# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 05 13_S150
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

150

thy footstool. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings, be instructed, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way." Thou wilt not submit thyself to him whom God the Father before all the world has exalted by the resurrection and to whom he has given a name which is above every name; that at the name of JEsus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and in earth, and under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that JEsus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father. Ah, consider, thou who deniest JEsus the honor of adoration, thou strivest against God himself, thou art an enemy of the Almighty, thou art a rebel against the Most High, the Lord of lords, the King of kings; if thou continuest to reject the stone which the builders once rejected and which God himself has made the cornerstone, woe unto thee then forever: This stone, upon which thou shouldest have built thy salvation, will then fall upon thee and grind thee to powder, and thou wilt one day cry Ah and Woe over thy soul under it from everlasting to everlasting.

2.

But, my dear hearers, I hope ye are all sufficiently convinced that the resurrection of JEsus Christ is truly a good, firm ground for us Christians for the joyful confession that Christ is the Son of God and that his word is truth. To the world, however, not only this confession of the Christians is highly offensive, but also the second thing which the Christians do: that they and they alone stand in grace with God. Yea, this is to the world, if not even more offensive, yet quite as offensive as the first.

What? says the world, ye Christians will be God's children alone? God's beloved and elect alone, the holy and pure alone? What? is this your much-vaunted Christian humility? Fie upon the hateful Phariseeism! fie upon the ridiculous pride! What are ye better than we? Are ye not as much sinners as we? — And alas, there are, sad to say, many Christians who allow themselves to be intimidated by such retorts of the unbelieving world, so that he dares not answer cheerfully and confidently: And though ye be ever so much horrified at it, yet we will and can nevertheless not cease to confess: Yea, we are in grace with God, we are his beloved, we are his elect, in spite of sin and world, in spite of death and hell.

Now it is indeed true, if we Christians were to found this our boast upon our works, upon our piety and righteousness, upon our merit and our worthiness, we should have to become red with shame as often as we wished to make this confession; for we must admit to the world, to be sure, that we Christians are by nature not a hair better and worthier than the worst of sinners; we must admit to it that in ourselves, apart from Christ, we are even now just as much as all the children of men poor, miserable, lost sinners, who with their sins have deserved nothing but hell and damnation and are worthy of no love of God, but only of his whole wrath and his eternal hatred. But that we nevertheless step forth so joyfully and confidently, so boldly and defiantly before all the world and, without blushing, can confess: We are nevertheless God's elect children and stand with him in everlasting grace, the reason for this, the good, firm, eternally unchangeable ground, lies nowhere else than — in the resurrection of JEsus Christ, which we commemorate today.

At first sight, indeed, our reconciliation with God and our being received into grace seems to be connected least of all with the resurrection of Christ; but if one considers it more closely, it becomes evident at once that precisely this glorious fact is the true adamantine ground not only of our faith in Christ's divinity, but also of all our comfort, of all our hopes, of our whole salvation. The connection, however, is this: When Christ appeared upon earth, he caused his forerunner to preach concerning him: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world;" and he himself declared not only that he was come to seek and to save that which was lost, but also made known in what manner he would accomplish this; he declared, namely, that he would, as the good shepherd of all the sheep, lay down his life for the sheep, that he would give his body for them into death and shed his blood for the forgiveness of their sins. This he said even in the last night before his death, when he instituted the meal of remembrance of his death. And when at last he hung upon the cross and after unspeakable sufferings the gates of death were already opening to him, he cried with a loud voice: "It is finished!"

Now the question arose: Is it truly finished? — JEsus, indeed, is dead; the great, heavy sacrifice, he has offered it; but is the work which he intended to accomplish thereby truly completed? What does God the Father say to this? is he truly reconciled? is sin truly blotted out? has the divine law truly been satisfied? is the debt truly paid? is the divine justice truly appeased? — And what happened? — After three days the answer to all these questions came down from heaven itself. God the Father, namely, raised again from the dead him whom the burden of our sins had pressed down into the habitation of corruption and who for the sake of our guilt had been cast into the debtors' prison of death; and hereby God the Father has testified before the whole world of sinners and before all the heavens: Yea, it is finished, the work of the redemption of sinners; I am reconciled; my law is fulfilled, the debt is paid; therefore rejoice, ye sinners, ye have found grace; the partition wall which separated me and you is broken down; the gates of hell are shut and the doors of my heaven, my Father's arms, my Father's heart, are opened unto you. Behold him who was your surety and representative in my judgment, I hereby publicly and solemnly release him and pronounce him righteous; therefore rejoice, in him are ye now also righteous; rejoice, exult, ye are free!

This, this is why all believing Christians can now confess before all the world: World, know it, we are truly in grace with God! Doth she say: But are ye not still sinners and therefore debtors? They can answer: No; who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, he has justified our surety, and with him us also. Doth the world say further: But doth not the law still condemn you? they can answer: No; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us; he has fulfilled the law. Doth the world say further: But doth not death await you and doth not hell still threaten you? they can answer: No; our death is no death any more, but the gate of life, and hell? we can laugh at it; for death is swallowed up in victory; O death, where is thy sting? O hell, where is thy victory? — But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord JEsus Christ. Doth the enthusiast say at last: But do ye not feel that ye still have sin? doth not your heart often condemn you still? How can ye then boast of grace and righteousness? they can answer: True, the feeling of sin and guilt still lies heavy as a stone upon our hearts and consciences, presses tears and sighs out of us often still, and would often quench for us the smoking flax of faith; but know, not in our heart do we seek the ground of our comfort; come, go with us into the garden of Joseph of Arimathea, there we will show thee what gives us comfort. What findest thou there? — A grave; in this grave he was shut up who had taken our sins upon him. But behold! the stone is rolled away, the grave is empty, and shining messengers of God call to us: "He is risen!" O blessed tidings! "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" so must every Christian now shout after the heavenly messenger, "the stone is rolled away from the grave of my sins, of my death, of my damnation! my surety is risen, he is free and swings triumphantly his banner of victory.

He it is who comforts me,
Because he has redeemed me;
What I have sinned,
He has buried in the grave,
There he has shut it up,
There it must also remain."

Why then do ye marvel, ye children of this world, that we Christians confess, we are in grace with God, we are righteous? Why do ye marvel? Could but the whole world triumph with us, if it would only recognize what happened today also for its salvation! Christ was indeed the surety of the whole world; when he suffered, it was not otherwise than as if the whole world