If, indeed, he has overcome the world, we can “take heart.” We can take the heart he himself has given us! This peaceful heart results when we realize that, according to God himself, we are reconciled to him and no longer at enmity, because his Son’s blood has pardoned us, purified us, and pacified us. Peace between us and God comes through propitiation, and if we are at peace with God and have peace from God, what in the world should we be afraid of?
