We have peace with God as soon as we believe, but not always with ourselves. The pardon may be past the prince's hand and seal, and yet not put into the prisoner's hand.
Interpretation
True peace comes from faith in God, but internal conflict can persist despite that belief.
This quote highlights the distinction between divine forgiveness and personal acceptance of that forgiveness. While belief in God assures us of peace in our spiritual relationship, individuals may struggle to reconcile their guilt and attain peace within themselves, illustrating the complexity of human emotions and the journey toward inner tranquility.
In practice
In a sermon discussing the relationship between faith and personal peace.
God loves the saints as the purchase of his Son's blood. They cost him dear, and that which is so hardly got shall not be easily lost. He that was willing to expend his Son's blood to gain them, will not deny his power to keep them.
Let thy hope of heaven master thy fear of death.
Furnish thyself with arguments from the promises to enforce thy prayers, and make them prevalent with God. The promises are the ground of faith, and faith, when strengthened, will make thee fervent, and such fervency ever speeds and returns with victory out of the field of prayer. The mightier any is in the Word, the more mighty he will be in prayer.
I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor...I truly believe that when the rich meet the poor, riches will have no meaning. And when the rich meet the poor, we will see poverty come to an end.
I think it only makes sense to seek out and identify structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in every aspect of life, and to challenge them; unless a justification for them can be given, they are illegitimate, and should be dismantled, to increase the scope of human freedom.
He who gives only what he would as readily throw away, gives without generosity; for the essence of generosity is in self-sacrifice.
The fact that we are living does not mean we are not sick.
You never kill any one that you want to kill in a war, he said to himself.
After chiding the theologian for his reliance on myth and miracle, science found itself in the unenviable position of having to create mythology of its own: namely, the assumption that what, after long effort, could not be proved to take place today had, in truth, taken place in the primeval past.
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