By Shafer Parker

Way back last November our FBB team agreed that 2020 should be seen as the year of hope, and to emphasize this theme we decided to tackle a new aspect of hope at the beginning of each month. It must have been a God thing. At the time there was no hint of what was coming, and if someone had told us then about a pandemic, and the resulting decision to quarantine half the world to “flatten the curve,” we would have struggled to believe it. But here we are, well into our fifth month of social distancing, wearing masks, facing an economy that rests on a knife’s edge, and the authorities still debating whether to even open our schools in the fall. Moreover, there is a perverse symmetry that balances widespread freedoms for certain kinds of people with extreme limits placed on others. Protestors are encouraged to carry on, but churches face severe restrictions on worship and ministry that cannot help but feel arbitrary and even discriminatory.

In such a world it is easy to lose hope. It has always been easy for individuals to lose hope, but with talk of continued restraints being imposed for the foreseeable future the great danger is that large segments of society will lose hope, and if that happens lots of bad things will inevitably follow. It is more important than ever that Christians remember that we are declared by our Lord to be the “salt of the earth,” and the “light of the world.” If we are to be effective ambassadors for Christ (disciples), it is imperative that we, of all people, not lose our hope. So, join me today as we meditate on the hope that is ours in Christ, and the aspect of hope that we at FBB want to emphasize this month is, we have hope because we have peace with God.

God help us to understand the full ramifications of being at peace with Him. The Biblical word, of course, means so much more than absence of conflict. Shalom (Hebrew for peace) and Eirene (the Greek equivalent) both communicate ideas of completeness, soundness, and wholeness—wellbeing in every sense, but especially spiritual wellbeing. Thus, when Paul states in Romans 5:1, “since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” he clearly meant for us to understand that God intends for all the blessings listed above to be integral to our relationship with Him. May God grant us the ability to understand just how ready God is to bless us in His relationship with us, how ready He is to make us whole, complete, and filled to overflowing with spiritual vitality and health, a joy and peace that has nothing to do with the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

Peace with God is what kept Paul and Silas filled with hope, even when beaten and placed in stocks in a Philippian prison (Acts 16:24-34). What else but the indescribable peace of God could lead them to sing hymns and offer prayers until God shook the jail with an earthquake and caused everyone’s chains to come loose? (btw, don’t miss what happened there. Paul’s and Silas’ relationship with God led to their deliverance, but in their deliverance every prisoner was set free. People who possess a shalom relationship with God will extend that shalom to those around them.) Now if some of you decide to read the text closely you will discover that at no point does Acts 16 state specifically that Paul and Silas were sustained by the peace of God. And I admit, it is an inference on my part to conclude that these two disciples drew their strength from their shalom relationship with Him. But what can be said with certainty is that afterwards, when Paul wrote a letter to the Christians in Philippi, he included a direct reference to the power of peace to maintain our joy in the face of trials.

Phil. 4:6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Is it an exaggeration to say that in everyday living the peace of God is more important than the grace of God? Please do not misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that grace isn’t important. Without it we could not be saved. But if grace and faith are the means to salvation, isn’t peace with God one of the first discernible blessings of salvation? And since we don’t need to go through life being saved over and over, let us learn to rejoice in the fact that we were saved in order to have peace with God, a sustaining grace that causes us to live in joy no matter what the circumstances. It is that joy and peace in the tough times that will lead unbelievers to ask us about our hope (I Pet. 3:15).

If the Winchester Model 1873 lever-action repeating rifle was “The Gun That Won the West,” the possession of God’s shalom was the peace that won the Roman empire to Christianity.  Although shalom-based heroism was the hallmark of Christianity, in the second century perhaps no one else so embodied the fearlessness of a faith sustained by the peace of God than did Justin Martyr, not incidentally, the first great Christian apologist. A Roman citizen, Justin was born around the year 100 and raised in the Holy Land (he self-identified as a Samaritan), and as he grew up a hunger grew in him to know God. He tried Stoicism until he discovered that his teacher did not know God. Then he studied Aristotelian philosophy until he discovered that his new teacher was more interested in his tuition fees than the subject at hand. Experiments with Pythagoreanism and Platonism were equally frustrating.

At about age 30 Justin saw something that changed his life forever. He watched Christians die in the arena. “I saw that they were afraid neither of death nor of anything else ordinarily looked upon as terrible,” he wrote. Having already been influenced by Christian friends, he believed and became a Christian himself. Soon after, he began to defend the Christian faith against those in government who accused the early Christians of gross immoralities and “atheism” (solely because they refused to worship the Emperor). He also engaged in defending the essence of the faith in public debates, most famously in his Dialogue with Trypho, one of his three writings that survive to this day. When Trypho (a Hellenized Jew) suggests that they discuss philosophy, Justin counters with a question. 

Why philosophy? He asks. Had not Plato himself observed that every philosophical proof must be stronger than the thing which is proved through it, because the latter is inevitably dependent on the former? How, therefore, could human reason lead to a true perception of God, if God, the Creator of the human mind must be superior to it? “How could you get as much out of philosophy as you could from your own [Jewish] lawgivers and prophets?” he demanded. For while through reason we could not find God, through the prophets and through Christ God has found us and redeemed us.*

Justin was so powerful a defender of the faith that the Roman Christians sent to ask that he come to the capital (Rome) and speak out against the false accusations being made against them. He came to Rome and fearlessly defended the Christian faith. Not only did he prove that Christians were not guilty of orgiastic licentiousness and even cannibalism, as accused, he took issue with the obvious unfairness with which they were treated by officialdom. Why, he wanted to know, did the government refuse to crack down on the Gnostics or the Marcionites, groups that were genuinely guilty of many of the crimes attributed to Christians. 

“You neither molest nor execute them,” he said, “at least not for their beliefs. . . . Those who follow those teachings are not checked by you; on the contrary, you bestow rewards and honours on them.” 

One is tempted to pray, “Oh God, send us another Justin to speak to similar unfair attacks in the twenty-first century.”

But to get back to our theme of peace, Justin defended the Christians as people of peace, converted to live the life of the Prince of Peace. “We who delighted in war, in the slaughter of one another, and in every other kind of iniquity have in every part of the world converted our weapons of war into implements of peace,” he wrote, “our swords into plowshares, our spears into farmers’ tools—and we cultivate piety, justice, brotherly charity, faith, and hope”

Two events brought Justin’s life (and career) to a halt. A new emperor, Marcus Aurelius came to power, and shortly thereafter a cataclysmic plague (a pandemic?) hit Rome. Marcus ordered all Romans to participate in sacrifices that would hopefully appease the gods and end the plague, but the Christians refused to go along. The public was outraged, and people began to view the Christians as the cause of the plague. Vengeance against these “enemies of the nation’s wellbeing” broke out, and martyrdoms became widespread. In Rome, this hatred was aimed directly at Christianity’s most prominent defender, Justin. 

On trial before Junius Rusticus, chief magistrate of Rome, Justin was asked, “What are the doctrines that you practice?” “I have tried to become acquainted with all doctrines,” he replied, “but I have committed myself to the true doctrines of the Christians, even though they may not please those who hold false beliefs.” Rusticus tried to give Justin an opportunity to back away from certain death. “Are these the doctrines that you prefer?” he asked. “Yes,” Justin said. With all Christians he believed in the God “whom alone we hold to be craftsman of the whole world,” and in Jesus Christ his Son, also God, who “came down to mankind as a herald of salvation.” Again, Rusticus pressed him. “You admit, then, that you are a Christian?” 

“Yes, I am,” were the words that sealed Justin’s doom. He, and other Christians with him, were sent back to prison to reconsider their confessions. No one could say Rome was not fair, even if it was determined to rid itself of these enemies of the state. Brought back before Rusticus they were given one last chance. After threatening them with scourging and beheading, Rusticus asked Justin, “Do you suppose that you will really ascend into Heaven?” His reply? “I do not merely suppose it,” he said. “I know it certainly.” Finally, sentence was passed. “I decree,” Rusticus said, “that those who have defied the imperial edicts and have refused to sacrifice to the gods are to be beheaded with the sword.” Shortly afterward this sentence was carried out, though no description of the moment survives.

We twenty-first-century Christians should take heed. The faith that once conquered the world was an unbending, uncompromising faith. It was expressed by strict obedience to God above without regard to any possible negative reactions from the authorities or the crowds. The Christians were denounced as haters, haters of the gods and of society in general. It was not true, of course, but the Christians’ first thought was obedience, leaving it to God to justify their lives. And He did. Two centuries later Rome’s last pagan emperor, Julian the Apostate, cried out “You have won, Galilean” as he lay dying. He knew Christianity would prevail despite his efforts to return Rome to the faith of its founding fathers. How do you resist a people whose peace and hope cannot be shattered, even by threats of death? Can we see similar persecutions on the horizon in Canada? Then God help us to know His peace, the peace of Christ, and to live it before a watching world.

*This quote, along with much of the information about Justin Martyr, is found in Volume II of The Christians: Their First Two Thousand Years, published by the Christian History Project. (http://www.christianhistoryproject.org/) 

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