# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 05 13_S148
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

148

Jerusalem, and died on the cross, was not only true man, but in one Person also the true, eternal Son of the living God. Christians confess before all the world that God has united Himself with JESUS of Nazareth not merely, as with other pious and holy men, in grace, but that all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, that is, personally, in Him; that God in JESUS became man, the eternal Word, which was in the beginning with God and was God, became flesh, and that therefore JESUS was a new being, found otherwise neither in heaven nor on earth, namely a God-man. Christians confess before all the world that therefore the despised JESUS, who once went about in the form of a servant, was the God Most High Himself, come down from heaven and made man, the Creator, Preserver and Ruler of the world, the Lord of all angels and men, whom all creatures serve, and whom all angels and men must acknowledge, confess and adore as their only God, besides whom there is no God, so that whoever will not accept this JESUS as his God is without God and without hope in this world.

This confession is indeed, in the ears of the whole world, something quite unheard of and intolerable, for this confession brings to nought all the wisdom of the world and its self-made worship. When the self-righteous Jews once heard it, it was an offence to them; they took up stones in answer, and at last cried out in fury: Crucify him! Crucify him! When it was set before the refined Greeks, they counted it foolishness and said: "What will this babbler say to us? He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods." With indignation the adherents of Islam heard it, and, zealous for their One God, for their Allah, speedily drew their bloody swords. And as a doctrine unworthy of the great God and contrary to all principles of reason, all who would belong to the wise and prudent of this world reject and despise this confession even today.

And it is true, my dear friends, we Christians must ourselves admit it, our confession: "I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord," — this confession of ours is so strange and wonderful a confession, running contrary to all thoughts of human reason and all intimations of the human heart, that he who would make it with joyful faith and full assurance must indeed have a good, firm, unshakable ground for it, and be able to lay before all the world convincing and irrefutable proofs. For it is unthinkable that God should have become man and should have made the salvation and blessedness of all men dependent upon their recognizing Him in this form, without God's having at the same time given to all men, to the simplest as to the most learned, proofs easily recognizable and indisputable that it is really He.

But well for us Christians! we confess indeed a faith which is contradicted in all the world, but it is built upon a rock, on which we can joyfully wave our banner of faith and look down calmly upon the tossing sea of human opinions, and which no wisdom of this world is able to overthrow, no power of hell to shake. We confess indeed a faith which contains mysteries that can have their origin only in immediate revelation, and which no understanding of men can fathom and comprehend; but we are always not only ready, but also well equipped, to give an answer to every man that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us.

Whoever will not believe our confession that JESUS of Nazareth is that for which He declares Himself, namely the only-begotten Son of God, to him we can say first: Come with us to Judea! Seest thou there the countless multitudes of sick and wretched of every kind, who were incurable by human art? — JESUS spoke a word, and they were whole; — Seest thou there the multitudes of blind, lame, crippled in all their body, deaf and dumb, who were so from their mother's womb and whom therefore no man could help? — JESUS spoke a word, and the blind suddenly saw with delight what had hitherto been covered for them with impenetrable night; JESUS spoke a word, and the lame and the cripples walked and leaped, suddenly, with joy and exultation; JESUS spoke a word, and the hitherto closed ear of the deaf suddenly opened, and they heard now with jubilation and rapture the sweet sound of human speech, never heard before. JESUS spoke a word, and the bond of the tongue of the dumb was suddenly loosed, and they praised and magnified aloud God, their Creator and Helper! — Seest thou, doubter, further yonder the heaven in wrath wrapping itself in night, and the sea-waves, lashed by a whirlwind, covering the little ship of Peter, and hearest thou therein the piercing cry of despair of the sailors: "Lord, save us: we perish!?" — Behold, JESUS speaks a word, and suddenly the howling storm falls silent; the heaven suddenly grows clear; the raging sea suddenly smooths itself into a bright and quiet mirror, and there arises a great calm, which the seamen break only with the exclamation: "What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?" — Seest thou finally yonder the lifeless body of the twelve-year-old little daughter of a ruler of the synagogue, and father and mother bathing it with their tears? seest thou yonder the pale husk of the young man of Nain being carried to the grave, and the weeping mother following his bier? seest thou finally the body of the brother of the sobbing Mary and Martha, already passed into corruption, yonder in the tomb? — Behold! JESUS spoke a word, and all these dead were alive!

With confidence we, who confess that JESUS Christ is the only-begotten Son of God, can point to these His works and say with Nicodemus: No man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. For these were deeds which infinitely surpass the power of a man, yea, the powers of all created beings; these were works which can be accomplished only through the power of Him who has nature and its laws in His hand, who can make alive as well as kill, and call those things which be not as though they were; in one word: these were miracles. He who does such true miracles proves thereby that he stands in covenant with God Himself; for him God Himself steps forth as witness. But since the holy, true God cannot possibly be a false witness or seal lie and deceit, therefore every true miracle is also an irrefutable proof of the truth of that for the confirmation of which the miracle is performed. By His miracles JESUS has therefore also proved irrefutably that His word is truth, and that therefore we can and must believe also the testimony which He has given of Himself, also that wherein He testifies of Himself that He is He to whom all power is given in heaven and in earth, the Ruler of nature, the Lord Himself over life and death, in short, the only-begotten Son of the Father, who had glory with Him before the world was.

Yet, although the testimony of JESUS concerning Himself is already divinely and therefore indisputably attested by a number of the most glorious miracles, not denied but confirmed by the most embittered enemies, and indeed by whole nations rejecting Him *): so He, the only-begotten Son of God, was yet to have an incomparably greater, more glorious, more brilliant testimony than all those great signs and wonders were; a testimony such as has not been given to any, even of the greatest messengers and prophets of God, and this testimony was His glorious resurrection.

*) However abominable the blasphemies which the Jews have always uttered against JESUS orally and in writing, it is nevertheless a tradition handed down among them also through their Talmud that JESUS did many miracles and even raised the dead; they seek indeed to explain this by saying that JESUS stole the Shem Hamphorasch, that is, the mysterious name of God, out of the Temple. But the more absurd and ridiculous this explanation of the matter is, the more important is this testimony of a whole people which is filled with the most glowing hatred of Christ. — As is well known, the Mohammedans also by no means deny Christ's miracles. In their Koran it is said among other things: "God saith: O thou Jesus, son of Mary, remember my grace toward thee and thy mother; I have equipped thee with the Holy Ghost. By my will thou didst heal one born blind, and a leper, and by my will thou didst bring forth the dead out of their graves." (See: Der Koran, translated by Dr. Ullmann. p. 91. Sura V.)