# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 04 13_S131
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

131

not at all. For thee quite other exhortations are necessary. Before thou canst strive to become better, thou must first become good. Before thou canst run ever more swiftly on the way to heaven, thou must first be awakened from thy spiritual death and brought upon the way to heaven. To thee, therefore, applies the exhortation of the Apostle Paul: "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." To thee applies first the Pentecost sermon of Peter: Repent, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Thou must first recognize that thou art still a poor, erring, lost sinner, must, like the prodigal son, go into thyself and learn to say: "I will arise and go to my heavenly Father, and will say unto Him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son, thy daughter; make me as one of thy hired servants." When it comes to this with thee, that thou at last goest to God with prayers, sighs and entreaties and seekest grace, then thou wilt first become a child of God, a true son and a true daughter in the house of the heavenly Father, a true Christian, and then the exhortation of the holy Apostle in our Epistle applies also to thee, now also to become ever more complete.

2.

Let us therefore now see, secondly, what the Apostle really demands by this exhortation.

The Apostle himself leaves us in no doubt about it, since he himself adds: "For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord JESUS. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification." From this we see that that in which Christians are to become ever more complete is, in a word: sanctification.

A great, heavy task, then, is it which the holy Apostle herewith sets before all Christians. A Christian is not, accordingly, to think: Thou art now, God be praised! a true Christian, thou hast faith and therefore standest in grace with God, there is now no trouble with thee, thou canst now calmly and without care and toil look forward to a blessed eternity. No, says the Apostle, a Christian is never to think that he is finished; a Christian is never to be satisfied with himself; a Christian is rather to say with Paul: "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ JESUS." A Christian is to be a man of progress; he is therefore never to stand still, but always to seek to press forward. A Christian is always to be found in the diligent doing of God's will, always in the contest for the prize, always in the race for the crown of glory. With every day he is to strive to come nearer to the goal, with every day to become more like Christ, with every day more perfect, in a word: with every day to become more holy. Sanctification in the narrower sense is, however, nothing else than the renewal, following upon justification, into the image of God, after which man was once created by God. To sanctification belong therefore above all three things: 1. an ever greater enlightenment of the understanding, 2. an ever greater purification and renewal of the heart, and finally 3. an ever greater zeal of life in good works.

A Christian is therefore, first, not to think: It is enough if I know only so much of the right doctrine as I absolutely need for being saved. No, says the Apostle, a Christian must strive to become ever more complete in his knowledge. Of a Christian it must be said, as is written in the first Psalm: "His delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night." A Christian must without ceasing search and inquire and study in God's Word, that he may be ever more freed from all errors, may see ever better through the whole counsel of God for our salvation, may recognize ever more clearly the connection of the revealed doctrines, may distinguish ever better the pure doctrine from the false, and to the question: Of what faith art thou? may answer ever better, more thoroughly and more completely, and may convince the gainsayers ever more clearly and plainly and refute them ever more powerfully. Christians are to strive earnestly that, as the Apostle writes to the Ephesians, they "all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that they henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive."

A Christian is, further, not to think: If only I do not fall into gross sins whereby I lose God's grace, if only I remain in the good state in which I have now been placed by God's grace. No, says the Apostle in our Epistle, if thou wilt be a Christian, thou shalt also become ever more complete in the purification and renewal of thy heart. Wherever there is still an impurity, wherever still a wickedness, wherever still a corruption, wherever still something ungodly shows itself in thy heart, that shalt thou, as the Israelites the leaven at the Passover, seek with all earnestness to sweep out of all the corners of thy heart. Of thy weaknesses also shalt thou seek to rid thyself, and strive to become ever stronger in faith and more resigned to God's will, ever more heavenly-minded and more joyful in God, ever more humble before God and men, ever more ardent and unselfish in love, ever chaster in thy desires, ever more gentle, ever more watchful over thy thoughts.

But a Christian is finally also not to think: If only I live so that I give offense to no one. No, says the Apostle, if thou wilt be a Christian, thou must also become ever more complete in zeal of life in good works. Thou must become ever more zealous in the service of God, ever more zealous in prayer, ever more zealous in hearing and reading the Word of God, ever more frank in the confession of thy faith, ever more faithful in thy office and calling; ever more friendly and obliging and peaceable toward everyone; ever more forgiving toward thine enemies and ever more sincere toward thy friends; ever more conscientious in thy dealings and conduct; ever more generous and beneficent toward thy poorer brethren; ever more sympathetic and self-sacrificing for the cause of the Church and of the kingdom of God; in a word: thou must strive ever more earnestly, not only to give no offense, but also to become an example to everyone and to let thy "light shine before men, that they may see thy good works, and glorify thy Father which is in heaven."

Behold, that, that is what the holy Apostle demands when he exhorts the Christians at Thessalonica, and all who are and wish to be Christians, that they become ever more "complete."

3.

The question now arises: But how: should it really be so necessary to obey this exhortation? — This important question let me answer for you in conclusion.

To this I must at once answer: Yes, it is indeed most necessary for every Christian that he become ever more complete, and that first because, as the Apostle says in our Epistle, our sanctification is God's will and commandment. "For this," says he, "is the will of God, even our sanctification." It is indeed true, by sanctification no one is first to be saved; salvation is a gift of grace. It is further indeed true, he who stands in faith in Christ, to him God has forgiven all his sins, and God is ready to forgive him also hereafter all the sins which he shall yet commit during his whole life. — Yes, in holy Baptism we are already washed from all the sins of our whole life. For repentance is not a new means of becoming saved: but the return to the ship of our Baptism, which we had forsaken, but which, though we become wavering and apostate, stands fast for us, and in which, if we again lay hold of it in faith, we can still steer across the raging ocean of the sinful world toward the safe haven of eternal life. But however gracious and kind God is, He is yet also a holy God. He cannot therefore love or endure sin, He must hate and abhor it, and only in purity and holiness can He have His good pleasure. Therefore it is and remains His earnest, eternal will that Christians, whose sins He has forgiven, be ever more cleansed from sins