He gives them some hope there that as they are going through life without Him, they are in the flesh, they will remember His teaching and they will be guided by it. Verse 27 is where I am really heading here. Right on the heels of this, He says,
Now, let us consider what Jesus said back in John 14:27. He says He leaves His peace with us or with His disciples. Now, the more cynical scholars say that this is really just a form of farewell, you know, the Jewish shalom as they leave your presence. But it is far deeper than that. I do not know how they can say that and still keep a straight face. What Jesus says, "peace I leave with you" it is far deeper than just goodbye. Its intent is steadier and more long term.
I mean, we say goodbye to each other and half a second later, we forget about it. But the peace that Jesus is talking about leaving us is something that remains with us. It approaches a constant state or condition, like the state of grace. That is a constant state as long as we do not sin and do not rebel. God applies grace to us through the blood of Jesus Christ covering our sins, and so we still have His favor. We still have His pardon. We still have the gifts that He gives us. And so you could say He reapplies it to us automatically upon repentance.
And the same happens with peace. It is not a temporary, "see you, be well," like Jesus was going out the door to His crucifixion. It is so much more than that. Under the covenant, within the relationship with God, we have peace. And like grace or with grace, it is the reigning condition or should be the reigning condition, making righteous living possible. We need both. We need the grace and we need the peace.
But let us go back to John 14:27 because there is more to this obviously. Notice here in this particular verse that Jesus does not leave it as a mere, peace I leave with you. I mean, if it were there only, we could say that He was saying "Shalom, guys." But He clarifies that; He does the Hebrew thing and gives a parallel. Like the Hebrew poets did, often giving parallel verses that one explains the other. He says, "My peace I give to you." A very important clarification.
His peace is divine. It is transcendent. It is totally unlike human peace. It is as we saw in Philippians there, impossible really to understand. It surpasses our ability to understand it because it is from God. It is such a high-level peace that we cannot understand it quite fully. But one thing we can tell is that it is a secure peace. How can I say that? How can I say that it is a secure peace? It is definitely more secure than the peace that is in the ceasefire between the Trump forces and Iran.
Why can I say that? Because the peace of Jesus Christ is backed by the power of a holy and sovereign God, not some upstart king or president or emperor or military leader. It is a peace made possible by the dominion, the sovereign dominion of the Kingdom of God. That is what rules in the church—the Kingdom of God. We have signed on to the Kingdom of God. We have been translated to the Kingdom of the Son of His love. God rules in the church with all His sovereign power. And the peace that He gives us is peace and it will remain His peace. He will control His peace.
Knowing that the sovereign God rules us in the church, and the whole church, we can have a still peaceful spirit even when the worst things come upon us. We are in the Almighty God's hands. So why should we fear what men can do, as the psalmist said. You can find that in Psalm 118:6 and something similar in Psalm 27:1. We do not need to have anxieties about what is going to happen, although we do. I am not saying that we are Superman or anything. But if we really sat down and thought about it, we are secure in God's peace, if we would just believe it and then act on it.
But we allow our fears to mount up and cause us to do silly things because we did not trust in God's peace. Not only that, Jesus gives us—this is … . . .
