"Spirit of Peace" Luke 2:14
by Dr. Rich Menninger
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:14
The most controversial doctrine of Christianity is the Trinity, the belief that God eternally exists as three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—and each person is God and there is one God. And yet it has been the tendency of many Christians to downplay or even ignore the work of the third person of the Trinity. This is unfortunate because we miss so much. Wayne Grudem defines the work of the Holy Spirit as manifesting “the active presence of God in the world, and especially in the church.”
The Spirit participated in creation (Genesis 1:2), empowered Gideon to lead Israel to victory in battle (Judges 6:34), and inspired David to speak His word (2 Samuel 23:2). The prophet Isaiah anticipated the Spirit coming upon the Messiah when He came to earth (Isaiah 11:1-2; 61:1). The Spirit’s involvement with the Christmas story begins with Jesus’ conception and continues through the early days of Jesus’ life.
Our verse for today (a brief hymn called the “Gloria in Excelsis Deo”) shows how the Spirit worked when the angel announced the Gospel for the first time in the world (Luke 2:10-11). The Spirit’s activity became clear when the shepherds went immediately to Bethlehem as the first human evangelists (2:16-20). Those who believed in their good news were in line to someday find the peace the angelic host proclaimed (2:14). We were enemies of God before we accepted Christ as our Savior. As enemies, we were hostile to His purpose and plan for us (Romans 5:10) and objects of His wrath (Ephesians 2:3). In my last devotion, we saw that the Holy Spirit was instrumental in ensuring that Jesus of Nazareth would be fully God and fully human. Why? So that we could be justified by faith and find peace with God (Romans 5:1). The Holy Spirit’s work brought the Incarnation to reality, opened the way for Christ’s atonement to reconcile us to God (2 Corinthians 5:18-19), and resurrected Christ (Romans 8:11) so that the ones who please God can have life everlasting. No wonder Jesus is called the Prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6)!
But this was not of our doing—any of it! Only those who receive God’s offer of salvation will have peace with God. But there is more! Those who have been reconciled to God can now experience the peace of God that passes all understanding, for God is the God of peace (Philippians 4:7-9). This peace—part of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)—was announced as available when the angelic host proclaimed what the apostle Paul called the Gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15). The peace of God is the assurance that all will be well, regardless of the circumstance. Oh how the world longs for and misses what is the most secure and lasting experience known to humanity! God pours His love into us through the Spirit (Romans 5:5) and then He testifies to us that we are children of our Father, our Abba (8:14-16).
Our verse for the day reminds us of how important the Holy Spirit should be to us:
For the Holy Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth, love, holiness, and power, and evangelism is impossible without him. It is he who anoints the messenger, confirms the word, prepares the hearer, convicts the sinful, enlightens the blind, gives life to the dead, enables us to repent and believe, unites us to the body of Christ, assures us that we are God’s children, leads us into Christ-like character and service, and sends us out in turn to be Christ’s witnesses. In all this the Holy Spirit’s main preoccupation is to glorify Jesus by showing him to us and forming him in us. (David F. Wells)
Prayer
Dear God, we thank you that the Holy Spirit’s empowerment was prominent in the story of Jesus; may He become prominent in our lives today. Amen.