Many people do not understand the Lord Jesus Christ and His work. While we all know Him to be the loving Son of God who died and saved all who would believe in Him, not as many of us know that He wasn't really all about peace. He said in Matthew 10:34,
"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword."
Why did Jesus, this loving Man, bring a sword? Let's talk about that.
A Mighty Warrior
Many pictures, paintings, and other portraits depict Jesus as a smiling, gentle Man who holds lambs in His arms, speaks to groups of children sitting in front of Him, or pretty much anything that shows His loving, gentle and kind character. This emphasis on the "gentle Jesus" fails to show the real Jesus: the Son of God who came to decisively end a fight that no man can ever win. 1 John 3:8 tells us,
"He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil."
Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. He came to put an end to sin's hold over our lives. With His death He paid the price for our freedom from sin, and with His resurrection He provided hope for all who would believe in Him. His finished work assures us that we are accepted by God not on account of what we have done, but by what Christ has done.
This freedom, however, is not attained by all.
A dividing line
What many people fail to understand is that while Christ died for the sin of all mankind to be forgiven, not all people are able to receive that forgiveness. While His sacrifice was done once for all mankind, not all of mankind is able to rejoice in the freedom that the shedding of His blood brings.
This is because not everyone believes in Him.
Christ's coming was not for world peace. It was so that those who would believe in Him and repent of their sins would be able to make peace with God.
Christ did not come bringing peace, because He was at war - with our sin. He came bringing a sword to sever the ties between us and our sins, separating the people God loved from the thing that separated us from Him.
Christ's coming was to mark a line that will separate those who would be saved by believing in Him, and those who won't be because they refuse to believe in Him. He said it so Himself:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:16-18).
