peace that God has made available through His great love for us.”
- “The prime objective of God’s love is to bring about His peace with each of us personally and individually in order that peace can then encompass the globe.”
Takeaways:
- When God completed His creation, which included mankind, He sanctified it, by which man was purified. The Sabbath rest that followed was by the fact that everything was whole and complete, which is the definition of shalom or peace.
- This reality was lost by Adam in Eden, and it has left all of mankind trying to figure out what peace is, while striving to accomplish or gain what will make them feel whole and complete.
- God has made provision for our peace through His love manifested in Yeshua, who is the physical manifestation of the Day of Atonement. He is the Messiah, the great Prince of Peace, who has come to establish on this earth God’s Kingdom of peace.
- Peace is only possible when we individually are at peace, having been restored to wholeness through reconciliation with the Father by the Prince of Peace.