Peace, False and True

"They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace."

This can be said of anyone who does not apprehend and preach the Word of God in its truth and purity, as well as those who refuse to hear it, because true peace is only where the enmity between God and man is satisfied, and that satisfaction is only in the crucified and risen Christ Jesus, whose life and benefits are openly and freely proclaimed and distributed to all who walk through the valley of the shadow of death with fear and trembling.

To make the Word of God into a book of rules for self-justification is to offer only superficial peace. To ignore the Commandments as if they were merely the utterances of misguided goat herders is even worse.

Peace is found nowhere else than through faith in Christ Jesus, whose righteousness avails before God for all people throughout all ages. This faith takes hold of peace where it is given abundantly and concretely: Baptism, Supper, and the word of forgiveness. This faith, like creation itself, is neither for sale nor for self-improvement, but is poured out abundantly from Above, like springs in the desert.

+ + +

Reason and Senses

Sight, taste, touch, pressure, itch, thermoception (sense of hot and cold), sound, smell, proprioception (sense of where your body parts are), tension, nociception (sense of pain), equilibrioception (sense of balance), stretch, chemoreception (sense that it is time to vomit), thirst, hunger, magnetoception, and time: none of these declare or make present the body and blood of Christ Jesus in His Supper, but they are all subject to His benefits.

God does not deal with man apart from reason and senses, but has endowed man with these so that He might bestow His grace by way of the same form He takes in His own Son, Christ Jesus. For the same reason, He uses preaching and sacraments to visit His people.

Through these the crucified and risen Christ is conveyed in full, when and where it pleases the Creator to breathe His Word and Spirit into the ears and hearts of the hearers. They, in turn, are called disciples, because they do not indulge themselves according to the flesh, but are driven (disciplined) to seek things above.

They cannot do otherwise, because they have died to sin. They are reckoned not according to what the eyes see, but according to what the Word says.
+ + +

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin.

The Holy spirit bestows the righteousness of Christ, indeed Christ Himself, upon those who believe on His name.

The Holy Spirit plainly reveals the paths of righteousness.

The Holy Spirit places Christians into the paths of righteousness and keeps them there.

The Holy Spirit warns and admonishes in all matters that would lead away from the paths of righteousness.

The Holy Spirit is not subject to dissection, explanation, scrutiny, or direct observation insofar as The Holy Spirit is a Person of the Holy Trinity inextricably bound to the will of God and not the will of man.

The Holy Spirit does not heckle poor sinners into straightening themselves up.

The Holy Spirit does not teach Christians to look for help, hope, or comfort anywhere except in the Body of Christ.

The Holy Spirit, Christ Jesus, and the Father are One.

+ + +