Christ All in All: Christ is our Peace

I'm reading a series of sermons by Philip Henry (Matthew Henry the Bible Commentator's father), and thought I would share some quotes as I go along. Using the book "Christ All in All" as a devotional, I'm reading just one sermon a day, but each one is full of rich doctrine!

For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.                                                                                                         —EPHESIANS 2:14

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Peace is threefold. There is peace with God, peace within ourselves, and peace with one another. And in all these, Jesus Christ is our peace. Not only a friend to it, but the thing itself.

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If Christ be our peace and have made peace, there is always care to keep the peace. If any new matter of controversy arise, as soon as the heart smites, which it will do quickly, and we are made sensible of it, there will be no rest in the spirit till the divine favor be recovered again. Guilt in the soul is like a mote in the eye—not at ease until wept out.

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It were a desirable thing that all who fear God in the land, in the neighborhood were at peace among themselves, for as for peace with wicked men, it will never be while the world stands...but how happy were it if all good people were at peace, if all their enmities were at an end! The Savior left this blessing as a legacy, pressed it, prayed for it.

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Christ is our peace within ourselves in our own bosom. We commonly call this peace of conscience. It is an inward, sedate, composed, cheerful frame of spirit at all times and in all conditions. Now the blessed Jesus is this also.

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