The Second Sunday after Trinity

                  

Luke 7:11-17

 

"But Christ was given for this purpose, namely, that for His sake there might be bestowed on us the remission of sins, and the Holy Ghost to bring forth in us new and eternal life, and eternal righteousness [to manifest Christ in our hearts, as it is written John 16:15:  'He shall take of the things of Mine, and show them unto you.'  Likewise, He works also other gifts, love, thanksgiving, charity, patience, etc.].  Wherefore the Law cannot be truly kept unless the Holy Ghost is given."

            Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article IV, Justification, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis:  Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 159. Tappert, p. 125. Romans 3:31; John 16:15.            

 

"But as the Confutation condemns us for having assigned these two parts to repentance, we must show that [not we, but] Scripture expresses these as the chief parts in repentance and conversion.  For Christ says, Matthew 11:28:  Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Here there are two members.  The labor and the burden signify the contrition, anxiety, and terrors of sin and of death.  To come to Christ is to believe that sins are remitted for Christ's sake; when we believe, our hearts are quickened by the Holy Ghost through the Word of Christ.  Here, therefore, there are these two chief parts, contrition and faith."

            Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XII (V), #44, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis:  Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 263. Tappert, p. 187.  

 

Need for Forgiveness

"For now we are only half pure and holy, so that the Holy Ghost has ever [some reason why] to continue His work in us through the Word, and daily to dispense forgiveness, until we attain to that life where there will be no more forgiveness, but only perfectly pure and holy people, full of godliness and righteousness, removed and free from sin, death, and all evil, in a new, immortal, and glorified body."

            The Large Catechism, The Creed, Article III, #58, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis:  Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 693.

 

Who Has the Word?

"The Church has no word of its own.  Whatever is not taken from Scripture is not the 'Word of the Church,' but what Luther bluntly calls 'prattle.'  Also other books can exert a divine power and efficacy, but always only inasmuch as they have absorbed God's Word.  Of Scripture Luther says:  'No book teaches anything concerning eternal life except this one alone' (St. Louis edition XIV:434)."

            Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans. Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis:  Concordia Publishing House, 1950, I,  p. 315.