The Prince of Peace
The Prince of Peace
We want to look at this name under four (4) heads:
1) What does "prince" mean?
2) What does "peace" mean?
3) Is it peace among men or peace within us or peace with God?
4) How did Jesus establish this peace?
1) What does "prince" mean?
Prince is the Hebrew word "sar," Strong's H8269. It means: a head person, captain/chief (that had rule), general, governor, keeper, lord, master, prince, ruler, steward.
It is used for the keeper of a prison, and the for Egyptian task masters who were over the Jews.
It de-notes authority, and therefore control over something; it is positional: I have authority in this realm because of my position.
As the redeemer of God's people, Jesus is the one who controls peace.
2) What does "peace" mean?
Peace is the Hebrew word "shalom," Strong's H7965. It means: safe, that is, (figuratively) well, happy, friendly; also (abstractly) welfare, that is, health, prosperity, peace, rest, safe, salute, welfare, well, wholeness.
"Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favor my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity (shalom) of his servant." Psa 35:27
I am not one given to exalt either ancient or current Jewish culture. They had their place in God's plan, and there might be a future for them as a nation, but generally, that is the extent of my thoughts, BUT the more I think about "Shalom," the more I see it as a huge concept, an over arching concept in God's economy. Peace and well-being and prosperity, are certainly blessings from God, and tie in with satisfaction and contentment; this is "shalom."
So with regard to peace/shalom, this verse tells us that Jesus is the custodian and controller of our peace; it is in his hand. And the New Testament fleshes this truth out by telling us it comes from him.
#1: Peace with God comes by the Lord Jesus Christ.
The angels said: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Luk 2:14
That was peace from God toward men.
"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God" Rom 8:7 We are at war with God!
We are the active enemies of God, under the sway of God's Enemy, the Devil; before we are saved, we are his children. "the children of the disobedient one" Eph 2:2 ; like Cain "children of the devil" 1Jn 3:12).
"BUT GOD" Eph 2:1 ... offers peace in the gospel!
"we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" Rom 5:1
That peace from God was secured by his death on the cross, where he pacified the wrath of God toward us because of our sins.
"And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:" Col 1:20-22
He makes peace through his body and blood on the cross, reconciling us to God; we who had been alienated and enemies, in active rebellion by our wicked works, now can have peace with God, by faith in Jesus Christ.
He does this because he is "The Prince of Peace."
#2: Peace with God produces peace within us as individuals.
All of the inner unrest that we have as people, the lack of peace, is due to the our not having peace with God. We know it, it looms large in our thinking, and produces inner turmoil and unrest and lack of peace. We want God to love us, but we run away from him, "looking for love in all the wrong places." As Augustine said, "we have a God shaped hole in us that only he can fill."
"There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked." Isa 48:22 and Isa 57:21
But when we are reconciled to God, we have peace with him, he is our Father, all is well, and from that peace, peace wells up within us.
Do you long for the demons within to go away, so you can have peace within? Submit to God in the gospel, and he will drive them away, and give you peace!
#3: Peace within leads to peace with other people.
We stop fighting with ourselves, within ourselves, and so we stop fighting with others.
"From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?" Jas 4:1-5
Think about it, how can we have peace with others, when we are not at peace within? BUT having peace with God, we have peace within, and that inner peace flows out resulting in peace with others.
The lusting (strong desires for anything, dissatisfaction with anything and everything, discontent) produces fighting in all directions, within and without, BUT peace with God, produces peace within, that flows outward toward others.
Do you want to have peace with those around you? Who doesn't!
Look to Jesus, The Prince of Peace, who made peace for us with God, who quits our hearts within, and produces peace flowing out from us.
From Henry Scudder's book "The Christian's Daily Walk" page 202-203
https://archive.org/details/christiansdailyw00scud/page/2/mode/2up
That you may be induced with all diligence and earnestness to seek after this blessed peace, and may better perceive that this peace of God, for worth and use, passes all understanding, take these reasons in particular. First, That must needs be an excellent peace which God will please to take into his holy title, calling himself the God of peace, Heb. xiii. 20, calling Christ the Prince of peace, Isa. ix. 6. Secondly, That peace must needs be of infinite value, passing all understanding, for which Christ gave himself; paying the price of his own most precious blood for it, 1 Peter i. 18, 19. Thirdly, This peace cannot but pass all understanding, because the cause from whence it comes, namely, Christ's love, Eph. iii. 18, 19, and the effect which it works, namely, joy in the Holy Ghost, 1 Peter i. 8, do, as the apostles affirm, pass knowledge, and are unspeakable. Fourthly, This peace was that first congratulation, wherewith the holy angels saluted the church, at Christ's birth, giving her joy in her new-born husband and Savior, Luke ii. 10, 11, 14. And it was that special legacy which Christ Jesus did bequeath to his church, leaving that as the best token of his love to it, a little before his death : saying. My peace I leave with you, John xiv. 27. Fifthly, This peace is one of the principal parts of the kingdom of God, which consists, as the apostle says, of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, Rom. xiv. 17. Sixthly, By as much as the evils and mischiefs that come to a man by having God to be his enemy, which draws upon him God's wrath, justice, power, and all God's creatures to be against him : and by as much as the grievous and intolerable anguish of the wounded spirit passes understanding ; by so much the peace of God, which frees him from all these, must of necessity, pass all understanding, Prov. xviii. 14. Now that it is a fearful thing to have God to be an enemy, it is said. He is a consuming fire, Heb. xii. 29, and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, Heb. x. 21. It appears likewise by Christ's compassion and grief for Jerusalem, who neglected the time of making and accepting of peace with God ; for he wept over it, and said, Luke xix. 42, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace ! but now they are hid from thine eyes." But what it is to have God to be an enemy, is seen most fully by Christ's trouble and grief in his passion and agony in the garden, and in the extremity of his conflict with God's wrath on the cross, when God showed himself to be an enemy, and did for man's sin pour on him the fierceness of his wrath. It made him, though he was God, being man, to sweat, for very anguish, as it were drops of blood, Luke xxii. 44, and to cry. If it be possible, let this cup pass. Matt. xxvi. 39, and. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me 1 Matt, xxvii. 46. Moreover, if you do observe the complaints of such distressed souls that have had terror of conscience, if you have not had experience thereof in yourself, how that they were at their wits' end, pricked at heart, as it were with the point of a spear, or sting of a serpent. Acts ii. 37, pained like men whose bones are broken and out of joint, Psa. li. 8, making them to roar, and to consume their spirits for very heaviness, Psa. xxxii. 4, then you will say that peace of conscience does pass all understanding. Seventhly, When God and a man's own conscience are for him, and God's grace in some good measure has subdued sin and Satan in him, this brings with it assurance that all other things, whose peace are worth having, are also at peace with him, Hosea ii. 18—20. For if God be for us, who can be against us? Rom. viii. 31, 32. This peace must of necessity bring with it all things which will make us happy, even all things which pertain to life, godliness, and glory, 2 Peter i. 3. Lastly, Consider this, that as the worth and sense of peace with God is unutterable and inconceivable, so the time of it is indeterminable, it is everlasting, and has no end, Isa. ix. 7. Compare this with the former, and it cannot be denied, but that the peace of God does every way pass understanding.
8 June 2025