'The nerve!'
'You're telling us how to live!?'
The 'problem' is, most Christians don't believe that we are in the Resurrection. There should ( ideally ) be an immediate objection made to such a statement, such as, 'Jesus said 'I AM the Resurrection and the Life'; we are in Jesus, therefore, we ARE in the Resurrection, but don't hold your breath, or you may NEED a physical 'resurrection'!
While any Christian 'worth his salt' will readily acknowledge that he ( or she ) is 'a new creation', this phrase is usually spiritualized to say that it is only in the spiritual sense that we have been made new, much less, the entire creation being made new. 'The old things have passed away', sure, but that's just spiritually speaking. Until, Jesus comes back and burns up this first creation ( which God pronounced 'good', by the way! ). The creation will continue as it has since the beginning of time ( II Peter 3:4 ). Since 'the prince of the power of the air' currently rules this world, you might hear, all we can do is hunker down, and 'hold the fort' till Jesus comes back!
'Just look at the state of the nation', you might hear; if Jesus was actually reigning and ruling right now, there would be no more death or dying, tears or crying; pornography, reputedly the number one killer of marriages, would not exist, murder and rape would not even enter the minds of men and women, 'the wolf would lie down with the lamb', and all would be as it was in the beginning of creation, a perfect utopia!
As the world is now, and with evil existent, how can we truly be at peace, right? Sure, because of Jesus, we can have peace in our heart, but how can we 'be at peace' knowing that, at any given moment, some pervert might decide to settle his lustful eyes on our blue-eyed blond-haired teenage daughter? How can we 'be at peace' knowing that we, or a loved one could drop dead, at any given time, seemingly out of the blue? How can we truly rest, knowing that all sorts of evil daily seems to threaten our very existence?!
Well, the obvious answer, which any Christian could give you, is that 'the peace of God, which passes all understanding', rules in our hearts! A convenient answer and divinely true, but sadly, in the lives of many Christians, it seems to stop there! How many times have you heard people say, upon the 'passing' of an acquaintance, a friend, or a loved one, that 'he is finally at peace'! It does seem sometimes that the only way that we can actually be at peace is to leave this world, but the Christian should have a big problem with that! The problem is that we are promised peace, and even in the midst of trials and tribulations we can rest in our Peace, knowing that He accomplished His Purpose in entering our world; death is defeated, all things have been made made new, and we can rest in peace, now!
As always, we have a choice before us; we can 'hunker down' and wait for 'the peace that passes all understanding', or we can live in that Peace now, knowing that He fulfilled, and through His people, continually fulfills that Purpose! Having defeated 'him who had the power of death', and having received the nations for His inheritance and the ends of the earth for His possession ( Psalm 2 ), Jesus now rules this world through the in-dwelling ( John 14:23 ) of His people!
Let us live in that Peace, knowing that this IS 'Our Father's World', and that He does rule over the affairs of men, and through His chosen people, is spreading that peace throughout His inheritance!
Peace, my beloved brethren!
Charles Haddon Shank
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