205 - Pursuing Peace [C]

Hebrews Lesson 205
July 29, 2010

^KJV 2 Timothy 2:15 Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

We’re in Hebrews 12 and it has been a couple of weeks since we were here. Last week I gave you a report on the trip I made to Washington DC and the Capitol, the Spiritual Heritage Tour of the Capitol. This week we’re back in Hebrew focusing on just this one verse, going back over it again. 

^NKJ Hebrews 12:14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:

I want to go back and take some time on that first mandate “to pursue peace with all people.” Now this fits within an overall structure of the book that we've seen. We’ve come to the last section in Hebrews, beginning in Hebrews 11:1 and extending down to the end of the book in 11:25. It started off with a period of instruction focusing on these great examples of perseverance and belief in chapter 11. That's actually the focal point there: their perseverance and belief in the promise of God. 

Then it's followed by a challenge in 12:1-29 which includes a warning starting in verse 25. We are in this practical challenge dealing with the focus on Christ, focus on His endurance in the midst of testing that despite how much opposition (how much resentment, how much hostility) He faced in the condemnation to go to the cross that nevertheless He ran His race with endurance. 

Based on that example we are enjoined in verse 1:

^NKJ Hebrews 12:1 …and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

Starting in verse 2 we see that Christ sets the example of the endurance of the race. The race is characterized by the need to be disciplined using the whole imagery of discipline not just in the sense of chastisement but also becoming a disciplined, stripping off the things in our life that distract us from our primary objective and goal in terms of spiritual growth and spiritual maturity so that we can be trained and become a mature and effective believer.

Starting in verse 12 there's a challenge especially to the original readers because they have grown weary. They want to give up. They have faced opposition. They’ve faced resentment. They have faced hostility from unbelievers and so they're being challenged not to give up on Christianity, not to fade out. The writer uses this metaphor of strengthening the hands (the drooping hands) and the feeble knees, that same athletic metaphor going back to the race that even though you’ve become weary and you just don't feel like you can continue and you want to drop out that you need to be strengthened so that you can go forward. 

When I did this the last time I got confused with a couple of different verbs so I want to straighten this out so you can get it right in your notes. In verse 12 we have an aorist active imperative of anorthoo, which has as its root orthoo meaning to straighten things out. It's a good dental term, the same word from which we get orthodontist, to straighten out your teeth.

So you are to strengthen or straighten up the hands. It has the idea of restoring straightness or erectness to something, rebuilding it, something of that nature, regaining the strength that was once there.

Then in verse 13 we have the root noun used.

^NKJ Hebrews 12:13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

That uses the noun orthos in conjunction with the word poieo to make straight paths, to straighten something out. That is your primary introductory command here: to strengthen (straighten out) the hands and the knees and then to go forward. The straight paths are the paths related to truth and following those straight paths. 

In order to do that it involves personal relationships. They are under opposition. Whenever you're involved in certain circumstance in your Christian life where that's the issue and you are being perhaps ridiculed or persecuted, for whatever reason related to Christianity. That is the primary application here, but it’s also related to other areas in life. There are a lot of ways in which we as individuals get involved in personal conflicts with other people, sometimes with other believers. This is some of the hardest things to have to deal with, especially if it involves close family members. But it can involve anything from close family members to co-workers to neighbors to any sort of situation where you are involved. It can be someone in a business deal that perhaps you have been cheated or defrauded. So whenever things of that nature occur, whenever we think that we have been mistreated or we can’t get things done the way we think they should, somebody is preventing it, then that always is an opportunity for tremendous conflict to occur. 

We have to understand within the context of Scripture that the believer is to pursue peace. This is a word that is always used in the context in opposition to conflict. Now sometimes it’s used in contrast to an external conflict. It’s used that way a lot in the Old Testament in terms of physical conflict and peace versus war or peace among people who are in opposition to one another or antagonistic to one another, fighting against one another.

In the New Testament the word is very rarely used in that kind of a context. Usually it's used in contrast to conflict in the soul – a person who is worried, a person who is always characterized by anxiety or fear. That person is to have peace, which indicates a lack of soul conflict, a lack of anxiety or worry or fear. 

But in this context in Hebrews 12:14 it is not talking about inner peace. It is talking about having relationships that are characterized by peace and tranquility rather than hostility, antagonism and conflict. So believers are mandated to pursue peace with all people. 

The initial command in terms of strengthening the hands and the feeble knees was an aorist imperative. Last time I pointed out that that emphasizes a priority.  Many times I find the style in writers in Greek where they'll give a primary command in terms of an aorist tense, and it is followed up with present imperatives, which emphasize ongoing action. Here we have the present imperative ongoing action that we are to always pursue peace with all people. The idea of pursuit here – dioko is the verb and indicates moving rapidly and moving decisively towards an objective. We are to pursue this objective. We are to strive for this objective. This is not really an option in the believer’s life.

Now the word “people” as I pointed out last time isn't in the original. What you have this just the phrase “pursue peace with all.” 

You have the same phrase in 1 Thessalonians 5:15.

^NKJ 1 Thessalonians 5:15 See that no one renders evil for evil…

That's again the same kind of context. Instead of heck being motivated by revenge (motivated by the desire to make things right, to get justice) which is a self serving motivation - don't repay evil for evil but always seek… the same word that we have in Hebrews 12:14.

But pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.

So there with the contrast one another refers to other Christians and “for all” would broaden the object to beyond the body of Christ – beyond other Christians. So we are to pursue peace with all people and also pursuing holiness. That is sanctification.

^NKJ Hebrews 12:14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:

Now I dealt mostly last time with that second phrase which relates to spiritual maturity and rewards which I’ll come back as we get into the next couple of verses. But here I just want to come back and focus again on the main idea of pursuing peace with all people. This is part of spiritual growth. 

The word hagiasmos for holiness relates to holiness, consecration or sanctification.  Here it's not talking about phase 1 sanctification or becoming a believer or a Christian, which occurs with everybody. The instant you trust Christ as Savior you are identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. That is referred to as the baptism by the Holy Spirit. At that instant you become positionally set apart to God or positionally sanctified. That position (our position in Christ) can never be lost. However in a practical sense in terms of our everyday experience, we often sin. We often live no differently than the unbelievers do. We’re characterized by many the same traits because we continue to possess a sin nature.

So we need to define the meaning of sanctification there. We went through this chart, which is one familiar to most of you, that we have 3 stages of salvation or 3 stages of sanctification. 

1. Justification occurs at a moment of time when we trust Christ as Savior. 
2. Phase two is the ongoing experiential growth of the believer called the experiential sanctification or spiritual growth or the spiritual life. 
3. Then phase 3 has to do with our glorification when we’re absent from the body and face-to-face with the Lord. 

We have these 3 terms used: positional sanctification for phase 1, progressive sanctification for phase 2, and then ultimate sanctification for phase 3. We are freed from the penalty of sin at the point of faith in Christ. We are freed from the power of sin in spiritual growth. We learned to trust in the Scriptures (apply the Scriptures) rather than respond on the basis of our sin nature, but we still have that problem. It is not until we’re absent from the body that we’re freed from the presence (the total presence) of sin. 

When we look at this verse that “we are to pursue peace with all people,” we have to understand this in a broader context. This is hard for a lot of people because this fits within the broader doctrine of what it means to have unconditional love for one another, and it brings in the whole doctrine on forgiving one another as God for Christ's sake has forgiven us. The only way we can pursue peace with some people who have been the source of conflict (the cause of conflict) is in terms of understanding how to apply principles related to forgiveness. This is never easy, and in some cases it's extremely difficult. 

So I want to spend a little more time breaking this down so that we can understand the emphasis of the Scripture on the importance of peace. This is not something that is a secondary doctrine. But in order to understand what the Scriptures teach about this we have to set it within a context of the Scriptures. Where do we get our pattern for anything in life? We get it from going to the Scriptures and we get it from looking first at God and seeing how He sets the pattern and the example for us. That then lays the groundwork for how we then are to apply this particular doctrine in our own lives, which usually makes it a lot more difficult for us to do.

I want to start with peace in relationship to God. Why is this so important? The first point is that God is identified as the God of Peace numerous times in the Scriptures. This is one of the titles that we find in the Bible for God. He is the God of Peace. 

In the Old Testament in Judges 6:24 when Gideon had destroyed the altar to Baal and when God had appeared to him to commissioned him to deliver the Israelites from the Midianites, he built and altar to the Lord and called it “The Lord is Peace” (YHWH Shalom).

^NKJ Judges 6:24 So Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it The-LORD-Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

This is a title for the God. He is the God of Peace. 

In several of Paul’s epistles he concludes with a benediction and utilizing the title the “God of Peace.” 

For example In Romans 15:33:

^NKJ Romans 15:33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

Then we have 2 Corinthians 13:11.  Paul concludes the letter.

^NKJ 2 Corinthians 13:11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace;

See there's that command again to live in peace.

and the God of love and peace will be with you.

Again we see that God is the God of peace, and this is connected to His love. To have peace with all men is going to bring into focus the whole doctrine related to unconditional love and what that means; and of course what lies behind it is grace orientation, understanding grace. 

^NKJ Philippians 4:9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

Hebrews 13:20, the writer of Hebrews closes out this epistle. He says:

^NKJ Hebrews 13:20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

^NKJ 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely;

God is identified as a God of Peace. In Scripture we learn that God is a holy God. God is love, and God is the God of peace. This indicates that He is the source of peace and that peace can only come in the right relationship to Him. Now when we look at this whole concept of peace in relationship to God, we realize that the Scriptures attribute to God peace and that He is the only one who blesses us with a real peace. It can’t come from any other source. We don't get it from the details of life. We don’t get it from our circumstances. We don't get it from the people around us. We get it only because we are in right relationship to God. A number of passages in Scripture also emphasize that He is the source of peace in our lives. He is the one who blesses us with peace. 

^NKJ Psalm 29:11 The LORD will give strength to His people; The LORD will bless His people with peace.

He is the source of peace. 

In Leviticus 26:6 which is the passage focusing on the blessing that God would give to Israel in the land if they were obedient, He says:

^NKJ Leviticus 26:6 I will give peace in the land,

Now that's defined in context in relation to the absence of warfare, the absence of conflict.

^NKJ Leviticus 26:6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid;

So it’s also in context of the soul. There's peace in the land; and there's no source of fear.  

I will rid the land of evil beasts, and the sword will not go through your land.

Another couple of verses in the Psalms.

^NKJ Psalm 119:165 Great peace have those who love Your law,

…because there are those which love the Law of the Lord which is the Word of God, the Torah. There are numerous different phrases used in Psalm 119 as synonyms for the Word of God: commandments, the testimony of the Word, the testimony of God, the law, a number of other synonyms. 

The word for law there is torah. Torah doesn't always translate directly as the Law of Moses. The word of torah has as its root meaning instruction.  So what’s probably a better way of understanding this is “great peace, those who love the instruction of God.” That's why the Torah is given. The law of God has given to instruct people on how to live in a way that honors and glorifies God so that they will have His blessing in their lives.

“So a great peace have those who love your instruction” – we can paraphrase it that way. 

And nothing causes them to stumble.

…because they have made to the Word the fortification of their soul.

^NKJ Proverbs 16:7 When a man's ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies

That is, God makes even His enemies…

to be at peace with him.

It is the absence of conflict. It’s not necessarily military conflict. It can have conflict in any other form. It could be family conflict, conflict with competitors, conflict with others in the family, those who are jealous, those who are trying to take advantage of us. God will make even His enemies to be at peace with Him.

Then in the New Testament Galatians 6:16 states:

^NKJ Galatians 6:16 And as many as walk according to this rule,

That is, what has been explained in the previous chapter – walking according to the Holy Spirit. 

peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

God is the one who bestows peace, and it is the result of a believer who was walking in obedience to God.

So the first principle that we looked at is that God is identified as the God of peace numerous times in the Scripture. Then the second point that the God of peace is the one who blesses those who follow Him with peace. He is the source of peace. 

Not only is He the source of peace but the third point is that God commands His people to seek and pursue peace with all. This is a mandate (a priority) for the believer in his life. This is found in both the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. In the Old Testament we have Psalm 34:14.

^NKJ Psalm 34:14 Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.

That second strophe there emphasizes the idea of seeking peace that we find in our passage in Hebrews 12:14, as well is in 1 Thessalonians 5. But it also emphasizes that we are to pursue it. We are to seek it and we are to pursue it, which indicates making it a priority.

Third, another Scripture for God commanding people to seek and pursue peace with all.

^NKJ Romans 14:19 Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.

We are to make this a priority.

^NKJ 1 Corinthians 7:15 …But Godhas called us to peace.

Then we have 2 Corinthians 13:11.

^NKJ 2 Corinthians 13:11 …Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

Again we’re commanded to live in peace.

^NKJ Colossians 3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.

 Peace begins in the soul. Peace begins as a mental attitude, and then it will work itself out in terms of dealing with conflicts and relationships.

^NKJ 1 Thessalonians 5:13 … Be at peace among yourselves.

 The third point is that this is not an option. God commands His people to seek and to pursue peace with all. 

Now we come to the fourth point. The fourth point is that God describes His New Covenant (that is a New Covenant that He promised with the House of Israel and the House of Judah) which comes into effect at the beginning of the Messianic Kingdom. That New Covenant is identified as a covenant of peace. 

Isaiah 54:10 says:

^NKJ Isaiah 54:10 For the mountains shall depart And the hills be removed, But My kindness shall not depart from you, Nor shall My covenant of peace be removed," … has mercy on you.

This has its foundation, as we'll see, at the cross where man is reconciled to God. That takes place at the cross when Christ paid the penalty for sins and that laid the foundation for the New Covenant. That was the sacrifice. 

When Jesus observed the Lord’s Table which we observe once a month, He took the cup and said, “This is the new covenant of My blood which is given as a sacrifice for you.” 

So that represents this New Covenant as a covenant of peace. As we’ll see that is peace between God and man.

Ezekiel 35:25 also relates to the New Covenant.

^NKJ Ezekiel 34:25 " I will make a covenant of peace with them, and cause wild beasts to cease from the land; and they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.

Then have also Ezekiel 37:26:

^NKJ Ezekiel 37:26 "Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore.

That, as we’ve seen in our study of Revelation on Tuesday night, sets the framework for the New Jerusalem, which is where God will establish His presence when He comes to dwell on the earth forever. 

So the New Covenant is defined as a covenant of peace. That's because of the foundation at the cross. 

The 5^th thing we need to note by way of introduction to dealing with the importance of this doctrine is that in the Old Testament as well as in the new, peace is a form of greeting and form of greeting that God uses. We have the word shalom in the Hebrew and eirene in the Greek. Most of the letters that Paul writes he begins “grace and peace to you.” In the Old Testament we also have other passages that emphasize the word shalom as a greeting.

In Judges 6:23 we have the Lord speaking to Gideon.

^NKJ Judges 6:23 Then the LORD said to him, "Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die."

Here peace is contrasted with fear as a mental attitude, but it is a greeting. 

^NKJ 1 Samuel 16:5 And he said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice." …

This is Samuel when he came to consecrate Jesse and his sons. So peace relates to the form of greeting.

Jesus in Luke 24:36 - when Jesus appeared to the disciples after the resurrection says:

^NKJ Luke 24:36 Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, "Peace to you."

We have this as a greeting form. All of what I'm saying here is to emphasize that living with one another in peace is not an option. This is a mandate from Scripture. That doesn't mean it's easy. We'll have to discuss the whole issue of what you do when somebody does want to live in peace with you. Well, you do what you can do and the decisions they make – well, that's their problem; but we need to make sure we are doing and living the way we should be living. 

Now the next point is where we start seeing the significance of peace (God's peace) in terms of how it is foundational in terms of what we are to do. The starting point of course is going to be the gospel. Peace with God is the foundational message of the gospel. It’s related to of course justification, related to regeneration; but it is a foundational concept in the Gospel. 

Luke 2:14 is one of those verses that has been at the focal point of some translation controversy. So I want to deal with that a little bit here. I'll not go in to it in excessive detail. This is when the angels appear to the shepherds in the field outside of Bethlehem. When the angel choir begins to sing, what they sing is “glory to God in the highest and on Earth peace goodwill toward men.” If you look in your New American Standard or New International Version or some other translations, you will see that it is sometimes translated “and on earth peace to men of goodwill.” In that translation “of goodwill” characterizes or limits the men to whom peace applies. It applies to those who are men of goodwill, and that is taken to mean those who are right with God but not for others. The difference has to do with the text of the Greek text. In 3 or 4 of the oldest manuscripts what you have is an accusative form of the Greek noun eudokia. The genitive singular then that is translated – genitive is a possessive case so eudokios would indicate “of goodwill.” Some of these older manuscripts indicate that it’s a genitive. It adds the “s.” But the majority of manuscripts do not have that “s” on the end; they just have eudokia. If it doesn't have the “s” on the end, then it's in the nominative case in which case it would mean the “goodwill toward men.” So goodwill is placed as the subject in the phrase as opposed to a genitive descriptor of the kind of men that receive peace. That is the distinction.

It always sounds nice and simple to say, “Well, the oldest manuscripts must be correct.” But that's simplistic and it’s not necessarily true because you can have a copy that we have, let’s say, a 7^th or 8^th century manuscript that is a faithful copy of an older manuscript that's dated like let’s say 150 or so AD and the 150 AD document is correct. That would mean that your 7^th century or 8^th century document would also be correct. It faithfully copied the 2^nd century document. But your 3^rd century document maybe corrupted in some ways and may not reflect the good background. So if you lose your 2^nd century document and all you have is a faithful copy from the 7^th century, that 7^th century document is going to be better and more faithful than your 3^rd century document. 

Let me give you an example of that from the Old Testament. In the Old Testament one of the ways in which the Old Testament documents can be dated is by looking at the vowel points. When Hebrew was originally written, there were no vowel points. When the Old Testament was written, you just wrote consonants. People learned how to read that. 

It’s pretty simple to do. If I were to take something like the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence and just write out all the consonants, you'd be surprised at how easily you could read that document because you're familiar with English; and you've been reading English for number of years and you can pick it out without any problem. There may be a couple places where you stumble a little but mostly you can you can read it. 

But over the years in order to preserve the correct pronunciation of words, some of the Hebrew scribes began to develop ways to indicate the vowels in some words. What they did initially was they took some consonants - the u (the u and w are the same letter) and also the y. It could stand for an i. So they took a couple of consonants like that and they made them do double duty and stand as vowels. Then later on some two or three hundred years later, they got the idea of using different points and different marks that they would place under the consonants to indicate the vowels. 

As time goes on the more and more recent you get the more current you get going down the timeline, the more vowels you find in a Hebrew document. Well, the vowels in the Pentateuch (that is the books Moses, The Torah - Genesis through Deuteronomy) the books of the Pentateuch that we have in the Masoretic Text contain fewer vowels than the vowels of the Pentateuch in the Dead Sea Scrolls. What that tells us is that the manuscript tradition that lies behind the Masoretic Text which is dated 9^th century AD actually goes back to a much older original than the Dead Sea Scrolls which are 1,000 years older than the Masoretic Text. 

So just because something is older doesn't mean it's necessarily better. But that was the idea that came out of British scholars and their views of textual criticism most commonly known as the Westcott-Hort theory back in the late 19^th century. Since then especially in the middle part of the 20^th century there have been a number of scholars who have come up with problems with that view. 

There are those who in contrast to the Westcott-Hort view hold to a view called the Majority Text. The majority text basically says if it's in the majority of documents then that’s more than likely the correct reading. In the Westcott-Hort view, they relied very heavily on 4 documents dated in the 3^rd and 4^th century. Basically to make it simple, if you have a reading this is attested by 3 of those 4; then that's it for them. That’s the reading you go with. That is the view that underlies the New American Standard, the New International Version, the English Standard Version and a bunch of modern translations; whereas the Majority Text view really reflects what they call a Byzantine text form because it's found primarily and mostly in the area of Turkey and Greece. That is reflected mostly in the documents that underlie the King James and New King James - but not precisely. 

That Greek text that underlies the King James was what was called the Textus Receptus, which was based on just 9 or 10 Greek texts that were available in the early 1500’s. But, none of them were any older than the 9th century; and the Textus Receptus isn’t identical to the Majority Text view. There are at least 1800 differences between the two approaches. So the Majority Text view I think it has more behind it and is weightier. Of course the Textus Receptus has problems, but the Majority Text view I think is much closer than the critical text. 

That would mean that this is saying “goodwill toward men”, and I think that fits because what God is sending in the Messiah (in Jesus) is that He is going to be the source of peace and reconciling man to God. So He is sending peace (the gift of the Messiah) and peace. And it is God's expression of goodwill to change that relationship between God and man which occurred at the cross. We’ll see how that works itself out in a couple of passages we look at as we develop this. Peace with God is the foundational message of the gospel and reconciliation is what occurs at the cross. We’ll see that when we get into Colossians 1 and Colossians 2.  

The 7^th point is that the only basis for understanding how to achieve this (that is how to have peace with people who are in conflict with us) is to examine the most extreme conflict in history. Whatever conflicts we have in our own lives, whatever conflicts you have with your friends or with your siblings or with your co-workers or with your neighbor or with someone in your family, is nothing compared to the conflict that erupted when Adam sinned against God.  When Adam sinned against God, we have the beginning of the greatest conflict in terms of human history that ever occurred. At that instant you have all the elements that make any good novel or a good soap opera or any good story. We have the introduction of all of those great themes that drive every great story:  themes of betrayal, rejection and loss, hostility toward God down through the ages. All of that comes out of Adam's sin in Genesis 3. Yet it is God who is the one who is rejected, God who is the one who is betrayed, God is the one who has been disrespected, God is the one who has been completely vilified and cursed by man. Nevertheless it is God who takes the initiative to solve the problem in the conflict and He does everything necessary to bring resolution to that conflict. The two basic and key passages in Scripture for understanding this are in Romans 5 and Colossians 1 as well as Colossians 2. 

We won't get much beyond just orienting to this point tonight because of the significance of these two passages. The first passage is in Romans 5: 1-2. So let's turn and our Bibles to Romans 5. I just have the first 2 verses up on the slide, but I want to refer some other verses within the immediate context. 

If we look at Romans 4 just right before the discussion of reconciliation, we have Paul’s tremendous discussion on the whole doctrine of justification by faith and he grounds that justification by faith in the Old Testament. How does a man have a right relationship with God if man is a sinner? If man does not have the same righteousness as God, if man is corrupt, how can that individual be made right with God so that that individual is just? Can he do something to overcome the deficits in his behavior and in his character? Can he do anything to overcome the deficits of being a descendent of Adam and having a sin nature? The answer that the Scripture gives is that no, there is nothing that man can do to overcome those deficits. That's what Isaiah is talking about in Isaiah 64:6.

^NKJ Isaiah 64:6 …And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; …

The best that we can do – ritual observance whether it’s ancient Jewish ritual observance in the Old Testament or whether it is any form of ritual observance in various religions today – doesn't do enough. Nothing does enough. Good works, doing all the good deeds that you can do doesn't do enough to overcome deficit of sin. The only thing that they can overcome that deficit is if God credits something to us to our account that is greater than the deficit of sin. So Paul uses for his example Abraham from the Old Testament.

Starting in Romans 4:1 Paul says:

^NKJ Romans 4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?

That is in his humanity.

^NKJ Romans 4:2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

That is, if Abraham becomes just before God on the basis of his own behavior, on the basis of his own obedience to God, on the basis of his sacrifices to God, on the basis of any form of ritual observance. What Paul says is, that if that Abraham was justified by works then he would have something to boast about but not before God. He would have something to boast about because there's nothing wrong with doing good works. There's nothing wrong with being involved in the in the community. There's nothing wrong with being involved in certain ways of working within society to improve things, but that isn't going to cut any ice with God. That's not going to overcome the deficit of sin. It may give you something to be proud of, something to boast about, but it doesn't give us any credit before God.

Then in verse 3 Paul says:

^NKJ Romans 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."

This is a quote from Genesis 15:6 that it was Abraham’s faith or trust in God and the promise of God that was accounted or imputed to him as righteousness.  It's not works; it's faith. It's trusting God, and then God because of that faith imputes or credits to our account the righteousness that overcomes the deficit.  That righteousness comes from Him. He imputes to us His prefect righteousness or the righteousness of Christ.

^NKJ Romans 4:4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace

See, works is opposed to grace. 

but as debt.

^NKJ Romans 4:5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,

This is the doctrine of justification. We are justified by faith.

Now turn to Romans 5:1. Having gone through this extended discussion in Romans 4, Paul is saying that we're justified by faith. Having been justified by faith, we have as a real experiential possession peace with God. 

Now as I pointed out some time back when we studied up the whole doctrine of forgiveness, which is related to this, we saw that there are four different kinds of forgiveness. 

1. The first kind of forgiveness is a forgiveness that relates to be objective wiping out or canceling the debt of sin. It doesn't affect us personally. It has to do with the transaction occurred on the cross. So the transaction that occurs on the cross has to do with that initial act of reconciliation.
2. Now the second kind of forgiveness I pointed out was positional forgiveness that we have when we trust Christ as Savior. Then that forgiveness that occurred (the wiping out of the debt at the cross) is applied to us positionally in terms of our position in Christ. That is comparable to what happens when we trust Christ. At that point we have peace. That is that peace that comes positionally by virtue of our relationship with Christ.

^NKJ Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith,

…because that participle there should be understood as a participle of and translated because “we have been justified by faith.”

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

^NKJ Romans 5:2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand,

Present tense  

and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

We have peace because we've been justified. There's a logical relationship; it's not a chronological relationship but a logical one. Justification means that we have peace with God, and then we’re standing in His grace, and that leads to joy in the hope of the Lord. It goes on through the next few verses in terms of application, in terms of our spiritual growth; but the foundation is in terms of the doctrine of peace with God, or reconciliation.

Now let's turn over to Colossians 1. I think we’ll just have enough time to tie these things together tonight. Now we’ll be entering into a study of Colossians in the next few weeks as we wrap up some of the current studies. This sort of gives you a preview of coming attractions.

^NKJ Colossians 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in Him

That is, in Christ.

all the fullness should dwell,

^NKJ Colossians 1:20 and by Him

That is, by Christ.

to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

Okay, now when was that peace transaction accomplished? It’s accomplished at the cross; not when you believed. But it was accomplished by what Jesus Christ did on the cross. There is a reconciliation that occurs at the cross when all things are reconciled to God. 

Does that mean everything is great, hunky dory and there's no more sin? No! But it relates to the fact that the sin problem is dealt with finally and completely at the cross, as we’ll see when we get into the verses in chapter 2. But that doesn't change the experiential reality of sin in the universe. But it solves the justice problem with God so that it solves that which forms the barrier between God and man. 

He reconciles all things to Himself. That barrier that is between God and his creation, because the creation has been tainted by sin, is removed by the work of Christ on the cross. 

^NKJ Colossians 1:20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

Then in the next two verses this is applied specifically to Colossian believers. 

^NKJ Colossians 1:21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled ²² in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight --

That is what happens in a conflict. You become alienated from someone else. They become an enemy. They are hostile to us. There is anger, resentment, bitterness. All of these things began to boil up, and so we have the same kinds of descriptions here for the relationship between fallen humanity and God. We are alienated and enemies of God. A state of hostility occurs, and there is a maximum conflict now between man and God.

^NKJ Colossians 1:21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled ²² in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight --

So the act of reconciliation has to do with blotting out the certificate of debt, as we'll see in just a minute. 

Now just prior to this discussion in Colossians 1 back in verse 14 Paul said:

^NKJ Colossians 1:14 in whom

That is, in Christ.

we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

That's the blood of Christ means refers to His death on the cross (His spiritual death) that paid for sins which results in the forgiveness of sins. Now the word that is used for the forgiveness of sin here is the word aphiemi. There are two different words that are used for sin here, and this is really important. I didn’t put the Greek up on the board but it’s still important. The forgiveness of sin here is aphiemi, whichmeans to completely release something. That's what happens in conflict resolution. Whatever causes the conflict has to be let go. It has to be released. You have to get past it. I'm not saying it's easy; I’m saying that is the end result. There is the forgiveness, the letting go of sin. It's not a problem any more. 

Now you say, “How did that happen?”

That is then developed when we get into the second chapter. We've gone through this some before. What I have up here's a little bit of a clarified or expanded translation to understand what the writer’s getting at here for Colossians 2:13-14. 

What you see at the end verse 13 is:

^NKJ Colossians 2:13 …Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,

That's a focal point here. But the word for forgiveness here isn’t aphiemi, which is what we had in 1:14. The word here is charizomai, and charizomai has as its root meaning grace. So the key to understanding forgiveness is that it is an undeserved action. It is gracious. It’s not because the person's done something to deserve it. It is an undeserved action. What we'll see just to give you a preview of coming attractions:

^NKJ Hebrews 12:14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:

Then verse 15 will say:

^NKJ Hebrews 12:15 looking carefully

That is, examining yourself.

lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;

Now some people have taken that to mean losing salvation, but what it means is that we are to pursue peace with everyone but be careful that you don't forget that you're supposed to deal with then in grace. Don't come short of the grace principle in how you’re dealing with the others in a in conflict resolution. Grace is a dominant principle. 

That has been emphasized here by the word by the Greek word charizomai, which in many cases is a synonym to aphiemi. It is also used in some passages as aphiemi for the forgiveness of debt, which means the complete cancellation and obliteration of the debt.

So in Colossians 2:13-14 what we read is:

^NKJ Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your trespasses

That's a participle that indicates previous action - when you were dead in your trespasses, and the uncircumcision of your flesh,

In other words when you were to rebel against God, when you were spiritually dead, when you are hostile to Him, when you didn’t care about God, you didn’t care about the truth; you just wanted to live your life the way you want to live it. When you were dead in your trespasses…

He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,

When you were dead He made us alive together with Him is focusing on the point of salvation. That’s when we’re regenerated when we trust as Christ as Savior. 

How could He regenerate you? Because He forgave you – past tense. The forgiveness of all trespasses occurred before the regeneration. Well, when did He forgive you of all your trespasses? He did it - and then you have an instrumental participle at the beginning of the next verse.

^NKJ Colossians 2:14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross

Well, when did He wipe the slate clean? When did He wipe out all these charges against us? When we trusted Christ? No! That's not what it says. It says He did this, He wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us and He has taken out of the way having nailed it to the cross. The list of deficits that we had are nailed to the cross historically. That was 2,000 years ago. That is when the sins were dealt with objectively in a legal manner at the cross so that sin isn't the issue anymore. It’s not the issue for anybody. That is why you don't start off talking to somebody about why they need to quit doing this and quit doing that, and clean up their life and everything else because sin is not the issue. They need to understand they’re a sinner under a death penalty but you don't belabor the point by making them sweat because they’ve committed sins. They’re still going to commit sins after they’re saved. That’s not the issue. The issue is Christ. Their sins were wiped out at the cross so that sin isn’t the issue. Now because the sin was dealt with objectively at the cross then God can in turn on the basis of that forgive or wipe out the trespasses wipe out the acts against Him, the acts of hostility.  So there has to be a legal basis before forgiveness takes place.

I think that's important time to keep in mind when we start talking about conflict resolution. Now we’ll stop here and we’ll come back to this next time as we began to develop where we go on from this on the basis of understanding how God resolves the greatest conflict that’s ever occurred in human history because it's that resolution that becomes the pattern for understanding how we are to resolve conflicts in our own lives.