In Exchange For His Peace

Peace

How important is John 14:27, that Jesus left us His peace. It is a gift. And oh, what we give Him in exchange.

Our souls…

But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8

We give Him our sinful souls, it is prefaced by saying that even rarely would someone die for a righteous person, much less a sinner. We give our souls in exchange for the gift of salvation and peace, it is a gift of God, nothing we do earns it, only a belief in Him, Ephesians 2:8.

We give Him our hearts, broken, afflicted, even bleeding. He gives a new heart in exchange, after His melted for us. In fact, He insisted that our heart is broken for Him, sincere and contrite.

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast… Psalm24:18

And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. Ezekiel 36:26 New Living

We might not have been bad people, or big time sinners, but because of Adam, we are all sinners, though some people don’t believe that or would never admit it. He exchanges an old, dead spirit for a new one that is capable of accepting His.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:6

His Spirit is the new wine, that we exchange our old ways for. The gospels record that no one pours new wine into old wineskins, and He changed water, a source for life into wine representing his Spirit. But in Isaiah 65:8. we read how new wine is found in a cluster of grapes, and no one says to destroy it because there is a blessing in it.

While God was dealing with His people in Israel then as He does now and also with us, there is a blessing in the Spirit, in clusters of of fruitful believers. Indeed we exchange our spirit for His. We are privileged to have a measure of the Spirit at salvation, and there is a further baptism.

We also exchange our life for His. His body was bruised, crushed and punished for us and for our healing and peace, Isaiah 53. Not a one of us, through our sicknesses or diseases, persecution or affliction, that cause suffering, realize what He really went through for us. He gives life eternal and abundant life at that, it is the enemy who would steal, kill or destroy, John 10:10.

It is sad, what we give Jesus in exchange for what He has done for us. No matter what we do for Him or accomplish in His name, He as always done more for us and loved us more.

We can give Him sorrow of grief, pain, loss, rejection and so much more and He has paid the price on a cross of shame, even sickness, disease and death. Oh, Lord, what you give us for what we gave you. It should make us think of Him even more often. He gave His life, His very soul, He left heaven to destroy the power of hell, in exchange for our peace.