Handshake of Peace

Are you able to related to the person who you are in a relationship with that seems irreconcilable. It's been severed, shattered, and betrayed leaving a gap that cannot be crossed. Can relationships be restored? Romans 12 has the answer.

Romans 12:18 says if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

That gives us a new framework of reconciliation. God desires that we find a way to live at peace with everyone. The impossible can happen because with God anything is possible.

Almighty God made peace with you on the Cross. Why did God have to make peace with us? Because we were full of pride with rebel hearts. God did it because He wants to be in a relationship with us.

1. The Cross is the template for reconciliation for the relationship in our lives. The most important element is the Gospel. The template allows you to trace the template and set the standard. We put the template of the Cross on top of the unreconciled relationship and let it guide you. See Romans 12:17-21. The only ways Paul could write this and call us to it is because of the Gospel. Up to this point all eleven chapters are telling us about the grace and mercy of God. Chapter 12 starts with saying "in view of God's mercy". It's not about what happened to you, it's about God's mercy. Cut down the tree of bitterness and resentment and ask God to reconcile it into the Cross.

2. We are the people who seek the possibility of peace. It's natural to want payback, it's unnatural to want peace. However, we are supernatural and are set apart children of God. Out grid is to seek the possibility of peace. See Psalm 34:12-14. We don't just write people off. We seek peace and pursue it.

"If it is possible" implies that sometimes it is not possible. That's the broken world we live in, but we still seek it. It rests on us. "As far as it depends" reflects the Gospel; how far Jesus came to make peace with you.

Psalm 55:20-21 shows that some people just don't want peace. They actually want war. Some people don't know how to function without conflict. God says the Gospel is greater. You may not be able to have peace with them, but you have peace away from them.

• This doesn't excuse consequences or the need for justice. The grace of God doesn't abdicate the process of justice. It assigns justice in a different way and we are the arbiter of that. Vengeance is the Lord's. Don't make it your life's mission to make them pay.

• If you're in a dangerous situation, resolution and reconciliation can't take place until you and your family are safe. That has to happen first. Don't stay in danger and turn a blind eye.

3. The agent of peace is the power of the Spirit of God. That's the only way we'll get it. The Holy Spirit is critical to the peace process. The Holy Spirit conceived in Mary the Son of God, the Prince of Peace to come and live out the Father's plan. The same Spirit who birthed the Prince of Peace is in you to birth the process of peace between you and the other person you seek to reconcile with.

• Prayer: I want you to be glorified in this more than I want to be right or wrong. I want this relationship restored, but Holy Spirit, you have to do that in me.

Galatians 5:16-23 says the Spirit and the sinful nature are against each other. We have a new nature, but the sinful nature leaves residue. The longest list Paul gives all have to do with conflict. See verse 20-21. Those who live like that will not inherit the Kingdom of God. You need the fruit of the Spirit for reconciliation, which includes peace. We crucify the sinful nature. We live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit. In Romans 12, the Greek "live at peace" means to be at peace. We do that when we stay in step and live by the Spirit.

You can live at peace and be free through the power of Christ in you.