Peace like a River

At a recent conference we sang a hymn I have sung and loved many times before - 'When Peace like a River.'  What amazed me in this instance was the concept in the third verse:

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! 

The message here is that as I approach the cross with my sin, Jesus takes it from me.  It seems a simple and meaningful concept, but it is quite different from what I was told as a child - that my sin made Christ suffer more on the cross, that I was responsible for Christ's suffering, that every sin I committed drove the nails deeper. This is what Luther called the terror of conscience, giving the Christian an extra burden to which they have no solution.  But rather, the song talks about giving over our sin to Christ, that he can bear it and make things Right.  The latter is Gospel, the former is Law.  The great pity is that the club of the Law that Luther wrote against was perpetrated on me by a Lutheran body -- The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.  I have since connected with other Lutheran bodies that are more Gospel centered.  Blessed be the Name of the Lord.