The Power of Suffering: Strengthening Your Faith in the Refiner's Fire (Macarthur Study Series)

by John F. MacArthur Jr.

The primary and basic idea of the biblical word “peace” (OT salom; NT eirene) is completeness, soundness, wholeness.… The innumerable blessings of the Christian revolve around the concept of peace. The gospel is the gospel of peace (Eph. 6:15). Christ is our peace (Eph. 2:14–15); God the Father is the God of peace (1 Thes. 5:23). The inalienable privilege of every Christian is the peace of God (Phil. 4:9) because of the legacy of peace left by Christ in his death (John 14:27; 16:33). These blessings are not benefits laid up in glory only, but are a present possession (Rom. 8:6; Col. 3:15). Thus, peace is “a conception distinctly peculiar to Christianity, the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatever sort that is” (Thayer).3