Magnified Peace - Pt 2

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. (Ephesians 2:14-16 ESV).

As I said yesterday, grace and peace are experienced in real life. This picture is a more panoramic view of the lodge we stayed in while in Montana. It gives you more of the perspective of the relative seclusion of this location. I suppose that’s why I enjoyed our time here as much as I did. I find it is much easier for me to hear from God when I am in the midst of the grandeur of His creation. I am reminded that our promise is for an eternity of this grandeur; however, God‘s intention is not just for the “then and there,” but “here and now.” Grace and peace are not only the objective status we enjoy before God. They are also the experiential enjoyment of that status. Our reading today makes it abundantly clear that God made an objective peace between him and us by the blood of Christ. And he did it by a historical act of divine grace that was firm and unchangeable (cf. Ephesians 2:8). But Peter clarifies it even more when he says that grace and peace are “multiplied” to us. They are not static. They are not only a status. Peter is offering to us, and praying for us, that we experience an increase of grace and peace. He does not mean that God is variable, as if he were a gracious God some days and not others. Nor does he mean that the objective status of peace between us and God comes and goes. If we stand in the unshakeable grace of God (cf. Romans 5:2), and if we are reconciled to God in unchangeable peace (cf. Romans 5:1), then what is multiplied to us is an increased and deepened experience of grace and peace. This reality is not simply status. It is the overflow of status in serenity, strength, and sweetness. Let me illustrate. It is absolutely true that I can experience the wonder of God at the sunrise in Aledo, TX from my deck. However, it is increased and deepened when I able to see all of it in each of the many wonders of God. The incredible gift of God is that he will never exhaust his ability to reveal himself with the passing days. He “multiplies” his grace and peace to us. Our part in this is to look for it. It is all around us. Let it wash around your soul and refresh you. You do not need to be anywhere in particular; He is with us everywhere in specific.