LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.
The Lord ordains peace for his people and himself works in them all the good works they do. That ordaining of peace belongs with the preparation he has made to pardon and take away sins by giving free access to his grace and glory. In the struggle against sin this is the penitent's confession of dependence on God, acknowledging that self-reliance and personal merit are useless, that human effort and self-righteousness cannot purify the soul, and that transformation must be credited to God and not to self while the soul depends on Christ. It is Christ who renews the heart and who carries that inward work forward until it is complete. Because Christ himself is the Ruler of God's people, human ministers are not to rule over them as superiors to be feared, but to stand with them as fellow believers and serve them.
The Lord ordains peace for his people and himself works in them all the good works they do. That ordaining of peace belongs with the preparation he has made to pardon and take away sins by giving free access to his grace and glory. In the struggle against sin this is the penitent's confession of dependence on God, acknowledging that self-reliance and personal merit are useless, that human effort and self-righteousness cannot purify the soul, and that transformation must be credited to God and not to self while the soul depends on Christ. It is Christ who renews the heart and who carries that inward work forward until it is complete. Because Christ himself is the Ruler of God's people, human ministers are not to rule over them as superiors to be feared, but to stand with them as fellow believers and serve them.