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Matthew 5:9
Jesus Christ made peace by reconciling us to God through His sacrifice. He is our peace because He did all this for us. We had very little input into making this happen. In addition, all this reconciliation occurs within Him. There is no peace outside of Christ, outside of the Body, outside of the New Man. He is the One actively making and maintaining peace within the church. And each member's loyalty and devotion to Him—their unity with Him—causes or should cause unity and peace between the others who also are united to Him. Since we are all united to Christ, we should all be united with each other because we are one; we are in one Body. And there is peace within the Body because Christ has made it. He is the focus and means of every called member's relationship with God, and with each other. He is what unites us. So peace with God produces peace with those who are also at peace with God. That is how it should work. Because of the great blessing of being part of Christ, being in His Body, being in union with Him, we must put on His character to maintain harmony and peace with Him and with each other. This means that we must follow and grow in His trait of being a peacemaker. As the beatitude says, when we express this facet of divine character, when we make peace, it identifies us as His children. Christ is a peacemaker. God is a peacemaker. When we make peace, we show ourselves to be on the way to being fully part of that Family because the divine Family is a peacemaking Family.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The Peacemakers
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