Peacemaker is yet another facet of our new identity in Christ Jesus. It is actually the title Jesus wants us to proudly carry with us everywhere we go. We are his peacemakers—people who are committed to carrying out the “ministry of reconciliation” that Paul wrote about. David Valleskey writes, “‘The ministry of reconciliation’ is the way by which God gets the message of reconciliation out into the world. God has made us missionaries.”
At the moments of our conversions, God transformed us into his imperial peacemakers. A major change—for the good—has occurred within our hearts. We are Spirit driven. And we continue to grow and become more like our Savior. We know the mission: Preach the peace of God’s love to a dying world. Others are going to be blessed because we’ve been blessed as God’s emissaries of peace. The apostle Paul laid out the whole plan in detail in 2 Corinthians, chapter 5:
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (verses 17-20)
Reconciliation comes from the Greek root word katallasso. In earlier Greek literature, this word was usually used in reference to a merchant exchanging for equivalent values. By the time Paul was using this word in his letters to New Testament congregations, its meaning had morphed into an expression that indicated a change in relationship. The change being expressed in 2 Corinthians 5:17ff. occurs in the dramatic shift from a relationship between us and God that was inherently hostile to one of peace and friendship. Jesus’ work triggered this change. For sinners, his cross changes our guilty plea to NOT GUILTY. For unbelievers (as we also once were), the hope that comes from hearing God’s promises changes dead hearts of stone to hearts alive with faith and eager to do God’s will.
This change from the old Adam to the new man in Christ gives us a whole new outlook on many things. And it is responsible for the new views we have toward conflict and peacemaking.
We came into this world with a heart at war with God himself. In Christ that has changed, so even as we are at peace with God because we are covered with Jesus’ blood, we are also now Jesus’ peacemakers—his movers and shakers. People of influence. Agents of change. Salt. Light. Yeast to change the bloodlust dynamic of a violent world with God’s gospel of peace. God works through us to make a difference, to make things happen in people’s lives. Good things! Peaceful things!
Excerpt from Heart At Peace: Biblical Strategies for Christian Conflict, 2014 Northwestern Publishing House. All rights reserved.