I. Introduction
Peace [1] is the fruit of Jehovah God’s mercy, and mercy is the fruit of His grace, and grace is the fruit of His favor. Peace, therefore, intimately depends on God’s favor. Peace-> (stems from His) Mercy->(stems from His) Grace-> (stems from His) Favor. Peace is entirely of God because it is entirely a function of His favor. Favor?! How so? God’s favor is a gift, from Him.
This study is interested in the threefold cord that wraps, that gift-wraps, the incomprehensible peace of Jehovah God (Fig. 1). The idea for the study came together after hearing a sermon on the Peace of God.
II. I Will Show Mercy on Whom I Will Show Mercy
Mercy for what? For the wages of sin (Romans 6:23). There is much in life that begs for mercy, but nothing quite begs for it like the prospect of death—we have in mind spiritual death, the quintessence of death. Physical death is inevitable (Genesis 3:19), but there are mercies from God for that sometimes, for a time, and the times (for example Isaiah 38:5), but spiritual death, more profound here, need not be inevitable, for there is mercy from God for that not sometimes, and not for the times, but always, and for all the times…up to a point in time. When God says, “…I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy…” (Exodus 33:19, KJV), He means He sets said point in time for informed, beggarly mortals to call upon Him for Mercy; to call upon Him for eternal life. And beyond that point in time, there is no more mercy. The upshot is this: today, right now, is the time, for Mercy, for Salvation (eternal life in Jehovah God’s presence). Now there is peace, going forward, in time, having not stumbled over a set time. Thoroughgoing, uninterrupted, peace, this Mercy, up high, way up, in the sacred zone forever. Peace (“A Letter of Invitation”, ”The Sacred Zone”).
III. I Will Be Gracious to Whom I will Be Gracious
Jehovah God is merciful because He is gracious (Nehemiah 9:17, Psalms 57:1, 84:11, 111:4, 119:132, Luke 4:22, John 1:16-17, 2Corinthians 4:15, 9:8-11, Ephesians 1:6, 2:4-5, and many more graces besides, too numerable to list). Our God is merciful to whom He will be merciful because He is gracious to whom He will be gracious: these two blessings necessarily follow in kind (Exodus 33:19, KJV). The mercy of deity issues from the grace of deity. And the grace of God is manifestly, is tangibly, in His self-proclaimed Name (“O, that Name!” for a feeble look at that staggering Name; a work in progress ad infinitum here). It is Jehovah’s goodness, this grace of His, and it altogether qualifies and quantifies His Name; and it is necessarily His Namesakes’ Peace (Romans 5:1, “A Letter of Invitation”).
IV. I Will Bestow Favor to Whom I Hear Calling upon Me
Callers upon Jehovah God respond to His Call (“Psalms Three Commentary”), His Call to come to God through Jesus Christ, He, sent of God, for just such a time (John 6:44, 12:32, 14:6, “He Who Sent Me”). It is the definitive transfer of (unmerited) Favor from Jehovah God to said caller. And with that favor comes His grace, and His mercy, thus tethered to God by this threefold cord that wraps, that gift-wraps, His Peace, the Peace of God. All so good, for a long, long time. In contrast, it is the definitive forfeiture of God’s favor when said Call finds willful nonresponse to that Call in Jesus Christ, and with that favor-forfeiture comes no grace, no mercy, nary a tether to God, no Peace of God, for altogether missing is the threefold cord that wraps, that gift-wraps, His peace. All so bad, so sad, for a long, long time.
V. Concluding Comments
There are many nonbiblical notions of peace, and they have a common denominator—brevity. This bespeaks of constraint. Such is not real peace. And so, by way of the negative, we begin to get at the notion of real peace. Real peace has precisely this distinct quality: “it” is uninterrupted. But, uninterrupted what? What is uninterrupted here? “It” is transcendent. This bespeaks of no constraint. “It,” is the Peace of God in Jesus Christ. That is what we are laboring to describe here. The Peace of God must be experienced to be appreciated. But of course, it cannot be experienced outside of Jesus Christ, for the Peace of God is precisely His Peace. The Peace of God is in the face of Jesus Christ (John 14:27, 16:33, 2Corinthians 4:6). It is experienced by way of the favor we have been talking about, God’s favor that anchors the threefold cord of His peace—let us develop this as we summarize the sections above and reconsider this threefold cord.
At the outset we offered that Peace is the fruit of Jehovah God’s mercy, and mercy is the fruit of His grace, and grace is the fruit of His favor—the threefold cord of Jehovah’s Peace: Peace-> (stems from God’s) Mercy->(stems from God’s) Grace ->(stems from God’s) Favor (Fig. 1). Accordingly, we said that Peace is entirely of God because it is entirely a function of His favor, which is a gift, from Him (clearly, it is unmerited, hence, a gift).
We thought about the mercy part of the cord, and it was obvious that, from the human standpoint, nothing begs for mercy more than the prospect of death, especially spiritual death. We think that Jehovah God spoke to this quite specifically when He said: “…I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy…” (Exodus 33:19, KJV), and we believe that He means that He sets a point in time for informed, beggarly mortals to call upon Him for Mercy; to call upon Him for eternal life. And beyond that point in time there is no more mercy forthcoming, for when God shuts the door, it stays shut if He so wills it. And so, we said that today, right now, is the time, for Mercy, for Salvation (eternal life in Jehovah God’s presence). Quite simply put, right now is the time to embrace Jehovah’s mercy by calling upon Him through the mediator Jesus Christ (John 14:6, Acts 4:12, 1Timothy 2:5), repenting of one’s sins, and accepting Jesus Christ as one’s personal Savior in this regard (“A Letter of Invitation” for greater detail). So, the mercy part of the threefold cord manifests practically by way of a real, tangible, Savior, who was Sent by Jehovah God, to manifestly extend said mercy as a means to enter into the Peace of Jehovah God. Why was this necessary? And what are the implications for Peace with or without this mercy? Peace finds its Seat, in God (this is both axiomatic, and stated in Scripture—for example see “O, that Name!”, peace entries). Jehovah God is the Seat of Peace. Sin separates one from God, and thus Peace, His Peace. This separation is spiritual death, and there is no peace in spiritual death, precisely because of the separation from God—biblically speaking, spiritual death does not mean a “happy sort of forever sleep” (Luke 16:19ff—Jesus, very God and Savior, who certainly knows what is going on in the realm of the departed, spoke these informative, insightful words). Said Mercy restores fellowship with God—by His design; that is, as Sovereign, He establishes all norms here. Sin-separation from holy God was imposed by Him, and the means for restoration unto fellowship with Him was provided by Him, by an act of Mercy on His part, through a Savior as said.
A cord is a connected thing, in and of itself; and when tied down, it folds back on itself through its interconnections. The threefold cord of Jehovah’s Peace is connected in and of itself. The mercy part of the cord we just revisited is connected to the grace part of the cord. We discussed God’s grace in this context. Jehovah God’s mercy stems from His grace we said. We begin to understand what motivates His mercy. Rich in mercy, rich in grace, is Jehovah. The former follows from the latter. We said that it is His Goodness, this Grace: Rich, Lavish; altogether for Him a Name, even self-proclaimed in this way (Exodus 33:19, KJV). It is for Him a Name—we mean, it is who He is. We see His Name betrayed, on the Cross. For there, hangs Grace. There hangs Mercy. In another sense, there hangs the Mercy Seat giving way to the Seat of Peace. God’s Goodness on display, even His Name, hangs there, on the Cross.
And again, we are connected in this context yet once more. Grace, just revisited, is pleased to place Favor on the Mercy Seat; on the Mercy Seat sits Favor. It is another connection in the threefold cord of Jehovah’s Peace. It follows that, Favor is found on the Mercy Seat, which gives way to the Seat of Peace, even Jehovah God, where is found blessed, transcendent, Peace. the Peace of Jehovah God: lasting, long-lived, lovely… O the Peace of Jehovah God.
Praised be your Name great Jehovah God. Amen.