IT IS IMPERATIVE for us to have a clear distinction between this world that “is passing away” (1 John 2:17; cf. 1 Cor. 7:31), and the now-but-not-yet kingdom of heaven. Life in linear time is short, and abruptly ended; life in eternity outweighs the now by an incalculable order of magnitude. Jesus tells us that “I have come that you may have life” (John 10:10), and/but also that “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36) As Jesus prepares to set in motion the final actions of his earthly ministry he has great and tender concern for his disciples, and by extension, all disciples of future generations. So he encourages, with words that will only be understood later, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” (John 14:27) Unless we examine and take to heart what he is saying in context, we will not understand the depth of his meaning.
One of his disciples asks, and this might also be our own question, “Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” (John 14:22) If we define ‘the world’ in the frame of reference in which Jesus speaks, a very clear picture of two different realms emerges. One is that of the kingdom of heaven, which Jesus began to preach and teach with urgency from the quickened onset of his ministry. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matt. 4:17) It is not primarily a realm of space, time, and matter, nor is it one of territory or politics, such as in a nation’s geography or global hegemony. This kingdom is the realm where God is sovereign, and Jesus Christ is Lord and Master. Jesus tells us that “the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 20:21) By this he means specifically the third person of God’s trinitarian essence, the “Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:27) Conversely, ‘the world’ is the kingdom of Satan, “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4), who is sovereign lord and master of *“the ungodly multitude; the whole mass of men alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ.”
Our separation from the darkened world surrounding us begins with the belief and acceptance of Jesus as the giver of new life—a different Spirit with us, something/someone far different than we have ever contemplated or encountered before. This is the foundational truth of Spiritual birth. And it continues with a deeper personal affirmation of the conditions of the new life. There may be a queasy trepidation of willingness on our part when we hear Jesus say, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) If a begrudging servitude to a self-perceived onerous burden of this call is our primary response, we shall ever be “weary and burdened.” (Matt. 11:28) But Jesus does not wish or require this response. Instead, he says, “Learn from me, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt. 11:29) In John’s gospel, Jesus gives us the clearest vision of what it means to be separated from the world and consecrated to God and his kingdom. His teaching begins the peeling away of our hardened layers of self-determination. Instead, he calls us to a perception of the spiritual growth truth of “abiding” (cf. John 15:1-5) in the presence of God.
To abide in the presence of God requires a symbiotic assimilation of the living Spirit of God; God in us—we in him. The pathway is one of obedience by way of love. Jesus says, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.” (John 14:23a) He undergirds this statement with a fact from his own observably submitted and clear relationship with the God of the heavenly realm. “These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” (John 14:24) Then, in the beginning of an exceptionally clear trinitarian affirmation, he says, “My Father will love them, and we will come to you and make our home with you.” (John 14:23b) His compassion for his disciples, extended from the Father, then unfolds to disclose this third essence of God: “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 14:25-26) Paul says of this same transformation of reality, “When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession.” (Eph. 1:13-14)
The world below cannot give us these assurances, for in this world there is no peace. But clarity from all confusion and a unity of vision and purposes is central to the kingdom of heaven and its central figures of Father and Son. This kingdom and its king can and does give peace, ‘not as the world gives,’ but as a supernatural outpouring from the basic nature and character of the One, which both now and forever dwells also with and within us.
Q. Is peace the hallmark of my transformed reality?
*Strong’s 2889.
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