Romans Chapter 3 - Universal CorruptionMan's Corrupt Deeds - Part 3

Not knowing the way of peace...

Play in your default mp3 player

Romans 3:15-17 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.”

Humanity does know peace, after a fashion. After war there comes a “peace”. We speak of the world being “at peace” – even though there are scores of local wars going on all the time. But this “peace” is not what the passage is speaking of. It is not “peace" that people do not know, because God is gracious to grant glimpses of peace from time to time – respites between periods of ruin and devastation. It is the way of peace that they do not know.

Mankind does not know peace as a way of life that is actively and continually lived, but only as a thing to be experienced from time to time. It is external to them. Something to be gained or sought when “needed.” But it is the Prince of Peace they need in their hearts, for He is the Way. To know Christ and to abide in Him is to live the way of peace. The world knows nothing of this because they are in rebellion against the very source of peace Himself.

Christ gives peace in a way the world cannot…

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. {John 14:27}

The world’s peace is fleeting and temporary, but God’s peace is eternal and steadfast.