The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1910, Page 25

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

——_____.» ©

PublisuEeD By THE EvanGenicaL Lutieran SynopicaL ConFERENCE oF Norri AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Epiror.

Entered at the Post Oflice at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter.

Vol. XXXII. ST. LOUIS, MO.

» APRIL, 1910.

The Peace of the Believer.

That which can shake the cross

May shake the peace it gave;

I know that Christ for me has died,
For me has left the grave. ‘

So, then, my peace is sure,

It will not, cannot yield;

Jesus, I know, has died, and lives —
On this firm Rock I build.

= os

_ Christ’s Peace.

The risen Christ came to His disciples with the
greeting: ‘Peace be unto you!” These words were
not empty words. In these words Christ brought
to His disciples from the cross and the grave the
peace which He had won in that fierce conflict, the
marks of which He bore in His body, on His hands
and His side. Christ, “made peace through the
blood of His cross,” Col. 1, 20. To this end He
came into the world. Therefore the angels sang of
“peace on earth” when He was born. He came “to
put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself,” Hebr.
9, 26. For sin must be put away, if there is to be
peace between God and man. Sin is rebellion
against God. It made us the enemies of the sin-
hating God and subject to His wrath and punish-
ment. Christ “made peace through the blood of
His cross,” because in His bitter sufferings and in
His painful death upon the cross He bore our sins

- and endured the wrath_of God in our stead. “The
chastisement of our peace was upon Him,” says
the prophet. That is, the chastisement due to us
for sin was upon Him, and so peace was made. He
was punished in our stead, that we may have peace.

The work which Christ came to do is finished.
The strife is ended. God is reconciled. Peace is
made. This we see clearly from the resurrection
of Christ. It was the risen Christ that came to the
disciples bringing peace. It was His peace, the
peace which He had made through the blood of His
cross. Christ’s peace is the whole blessing of His
finished work. It includes the forgiveness of sin,
deliverance from death and the devil, and eternal
salvation. It is a peace which the world has not
and cannot give. It is a peace which is given by
Christ only, who obtained it for us with His own
precious blood. He gives His peace through the
Gospel, which brings to sinners the forgiveness of
sins. Where the Gospel is, in the preaching of
God’s Word, in Baptism and in the Holy Supper,
there is the risen Savior with His “Peace be unto
you.” Blessed are those who by faith accept the
Gospel and believe in Jesus, who in the Gospel
speaks peace to troubled souls. In Him they have
forgiveness of sins and are “justified from all
things.” They have peace; for it is written: “Be-
ing justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ,” Rom. 5, 1.

There are so many that know not the way of
peace, for they know not the Savior in whom alone
we have peace. Therefore the Gospel is to be
preached to every creature; for in the Gospel Christ
preaches peace. The object of all our mission work
is the bringing of Christ’s peace to a restless world.
That makes it a blessed work in which every Chris-
tian should joyfully help. Christ “is our peace,”
Eph. 2, 14. Only by believing in Him sinners have
peace. But “how shall they believe in Him of whom
they have not heard? And how shall they hear
without a preacher? And how shall they preach,