The Peacegiver

I just read the book The Peacegiver: How Christ Offers to Heal Our Hearts and Homes by James Ferrell. I highly recommend it simply for the number of really great insights I gained from reading it. Mostly for my own future reference, I would like to share some of my favorite passages from the book. Warning: it's long, you might as well read the book ;) but like I said, it's mostly for me.

One of the effects of sin is to invite those who have been sinned against to become sinful themselves. The atonement provides us the escape from the sin of sinning against a sinner. Christ atoned not only for our own sins, but also for the sins of others. The Lord offers to those who have been harmed by the sins of others the help and sustenance they need to be made whole. Those deprived of love can receive his love. The companionless can find a companion in him. Those with a cross to bear can find another who carries and makes it light. With their burdens lifted in this way, the sinned-against are saved from the provocation to sin and are therefore redeemed from their own sins. The Lord packs for each of us, as it were, living bread, water, sheep, corn, raisins, and figs, and comes to us with that offering, inviting us to accept of his atonement for others' sins. And when we do, we find ourselves blessed with all that is needful, and we also find that we are cleansed from sinfulness ourselves.

We often feel justified in withholding forgiveness from those who have wronged us, however sinful such withholding is. Christ's atonement on behalf of another obliterates every justification. He frees us from the blind comfort of grudges. Through his merciful act, he creates for us the most forgiveness-friendly environment that can possibly be created. We are never more able to forgive than when the request for forgiveness is made by one who has atoned in full for the sin we are raging against. "Upon me let this iniquity be," he pleads. "Let me deal with it if there is any dealing to be done. Let me take it, as I have already done. Forgive." When we withhold forgiveness from others we are in effect saying that the atonement alone was insufficient to pay for this sin. We are holding out for more. We are finding fault with the Lord's offering. We are in essence demanding that the Lord repent of an insufficient atonement. So when we fail to forgive another, it is as if we are failing to forgive the Lord. Consider how our failure to forgive is in effect a withholding from the Lord--he who has claimed and atoned for the sins and weaknesses in others that we insist on carrying with a grudge.

Three things to remember: First, remember that the Lord has taken the sins of those who have wronged us on his own head. Second, because of this, he stands between us and those whom we think have wronged us, asking us to realize that the atonement is sufficient for those sins and to therefore repent of our grudges and give up our enmity. And finally, remember that if we grant this forgiveness in full, he atones in full for the pain and burdens that have come at others' hands. He blesses us with his own love, his own appreciation, his own companionship, his own strength to endure. And if we have these, what do we lack?

We think our world will improve for the better only through some drastic change in others. The drastic changes in our lives don't depend on others at all. We are unhappy for one reason alone, we are unhappy not because of another's sins but because of our own. Consider the Savior, no amount of mistreatment and suffering was able to take away the love of One who was without sin. By contrast, we who still struggle with sinfulness, struggle as well to cover our sins. And one way we do this is by finding sinfulness in others. Our own failure to love another causes us to see the other as being unworthy of love. The Savior, by contrast, with no sins of his own to clutch, cover, and excuse, remained free to see all of mankind mercifully and gratefully. When we think of those who love unconditionally, such as our children, the secret of their love is not their naivete, but rather their innocence from sin. Innocent as they are from sinfulness toward us, there are no sins they need to cover and excuse, and therefore no sins of ours can keep them from loving us. We have to give away our sins to know the Lord and to truly know other people. The question to ask ourselves is what sins toward others keep us from loving them? How are we demanding justice and therefore denying mercy? How are we the author of our own despair? We can receive the Lord's mercy--and the happiness, healing, and peace that attend it--only to the extent that we extend mercy to others.

My peace is not determined by others--whether they be righteous or not--but by myself. Or rather, my peace is determined by whether I come to Christ myself. For when I come to him, he blesses me with his mercy, and basking in that mercy I find peace. Whether others come to Christ will determine their peace but not mine. I may think that others make it harder, but it only seems that way because I find it easier to sin toward those who sin toward me. But it is my sin, not theirs that is the source of my struggle. No one can keep me from Christ. Only I can.

Something about sin changes us. We view the world differently after we sin than before. We become more concerned with ourselves and with how we look and we somehow lose sight of the Lord and our need for him. We begin to see the world in ways that excuse our indiscretions. And then we find it easier to continue in sinful paths. In fact, after Adam and Eve's transgression, Satan was able to get them to do something that never would have entered their minds before--to hide from the Lord.

"'Why me Father?' I cried. 'Why have I had to spend my years in such pain?'
"'You didn't have to,' came a voice.
"'What do you mean I 'didn't have to'?'
"'If you had come unto me,' the voice said, 'it would have all been different.'"