Peace

"See in the meantime that your faith brings forth obedience, and God in due time will cause it to bring forth peace." -John Owen

Coming from a Baptistic (Independent) background this passage didn't mean a whole lot to me personally a few years ago. "Peace" was something that came with "getting saved". Preachers would say "Do you remember the day and time you were saved, then you have peace.", or "Did you ask God to save you, then you have peace." The object of faith was not Christ, but experience. I can remember looking at my experience of faith and comparing it to others whose experience was a lot more impressive than mine. Needless to say I was plagued with my fair share of doubts. I would walk down to the altar time after time trying to get that "perfect experience" so I could stand up and tell the world about it and finally feel saved. Looking back now I can see the internal tug of war this kind of teaching can cause.

I think Owen nails it on the head when he says having true peace is more like a process, not an experience. It should look something like this: we hear Christ's words from Scripture, then we follow (obey) them by faith. In doing this we are assured because of the object of that faith which is Christ, and not a subjective experience. In Him comes true peace, although it may be gradual.

Peace is as real as He is!