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Christ's Peace:  Silencing the Accusing Voice
Perry W. Toso

Christians Begin with the Cross

Christians always begin with and stay with the Cross of Jesus Christ. The Cross, alone, secures our safety in temptation, a quiet conscience when it is under attack, and peace with God. We need to be clear about this starting point because absolutely everything Christian flows from it.

The Cross of Jesus is the key which unlocks the entire Bible. It makes the Bible all make sense and fit together for a believer. Without the cross the Bible becomes a hodgepodge of history, poetry, obscure prophecies, and weird apocalyptic scenes. Paul says that those who read it without knowing about Jesus and his coming to die for sinners, read it with a veil over their minds. (II Cor. 3:14) Those who know about the cross of Jesus know that absolutely everything in the Bible is about Jesus, and finds its meaning in him.

Here are three things the cross does for Christians.

1. It shows them who God is. The cross is God’s way of saying, "You can’t know Me by the route of human science or intelligence." If we could have known God by an extra philosophy course or two, why would God have to send Jesus, so that we could know the man Jesus is the very person of God? And why would Jesus have to die? God needs to reveal himself to us if we are ever to know him. The cross shows us God’s innermost heart—and there is nothing at the very core of His heart except burning love and passion for those who are lost.

2. It shows who you are. The cross exposes your enmity to God. It shows that your thoughts are not his thoughts, neither are your ways his ways. (Is. 55:8) In fact, we hate God and his ways. We killed Jesus because he did not measure up to our expectations for what God should be like. On top of that, we are offended by a savior who dies, because, for sure that means that we will have to die also. Who needs that? So when we pray "Thy will be done," we necessarily pray against ourselves. Why? Because we will never naturally want what God wants. In fact, we will naturally continue to hate what God loves and love what God hates. That is why we nailed God’s own Son to the cross.

3. It shows us the true horror of our situation, and our only hope—at the same time! Human beings cannot see, imagine, intuit, nor in any other natural way come to the knowledge of their abject need. It needs to be revealed to us. The cross shows us that even in our most hateful state, "while we were yet sinners," God so loved the world that he sent His only Son, so that sinners could be reconciled to Him through Jesus. Without this cross, we must perish. With this cross we have eternal life.

The Verdict--God's Two Words

Here is a news flash. You are being addressed by God, right now! Every moment, your conscience stands under a verdict. And your conscience will never let you escape the strange fact that the final verdict over your life does not rest with you, but rests with another, who made you. All the religions of the world are conscience-driven in the sense that they are trying, by human effort, to swing that verdict in their favor. Either that, or they attempt to escape into nothingness.

The shortest definition of conscience is that it is your awareness that you stand in a relation to God, and under his verdict, whether you like it or not. Adam wasn’t too excited about having a conscience, which he couldn’t deny or escape, when God called and said to him, "Adam, where are you?" Neither are you, when God calls out the same thing to you. But do you know what? If God didn’t come looking, if God stopped speaking and asking and looking for you, you would perish just as the serpent in the story will perish.

God, when he seeks us out, first must speak the word of accusation. "Did you eat of the fruit of the tree I commanded you not to eat?" he begins with Adam. It feels like damnation and hell when God begins to save us. We call this first word of God, Law. You can always recognize the Law by what it does to you. It creates both terror and guilt, at the same time. It shuts your mouth and prevents any excuses until you finally confess, "I am the culprit! I did it!" Until that moment, the Law is a burning fire in the conscience. There is no peace. The only place for guilt to go, without God’s forgiveness, is on someone else. That is why we have been blaming each other ever since the first sin. Yet even that doesn’t take the guilt and terror away.

The Law has one purpose only: to drive us to Christ. The Law tells us to love God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves. Find me one person in all history who has done that, except Jesus! So it is hopeless to try to fulfill the Law’s requirements. That sounds depressing, except that a miracle sometimes happens, when every other possibility has been tried. Some discover there is no way to salvation than through the forgiveness of our sins through the blood of the cross. Then we cry out, "Have mercy upon me a sinner!" The moment those words have come out of your heart and mouth, the Law has completed its God-given task. It does not have another job than this. Even though some Christians, and all Jews, claim that the Law is a road to salvation, it was never given for that purpose. Paul is clear in Galatians when he says that the Law cannot give life. It can only kill. When it kills your false hopes of personal virtue being a route to salvation, it has done its best work.

Junior high students are past masters at running their whole existence by the rule of Law. "Pastor, if I don’t do my assignment, what will you do to me?" But God does not want us in a relationship like that, where anything that gets done is done under threat. "Law" doesn’t work because it does not enter the heart. It cannot make people who want to do something!

The second word of God is not a demand. It is sheer gift. It is called the Gospel. What the Gospel tells about is all the things that God has done for you. He has sent His only Son to save you. Jesus has died in your place. He rose again so that you, too, might have life everlasting. He sent you his Holy Spirit, so that you could live in freedom, gladly serving Him. He gives you your body, your life, and promises to preserve you from every wicked attack of the evil one, the world, and our own sinful self. The Gospel is the daily news to your conscience that the final verdict over you is that you will not be condemned because of your sins, (Romans 8:1) but that the final verdict has already been visited upon another—Jesus Christ. You have already passed the Last Judgment when you were baptized into Jesus Christ. He died on the cross so that exchange could be made. Jesus there took your sin and made it his own. "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, but he was wounded for our transgressions" (Is. 53:4) But that is only half of the exchange. Since God laid the sins of the whole world in that spot, what is now possible, is that you receive a new righteousness, not your own, but the righteousness of Jesus Christ! It is a righteousness which you cannot feel, so it must be appropriated by faith. But it is a righteousness, which is objective, complete, from heaven, for you. The Gospel is the only healing for the accused conscience. Nothing else works.

God uses both these words in his continuing address to us. And they are always heard in that order. So learn from the old Christian warrior, Martin Luther, that when it feels like God is killing you, it is pretty certain that, just at that point, God is doing his best work for you. The Law is necessary as long as we live, because we always will struggle with sin, this side of the sod. The Gospel is also necessary, because we will never cease to need its comfort. So there you have it. A Christian is one who daily lives under a new verdict—no condemnation. (And you thought "guilty" or "innocent" were the only two options!)

Here is a conscience question, and the only true test. Are you afraid to die?

A Christian was asked "Are you absolutely sure that you are going to heaven?"

He said, "I am absolutely sure."

"How can you be sure?" asked the other.

"Not because of anything I’ve done. I’ve sinned. I am going to heaven because of what Christ did on the cross and because God raised him from the dead."

That little interchange demonstrates someone who understands the new verdict and joyfully claims the gift of the Gospel—assurance of faith in the face of continuing struggles with sin. The Gospel is the only way we can be sure of anything! Don’t forget, though, that the Gospel is a dynamic, continually spoken word from God to you. Stay with the conversation, and you will be saved.

The Exodus From Virtue to Grace

Here is another shocker from the Bible. We had always thought that the spiritual game we were playing was that we were making an exodus from vice to virtue. "Every day in every way, I’m getting better and better!" is the motto for this game. Except—no one bothers to answer the question, which you will finally begin to ask after you play for awhile, "Where is this heading? When have I done enough?" The only answer (and the official answer of the Roman Catholic Church) is, "We don’t know!!!" Well that surely leaves your conscience in a bind!

"Do you mean that I shall never know??"

"That is right."

And it’s supposed to show Christian humility to be nervous about it. Does that sound like what the Bible says? Answers like that are what drove Luther, the monk, almost crazy. It is the central concern which started and still drives the Reformation!

What madness! Its very rules show that the game makes no sense! In contrast, here is what the Bible reveals is really going on—that we’re making an exodus from Virtue to Grace! It is an exodus which only comes through dying to every human attempt to save ourselves. It is not for the faint hearted, because it involves the scary part of "passing through the sea" of discovering that even my best isn’t going to be good enough. That is the slavery to virtue. It will kill me to keep trying to go up that dead end. The only way forward is to believe that I am being counted righteous for Jesus’ sake. That is the exodus from virtue to grace. It is part of what brings peace to the accused conscience.

Listen to an old warrior, Martin Luther, who knows what he speaks about, and see if this doesn’t ring true in your heart as well. He told this to his students in his lectures on Galatians in 1535:

"When I was a monk, I used to think that my salvation was undone when I felt any desires of the flesh, that is any malice, or sexual desire, or anger, or envy against any of my brothers. I tried many methods. I made confession every day, etc. But none of this did any good, because the desires of the flesh kept coming back. Therefore I could not find peace, but I was constantly crucified by thoughts such as these: ‘You have committed this or that sin; you are guilty of envy, impatience, etc. Therefore it was useless for you to enter this holy order, and all your good works are to no avail.’ If I had properly understood Paul’ statements, ‘The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit’ and ‘These are opposed to each other,’ I would not have tortured myself to such a point but would have thought to myself, as I do nowadays: ‘Martin, you will never be completely without sin, because you still have the flesh. Therefore you will always be aware of its conflict, according to the statement of Paul: ‘the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit.’ Do not despair, therefore, but fight back and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. Then you will not be under the Law.’

I remember (my confessor) used to say: ‘More than a thousand times I have vowed to God that I would improve, but I have never performed what I have vowed. Hereafter I shall not make such vows, because I know perfectly well that I shall not live up to them. Unless God is gracious and merciful to me for the sake of Christ and grants me a blessed final hour when the time comes for me to depart this miserable life, I shall not be able to stand before Him with all my vows and good works.’ This despair is not only truthful, but is godly and holy."

"Therefore God stretches the immense heaven of grace over us and for the sake of Christ does not impute to us the remnants of sin that cling to our flesh." (Luther’s Works 27:73,86)

Life under New Management

Our new power to live freely and gladly comes from the Gospel. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit. The two characteristics of this life under His power are Resistance and Tension. The tension comes from the fact that we are at one and the same time 100% righteous and 100% sinful. That never changes here on earth. (Remember we are not in the virtue game where we are partly, but never fully righteous, and therefore, never really saved.) So when you feel tension in your life of faith, tension caused by the sin that remains in your life, and you sense deeply your failure, THIS IS NOT EVIDENCE THAT YOU ARE NOT A CHRISTIAN!! Just the opposite is true. It is the deepest evidence that you are God’s child. "When we cry ‘Abba, Father,’ it is the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him." (Romans 8:17)

Resistance is the definition of what Paul means when he says that you are "free from sin." Paul does not say that you are "sinless!" That is something completely different. If you are free from sin, you have power to resist sin, something you were helpless to do apart from Christ and his Holy Spirit. Once you were a slave to sin. Once you not only enjoyed sin, you felt no conflict in your life about it! Now there is tremendous conflict! You’re getting well, again.

During the darkest days of World War II, resistance fighters in France and Germany risked their lives to do such puny acts of resistance as to distribute little news flyers to people who needed to know the truth about what was happening. They were asked how they could risk their very lives over resistance acts so apparently futile. They responded that it was the only way in which they could remain morally sane in such surrounding, overpowering, suffocating moral darkness. We need to learn from them not to calculate the value of our resistance to sin upon the success (progress?), which we want to see. Rather the value of our resistance is calculated upon its faithful practice, in the face of continuing pressure brought to bear on us by the evil one. The very act of resistance keeps us morally sane. Through the Holy Spirit, it is all that God asks us to do.

Silencing the Accusing Voice

Then we do nothing and work nothing in order to become righteous? Nothing at all!! Our righteousness consists not in our performance, but in our believing and fixing our eyes on Christ alone, who is our righteousness and our salvation. Sin cannot happen here. Neither can any accusation against you stand. Because it would have to be an accusation regarding some imperfection in Christ. Scripture calls us to realize that we have passed from an active righteousness to a passive righteousness.So now that you have the basic tools for your own conscience care, learn to comfort yourself, as well as others in this fashion. You know the purpose of the Law is limited now to one duty: to drive us to Christ. When it has done that, it is finished with its assigned, God-given task. But the Law never keeps quiet! It keeps trying to tell you what to do to be saved. Here it is out of line, simply because it cannot do the job, even if you try to follow its commands. NO LAW WAS EVER GIVEN WHICH COULD SAVE ANYBODY! So, when you have been shown your sin by the Law, tell it to shut up. It has its proper limits. Say this: "I will now hear what Christ has done for sinners. I know where God has laid my sin. I see the cross. I will believe what Christ did there for me. In that moment of hearing the Gospel, you are free from the Law’s accusations, and safely nestled in Christ and his righteousness. Doing this is a skill and an art, which can never be mastered. Yet there it is. You are called to practice it, whether you are just learning it or not. And it will always be your escape from the temptation to despair.

Let me quote Martin Luther one last time. "In my conscience not the Law will reign, that hard tyrant and cruel disciplinarian, but Christ, the Son of God, the King of peace and righteousness, the sweet Savior and Mediator. He will preserve my conscience happy and peaceful in the sound and pure doctrine of the Gospel and in the knowledge of this passive righteousness." ( Luther Works 26:11)

In summary, whoever knows for sure that Christ is his righteousness, not only knows how to find peace with God, but also begins cheerfully and gladly to perform whatever duties God has designed for him. He works right for the first time!

These Bible Studies were written for Augsburg's Multi-media Bible Study for Youth on Sexuality. This new resource will be available at the gathering in Brookings, July 25-28.

Rev. Perry W. Toso is Chair of the ALC Ministry Committee and the senior pastor of Church of the Good Shepherd in Florence, Alabama. You may contact him at: ptoso@bellsouth.net

MULTI-MEDIA YOUTH BIBLE STUDY

Augsburg Lutheran Churches is creating a multi-media Bible Study for Youth on the subject of Sexuality and Homosexuality. This article on "Christ’s Peace: Silencing the Accusing Voice" is Part 5 of the series. Two other articles from the series are included in this issue of The Crux of the Matter.

Part 3: "Law and Gospel: Sin and Forgiveness," appears in the first Table Talk section.

Part 4: "Sexuality, Idolatry, and Disbelief" appears in the "From the District Pastor" section.

Three more articles will appear in the next issue.

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