Scripture Reflections

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.  (John 20:19-21)
 
There is a truth about God’s word that recurs in Scripture: God’s word accomplishes what it declares. For God, to speak is to do.
 
This is not a minor point—you cannot get three verses into the Bible before you run into this truth. Over and over, the Bible implicitly and explicitly makes it clear that God’s speech is not like ours. His creative statements and promises always come true. When he speaks, reality changes. This fact undergirds prophecy—what value, after all, is God’s speech, if it does not accomplish what he declares? Yet the testimony, over and over, is, “It does! What God speaks is accomplished simply because God has spoken it!”
 
The two greatest testimonies of this truth are creation itself, where God speaks the world into existence, and the incarnation, where the Son of God, come in the flesh amongst us, is declared to be God’s Word to us. In the incarnation, we see that God’s ultimate speech to us is actually his own presence—his dynamic, powerful, and compassionate presence in our midst. His speech accomplishes what it says because, in the end, Jesus is his speech to us.
 
With that in mind, we need to reconsider Jesus’ own words to his disciples after the resurrection. He stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” This was no pious sentiment, but instead the word of God, which always accomplishes what it says, spoken by the Word of God, who is God’s final speech to us. In other words, if there ever were a trustworthy statement, this is it!
 
Most of us cannot imagine true peace being present in all parts of our lives—we may have tasted it here or there, but not overall. Yet Jesus says, “Peace be with you,” and God’s word does what it declares. These are not just nice words, but instead God’s powerful word, spoken to those who trust Jesus.
 
It will take us a lifetime to learn to receive the peace Jesus speaks into existence in us. There are impediments to receiving it (we are our greatest impediment!), and we need to learn to open our hands to it. But his offer is real; the word declared is effective. Peace is given to us.
 
Steven+