The Fruit of the Spirit is Peace: The Radical Nature of the Gospel

Our world is full of strife yet desperate for peace. There are volatile international conflicts, student protests, political dissensions, and challenges in our churches and families. Is there any way out?

“But the fruit of the Spirit is … peace” (Gal. 5:22).

Strife in Galatia

Earlier in the Galatian letter, Paul exhorts, “But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit …” (5:15).

The apostle pens the entire letter in the context of strife and division. He starts, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel” (1:6) and twice calls down a curse on his opponents (1:8, 9).

He even recounts a sharp conflict with Peter, whom he “opposed … to his face, because he stood condemned,” having briefly followed that other gospel (2:11).

Paul, for his part, asserts that he lives “by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” and does not “nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (2:20–21).

Any effort at self-justification—any human striving and moral living apart from the enabling grace of God and the power of the Spirit—is miserably doomed to fail. Such a misguided disposition can lead only to strife and division.

The fruit of the Spirit, on the other hand, is peace.

Peace Comes Only Through the Gospel

As pastors, we have the privilege of extolling the radical and liberating message of the gospel. Without any contribution on our part, Jesus died on the cross for our sins so that we can be justified—declared righteous—based on what Jesus, the Son of God, did for us.

The answer to all global, local, and internal conflict lies only in the gospel.

Paul tells the Roman believers, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).

He adds, “Through him [Jesus] we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2).

Once, we were enemies of God; now, we are “reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Rom. 5:10).

A Different Kind of Peace

The world, of course, doesn’t trust in Jesus’s finished cross-work. Instead, people set their hope on political negotiations, innate human goodness, the art of compromise, or other utopian solutions.

Yet the peace Jesus gives is different from the “peace” the world has to offer. “Peace I leave with you,” Jesus tells his followers the night before he dies; “my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27).

After the resurrection, Jesus appears in their midst and, in a greeting pregnant with new meaning, tells them, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19, 26).

What is more—and often overlooked—right before he commissions his disciples, Jesus again tells them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21).

The peace of Jesus, achieved at the cross, forms the foundation for our mission from God!

Pastoral Implications

Pastors, our hope is radically in Jesus’s cross-work and the ministry of the Spirit. We should urge the people in our congregation to put all their hope in Jesus and the Spirit at every opportunity.

This awareness will be evident in a dependent life of prayer: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6–7).

Peace is, first of all, a reconciled relationship with God through Christ, and second, a life lived in continual dependence on God in the power of the Spirit.

In the Spirit of Paul’s words to the Galatians, we can lead our people in living in an orbit of grace, freedom, and loving service: “You were called to freedom, brothers. … through love serve one another” (5:13).

As the apostle contends, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another” (Gal. 5:25–26).

Just recently, I became aware of several egregious instances of injustice perpetrated by professing Christians on other believers, to the dismay of the unbelieving world around them. That’s so unspeakably sad and tragic.

But it’s also real—that’s the world we live in. Even professing believers are not immune to succumbing to conceit, envy, and even hate.

Pastors, preach—and live out!—the gospel of pure, unadulterated grace in Christ. And continue to instruct the people in your congregation to fix their hope solely on the work of the Spirit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is … peace.”

©2024 Andreas Köstenberger. Used with permission.