Hebrews Chapter Thirteen, The God Of Peace

Hebrews 13:20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, [21] make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

The author observes that our God is, “the God of peace.” But this peace is tempered by God’s just character. Turning to Romans, we read what Paul says of such a God. While he does simply state, “Now the God of peace be with you all,” Romans 15:33, later he adds, “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly,” Romans 16:20. The God who is our peace does not give His peace to the world, but to us only who are His sons and daughters.

Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you,” John 14:27. The world does not receive God’s peace because it rejected Jesus Christ as Savior, who is the Prince of Peace, Isaiah 9:6, see also Ephesians 2:14. The peace God offers and which the redeemed saint enjoys is freely given, but on God’s terms. To those that reject His offer of peace in Jesus Christ, they will suffer eternal fire. Since they did not want the Prince of Peace, and God’s peace is found only in Him, they must dwell in a place bereft of peace, because it lacks the presence of Him who personifies what they rejected.

The passage says of God that He raised our Lord Jesus from the dead. David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote, “For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption,” Psalm 16:10. Peter spoke of this Psalm on the Day of Pentecost, asserting that David did not have himself in mind when he spoke this, but foresaw the risen Christ, Acts 2:30. Peter likewise joins in the testimony that God raised up Christ from the dead, with the disciples being witnesses of His bodily resurrection, Acts 2:32. Peter affirms this testimony again in Acts, stating that God raised up Jesus to bless them and turn every man away from his sins, Acts 3:26. The theme occurs numerous times in Acts, continuing in Acts 4:10, when Peter addresses the Sanhedrin. This only makes sense, since Acts is a historical document of the church’s foundation and missionary efforts during its first thirty years. Luke records that Jesus “presented Himself alive…by many infallible proofs,” Acts 1:3. This is the witness of the Christian church. We are witnesses, having received the testimony of those who came before us, who in turn received it from others. This line can be traced back to the original apostles, who turned the world upside down preaching Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the dead.

Jesus our Lord, the Hebrew Christians were reminded, is the great Shepherd of the sheep. The sheep He originally presented Himself to was the house of Israel, Matthew 9:36. But Jesus also explained to His Jewish listeners that He had other sheep, not of that fold, that is, not of Jewish heritage, John 10:16. Despite the Mormon claims that Jesus was referring to the fictional Nephite people, this is spurious. There is no historical or archeological evidence to support the Nephite theory, or the Book of Mormon for that matter. Rather, the other sheep are the Gentiles outside the pail of Israel, called at first by Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, though the door was initially opened by Peter and his encounter with Cornelius, see Acts chapter 10.

Twice in Hebrews we find the concept of the blood of the everlasting covenant being mentioned. Though it was worded differently, we read of this blood offering, “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:14. Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, Revelation 5:6, 13:8. God’s rescue plan was in effect BEFORE the garden, or Adam, or Satan. John records in Revelation that the message of salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ is, “the everlasting gospel,” Revelation 14:6. No other method of salvation was made efficacious at any point in time; no dispensation altered God’s eternal purposes in Christ, and how He intended to make men righteous before Him. We find that the “better covenant” (see Hebrews 8:6) that followed the Sinaitic covenant to the Jews is the everlasting and genuinely only covenant that reconciled men to God.