The Great Battleنمونه

God offers peace to his enemies

Yesterday, we read about Jesus’ final victory over people who oppose Him. This vision is terrifying and makes clear that God’s wrath should be taken seriously. But, the Bible stresses repeatedly that God does not want people to perish that way. He wants them to repent and to be reconciled with Him. He wants them to surrender and to stop fighting against His righteous rule. God shows His tremendous love for us humans in that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us … while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Romans 5:8,10).

If a human king offers his enemies peace, some conditions usually need to be met for this to happen. One side has to pay compensation or are forced into detrimental deals. Not so with God. He offers us eternal life in his presence! As Jesus says in John 10:10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Surrendering to God does not make you a loser. It makes you part of the winning team. It restores the situation of the Garden of Eden, before sin entered creation, where God and man were at peace with each other and had a relationship of trust and love.

Have you accepted God’s offer of peace?