John 16:33, “I have said these things to you so that in me you may have peace; in the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world.”
The wounds of the risen Christ are the everlasting proof of opposition to God overcome and an invincible haven of peace amidst the storms of tribulation for suffering saints who trust in Him.
Longer thoughts, if you have the time:
Having peace in Christ is not something that just happens. It is not something that we are simply given upon regeneration, rather, it is something that we need to—by the Spirit, who IS, I would contend, that Peace, 14:26-27 — it is something that we need to enter into. And how do we enter into the peace that Christ is and gives? By His words.
“I have spoken these things so that in me you may have peace…” The implication, of course, is that apart from these words, we would not have peace in Christ. Apart from what He has spoken here (and I think that this summary statement reaches back all the way to the beginning of chapter 13), apart from what He has spoken here, we are left as wanderers and orphans in the world of affliction and we have no access, no entrance, no competence to receive the peace that IS IN Christ.
So, then, how do we receive this peace that is in Christ? By embracing what He has said, specifically in the past three chapters. And what is that? Well….there certainly is a lot there, but might we boil it down to the basic points? Namely that Jesus is the Son sent from the Father who loves His own by laying down and taking up again His life for them as He goes out of the world and returns to the Father, and that—having done this—He will come to them and fellowship with them by His Spirit as they await His sure return and imitate His love. As the disciples hold fast to these things, remember these things, depend on these things, live out these things—or to say it another way, as these words abide in them—they will abide in Christ (15:7), and in Him they will have peace.
Now, why does He says in Him they will have peace instead of in His words they will have peace? I think the reason must be that the words have no power apart from the one who speaks them and in whom they find their authority and veracity. Some would try to say that Jesus’ teachings have value whether or not He was who He said He was—not at all. His words are anchored in His person as the Son of God sent from the Father, and their ability to impart true and lasting benefit is wholly derived from who He is. HE is our refuge, HE is our homeland, HE is our context of peace, and His words are the indispensable means by which the benefit of His person is imparted to us. We abide IN HIM as we receive and believe and hope in and obey HIS WORDS (again, 15:7).
And abiding in Him by the reception of His words gives us peace in Him, even as we are surrounded by the tribulations of this world because He has overcome the world. That really is the key here….Abiding in Christ by believing His words is a context of peace for the disciple because Christ has overcome the world. And what does that mean?
The answer is clear enough in John’s gospel, but we get it explicitly in Revelation 5:5,6,9 where we see that the Lion of Judah who has overcome is the slain-yet-living Lamb. Christ overcomes the world through His death and resurrection. Yes, by laying down His life and so receiving into Himself the the horror, the sorrow, the suffering, the enmity, the hatred, the darkness of all the world—AND, by bearing in Himself the divine curse due to these things—Christ swallows up every possible “tribulation” that His people can face in the sphere of opposition to God called “the world”…..and by taking up His life again—having exhausted all horror and punishment—He has overcome the world. There is no longer anything in the world that can overcome Christ or the one who is in Christ because the world’s final victory (ie, the victory of opposition to God and His good purposes) was experienced in and overturned by the crucifixion and resurrection of God the Son.
So now, though there is still tribulation, though there is still pain and sickness and suffering and persecution and torment and terror and the slow dis-integration worked on all things by entropy…..though these still exist and are still realities for Christ’s disciples, we are able to have PEACE in the midst of them….yes, real, unshakable PEACE in the midst of tribulation—how? Because, though we are in the world and so have tribulation, we are even more fundamentally in Christ who has overcome the world and so have peace. This cancer, this pain, this sickness, this loss, this torment, this hardship, this threatened fear this, this, THIS has been overcome in the death and resurrection of Jesus, THIS cannot have final say in my life, THIS cannot determine the end of my life, THIS does not win—it cannot….and I know that (and so have peace) because Christ—in whom I abide by His words—has overcome the world.
