“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

(Matthew 5:9 ESV)



The earliest recorded history of mankind depicts an environment of peace [Genesis 1:26-31]. There was peace between man and God as well as among men themselves. When Adam & Eve introduced sin into the world they removed all peace.

Ever since there has been a notable lack of peace on earth because sin is the enemy of peace. Where there is sin there can be no peace, despite voluminous and well-intentioned attempts by man to create it. The truth is, man will never create peace on this earth because man is filled with sin and can only create evil [Mark 7:21-23]. Good things – which includes peace – only come from God [James 1:17].

What man calls peace is more aptly defined as a lack of conflict. We think we are creating peace simply by suppressing disagreements or tolerating differences. But even if we were successfully able to do that, we would not have true peace. We would simply have containment.

The world is without peace because it lives without God, who is the source of peace [Psalm 29:11; Romans 15:33; 2 Thessalonians 3:16]. We cannot have peace with each other until and unless we first have peace with God.

Two thousand years ago God sent His son to earth as a peace-offering between Himself and His sinful, wayward creation. Jesus is the Prince of Peace [Isaiah 9:6]. Yet the world lacks peace and many people wonder why.

It’s actually very simple. Jesus came to restore the peace between man and God which is a prerequisite to having peace with each other. Sin separates people from God. To close that gap, God placed every sin of mankind on His son who then bore the punishment due that sin on the cross.

With sin now conquered, every single human being is able to have a right relationship with God. That is, peace with God is now possible. And when we have peace with God we can then have peace with each other. Peace with God is appropriated by repenting of our sins and accepting Jesus’ death as payment that we owe for those sins.

Anyone who does this is a true follower of Christ. This section of Matthew we are studying, called The Beatitudes, defines eight characteristics of a follower of Christ that cause them to be blessed. Here we see that they, like Jesus, are peacemakers.

Christ-followers bring peace by introducing the world to Jesus, the one and only source of peace. To spread the gospel by our words and lifestyle is the most peace-loving thing a person could do as there is nothing the human race needs more, both individually and collectively, than peace with God.

Those who are peacemakers according to this definition shall be called sons of God. These are the people who are God’s children [John 1:12]. Very interestingly the verb tense of the word “shall” implies eternity (heaven). A child of God is a child of His forever.

Comments? Questions? I’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to contact me about this post.