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TWENTY-SECOND
SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
Forgiveness;
November 8, 1998
"If
the question is put, 'Why did God ordain so many means of grace when one
suffices to confer upon the sinner His grace and forgiveness?' we quote the
reply of Luther who writes (Smalcald Articles, IV: 'The Gospel not merely in
one way gives us counsel and aid against sin, for God is superabundantly rich
in His grace. First through the spoken Word, by which the forgiveness of sins
is preached in the whole world, which is the peculiar office of the Gospel.
Secondly through Baptism. Thirdly through the holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Fourthly through the power of the keys and also through the mutual conversation
and consolation of brethren, Matthew 18:20.'"
John Theodore Mueller, Christian Dogmatics, A Handbook of Doctrinal
Theology, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934, p. 447.
"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. Tappert, p.
418.
Dr. Luther, Large Catechism: "Again: With this
Word you can strengthen your conscience and say: If a hundred thousand devils,
together with all fanatics, should rush forward, crying, How can bread and wine
be the body and blood of Christ? I know that all spirits and scholars together
are not as wise as is the Divine Majesty in His little finger. Now, here stands
the Word of Christ: 'Take, eat; this is My body. Drink ye all of this'...Here
we abide, and would like to see those who will constitute themselves His
masters, and make it different from what He has spoken."
Formula of Concord, Epitome,
Article VII, Lord's Supper, 22, Concordia
Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 979. Tappert, p.
573.
"The objection that absolution is God's
prerogative (Mark 2:7) is beside the mark, since the minister forgives sins not
in his own name, but in God's name."
Th. Engelder, et. al., Popular Symbolics, St. Louis: Concordia
Publishing House, 1934, p. 113.
"Wherever the means of grace are present, there
the Lord Himself is present, and where the Lord rules there is victory. The
true doctrine of justification is intimately bound up with the true doctrine of
the means of grace. In order to keep the doctrine of justification in all its
purity, one must ever maintain that the forgiveness of sins which Christ earned
for mankind can never be appropriated by man through any other means than the
Word and the Sacrament. Therefore, Walther said, the correct doctrine on
justification stands or falls with the correct doctrine concerning the means of
grace."
Edwin E. Pieplow, "The
Means of Grace," The Abiding Word,
ed., Theodore Laetsch, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1946, II, p. 327.
V. Mueller Catechism:
"Although the work of redemption was
accomplished on the cross and forgiveness of sin acquired, yet it cannot come
to us in any other way than through the Word. For what would we otherwise know
about it that such a thing was accomplished or was to be given to us if it were
not presented by preaching, or the oral Word?"
Eduard Preuss, "The
Means of Grace," The Justification
of the Sinner before God, trans., Julius A. Friedrich, Chicago: F.
Allerman, 1934, p. 59.
"If we call Sacraments rites which have the command of God, and to which the promise of grace has been added, it is easy to decide what are properly Sacraments...Therefore Baptism, the Lord's Supper, and Absolution, which is the Sacrament of Repentance, are truly Sacraments. For these rites have God's command and the promise of grace, which is peculiar to the New Testament. For when we are baptized, when we eat the Lord's body, when we are absolved, our hearts must be firmly assured that God truly forgives us for Christ's sake. And God, at the same time, by the Word and by the rite, moves hearts to believe and conceive faith, just as Paul says, Romans 10:17: 'Faith cometh by hearing.' But just as the Word enters the ear in order to strike our heart, so the rite itself strikes the eye, in order to move the heart. The effect of the Word and of the rite is the same..."
[Luther, Bab Captivity, 3
sacraments] Article XIII, Number/Use Sacraments, Apology of the Augsburg
Confession, Concordia Triglotta, St.
Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 309. Tappert, p. 211.
"These are the last and mad times of a world
grown old."
Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent,
trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1971, I, p.
50.
"Contrition
is altogether necessary in those who truly and earnestly repent. For there can
be no true repentance in those who, persuaded of their own holiness, dream that
they are without sin, or who disregard, minimize, excuse, cloak, and defend
their sins, despise or ridicule the divine threats, do not care about the wrath
of God, are not moved by His judgment and displeasure, and therefore persevere
and continue in sins against their conscience, delight in sins, and seek and
seize occasions for sinning and for whatever they intentionally heap up without
the fear of God--in them, I say, there can be no true repentance...."
Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent,
trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, II, p.
581.
"We
have now sowed a little of the Word, and this the devil cannot stand, for he
never sleeps; the worms and the beetles will come and infect it. Yet so it must
be, Christ will prove His Word, and examine who have received it and who not.
Therefore let us remain on the right road to the kingdom of Christ, and not go
about with works and urge and force the works of the law, but only with the
words of the Gospel which comfort the conscience: Be happy, be of good cheer,
thy sins are forgiven."
Sermons of Martin Luther,
8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, V,
p. 201.
"Regret, the little black dog of a belated
repentance, does not stop barking and biting the conscience, even though you
know your sins are forgiven."
What Luther Says, An
Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing
House, 1959, III, p. 1214. Genesis 37:18-20.
"But
the sinners who confess their sins, and are repentant, who wish they had not so
angered God, who find all their concern and sorrow in the fact that they have
offended God and have not kept His Commandments and, therefore, pray for
grace--these sinners shall find grace."
What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass,
St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, II, p. 694.
"Also the objection that there is no need of
offering and confirming to Christians one and the same forgiveness of sins in
several ways betrays an astonishing ignorance. Both Scripture and experience
teach that men who feel the weight of their sins find nothing harder to believe
than the forgiveness of their sins. Hence repetition of the assurance of the
forgiveness of sins in various ways through the means of grace meets a
practical need of Christians."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans.,
Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p.
114.