The word “peace” can have many meanings. First, peace can mean a calm state, usually referring to a situation or place where there is no noise, disturbance, war, or conflict; a state of safety without threat. Second, peace is often used to describe a person’s emotional state that is not characterized by agitation. Therefore, the word “peace” often correlates with the words “happiness” and “well-being.”
Then, what is meant by “peacemaking” or “reconciliation”? Reconciliation is usually used to refer to efforts to end disputes, wars, rivalry aimed at bringing each other down, conflicts, clashes of interest, or debates and arguments. In reconciliation, there is always a step of compromise to resolve a problem between two or more parties in conflict or not in harmony—parties who have previously harmed or hurt one another. In reconciliation, the aim is to eliminate, or at least reduce, demands against a particular party, so that no one feels pressured or injured.
So, how about reconciliation in the context of the life of believers, especially in the relationship between God and humanity? The relationship between God and humanity has been damaged because humans failed to do what was right, thus ruining their own condition. We know that the initial act of human rebellion occurred when humans disobeyed God’s instruction, namely the prohibition against eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.
Human disobedience to God is rebellion against God, which places humans as enemies of God. This condition grieves the heart of God because humans are no longer in the state God originally designed them for. Just as parents who fail to raise their children well—either because of their own limitations or because the child refuses to be taught—do not only grieve the parents’ hearts, but also wound their hearts. Likewise, a leader who hopes that a trusted subordinate will carry out a task well but instead fails to do so or is unable to do so is deeply grieved.
This damaged human condition, as Paul describes it in Romans 3:23, is “falling short of the glory of God.” Humanity is in a state that does not correspond to God’s original design. Humans have become beings who no longer meet God’s standards. Because of this condition—caused by human disobedience from the beginning, pioneered by Adam—humans not only position themselves as enemies of God, but also exist in a state of inability to continually fellowship with God. There would be no opportunity and no capacity to return to fellowship unless God loved humanity.
But praise be to God, the good God wills to bring about reconciliation with humanity. God Himself initiates this. That is why Paul says that humans should not boast or take pride: salvation is not the result of works but of faith. This means that God takes the initiative to restore peace with humans who are unable to fellowship with Him.
Because humans are God’s children, when their condition does not conform to God’s will, it grieves His heart. As long as a person’s condition is not as God desires, so long is God’s heart grieved. And as long as a person’s life grieves the heart of God, true and proper peace with God is impossible.
In fact, many Christians are still not in the condition God desires. This means they are not truly at peace with God, yet they feel that they already are. This is the deception in the thinking and lives of many people. Many Christians feel they are already at peace with God simply because they have been Christians since childhood or were born into a Christian family. Being a Christian since childhood is assumed to mean being automatically at peace with God. This understanding is mistaken.