Peace is Heaven!

The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.
My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.

Isaiah 32:17-18

Ever since I can remember world leaders have been trying to “make peace” in Israel. The Palestinians and Israelis are on two sides of a conflict with no middle ground for compromise. Every peacemaking effort is based on the hope that this time it will work. It is not unlike every mathematician in the world searching for a way to make two plus two equal five! Peace between the Palestinians and Israel on the basis of a humanly crafted peace treaty is truly the impossible dream.

The prophet Isaiah, guided by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit said that the fruit of righteousness will be peace. Even on an individual level war is impossible between two men who are both living righteously before the Lord. When I am right with God and you are right with God no disagreement between us will rise to the level of war.

In another place the Bible speaks of the peace that I have (as a man living in right relationship with God through Jesus) as a peace that goes beyond my understanding. I can be at peace in a world of war. I can be at peace during times of grief and persecution. I can be at peace in sickness and pain. I can be at peace when abandoned by every friend on earth. I can be at peace with or without a job, with or without money for food and clothes, with or without every earthly comfort.

Someone has rightly said that “War is Hell!” But the opposite is also true. “Peace is Heaven!”

Peace, eternal peace comes only through righteousness. And that righteousness is not mine. The righteousness that brings eternal peace is the Righteousness of Jesus Christ! When the Righteousness of Jesus is credited to my account because of faith in Him then I am at peace.

The world will cry “Peace, peace when there is no peace,” but the Righteousness of Jesus brings peace to all who believe.

If the Palestinians and Israelis turned their hearts to Jesus today, His righteousness would bring peace and tomorrow would dawn without the conflict and without the prospect of war!