# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 03 19_S115
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

115

together with the promise: "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." The extraordinary gifts and arrangements which were necessary for the founding and first rapid spread of the Church, and were therefore bestowed upon her in the time of the Apostles, have indeed for the most part ceased; but as for the means of obtaining grace, forgiveness of sins, and salvation, these have remained with the Church; whoever therefore maintains that the Church has no longer any power, in the name of her Lord and in His stead, to forgive sins through her servants, denies thereby that there is still a Church in the world. This is and remains, then, a great and abominable error. Let a man turn and twist as he will: he commits thereby the dreadful sin of contradicting Christ, the Son of God, to His face and of giving His word the lie. —

But this error is also so great and ruinous for this reason, that thereby, secondly, the perfection of the redemption of Christ is denied.

True, the truth is also not seldom spoken by the fanatical sectarian preachers that Christ has perfectly redeemed all men; but one must not let oneself be blinded and persuaded by this, as if they really believed and proclaimed this truth. It is only too evident that, when they once utter this truth, they contradict it a thousand times over by their whole manner of teaching concerning the way to salvation, and in fact deny it. For what does that mean: Christ has perfectly redeemed us? — It means: Christ has already done and suffered for us everything that we should have done and suffered in order to obtain salvation; for, says the Scripture, "He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. If one died for all, then were all dead. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." (2 Cor. 5, 21. 14.; Rom. 5, 18.) When Christ, expiring on the cross, had paid the penalties of the sins of all men, then in fact we men had all of us already paid them; and when Christ was publicly and solemnly released, absolved, and justified from all guilt by His Father, as a former debtor, through the resurrection from the dead, then in fact we men were all of us already released, absolved, and justified by God; therefore St. Paul writes: Christ "was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." Rom. 4, 25.

The treasure of grace, of the forgiveness of sins and of salvation, is therefore already acquired for all, and has already been delivered to the Church, with the Word and the holy Sacraments, for distribution. We men are therefore not first to blot out our sins; Christ has already blotted them out; we are not first to fight for the forgiveness of them; Christ has already fought for it for us; we are not first to reconcile God; Christ has already reconciled God with us; we are not first to win God's grace for ourselves; Christ has already won it for us; we are not first to earn for ourselves a righteousness that avails before God; Christ has already earned it for us; we are not first to overcome death and hell; Christ has already overcome both for us; we are not first to obtain salvation for ourselves by the fulfilling of the Law; Christ has already obtained it for us thereby; we are not first to procure for ourselves, by our worthiness, entrance into heaven; Christ has already procured it for us by His worthiness; in short, we are not first to accomplish the work of our redemption, for Christ has already accomplished all, has drained the bitter cup of our deserved sufferings to the last drop, has paid the sum of our debt before God to the last farthing, has fulfilled the will of God to the last letter. — What follows now from this? — From this it follows that this also can be preached to all men, yea, shall and must be preached, and that the Gospel consists precisely in this, that one proclaims to all: Be glad, ye sinners, Christ has already blotted out your sins, Christ has already fought for the forgiveness of your sins, Christ has already reconciled you with God, Christ has already won God's grace for you, Christ has already earned for you a righteousness that avails before God, Christ has already overcome death and hell for you, Christ has already obtained salvation for you by His fulfilling of the Law, Christ has already procured for you by His worthiness entrance into heaven; in short, Christ has already perfectly accomplished the work of your redemption! Think not, therefore, that by any suffering, by your contrition, by your repentance, by your tears, by your wrestling and striving you must first reconcile God, first move Him to grace, or first make atonement for your sins; think not that by any good work, by your amendment, sanctification, and own righteousness you must merit something with God and so make yourselves blessed — no! — all is already done! — ye are to do nothing but to accept what Christ has suffered and done for you and has already given you, to appropriate it to yourselves, to comfort yourselves therewith, to build and trust thereon, in short, to believe it from the heart, to walk and abide in this faith, to die in this faith, and so at last to pass from this faith into sight and be saved. It is therefore clear, since Christ has already perfectly redeemed all men, that the Gospel is nothing other than a preaching of the forgiveness of sins to all men upon earth, to which God Himself in heaven says His Yea and Amen; it is, in a word, a general absolution brought to the whole world by men from heaven, sealed with Christ's blood and death, and by Christ's resurrection not only confirmed by God Himself in the most glorious and solemn manner, but already once actually pronounced. But since the Gospel, by virtue of the perfect redemption of Christ that has taken place, is the absolution of all men, there can naturally no longer be any question whether this or that man can receive a valid absolution from a preacher of the Gospel; for what I am to proclaim to the whole world, that I can naturally proclaim also to every individual who belongs to the world. At this point many a reader will indeed think: What? Shall even the impenitent be absolved, and would an absolution spoken to an impenitent person therefore also be valid? To this we answer: The absolution remains valid and effectual even when it is spoken to a Judas, for even Judas is already perfectly redeemed through Christ and already justified and absolved by God Himself in Christ: if it were therefore possible (but it is impossible) that an impenitent person, as such, should believe from the heart the absolution spoken to him, he would also thereby, as such, lay hold of the divine forgiveness; and if an impenitent person at that moment goes into himself, and at that moment, when the absolution is spoken to him, comes to a spark of faith, he has therein also the divine forgiveness as certainly as Christ died for him and was raised by the Father in his stead. It is, to be sure, another question whether a preacher of the Gospel should give absolution to one manifestly impenitent. To this question we say no; not because the absolution spoken to an impenitent person would be invalid, but because he would nevertheless despise it and thrust it from him, and thereby only sin the more and bring upon himself a greater condemnation. Therefore Christ gave to His servants and to the stewards of His mysteries the command: "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." Matth. 7, 6. There is, then, always the holy thing and the pearl of forgiveness, as often as a man is absolved; it is there by virtue of the perfect redemption of Christ; never, never can a man, when he is absolved, be in doubt whether he is really absolved, in whatever condition he may find himself; the absolution always opens heaven, always opens the divine Father-heart, always spreads the arms of divine compassion before the sinner: the only question then can be whether the absolved person also accepted the divine forgiveness received or not; and this again depends upon whether he believed it or not. Therefore Luther writes, as we have already mentioned elsewhere: "Therefore