“The fruit of the Spirit is… peace…” (Gal. 5:22)
As soon as we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1). That means that the hostility between ourselves and God has ceased since Christ has effectively dealt with the cause of that hostility—our sins.
We also have peace of conscience knowing that the work is finished, Christ has paid the penalty of our sins, and God has forgotten them.
But then the Holy Spirit also wants us to enjoy the peace of God in our hearts. This is the serenity and tranquility that come from knowing that our times are in the hands of God and that nothing can happen to us apart from His permissive will.
So we can remain calm when we have a tire blowout on the busy freeway. We don’t have to lose our composure when heavy traffic causes us to miss the plane. Peace means remaining cool in a car crash. Or when grease ignites on the kitchen range.
This fruit of the Spirit enables a Peter to sleep soundly in jail, a Stephen to pray for his murderous assailants, a Paul to comfort others in a shipwreck.
When a plane flies into clear air turbulence, and is thrown around like a feather in the gale, when the wing tips flex thirteen feet, when most of the passengers are screaming as the plane lurches, falls, rises and dips, peace enables a believer to bow his head, commit his soul to God, and praise God for whatever may be the outcome.
Or to change the illustration, the Spirit of God can give peace to us when we sit in the doctor’s office and hear him say, “I’m sorry to tell you but it’s malignant.” He can enable us to reply, “I’m ready to go, Doctor. I’m saved by the grace of God, and for me it will be ‘absent from the body, at home with the Lord.’”
And so in the words of Bickerstith’s lovely hymn, we can have “Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin…by thronging duties pressed…with sorrows surging round…with loved ones far a way…our future all unknown” because “Jesus we know, and He is on the throne.”
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His more than over eighty-four works published in North America are characterized by a clarity and economy of words that only comes by a major time investment in the Word of God.
MacDonald graduated with an AB degree from Tufts College (now University) in 1938 and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School in 1940. During the 1940's he was on active duty in the US Navy for five years.
He was President of Emmaus Bible College, a teacher, preacher, and Plymouth Brethren theologian alongside his ministry as a writer. He was a close friend and worker with O.J. Gibson.
MacDonald last resided in California where he was involved in his writing and preaching ministry. He went to be with the Lord in 2007.