Peace through the Knowledge of God
By Fred O. Blakely
“Grace and peace be
multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord” (II
Pet. 1:2).
A striking demonstration of the perverseness
and contradictoriness of the natural heart is its recoil from God, who alone
is, and has, the complete sufficiency which it wholly lacks, and a sense of
which it so desperately needs. This aversion is consistently manifested in the
outright worldling, he plainly evidencing that he wants no part of the Most
Holy. And it is all too often apparent in those who profess to love God. The
typical churchman’s attitude seems to be that he can endure a little of the
Divine acquaintance and fellowship, but draws back from becoming more than
casually involved therein. Thus, do both classes forfeit for themselves the
very real and efficacious benefits of spiritual knowledge and experience which
are available from the “God of our salvation,” choosing rather to languish in
their own blindness, impotency, and general wretchedness (Ps.65:5).
Its Availability to the Saints. One of the principal benefits available
to people through the knowledge of God is that blessed tranquility and repose
of soul which everyone desires and pursues, but which comparatively few,
indeed, find. It is denominated by Scripture “the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding,” and is certified as able to “keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7; cf. v. 6).
“The knowledge of God is the sphere in which
grace and peace are communicated to the soul. They cannot be found outside that
sphere.” So might Paul, and we, well “count all things but loss for the
excellency” of this knowledge (Phil. 3:8). “The grace and the peace of God flow
abundantly into the soul that seeks this heavenly wisdom, and that longs for
and obtains this inner knowledge of God and His Christ.”
This peace is nothing more than a reflection
of that perfect calmness and poise which constantly prevail before God’s throne
in heaven, symbolized by the glassy sea (Rev.4:6; 15:2). It is generated and
maintained in the human heart by the knowledge that the all-wise, all powerful,
and merciful Jehovah reigns, and that all one’s times and circumstances are in
His hands (Deut. 33:3; Ps. 31:5). Hence, the declaration of our text that grace
and peace are “multiplied” to the believer “through the knowledge of God, and
of Jesus our Lord.”
Its Proclamation by Scripture. Not only, says the Apostle, is peace, which is
the product of grace received not “in vain” (II Cor.6:1), supplied by knowing
God; it is “multiplied,” or increased, thereby. Hence, the more knowledge, the
more peace. As we “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ” (II Pet. 3:18), we experience more and more of His peace. The end
of this process is realization of that “perfect peace” promised to those whose
minds are “stayed” on God (Isa. 26:3).
The centrality of grace and peace to the
saints’ heritage in Christ is emphasized by their prominence in the apostolic
writings. Thirteen of Paul’s letters begin with an invocation of them (Hebrews
only being excepted). both of Peter’s have the invocation, as does John’s
second epistle, and that of Jude. Among other qualities, the “fruit of the
Spirit” is peace (Gal. 5:22), the Divine kingdom essentially consisting in
“righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 14:7). Jesus, it
will be recalled, “made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20), and
we, “being justified by faith” in that blood, now “have peace with God” through
Him (Rom. 3:25; 5:1). We read that “God hath called us to peace” (I Cor. 7:15);
thus, we are emboldened to “draw near” to Him through His Son in earnest quest
thereof.
Its Rationality in the State of the Case. The state of the case between God and us
is altogether conducive to our experience of personal peace. All that we know
of the Father, beckons and encourages us to seek Him through the Son, and to do
so is to get better acquainted with Him, and in that acquaintance to be put at
ease in our souls. This is, quite simply, the situation contemplated by the
assertion that peace is multiplied, to God’s children through their knowledge
of Him. And what a blessed situation it is, of a truth! What powerful
constraint it ought to exert upon us to be constantly “increasing in the
knowledge of God,” as we are supposed to be (Col. 1:10).
God Is for Us. “God is for us,” especially if we be
joined to His Son (Rom. 8:31). That transcendently glorious fact seems to be
lost upon the consciousness of those who are disinclined to Him. They act as if
He were some sort of a “Hatchetman,” unrelentingly bent upon their ruin. But
the God of Scripture is quite the contrary. He “so loved” the lost world that
He gave His only begotten Son for its salvation (Jn. 3:16). Accordingly, we
conclude with the Apostle, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him
up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom.
8:32). It is written, “God is not willing that any should perish,” but “will
have all men to be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth” (I Tim. 2:4;
II Pet. 3:9).
So is the Father called “the God of peace,” as
the Son is denominated “the Prince of peace” (Isa. 9:6; Phil. 4:9; Heb. 13:20).
He is also referred to as “the God of patience and consolation,” or of
“patience and comfort” (Rom.15:5). Jesus Himself bequeathed Divine peace to His
disciples on the night in which He was betrayed. “Peace I leave with you. My
peace I give unto you,” He said. “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let
it be afraid” (Jn. 14:27). Again, He declared, “These things I have spoken unto
you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation;
but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (ch. 16:33). On the same
occasion, the Master said to the Father, “This is life eternal, that they might
know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (ch. 17:3),
connecting spiritual life with Divine knowledge. So the Apostle: “To be
spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6).
Its Realization by the Individual. If we are to have “the peace of God”
rule in our hearts, as we are exhorted to do (Col. 3:15), our work thus is cut
out. That peace comes by the knowledge of Him who has called us to His own
peace. Eliphaz the Temanite, of old time, knew the secret. “Acquaint now
thyself with Him, and be at peace” (Job 22:21). Hence, we must seek the Lord “while
He may be found,” and call upon Him “while He is near” (Isa. 55:6). This is
because our realization of the heritage of peace that belongs to us in Christ
is strictly proportioned to the measure of our knowledge of the Father as He is
revealed to us in Scripture. It is not to be had independently of that
knowledge, but through it.
This circumstance obviously necessitates study
of the written word—arduous study, not a mere casual reading—as well as
illumination of the Word by the Spirit. Thus, our Lord’s commandment: “Labor not
for that meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto
everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give you; for Him hath God the
Father sealed” (Jn. 6:27). So must we “labor” to enter into the rest of faith,
or the peace of God, as it is elsewhere declared, or we shall not possess that
heavenly blessing (Heb. 4:3, 11).
“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and
peace in believing (and in growing in His grace and knowledge), that ye may
abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 15:13). Thus, shall
ye “neither be barren nor unfruitful” in the knowledge of God and of His
Anointed (II Pet. 1:8), realizing in yourself His peace, “which passeth all
understanding.”
благодать и мир вам да умножится в познании Бога и Христа Иисуса, Господа нашего.
que la grâce et la paix vous soient multipliées par la connaissance de Dieu et de Jésus notre Seigneur!
Gott gebe euch viel Gnade und Frieden durch die Erkenntnis Gottes und Jesu Christi, unsers HERRN!
