Since WW2, the war that was supposed to end all wars, man has been trying to keep peace on earth. We have failed miserably. War is everywhere. If it isn’t between nation and nation, its between people and governments, between economy and economy, between families and individuals, between ideologies and isms, between body and mind, soul and spirit. The world is at war, has always been at war and will continue to be at war with itself until it comes to accept the one singular truth that unites us all.
That one singular truth is that in the sight of God we are all sinners and rebels against Him. Beneath skin colour, nationalities, cultures, traditions, languages; beneath social status, economic standing, skills, abilities and disabilities, we all have one thing in common, and it is that we are all sinners, and we are all in need of a Saviour.
We get the salvation part. We look for salvation in our relationships. We look for it in our careers. We look for it in our economic or social standing, in the promotions, the fame, the wealth or the financial security we try to accumulate. We look for it in our youth, in our children, in their futures. We look for it in healthcare, in social security nets, in economic, environmental, trade and foreign policies. We look for it in our governments and in our leaders … we are all looking for someone to save us from something we do not understand and can never seem to get a grip on. We just don’t get the Saviour part. We still believe we can save ourselves.
At some point, we are going to have to confront the foundational truth of our lives – we are our own worst enemies. The environment wouldn’t be in the state it is in if we weren’t doing to it what we do. Our economies wouldn’t be in the state they are in if it weren’t for our lusts, appetites, fears and greed. Our relationships on every level wouldn’t be in the mess they are in if we weren’t trying to force them to meet needs they were never intended to meet. We need to be saved from ourselves. We need a Saviour and we need a Saviour that can not only meet the need, but also resolve the problems we created through the wrongful ways we tried to get them met.
Jesus Christ is the only one that can do both. God created all men for communion with Him. Only He can meet that need He created in us. It is what separates us from the beasts of the field. God also knew we would all become sinners, living separated from Him, from His love, from His protection, from His goodness, from His guidance, mercy and grace. The difference between Him and all other so-called “saviours” is that He loved us enough to do something about it that actually resolved the problem.
He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins so He could forgive us and bring us back into His fold, back under His wings, back into His providential care. That His Son Jesus Christ is the only Saviour that was ever resurrected from the dead attests to the reality that God accepted His sacrifice and forgave us our sins. Our faith in His death and His resurrection as the atonement for our sins enables God to give the gift of His Holy Spirit to indwell us, to teach us, to lead us, to guide us and effectually deliver us from ourselves and the sin of self that so easily besets us; the sin that puts us in such conflict with God, with others and within ourselves.
God provided the only effectual Saviour for the condition that permeates all men. Jesus Christ effected the only means of salvation for that condition through shedding His blood for us and dying on the cross, charged as a blaspheming rebel against God, yet living and dying a holy and sinless Son of the eternal and Almighty God. And the Holy Spirit, the gift that forever keeps on giving to us, teaches us and makes the salvation that the one and only Saviour Jesus Christ died to provide for us, effectual.
The petty gods and goddesses, the idols and goals of this world will never bring you peace. They will not bring you joy, they will not bring anything but headaches and problems. And while you may be seemingly fortunate enough to never know need or be able to successfully avoid having to confront acknowledging you even have any, you will never find anyone or anything that will ever satisfy that emptiness, that ‘hole’, that missing ‘half’ that only God Himself can occupy and satisfy.
You can try. God knows we can and we will and we do. We try so hard we will kill ourselves and one another in the effort to prove Him wrong, but what do we gain in the end? What have we gained by it, but a planet quickly becoming so toxic it will soon be unfit for human occupation, by reason of environment or the toxicity of our relationships with one another.
If you want peace on earth, then you will first need to make your own peace with God. Acknowledge your rightful condition before Him as a sinner and rebel against Him and believe that Jesus Christ is the only one who can save you. Ask Him to do it. Ask Him to save you. Ask Him to give you His Holy Spirit to teach you, to guide you, to work out that salvation in you. Then let Him work in you to manifest that peace and love of God that only He can accomplish. Let Him touch the world with His love through you. Then and only then will we ever see “peace on earth.”