"Now as for laying a sure foundation for solid peace
in your heart, you cannot complete it without prayers and tears-- I mean
repentance. But by themselves, these remedies will never provide peace with
God. Peace of conscience is nothing more than the echo of pardoning mercy which
brings the soul into sweet rest as its pleasant music sounds in the conscience.
This echo is only the same voice repeated; so if tears and prayers and good
works cannot purchase our peace of pardon, they cannot effect the peace of
comfort either. Remember what I have said-- you cannot have inner peace without
these; but you cannot have it by them alone.
A common wound will hardly heal unless it is wrapped up
from the open air and kept clean; yet these measures do not cure it-- the
medicine does. I do not want you to stop praying and serving; just do not
expect peace to grow only from their root. If you do rely on this you isolate
yourself from any benefit of true peace, which the Gospel offers. One resists
the other like two famous rivers in Germany, whose streams will not mingle when
they meet.
Gospel peace will not merge with any other peace. You
must drink it pure and undiluted or not at all. Speaking for himself and for
all other believers, Paul testified, "We are the circumcision, which
worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence
in the flesh" Philippians 3:3. He was declaring, "We do not fall
behind in any holy duty or service. No, we go beyond them, because we worship
God in the spirit; but even this is not the tap where we draw our joy and
comfort. We rejoice in Christ Jesus, not in the flesh." Thus anything,
which opposes Christ and our rejoicing in Him, Paul calls flesh
Quoted material from, ”The Christian in Complete
Armour Daily Readings in Spiritual Warfare” by Gurnall and James S Bell. http://www.moodypublishers.com/pub_productDetail.aspx?id=41823&pid=53617
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