SYNODICAL CONFERENCE – 1872

by C.F.W. Walther

   This translation is by BackToLuther referencing previous translations by Prof. Kurt Marquart and by the Lutheran Standard magazine from 1872 to 1874.  It also utilized available free online translation services from Google Translate, Microsoft Translator and PROMT Online-Translator.com.

   This version is intended to have the same emphasis of text as the original published German.  It will not have added emphasis or comments by the translator except to insert synchronizing notations of the original text and of the other 2 translations.  Some paragraph breaks have been added similar to the other English translations.

[SCR xx] == Synodical Conference Report; [KM xx] == Kurt Marquart translation; [LS xxx-x] == Lutheran Standard translation

BackToLuther, December 31, 2013

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[SCR 20]

A further subject which actively employed the Conference were the following theses

ON THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION.

To this absolutely essential doctrine the Conference devoted seven of its sessions, with particular reference to a controversy waged between the Norwegian Lutherans and the Augustana Synod.

Thesis 1: "The doctrine of justification is the most distinguished chief article of the Christian faith,  whose right knowledge for the salvation of individuals and whose clear proclamation for the welfare of the church as a whole is of incomparable importance and unconditional necessity."

Thesis 2: "The Reformation of the Church through Dr. Luther had its starting point in a renewed understanding, by God's grace, of the pure evangelical doctrine of justification and in the consequent uncorrupted proclamation of this article of faith."

Thesis 3: "In the pure doctrine of justification, as our Lutheran church has presented it again from God's Word and placed it on the lampstand, it is above all about these three points: 1) About the doctrine of the universal, perfect redemption of the world through Christ; 2) About the doctrine of the power and effectiveness of the means of grace; and 3) About the doctrine of faith."

These three theses are largely of an introductory nature, and what is emphasized here is that the article of justification is the kernel and [SCR 21] star of all doctrine, into which all other doctrines have grown into and from which they also flow back out.  

On this article rests all salvation, and therefore it is absolutely necessary for every Christian. It would not help if one would precisely know all other doctrines, such as of the Holy Trinity, of the person of Christ etc., if this be not known and believed.  An error in any other article would not cause as great a damage for the soul of the Christian as [LS XXX/21, 163-2] an error in this doctrine. And as it is with the individual Christian, so also it is related to the whole church. This article is indispensible for her if she is to lead souls out of the devil's power into God's Kingdom. When we speak of justification, we are speaking of the Christian religion, for the doctrine of the Christian religion is none other than the revelation of God about how one becomes righteous before God and is saved through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. All other religions show other ways which are supposed to lead to heaven. The one requires doing good works and so earning heaven; the other demands being virtuous, or being useful to the world, in order to obtain salvation. The Christian religion alone shows another way to heaven through its doctrine of justification, and therefore something unheard and unimaginable for the entire world, thoughts which had been hidden in the heart of God before the foundation of the world. Therefore all other doctrines lose their meaning, if the doctrine of justification is not right. It can be indifferent to us whether the nature of God consists in three [KM 2] or six Persons, as long as we must fear Him as the jealous God over us sinners. Only then, when we poor sinners from grace through Christ know and believe that we are reconciled with God the Father that righteousness is obtained,  and alone through faith which the Holy Spirit alone works, only then does the doctrine of the Holy Trinity become a doctrine full of consolation and salvation. Whoever therefore attacks this doctrine, attacks for us the whole doctrine, the whole Bible, the whole Christian religion. As long as this doctrine is perfectly pure among us, no error in other points can adhere to us. It is as Luther says repeatedly: "This doctrine suffers no error." It is the sun in the sky of the church, and where it rises, all shadows must disappear. Our Book of Concord says about this in the Apology, Article 4:

But since in this controversy the chief topic of Christian doctrine is treated, which, understood aright, illumines and amplifies the honor of Christ [which is of especial service for the clear, correct understanding of the entire Holy Scriptures, and alone shows the way to the unspeakable treasure and right knowledge of Christ, and alone opens the door to the entire Bible], and brings necessary and most abundant consolation to devout consciences, we ask ….  For since the adversaries  [SCR 22]  understand neither the forgiveness of sins, nor what faith, nor what grace, nor what righteousness is, they sadly corrupt this topic, and obscure the glory and benefits of Christ, and rob devout consciences of the consolations offered in Christ. (Apol. IV, 2, 3, Triglotta pg 121, Tappert, p. 107).

We must repeat these words  in our time. Not only have then the Papists defiled shameful this fountain of salvation, but the same was done again by all the sects which arose after the Reformation. Of course nowadays this is largely no longer believed. But we must vigorously oppose the unionism of our time, when it is so easy to be seduced into believing: In the doctrine of justification we are of course united with the Methodists, Presbyterians, etc., although admittedly not in the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, of the Person of Christ, etc. We must testify it that no shadow  of the right doctrine of justification is found in the teaching systems peculiar to the sects. Admittedly, they also pronounce the words: We become righteous only by grace through faith; but hardly they have said this, than they point man to his repentance, his struggling and contending, his holiness, and it becomes apparent after all that they want to bring man to heaven through his own efforts. But whoever does that takes from us the divine Light which alone can shine for us in this world's night of sin, and leaves us in terrible darkness.  Therefore: "Of this article nothing can be yielded or surrendered [nor can anything be granted or permitted contrary to the same], even though heaven and earth, and whatever will not abide, should sink to ruin. For there is none other name  [LS XXX/21, 163-3] under heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved, says Peter, Acts 4:12. And with His stripes we are healed, Is. 53:5. And upon this article all things depend which we teach and practice in opposition to the Pope, the devil, and the [whole] world. Therefore, we must be sure concerning this doctrine, and not doubt; for otherwise all is lost, and the Pope and devil and all things gain the victory and suit over us." (Smalcald Articles, Part II, Article I, 5; Triglotta pgs 462-463, Tappert, p. 292).

[KM 3]

These words we all should know by heart. On account of this article the pope calls us heretics and the sects say that when we preach it, we are hindering conversion and making people carnally secure.  They prevail against us therefore, as soon as we yield to them in this article. The Formula of Concord says in the article of justification:

This article concerning justification by faith (as the Apology says) is the chief article in the entire Christian doctrine, without which no poor conscience can have any firm consolation, or can truly know the riches of the grace of Christ, as Dr. Luther also has written: If this only article remains pure on the battlefield, the Christian Church also remains pure, and in goodly harmony and without any sects; but if it does not remain pure, it is not possible that any error  [SCR 23] or fanatical spirit can be resisted. And concerning this article especially Paul says that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Therefore, in this article he urges with so much zeal and earnestness the particulas exclusivas, that is, the words whereby the works of men are excluded (namely, without Law, without works, by grace [freely], Rom. 3:28; 4:5; Eph. 2:8-9), in order to indicate how highly necessary it is that in this article, aside from [the presentation of] the pure doctrine, the antithesis, that is, all contrary dogmas, be stated separately, exposed, and rejected by this means. (Formula of Concord, Solid Declarations, Righteousness of Faith, parag. # 6, Triglotta pg. 917, Tappert, p. 540)

First then the dispute against false doctrine for the individual Christian wins practical meaning, if he sees how through the falsification of other points also this doctrine could not remain pure. Luther quite beautifully traces out in his book of councils and churches, that for example with the Nestorian-Zwinglian doctrine of the Person of Christ, the doctrine of justification cannot possibly remain pure.(*)  So he proves that the doctrine of justification is indeed destroyed by the ungodly Reformed doctrine that not God died on the cross, but only the Man Christ. Let someone who hangs on to this error try to comfort himself in the hour of death with the blood of a mere man! There [KM 4] nothing gives comfort as the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, shed for the sins of the world, whereof one drop is worth more than all money, goods, and work of men, yes, more than heaven and earth. However one could also show that with all articles, that where one is attacked, therefore at the same time the doctrine of justification is attacked. This article is often called the articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae (the article of the standing and falling church), and this it also is.  Luther also speaks about this: "This is the highest article of our faith. If now it is either taken [SCR 24] 

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*) "We Christians," he writes, “Christians should know that if God is not in the scale to give it weight, we, on our side, sink to the ground. I mean it this way: if it cannot be said that God died for us, but only a man, we are lost; but if God’s death and a dead God lie in the balance, his side goes down and ours goes up like a light and empty scale" (American Edition 41, pgs 103-104, St. Louis Edition 16, pg 2231, paragraph 169 [Google Books], Walch XVI, 2728, parag. 169). Luther writes similarly of the Zwinglian alloeosis, according to which Scripture is supposed to name the Divinity, but mean the humanity: "Beware, beware, I say, of the alloeosis; it is the devil's mask. For it finally prepares the sort of Christ after Whom I should not very much like to be a Christian, namely that Christ should henceforth be no more, nor do anything more with His suffering and life than some other mere saint. For if I believe this, that only the human nature has suffered for me, then Christ is a poor Saviour to me; indeed He then likely is Himself in need of a Saviour. . . His vanity and the accursed alloeosis have brought him to the point where he divides the Person of Christ, and leaves us no other Christ than a mere man to have died for us and redeemed us. What Christian heart can hear or tolerate this sort of thing? Thereby the whole Christian faith and all the world's salvation are taken away completely, and the world is damned. For whoever is redeemed through humanity alone, will nevermore be redeemed" (Great Confession, St. Louis Edition 20, pg 942-943, parag. 122, pg 964, parag. 177,  [Google Books], Walch XX, 1180, parag. 122, 1206 f., parag. 177; American Edition 37, pgs 209-210, 231 ).

[SCR 24] 

away, as the Jews do, or corrupt it, as the papists do, the church cannot exist. Nor can God keep His glory, which consists in this, that He is compassionate and wants to forgive sins and to save for the sake of His Son." (On Gen. 21:17; St. Louis Ed., vol. 1, pg 1441, parag. 212;  American Edition vol. 4, pg 60). Further: "So long as the church confessed this article, she remained in the faith; and the faith was brighter in one age and darker in another. He Himself says in Mt. 28:20: I am with you always, till the end of the world. Without this article the church does not stand. Mohammed indeed devastated the church, and the pope obscured the doctrine of faith, but where this article remained, there God preserved His church" (St. Louis Edition 6, pg 721, parag. 200, Walch VI, 1156, parag. 200; this is not in American. Edition. vol. 17, which is based on Weimar Edition–too bad for Weimar).  Further: "This doctrine, I say, they (the Papists) will not tolerate under any circumstances; we are able to forego it just as little. For if this doctrine vanishes, the church vanishes. and no error can be resisted, because without this article the Holy Spirit [LS XXX/21, 164-1] will not and cannot be with us.  For he is to glorify Christ to us [John 16:14]. The world has often gone to wrack and ruin over this doctrine by deluge, tempest, flood, war, and other plagues. On account of this doctrine Abel and all the saints were slain; on account of this, too, all Christians must die. Yet it has remained, and it must remain, and the world must continue to perish on account of it. Thus the world must also submit to it now and be overthrown on account of it. No matter how the world rages and rants, it must let this doctrine stand, and it must fall into the depths of hell on account of it! . Amen" (St. Louis Edition, 16, pg 1664, parag. 94; Walch XVI, 2015, parag. 94; American Edition vol 47, pg 54).

Further, on Isaiah 42:22: "Therefore this article of justification, which we alone nowadays teach, is to be learnt with care and preserved. For if we have lost this article, we shall be able to resist no heresy, no false doctrine, no matter how ridiculous and vain it were; just as it used to be the case under the papacy, when we believed such things of which we are now ashamed and of which we repent. Again, if we remain with this article, then we are safe from heresy and retain the forgiveness of sins, which does not hold our weakness in behaviour and faith against us" (St. Louis Edition 6, pg 521, paragraph 44, Walch VI, 827, parag. 44; not included in American Edition vol. 17 which is based on Weimar Edition). Further, Luther writes to Brenz: "This point is the chief part and the cornerstone, which alone gives birth to the church of God, and strengthens, builds, preserves and defends her; and without it the church of God cannot survive one hour" (St. Louis Edition 14, pg 168 [Google Books], Walch XIV, 191, paragraph 4).

That the article of justification is the one of the standing and falling church is very easy to prove to those who have the right doctrine of the church. Since what, after all, is the church? It is the whole body of believing Christians. There is the church, therefore, where Christ rules and reigns in grace; but He reigns in the heart of man, so  that He offers and gives him grace. Wherever He has conquered a heart, there is His Kingdom. Therefore where there are born-again, living Christians, there is his church.  Now, however, no one becomes a true, reborn Christian without this doctrine of justification.. Every other doctrine can make great [SCR 25] Pharisees – but not Christians. Such a one becomes a Christian only through the Holy Ghost having it made manifest in the heart that one is truly redeemed through Christ, has forgiveness of sins, a reconciled heavenly Father, the righteousness which counts before God, and can therefore be [KM 5] confident upon one's death-bed.  Everything else which does not lead to this assurance, begets hypocrisy and godlessness.  Therefore it is not the high art of human wisdom that is necessary to show people the way to heaven, but above all the faithful adherence to this article.  If only he who stands in the pulpit retains this article pure, if only his whole sermon is dominated by this thought, that one must be saved only through Christ: if he would then slip here and there in form or even in expression, that would do no harm; whereas another who does not live and move in this article, may indeed  can preach quite nicely and properly according to form, but nevertheless fails to lead his congregation to true consolation, to the necessary joyfulness. He may perhaps wonder himself, and his congregation with him, be surprised that the fruit will not follow; only Christ is indeed absent – where there are Christians, there is Christ’s Church, where he is not, there is also no Church.

[LS XXX/22, 169-2: Lutheran Standard, Nov. 15, 1872] 

In the second thesis it is pointed out how it was just this doctrine of justification out of which God began His work of Reformation through Luther. Luther would have never become the Reformer of the Church, if he would not have the true knowledge of just this article. Before him lived many which also wanted to reform the church, but it is apparent that they lacked just this foundation, from which alone the Church can be reformed, and so they were not successful. But it pleased God to let this light dawn upon Luther, and to lead him from there to ever greater clarity. He worked in him a despairing of his own merits and led him little by little–partly through the reading of Holy Scripture and partly through the writings of Augustine–to embrace the merit of Christ, and in this way to the realization of how a hellish darkness prevailed in the Papacy;  he saw that it was taught there–in direct contradiction to the doctrine of justification through Christ–that man is to become righteous through the work of the Law, and that the Gospel was made into a new kind of Law. The course which God conducted Luther, becomes evident from the following passage in Luther's writings:

I indeed had a sincere yearning and desire to understand St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans properly. And nothing had till then prevented this, except only the single little words justitia Dei (righteousness of God) in the first chapter, verse 17, where Paul says: the righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel. I was very hostile towards this word "righteousness of God," and according to the usage and custom of all doctors I was not otherwise informed and [SCR 26] instructed than that I had to understand it in the philosophical manner of the sort of righteousness in which God is righteous in Himself, does and works right, and punishes all sinners and unrighteous ones, which righteousness is called the essential (formalem) or actual (activam) righteousness. Now things stood thus with me: Although I lived as a holy and blameless monk, I nevertheless considered myself a great sinner before God, and in addition I had an anxious and restless conscience, and could not make bold to reconcile God with my satisfaction and merits. For this reason I did not at all love this [KM 6] righteous and wrathful God, Who punishes sin, but I hated Him and (though this neither was nor is to be regarded as blasphemy) was secretly and with real earnestness angry with God, saying often: Is it not enough for God that He, beside the Law's threats and terrors, places all sorts of misery and sorrow of this life upon us poor, miserable sinners, who are already condemned to eternal death through original sin? Must He yet increase this misery and heartache through the Gospel, and through the preaching and voice of the same further threaten and proclaim His righteousness and earnest [LS XXX/22, 169-3] wrath? Here I was often infuriated in my confused conscience; yet I would repeatedly ponder what dear Paul meant at this place, and had a hearty thirst and desire to know it. With such thoughts I spent day and night, till through God's grace I noticed how the words were connected, namely thus: The righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel, as it is written: the righteous one lives of his faith. From this I learnt to understand this righteousness of God, in which the righteous one by God's grace and gift lives solely out of faith, and I realized that this was the Apostle's meaning: through the Gospel there is revealed that righteousness which is valid before God, in which God justifies us out of grace and pure mercy through faith. This is called in Latin justitia passiva, as it is written: the righteous one lives of his faith. Here I felt at once that I had been born quite anew, and had now found a wide-open door, leading into Paradise itself. And now the dear holy Scripture looked quite different to me than before. I soon ran through the whole Bible, as much as I could remember of it, and gathered together according to this rule all its interpretations also of other terms, such as: God's work, that means what God Himself works in us; God's power, with which He makes us strong and powerful; God's wisdom, with which He makes us wise; likewise the others: God's strength, God's salvation, God's glory, and the like. Now, just as I had before earnestly hated this little word, "God's righteousness," so now I began, on the contrary, to esteem the same highly, as my very dearest and most comforting word, and that place in [SCR 27] St. Paul was for me the very gate of Paradise (St. Louis Edition 14, pgs 446-448 [Google Books] , Walch XIV, 460-462, American Edition 34, pg 336-337).

Also with the words, "in my heart there rules alone and shall rule this single article",  (St. Louis Edition 9, pg 8, parag. 1, [HathiTrust], Walch VIII, 1529, parag. 9, American Edition 27, pg 145)   Luther expressed clearly enough that nothing other than this doctrine had directed him in the Reformation. Also in other lands and ages, it was this doctrine which renewed the Church.  Luther had indeed soon recognized many abominations of the papacy, but he still entertained the false doctrine concerning the Church, and meanwhile still had the false doctrine of the Church and thought what was he that he should dare to rebel against the holy Church? That he may nevermore do; rather he must crouch down. Only when he clearly realized that the righteousness which is revealed in the Gospel is that which God gives and with which He makes the sinner righteous, were the gates of Paradise opened to him, and now he was able to stand up to the papacy like a hero to stand up to the papacy and all its temptations. But how it goes when one no longer has this pure doctrine, is very evident in this country. What abominable and nonsensical errors arise and find supporters nevertheless! Why? Because if someone no longer has the right standard [KM 7] for truth and error, he may well think at first: the passages on which the errorists rely can hardly say what is alleged of them.  But if he falls into the hands of a clever fox, who knows how to make the matter plausible to him, he yet falls into the error.  We must therefore have a standard which, if we are directed by it, makes it impossible for us to accept an error. But this standard is the doctrine of justification. Whoever [LS XXX/22, 170-1] has recognized it, laughs at all learned unbelieving and half-believing professors with all their eloquence and learning, if they teach falsely; if, what they establish and announce does not harmonize with the truth of the child’s saying, “The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanseth us from all sin,” even the most simple treads it under foot, and calls it devil's dung, no matter how great an aura of wisdom or holiness it may have. That was the reason why Luther became such an insurmountable Reformer. If he had failed here, a man like Erasmus could have vanquished him with ease.   Because he stood, however, on this rock, he laughed at the pope’s  scholars, and at Zwingli as well. When new, delusive spirits presented themselves, he tried them according to this article,  and if they did not accord with it, he said: Depart to him who sent you. But this doctrine must be taken up by us in such a manner that it becomes the principle of our faith, of our life, and of the whole administration of our office--then also our congregations will become confident and cheerful, for when they notice that we make them certain of their salvation, then we are their best friends. For what are they profited by eloquent orators, popular preachers, dignified ministers?  Certainly very little.  But if they can say: our pastor has made us certain of our salvation, we know [SCR 28]  now in whom we believed: then they have the “best part” for time and eternity; then also they will no longer consider churches and synods as clerical institutions which consume much, but don't benefit anybody, but they know then that it is always a matter of bearing to them and to the whole world the good news: You are redeemed and saved! Only believe it, only accept it! And they willingly help then to spread this message with their gifts.

[KM paragraph; LS paragraph]

As important as this doctrine is, it can nevertheless be preached in its fulness and in all its power, in its clarity and rich comfort, also by such as are less gifted. When the Reformation began, what preachers had been there?  What sort of troops were there to oppose the devil and his kingdom? It looked miserable enough in this respect, so that from a human point of view one would have had to say: Poor Luther, retire to your cell, and hide yourself, for with your poor bankrupt little priests you will accomplish never a whit.  But lo, they possessed the article of Justification in its purity, that man becomes righteous by grace through faith alone, and thereby they were an unconquerable and victorious force. It is the same with us today.  However many poor young students may go forth from our institutions, who are so weak that if one compares them with those who were graduated 200 years ago, one might despair--yet we need not despair. For even the weakest, if only he has grasped the doctrine that the grace of God has appeared in Christ Jesus for all people and is grasped by faith, can preach to the people in such a way that they become certain of their salvation. And that outweighs all the wisdom and all the gifts and all the treasures of the world. Such preachers, too, will never run out of subject matter. They will always know to speak of that which God has, by grace, done for us, and that will give them ever new joy. For what is all learning, necessary as it is in its place, compared to the [KM 8] wisdom of God, which is proclaimed if only the text "God so loved the world, etc." is interpreted. At this poor sinners rejoice, at this all the holy angels marvel, before this the whole world ought to fall to its knees and shout Gloria and Halleluja. If our rising generation of church-servants will preach this, then they are the people who can begin a Reformation also in this country;  as indeed a small beginning has been made already in this direction. For that [LS XXX/22, 170-2] creates truly living congregations, not such as make a big noise about their life and their deeds, but such as, living in this doctrine, willingly sacrifice to God in sacred adornment. In summary: Let us learn of Luther that we cannot inaugurate a Reformation here, unless with divine certainty proclaim it and hold fast and conserve it.

In the third thesis attention is directed mainly to three points: 1) on the doctrine of the universal (allgemeine--general) redemption of the world, 2) on the doctrine of the means of grace, and 3) on the doctrine of faith. [SCR 29] 

For when one wishes to present the whole doctrine of justification, one speaks as a rule of three causes, that is, if one wants to describe the whole doctrine by means of the originating principle. Then we inquire first, what is the efficient cause, what the moving (bewegende) cause, and finally, what the instrumental cause, through which that which the efficient cause has intended for me, comes into my possession? Now that first cause of the justification is the Triune God; but everyone admits this who still speaks of Justification, and therefore we pass over this point.  The second cause is a twofold one, an internal and an external.  The internal is God's grace and mercy, which again nobody denies, not even the pope.   But now comes a new question, namely: which is the external moving cause? Now there we say: That is the redemption of Jesus Christ, this moves the dear God to declare us poor accursed sinners righteous. Of the instrumental causes there are again two kinds, one on the part of God and the other on the part of man.  On the part of God, they are Word and Sacrament. And here all parties already diverge. On the part of man it is faith, and here there is a truly Babylonian confusion among the sects, when it comes to the point of explaining what is faith. To one it is the mind going forward, to the other, what he experiences in his emotions, etc. If therefore we want to become aware of our unity, then it will obviously be first of all a matter of the external moving cause of justification, that is, of the redemption, and also of the instrumental causes, that is, of Word and Sacrament and of faith. If we are of one accord in these points, we are truly one in the whole body of doctrine; for in these points all the differences in Christendom are to be found. It is true that one cannot contemplate this doctrine without contemplating also man's total depravity, for the sake of which he is by nature a child of wrath and condemnation. Yet our attention must focus above all on how lost and condemned man is justified and saved.

[LS XXX/23, 177-1: Lutheran Standard, vol. 30, No. 23; Dec. 1, 1872, pg. 1, col. 1] 

Thesis 4: "As in Adam all men have fallen and come under the wrath of God and eternal damnation as punishment for sins, so also in Christ as the second Adam, all men are truly redeemed from sin, death, devil and hell, and God is truly reconciled with them all."

In this thesis it is stated that just as in Adam the Fall and its consequences have come upon all men, and that they all thus take part in this Fall, [KM 9] so also the redemption, which has happened through Jesus Christ, has happened not only for some few people, but simply for all men, so also for those who are lost. This is proved by Holy Scripture when it speaks of the redemption through Christ without restriction and ascribes to it the same sort of universality as to the Fall of Adam. "Christ," says the Apostle, "is the propitiation (Versoehnung) for [SCR 30] our sins, but not only for ours, but also for the sin of the whole world."  1 John 2:2. And in John 1:29 He is called "the Lamb of God Who bears the sin of the world."  Of Him it is said in 2 Cor. 5:19: "God was in Christ and reconciled the world with Himself and did not impute their sin to them, etc." and Col. 1:20: "that everything might be reconciled through Him to Himself," and that "He by God's grace tasted death for all," Heb. 2:9. All these texts teach that the redemption which has happened through Christ has happened for all. By way of explanation of the words: Christ is the second Adam, what the Apology says is useful:

"But the world was subject to him through the law; for by the commandment of the law all are accused and by the works of the law none is justified, that is, by the law sin is recognised [LS XXX/23, 177-2] but its guilt is not relieved. The law would seem to be harmful since it has made all men sinners, but when the Lord Jesus came He forgave all men the sin that none could escape and by shedding his blood canceled the bond that stood against us (Col. 2:14). This is what Paul says, 'Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more' (Rom. 5:20) through Jesus. For after the whole world was subjected, he took away the sin of the whole world, as John testified when he said (John 1:29), 'Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'" (IV, 103, Tappert, pp. 121-122)

Of course the parallelism between Adam and Christ must not be pushed too far, for in one respect it is different with grace as compared with the curse. As soon as a man is a man he is indeed in possession of the curse, but he is not similarly also at once in possession of the merit of Christ. The treasure is indeed there for all men, the debt of all is paid, so that in the blood of Christ all men's righteousness, life, and salvation are brought back; but in order to come into personal possession of these goods, man must acknowledge the work of Christ, accept His grace, believe, and in so far there is a difference between Adam and Christ. Adam was not a mediator but a forefather, who propagated death in his natural children; but Christ does not propagate life through natural descent, but spiritually, when sinful man acknowledges his work and accepts his salvation, which happens through faith. Thus we must accept the payment of Christ, which is laid down (dargelegt--presented) for all, as our possession, and comfort ourselves with the same, so that it be imputed to us as individuals. After all, it does not say: as by one man all men are begotten in sin, so also through one they are all begotten righteous again, but thus it says: "As through the sin of one condemnation has come upon all men, so also through the righteousness of one justification of life has come upon (ueber) all men. For just as through one man's [SCR 31] disobedience many became sinners, so also through one man's obedience many become righteous" Rom. 5:18,19. The comparison therefore consists in this: As sin and condemnation have come upon all through Adam, so righteousness and salvation are come upon all through Christ; as death is come upon all through Adam, so life through Christ. The universality of the redemption, however,' is to be regarded about as one says about a number of slaves who have been bought free [KM 10] (losgekauft), as soon as the money is paid for them: they are all free, although if they do not accept the liberation (Loesung), they are not free as individual persons. They are free according to the intention of him who bought them free, but they remain captive on account of their ill will. Thus Christ has liberated all men, the slaves of death, devil, and hell, for He has paid everything which could be demanded from them, so that none need any longer be a slave; yet most remain in captivity because they do not consider His ransom complete. Therefore what condemns now, after Christ's death and resurrection, is not so much this or that sin, as unbelief, which is the sin of all sins. Therefore also the Lord says: "The Holy Spirit will convict [LS XXX/23, 177-3] the world of sin," and adds at once: "of sin, because they believe not in Me,"--to show that after He, the Son of God, has made us free, the debt of the entire world is truly satisfied. This also the Resurrection of Christ especially attests. What was the Resurrection of Christ? It was an act of God, through which Christ was declared righteous. But Christ had gone into death loaded down not with sins of His own, but with the sins of the whole world and with all its unrighteousness. For the sake of these sins He was sentenced by the Father, and this sentence was executed upon Him; therefore He sank into death. When the Father now raised Him up again, He thereby declared: the debt is paid, He is righteous. As little however as it was Christ who was condemned for His own Person--but rather mankind, whose sins He bore--so little also Christ became righteous for His own Person through the Resurrection; rather, mankind, for whom He died and rose, became righteous.

If it be asked how this is to be rhymed that on the one hand Scripture teaches that through Christ's resurrection the whole world is absolved, and that on the other hand it testifies that the debt remains on the unbelievers, as long as they continue in unbelief, it must be answered: One must distinguish two ways in which God regards men. When God regards the world in Christ, His Son, He looks at it with the most fervent love; but when He regards the world outside of Christ, then He cannot look at it otherwise than with burning wrath. Whoever therefore does not believe in Christ, yes rejects Christ, upon him the wrath of God remains, despite the fact that when God regards him in His Son, and remembers how He has made satisfaction also for him, then He looks upon him with eyes full of love; as Scripture says in John 3:16: "God so loved the [SCR 32] world that He gave His only-begotten Son."  According to this God did two things, He was wroth towards sinners, and at the same time He loved them so ardently that He gave His only-begotten Son for them. If now He loved the world already from eternity, how certainly He will still love it now, after He has been rendered satisfaction! When God now looks at the world in this respect, in which satisfaction has been made for it and its debt paid by His Son, then He sees it as a reconciled world. But now the individual comes along and rejects this reconciliation: him God cannot regard otherwise than with eternal burning wrath, since he is without Christ. Speaking according to the acquisition of salvation, He is wroth with no man any longer, but speaking according to the appropriation (Zueignung), He is wroth with everyone who is not in Christ. One may say therefore: In so far as a man is a part of the whole redeemed mankind, God is not wroth with him, but in so far as he is for his own person an unbeliever, God is wroth with him. But here lies an inexpressible and incomprehensible mystery. For in God there are no movements (Bewegungen), as in us men, who are minded now this way now that, have now these emotions, now those. Of Him it is written: [KM 11] "You remain as You are." But everything that God thinks and wills is one with His Being (Wesen, essence). Just this unity and immutability of God, with what holy Scripture ascribes to Him against the sinner, when he does not believe, and again when he, believes, is an impenetrable mystery, which is why we are not in a position to form a clear notion of how God can love the whole world and yet at the same time be wroth against the individual unbeliever. But Scripture clearly teaches both. Now it is the Lutheran way: if we find two sorts of things in God's Word, which we cannot rhyme, then we let both stand and believe both, just as it reads. Yet in this there is no contradiction, that Holy Scripture teaches both: God loves the world and hates the unbelievers; one must simply add mentally (hinzugedacht): in another respect. It is similar to when we say: man is mortal and he is also not mortal. Mortal he is in respect of his bodily constitution, and he is not mortal in respect of his immaterial constitution.

Christ has placed himself in the place of the whole world, and [LS XXX/23, 178-1] has made satisfaction for it. So now the great God thinks of the world, and in so far as He does this, His Fatherly heart is inclined towards all; but of course not outside of Christ. When he considers the unbelieving world outside of Christ, then the fire of His wrath flames over them to eternity. Yes, if it were possible, His wrath must now be even greater than when it was kindled by the transgression of the Law. If it be asked whether one can say that the totality of mankind indeed is absolved, but not individuals, it must be answered: God is reconciled through Christ with all and with every individual. Yet a judgment must be pronounced over every individual person, either of absolution or of condemnation. Luther says about this:

The dearest and most comforting doctrine of the Gospel speaks [SCR 33] nothing of works, which are commanded in God's Law or by men; but it preaches and teaches only of the incomprehensible, inexpressible mercy and love of God, which He has shown towards us unworthy and condemned sinners; namely that He, the most kindly, most merciful Father saw that we were so pitifully oppressed powerfully held down by the curse of the Law, so that by our own powers we could not have worked our way out in all eternity, nor redeemed or liberated ourselves from it. And therefore He sent His only-begotten Son into the world, threw all sins of all men on Him, and said to Him thus: You are Peter, who denied, Paul, who persecuted, blasphemed, and practised all violence, David, who committed adultery, etc., also the sinner who ate the apple in Paradise, the murderer who hung on the cross, in sum, You shall be what all men are, as if You alone had committed all men's sins; therefore consider now how You will pay and make satisfaction for them. There comes at once the Law, accuses Him and says: Here I find this One among the sinners, yes, Him Who has taken all men's sins upon Himself and carries them, and besides this I see no sin in the whole world, anymore, except on Him alone; therefore He shall yield Himself and die the death of the Cross. Thus the Law with its accusation and terror presses upon Him with full force and slays Him. Through this innocent death of Christ the whole world is purified and released from sin and thereby redeemed from death and from [KM 12] all evil. Since now through this one Mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ, sin and death have been taken away, the whole world would indeed be so pure that our Lord God could see nothing in it except pure righteousness and holiness--if only we could believe it. And even if something of sin should still remain, God still would not be able to see such sins for this clear, bright sun, which is Christ. There is no lack on that side; for Christ has carried the sin of the whole world, made satisfaction for it; but the lack is in us, who believe it weakly. If we believed it completely, we should indeed already be saved and in Paradise. But the old sack that still hangs about our neck does not let us come to such certain faith. Therefore it is highly necessary that we press unceasingly the article of the righteousness which we have in Christ, and make it great and glorious against the righteousness which comes out of the Law and works; although there is likely no language and rhetoric in the whole world, which can adequately grasp its greatness and glory, much less exhaust it. And just this argument which St. Paul treats here is very fitting and powerful against all sorts of righteousness of the law, not to mention the straw righteousness of human ordinances. For of these two things one must certainly and indisputably be true: Namely, if all the world's sins [SCR 34] lie on the single man Jesus Christ, as the Holy Spirit testifies through Isaiah 53:6, then of course they do not lie on the world; but if they do not lie on Him, then, without fail, they must certainly still lie on the world. Again, if Christ Himself has become guilty of all our sins, which we have ever committed, then we are indeed absolved, free, and acquitted of all sins; but this has not happened through ourselves, our works or merit, but through Him; but if He is innocent and does not bear our sins, then we must bear them ourselves, and die and eternally perish under them, as under a heavy and unbearable burden. To God be praise and thanks, Who has given us victory and conquest through Jesus Christ, our dear Lord, Amen" (Galatians Commentary 1535, St. Louis Edition 9, pgs 372-373, parags. 333-337; Walch VIII, pp. 2172 ff., parags. 333-337, American Edition 26, pg. 280).

The fanatics generally imagine the matter like this, that our dear Lord Jesus Christ suffered, died, and rose and in general brought about what Scripture calls reconciliation, so that the dear God might now be enabled to take a man simply for the sake of his conversion to heaven. They do not believe that through Christ everything without exception has happened what had to happen in order for God to be able to save us and give us eternal life; but that through Christ everything has happened and that God therefore gives us heaven freely without charge, without our contribution, that they do not believe.  Something, they believe, yet still remains for man to do, and this something, they believe, is conversion.  But Scripture teaches that Christ has done all, and has already acquired for us reconciliation with God, righteousness, entitlement to be children of God, that it lies there in readiness and is distributed in the holy Christian church through the Gospel.  Now no one has to do [KM 13] anything more than to accept salvation. For righteousness is there, the reconciliation of God with all men has happened, and now nothing more is to be done than that man comfort himself with what Christ has done.  This is what we wish to say when we speak of an complete redemption. Not that man is already in possession of something and that God only supplies the remainder, or that God has done something, and man supplies the rest, but that God has already done all.  When Lutherans who otherwise use Lutheran phrases, deny that God is reconciled with the whole world, then they must again and again deny what they have granted. The wrathful God after all cannot offer forgiveness, but only that God who, as He has revealed it in the Gospel, loves all in Christ, because they have been purchased by Him.  Of course the man who is to be saved must be converted, but this conversion is not the cause why God saves, but the way in which the man comes to faith, who does nothing but that he accepts the completed and already given redemption.

[SCR 35] 

The blessings of the Kingdom of God are there not only are there not only for those in that Kingdom, but they are there for all and for all acquired. There is room for all, but all do not take possession of the room. Those who oppose the doctrine of the perfection of the redemption of Christ, usually say: Yes, Christ has redeemed us all, but we are not perfectly redeemed until we believe.  But those who say that do not at all consider what they claim.  For if I am to be saved through believing that I am redeemed, that I am reconciled with God, that my sins are forgiven me, so all that must already be there beforehand.  Nobody will be so foolhardy to think that [LS XXX/23, 178-2] through his believing that something happens, he causes it really to happen; whoever thought thus would be a superstitious man. But that is not a Christian, so he believes what has happened. Therefore as certainly as God's Word assures us that we are to become righteous, to be reconciled with God and be saved, so surely all these things must be there already before my faith, and they await only that I accept them.  When we claim: what you are to believe must already be previously there, we do not by any means want to give people the comfort: If you even do not believe, that won't do any harm, you can still slip into heaven regardless, because satisfaction has been made for you. No, rather we witness to them that their condemnation, if they do not believe, will therefore be all the more terrible, because God has already set the table and everything was prepared, but they would not come; therefore none of the despisers shall taste of His supper.  But that man through faith alone becomes righteous is possible because that which is necessary for being saved is already there and has been done, so that from my side only accepting is necessary.  But it is just this acceptance which Scripture calls believing.  The righteous God could take no man to heaven if He were not first reconciled with him; since He now receives into heaven all who believe, righteousness and reconciliation must already be there and have happened. That Christ has acquired for us by His life, suffering, and death, and God has confirmed it by raising Him from the dead, for that was the resurrection of our Substitute (Bürgen). [LS paragraph] The enthusiasts regard faith not as a mere hand, but as a condition, which man fulfills and for the sake of which God receives man into heaven, whereas faith is really nothing but an empty hand, which I put forth in order that God might fill it.  If therefore I had nothing more than faith, and not Christ (which of course is not possible), then I would go to hell together with my faith, because it is not the act of believing that makes me acceptable to God, [KM 14] but it is Christ and His righteousness, which I grasp with the hand of faith.  But that it is which all enthusiasts overlook.  They still want to find a place for the activity of man; so they locate this now in his faith, now in his repentance, now in his conversion, now in his sanctification. Of course, [SCR 36] as was said before, no man can enter heaven if he is not converted and has a new heart but he is saved not for the sake of conversion or this new heart, but he must first appear as a poor sinner before God, who has nothing at all that could please God, and who would be worthy of being put into the abyss of hell--but then appealing to the mercy of God and comfort himself with the fully accomplished redemption of Jesus Christ and grasp His entire merit, so he becomes righteous.  [KM paragraph]

It must be stressed with all seriousness that God's wrath has been turned away from all men by Christ's doing and suffering, and that through the Gospel everyone is invited: Now receive the grace! If a preacher had to step before an audience with the thought: on them the wrath of God still rests, and they must be prevailed upon to reconcile Him--it would be frightful. But because he knows that the redemption has already happened for all, God's wrath against all has been extinguished, therefore he can confidently say: “Be ye reconciled to God," just accept His hand of grace. The Formula of Concord therefore also indicates that even Pharaoh was condemned not because he had been rejected by God according to an unconditional decision, but because he persisted in his hardening against the gracious efforts of God.  If no change had occurred in God's relation to men through Christ's suffering and death, what would be the meaning then of the word reconciliation?  We would have to strike it out of the Bible, if God, after the work of reconciliation has happened, still held the same wrath against the human race, as if it had not been accomplished. As certainly as the Bible says: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them," so certain it is that there must be no more wrath in His heart, in so far as He conceives of the world in Christ. But that God looks at the world in this way is not empty fantasy, for Christ has indeed taken the cause of the world upon Himself, and therewith also its punishment and the wrath of God, has done everything which a Substitute must do, and has paid everything unto the last farthing. How would it now be possible that God should after all that be newly able to look upon men with wrath and hatred?  Thus one can think of the world as the totality of those for whom Christ has made satisfaction, and so viewed, there is only love, only favor, only grace upon it. But now God also looks about in the world, to see how people behave towards this redemption of Christ, and there He sees many who do not wish to be redeemed, they do not want to accept this reconciliation. They would, in most recent times, rather be descendants of monkeys, would rather belong to the cattle. Now however, against these there is in God's heart a wrath burning down to the very lowest hell. And there is no contradiction here. But it is contradictory to say that God is reconciled first through our faith. God is no longer the Enemy who is to be reconciled--but man is the one. But as soon as he starts to believe, he takes the hand of God, and that again he [SCR 37] does through pure divine grace, for without that he would nevermore come to faith.

This two-sided consideration must also be practiced in other regards too. We say, for example, of Christ on the Cross: He hangs there as a sinner and at the same time as a righteous One. Is He now a sinner or not? [KM 15] For [LS XXX/23, 178-3] His Person not, for He has committed no sin, and in so far He is a righteous One. But for the world, whose Substitute He is, He is a sinner, yes, as Scripture says, "Sin," so that He must be the greatest sinner of all, who has ever been on earth, because to Him are imputed the sins of all sinners. So Christ is, regarded according to His Person, the Righteous One, and according to His Mediator's office He is the sinner. So it is also with the believers. When one regards them according to their persons, they are sinners, "for we daily sin much and deserve nothing put punishment."  But because they are at the same time through faith in Christ Jesus, so that the righteousness which Christ has acquired for them and given them, reigns and rules with them, they are received as children of God into the Kingdom of heaven. But so it is also, in a certain respect, with the world: In itself it lies in evil, under the curse and in condemnation; but as redeemed through Christ, because He has made satisfaction for it, God is reconciled with it.  In this respect, it is true that there exists no sin in the world. Christ after all has taken it away and carried it all the way into the grave; in so far also the whole world is free, rid, and relieved of death, devil, and damnation.  And this should be not hidden, but be preached. The fear that people might become secure thereby dare not hold us back. It may well be that one thinks, when he hears such preaching: If all sin is already wiped out, then I am in no need, then I am saved even without faith--and misuses the word of grace to his destruction. However, the question is not now only how this doctrine can be misused, but about what has happened for our salvation. Now we are to proclaim the whole counsel of God, therefore also we may not keep quiet about this doctrine from fear that it might be misused. It is just this fear which inhibits the enthusiasts, so that they do not proclaim the redemption of Christ without all restriction. They always think they might make people carnally secure if they freely proclaim the grace of God to everyone.— [KM paragraph; LS paragraph]

The Formula of Concord speaks thus of this whole matter:

Concerning the righteousness of faith before God we believe, teach, and confess unanimously,... that poor sinful man is justified before God, that is, absolved and declared free and exempt from all his sins, and from the sentence of well-deserved condemnation, and adopted into sonship and heirship of eternal life, without any merit or worth of our own, also without any preceding, present, or any subsequent works, out of pure grace, because of the sole merit, complete obedience, bitter suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Christ alone, whose obedience is reckoned to us for righteousness.  These treasures are offered us by the Holy Ghost  [SCR 38] in the promise of the Gospel; ; and faith alone is the only means by which we lay hold upon, accept, and apply, and appropriate them to ourselves.  This faith is a gift of God, by which we truly learn to know Christ, our Redeemer, in the Word of the Gospel, and trust in Him, that for the sake of His obedience alone we have the forgiveness of sins by grace, are regarded as godly and righteous by God the father, and are eternally saved.  Therefore it is considered and understood to be the same thing when Paul says that we are justified by faith, Rom. 3:28, or that faith is counted to us for righteousness, Rom. 4:5, and when he says that we are made righteous by the obedience of One, Rom. 5:19, or that by the righteousness of One justification of faith came to all men, Rom. 5:18.  For faith justifies, not for this cause and reason that it is so good a work and so fair a virtue, but because it lays hold of and accepts the merit of Christ in the promise of the holy Gospel; for this must be applied and appropriated to us by faith, if we are to be justified thereby.  Therefore the righteousness which is imputed to faith or to the believer out of pure grace is the obedience, suffering, and resurrection of Christ, since He has made satisfaction for us to the Law, and paid for [expiated] our sins.  For since Christ is not man alone, but God and man in one undivided person, He was as little subject to the Law, because He is the Lord of the Law, as He had to suffer and die as far as His person is concerned. For this reason, then, His obedience, not only in suffering and dying, but also in this, that He in our stead was voluntarily made under the Law, and fulfilled it by this obedience, is imputed to us for righteousness, so that, on account of this complete obedience, which He rendered His heavenly Father for us, by doing and suffering, in living and dying, God forgives our sins, regards us as godly and righteous, and eternally saves us.  This righteousness is offered us by the Holy Ghost through the Gospel and in the Sacraments, and is applied, appropriated, and received through faith, whence believers have reconciliation with God, forgiveness of sins, the grace of God, sonship, and heirship of eternal life. (Formula of Concord, Solid Declarations III, 9-16, Triglotta pgs 919-921, Tappert, pp. 540-541)

Further:

But, since it is the obedience as above mentioned [not only of one nature, but] of the entire person, it is a complete satisfaction and expiation for the human race, by which the eternal, immutable righteousness of God, revealed in the Law, has been satisfied, and is thus our righteousness, which avails before God and is revealed in the Gospel, and upon which faith relies before God, which God imputes to faith, as it is written, Rom. 5:19: For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous; and 1 John 1:7: The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, [SCR 39] cleanseth us from all sin. Likewise: The just shall live by his faith, Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17;  Gal. 2 (Formula of Concord, Solid [Thorough] Declarations III, 57; Triglotta, pg. 935; Tappert, pp. 549-550).

Is not Christ's doctrine called Gospel, in German: a glad tidings? But why is it called so? Because when I preach the Gospel I preach nothing else than what has already been acquired for men and given to them, and which they therefore accept, and that they should be glad of heart. The Gospel is the glad tidings that Christ had the work done which we should have done, yet could not do, and that the heavenly Father has, through the resurrection of our Reconciler given a sign from heaven, that He is as a result completely satisfied. Those who are now wondering that God always has it said to the people: Come, do be glad, because your guilt is erased and fully paid, why are you still fretting? — he who takes offence at this, takes offence at Christ and at His Gospel. And he who thinks that he is preaching too much consolation to the people thereby, and is making them too sure, reveals thereby that he has not yet tasted of this manna himself. Whoever has himself experienced [KM 17] the consolation of the Gospel, will have to say: that's it, that I have come as the prodigal son, torn and full of pain and sickness, that I said to my God: here I am, deal now with me according to Your grace. Then He accepted me, kissed me with the kiss of His mouth, and dressed me in the garments of salvation, gave me a ring for my hand, and brought together neighbors and friends and arranged a feast of joy. Whoever does not want to preach the Gospel like this, might as well preach the Koran or the Talmud or the Pope's law, or whatever else he wants to preach; but if he wants to make joyful Christians, then let him preach these glad tidings.  There are in any case enough of specific things which have to be preached. First the preparatory work must be done with the Law, and this must be preached in such a way that the hearers tremble and quake, so that they think: Hey, he throws us all into hell!  There is no counsel, no rescue, we are lost! But  then, however, one shows from the Gospel the very opposite. He who preaches thus places the people on solid ground, so that they do not want to go back to the Law. [KM paragraph]

The enthusiasts conceive of redemption thus: Through this, that Christ became man, lived, and suffered, he made it possible [LS XXX/23, 179-1] for men now themselves to accomplish, do and live whatever and however (it) is necessary for their salvation. If they then also talk much about faith, this still sticks in them, and even faith itself turns into a meritorious human work with them. This is also the true doctrine of the Pope, because if the Romanists also say that Christ died for the sins of the world, so they do not believe that through Christ's death guilt and punishment are done away with, but teach that man must provide salvation for himself through his remorse, penance, and other good works, although to be sure only Christ makes this meritorious and God helps along. Thus the enthusiasts mix the work of man into

...[SCR 40] this matter of justification; that is why they hate the doctrine of the vicarious active obedience of Christ (how the Methodists have for years been writing publicly against this) and of His complete redemption, and imagine that  if they only get rid of their past sins through Christ, then they could become so holy, also in their own lives, that the dear God is caused to marvel. We on the contrary confess ourselves to be lost and condemned sinners, and say God must do all for our salvation and grant us a righteousness over which all the holy angels, yes, over this God's Son Himself marvels. Yes, this is not saying too much; He has done it, for in John 3:16 He says Himself: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son," as if to say: no, who would have thought such a thing, so, so much, so fervently God loved the world, that He gave His Son to such a bunch of shameful sinners, and in the sense that He says: There you have Him, now do with Him as you wish; He throws His Son into the fray and yields Him up so completely that they can dishonor and disgrace Him, spear Him, and yes, even slaughter Him, and that God does that the world would be redeemed. At this God's Son marvels with the words: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son."  Therefore also the Apostle says in Rom. 8:3-4: "[3] For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: [4] That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."  Because he has become our Brother, flesh of our flesh,so is righteousness fulfilled in us; not indeed in every single person, but in our humankind.  Therefore it is so important that Christ has not brought a humanity from heaven, but assumed it from the Virgin Mary, because now our humanity is truly justified in Him.  That we now are to preach, [KM 18] and whoever grasps this is helped, and there is a blessed man. Unfortunate however is he to whom this does not appeal, because God shouts it out into the world: "All things are ready," [Matt. 22:4] now quickly come and accept grace, salvation, and life, but alas, proud man wants to know nothing of this most precious gift of God, which He offers and presents (darreicht) in the Gospel, yes, rightly understood, also to the whole world imparts (mittheilt, mettheilt).  It is better, however, not to use the word "impart" (mittheilen) of the universal justification of the world, because in our German language it almost always signifies not only a presenting (Darreichen) from God's side, but also an acceptance from man's side.

Thesis 5: "As through the vicarious death of Christ the whole world's debt of sin was erased and the punishment for it was endured, so also through the resurrection of Christ, righteousness, life and salvation [SCR 41] have been brought again for the whole world, through Christ's resurrection, and have come upon all men in Christ as the Substitute of all mankind."

This thesis is added to the previous to show how the resurrection of Christ is the basis and cornerstone of justification. By His death Christ shed His blood as the ransom for the sins of the world, through the resurrection of the Son God the Father bears witness that He has accepted the sin-offering of His Son as full payment.  Very frequently Scripture couples the death and resurrection of Christ, and the holy Apostles call themselves, to designate the nature of their office, actually witnesses of the resurrection of Christ, in order to give prominence [LS XXX/23, 179-2] thereby at the same time the great importance of the same. So writes for instance the Apostle Paul in Rom. 4:25: "Christ was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." (um unserer Gerechtigkeit willen–for the sake of our righteousness). Accordingly if Christ was raised again for the sake of our (as it says according to the original text) justification, so must certainly the resurrection be the foundation on which it rests, without which it would be impossible. But such justification is a universal one, acquired for all men, for it says in Rom. 5:18: "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 the justification of life."  Laden with sin, which through one man came upon all, Christ went into death, and from this sin of all He was absolved by the resurrection, and that which God the Father has hereby done to Christ, happened not for the Son's benefit, but for all mankind. Therefore it is not enough, according to Rom. 8:33-34, that Christ died, but "much more" the resurrection is the last and highest foundation of justification, for through it the Father sealed the fact that He had accepted the offering of His Son for mankind's guilt of sin. Therefore also the Apostle writes in 1 Cor. 15:17-18: "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." Accordingly the whole work of redemption would be pronounced invalid by God, if He had not raised Christ. [KM, LS paragraph] 

Many, even among the pastors, do not quite know what to do with the resurrection of Christ.  They read in one place that Christ raised Himself, then another that the Father raised Him, and this they do not quite know how to rhyme, so they think that on the one hand Christ rose in order to prove His divinity, and on the other hand that He was raised in order that the possibility and certainty of our resurrection might be proved thereby.  Even though both are true, neither is the main point. Only [KM 19] to prove His divinity Christ would not have died and then rose again, and the possibility of our resurrection was proved by Christ already by His raising of others; the central point remains that God declared through Christ's resurrection: Christ has now for the sins of the whole world [SCR 42] paid, therefore it is now free of its guilt; now the whole world may exclaim victory; for her freedom from sin and her righteousness is won. This is not a contradiction that man becomes righteous by faith, for when faith is mentioned, then thereby is stressed the personal appropriation (Aneignung) from man's side and its imputation of the acquired righteousness from God's side.  But this would be impossible, if the world had not first been justified by the death and resurrection of Christ, if the absolution in the resurrection had not followed the condemnation in death. [KM paragraph; LS paragraph]

Dr. Luther commenting on the words of Gal. 1:1:

"And God the Father, who raised him from the dead", the following: "The way it looks, St. Paul might well have left out these words, but as I said before, of what his heart is full, his mouth runs over. His heart, mind, and courage are kindled, so that he would like to pour out the incomprehensible treasure of the grace of Christ already in the very outset (Unterschrift, signature), and preach the righteousness of God, which is called the resurrection of the dead.  For Christ, who lives and is risen from the dead, He himself speaks through him and moves him thus; therefore he adds not without reason that he is indeed also an Apostle through God the Father, who has raised up Jesus Christ from the dead. Just as if he wanted to say: It is a matter here of dealing against Satan and the poisonous generation of vipers, Satan's instruments, who go about to overturn the righteousness of my Lord Christ, raised by God the Father from the dead, through whose righteousness alone we too are to be made holy before God, and raised from the dead to everlasting life. But because they dare to overthrow this righteousness of Christ, they resist both the Father and the Son and that which is the work of both. So he lets the whole matter and the main point of this epistle fly out all at once the moment he opens his mouth. But the central point is the resurrection of Christ, who rose again for the sake of our righteousness, Rom. 4:25, and thereby has overcome [LS XXX/23, 179-3] the Law, sin, death, and all misfortune.  Wherefore His overcoming (Ueberwindung) is an overcoming of the Law, of sin, our flesh, the world, the devil, death, of hell, and of all sorts of evil and misfortune. And this His victory and glorious, joyful overcoming he has given to us for our own. Therefore, praise God, we have no distress. For though the tyrants and enemies may well accuse and frighten us, yet they cannot cast us into despair or condemnation, since Christ, who has risen from the dead and defeated them all, is our righteousness. Therefore we say [1 Cor. 15:57] praise and thanks to God in eternity, who hath given us this joyful victory and overcoming through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen."  [Galatians Commentary – 1535, American Edition 26, pgs 21-22, St. Louis Edition 9, pg 38-39, parag. 31-32, Walch 8, pgs 1583-1584, parags. 31-32.]

[LS XXX/24, 185-1: Lutheran Standard, Dec. 15, 1872, pg 185, col. 1] 

Upon a request of the members of the honorable "Norwegian Synod," [SCR 43] what explanation the Synodical Conference gives in regard to the allegations which the Iowa Synod makes to the effect that the Norwegians had espoused universal justification, it was answered: This doctrine is positively (geradezu) expressed in the passage Rom. 5:18, and therefore it is not only a biblical doctrine but also a biblical expression that the justification of life is come upon all men.  Only a Calvinistic exegesis could explain this passage as meaning  that only the elect are justified. Also orthodox older theologians of our church therefore speak of the universal justification, acquired and extended to all.  Gerhard says that Christ's resurrection is the universal [KM 20] absolution; but absolution is nothing other than justification. (*)   In Christ just the sinful world was condemned to death, and in His resurrection just this world was declared righteous. When the pastor now absolves, he dispenses a treasure which already exists, namely the already acquired forgiveness of sins. If the treasure was not already at hand, then also no pastor could absolve, yes, we could then not speak at all of the justification of the sinner through faith, since believing means – yes, take what is there. Now if the world were not already justified, believing would have to mean working towards justification. The whole preaching of the Gospel is but a message of God about a righteousness which has already been acquired before Him and is there for all. Therefore the language that in Christ the justification of the whole world already happened is not only not objectionable, but is also very biblical.

Those who say that God has made the whole world righteous, but has not declared it righteous, actually deny [LS XXX/24, 185-2] thereby again the whole justification, for the declaring righteous by the Father is not to be separated from the making righteous of the Son, because He raised Christ from the dead. Of course this helps no man as yet to possess the righteousness and salvation, if he does not also accept justification. When a king pardons a bunch of criminals, then they all are from the king's side acquitted of guilt and punishment, but whoever of them does not accept the pardon, must continue to suffer for his guilt; even so it holds with sinners in the justification which has happened through Christ's death and resurrection. Yes, if God had not written and sealed the letter of pardon, so we preachers would be liars and deceivers of the people if we said to them: Only believe, so you are righteous;.  But now God has through the resurrection of His Son signed the letter of pardon for the sinners, and provided His divine seal, so we can preach confidently: the world is justified,

---------------

*). The Formula of Concord says: "We believe, teach, and confess that according to the usage of Holy Scripture the word justify means in this article, to absolve." (Art 3, paragraph 7/5,  Müller, page 528 (pg 291, parag. 5?), Triglotta, pgs 792-793).

[SCR 44] the world is with God reconciled; which latter expression too would not likely be needed if the former were not true. Our old dogmaticians too would themselves have used the expression more, since they believed and taught the substance, if not shortly before Gerhard's time that [Samuel] Huber had taught that God had not only justified all men already, but had also elected them to eternal life; to avoid the appearance of conformity with this heresy, they also avoided this expression.  Already in the year 1593 the Wuerttemberg theologians (Heerbrand, Gerlach, Hafenreffer, Osiander, Bidembach, and others) conceded to Huber in reference to the doctrine of justification that he seems to have deviate from them in it "in phrasi tarnen magis ac loquendi modo, quam reipsa," that is, "more however in the expression and in the manner of speaking than in the substance itself" (Loescher's Unschuldige Nachrichten, 1730, p. 567). The Wittenberg theologians (Gesner, Leyser, Aegidius Hunnius, and others) did not want to tolerate Huber's expression: "Christus contulit proprie redemtionem toti generi humano," that is, "Christ conferred the redemption to the entire human race in the proper sense," because the proper impartation, "as it is taken in the theological schools," refers to the appropriation (See Wittenberg Consilia I, 642ff.). [KM 21] 

Nonetheless we find no small number of undoubtedly sound theologians who speak of a universal justification or absolution.  Joh. Quistorp († 1648, professor in Rostock) writes in his comments on 2 Cor. 5:19: "The word justification and reconciliation are used in two ways: 1) in respect of the acquired merit, 2) in respect of the appropriated merit. Thus all are justified and some are justified. All, in reference to the acquired merit; some, in reference to the appropriated merit."

John Gerhard, after Luther and Chemnitz without doubt the greatest theologian of our church († 1637, professor in Jena), says in his commentary on Rom. 4:25: "As God has punished our sins in Christ, because they were placed on Him and imputed to Him as our Substitute, he has in the same way, by raising Him from the dead, absolved Him of our sins which had been imputed to Him by this very act, and hence, in Him, has also absolved us." [KM, LS paragraph] 

Gottfried Olearius († 1715, professor in Leipzig) says in a treatise about the resurrection of Christ that Christ has paid what He had pledged Himself to pay, and that His payment was sufficient His resurrection proves, inasmuch as it shows that our Substitute was acquitted, because the obligations He assumed were discharged by His satisfaction, and thus we are justified together with Him in the judgment of God.  Hence is written the word of faith: "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again." [Romans 8:34] [KM, LS paragraph] 

John Jacob Rambach writes on Rom. 4:25: "Christ was in His resurrection [SCR 45] first of all justified for His own person, Is. 50:5, 1 Tim. 3:16, since the righteousness of God declared that it had been paid and satisfied in full by this our Substitute, and as it were furnished Him a receipt thereof, and that took place in His resurrection, when He was dismissed from his debtor's prison and set free. But since the Substitute was now justified, then in Him also all debtors were justified" (Ausfuehrliche Erklaerung der Epistel an die Roemer, p. 322). The same on Rom. 5:19: "The justification of the human race indeed also happened, as regards the acquisition, in the moment in which Christ rose and was thus declared righteous; but as regards its appropriation it still continues till the last day" (Ibid., p. 386).

Adam Struensee writes: "What Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:15 of the death of Christ: 'we hold [LS XXX/24, 185-3] that since One has died for all, we all have died,' may also be referred to the resurrection of Christ: If one arose for all, then are all arisen and justified; because God was in Christ and reconciled the world with Himself and did not impute their trespasses to them, for He imputed them to Christ" (Zeugnisse der Wahrheit zur Gottseligkeit. VIII. Forts. Halle 1741, pp. 30ff.).

Ph. D. Burk: "To be sure, it is not to be denied that Scripture in several places speaks of justification as of a universal blessing of grace of God upon all men; for instance Rom. 5:18: 'by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life..' Again 2 Cor. 5:19: 'God reconciled the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.' And a witness of the truth must by all means handle the Gospel in such a manner that he lets the universal offer of God's grace to all men be his main work. And every soul which is to come to faith must lay the foundation in the knowledge of this universal justification over all men" (Die Rechtfertigung. Stuttgart, 1763, p. 63ff.). The Iowans know [KM 22] perfectly well that the people whom they seek to defend against the Norwegian Synod take a false stand in the doctrine of justification, of absolution, of the means of grace. Since they nevertheless defend those who teach thus in the Augustana Synod, they indicate sufficiently thereby what spirit's children they are, and how much the pure doctrine means to them. That they care more about arguing than about the thing itself one can gather from the fact that they have said not a word against a writing by Dr. Weber, who in clear words had taught the same thing. But Dr. Weber is after all one of their own, and Pastor Loehe's successor. Now that the Norwegians say the same thing, the Iowans heatedly fall upon them as upon abominable heretics. And what is it after all that they are able to attack? That Christ [SCR 46] bore the sin of the whole world and that God the Father raised Christ from the dead, they [Iowa Synod] cannot deny, therefore they must hang on to some expressions which are perhaps a little uncomfortable (unbequem).  The appearance is thereby gained that they only apply all the zeal in order to divert the church's attention from their own defects and in the meantime employ the people with the supposed defects of other bodies.

For example it is quite Pelagian when they claim that the final determination in conversion is something in man. And also in this matter, although they want to give the appearance of orthodoxy, they do not quite succeed; for when G[ottfried]. Fritschel asserts: "In the Gospel God shows the sinner a way of escape, which can redeem him from death and damnation and can bring to pass the forgiveness of his sins," he denies thereby that justification has already been accomplished by Christ and that thus the righteousness which avails before God is already present.  But so teach the Scriptures and also the Confessions of our church, as in the 6th article of the Augsburg Confession, which states the following in Latin: "remission of sins and justification is apprehended by faith" (Of New Obedience, paragraph 2, Triglotta, pgs. 44-45, Tappert, p. 32; Müller, p. 40?), and, "grace and forgiveness of sins and justification are apprehended by faith" (Article 20, parag. 22, Triglotta, pg 55; Tappert, p. 44; Müller, p. 45?). Thus also the Apology: "Faith … receives remission of sins" (Article IV/II-Justification, parag. 62; Triglotta pg 138-139; Tappert, p. 115; Müller, p. 98?).  Further: "Justification is a thing promised freely alone for Christ's sake, wherefore it is accepted always and only by faith before God" (cf. Article III, parag. 90, Triglotta pg 178-179; Tappert, p. 137; Müller, p. 123?).

These passages show plainly that a justification must previously exist, which faith can accept, that faith does not have to bring it about first, but that it embraces it as already existing. But if someone wanted to say: forgiveness of sins probably already there, but not [LS XXX/24, 186-1] justification, he would not know of our Confessions, which expressly teach that justification and forgiveness of sins are the same. "We believe, teach, and confess that according to the usage of Holy Scripture the word justify in this article means absolve, that is, acquit of sins" (Formula of Concord, Art 3, paragraph 7/5,  Müller, page 528, pg 291, parag. 5?;Tappert, p. 473).

[KM paragraph]

Let no one think that we are dealing in this matter with a mere strife about words. No, the most highly important matter is to be held here against attacks and error.  Especially in this land of sects and enthusiasts we must earnestly carry on the doctrine of the universal justification, for they probably still teach that man becomes righteous through faith, but then they speak of faith in a way that one soon notices that they make of faith again an efficient cause of justification, whereby they rob the Lord Christ of His glory.  For what else does he do who says that faith justifies for the reason that it gives strength for good works, to pray and wrestle, as  he pushes Christ's merit aside?

[KM 23; KM paragraph; LS paragraph]

Also the testimony of a Scandinavian, the Swede Anders Nohrberg [Christian Cyclopedia] [SCR 47] († 1767 as royal Swedish court preacher at Stockholm), may here find a place.  He writes: "Had God not raised our mediator, He would have given us to understand thereby that He was not yet content with us. But now that Jesus is arisen, so has God thereby declared that He has been satisfied, wherefore also Jesus was in His resurrection justified as Mediator in the stead of sinners. And in so far as the whole human race, when it is considered generally and as one person, was at the same time justified together with Him, was it also admitted as a fruit of this justification, into God's covenant of peace, and so the peace which had been lost in Adam was again established between God and men." (Swedish: Den fallna människans salighetsordning, Norwegian: Det faldne Menneskes Saliggjørleses-Orden; German title: Ordnung der Seligmachung des gefallenen Menschen, p. 103?).

[KM paragraph]

The same: "It remains in this analysis to apply it to ourselves, whereby the question immediately arises whether all men were justified with Christ, since He was justified in their stead. To deny this outright and beforehand would be the same as to rob us men of a great consolation, and it would at the same time argue against God's Word, which explicitly teaches so.  But if one were on the other hand to affirm this question in such a way that the conclusion should be drawn that now man needs no further justification, after he has been justified once in and with Christ, then this likewise argues against God's Word, and lays the foundation for a carnal security.  So here caution is required, to hold to the proper middle way, so that the truth may not suffer injury on either side. The Apostle Paul sheds light on this matter, when he makes a comparison between Adam and Christ, the two heads of the human race. As regards Adam, he stood in the examination not only for himself; but in his single person he represented the whole human race, whose cause lay upon him, either to preserve it or to ruin it, so that what he did and what consequently passed upon him, were later to be imputed to the whole (human) race and pass upon the same, Rom. 5:18-19.  Now, that which this first Adam had spoiled, our Saviour, Christ, who is called the second Adam and the other man (1 Cor. 15:45-47) transferred to Himself, in order to restore it again, and the Apostle shows that the same applies to Him, only conversely.  Thus Jesus also represented in His one Person our entire race, which was regarded under Him as one body, one person, one multitude, whose head He was.  And because the whole guilt of sin of the world was laid upon Jesus, this guilt could no longer remain lying on the world, for it could not be in two places at once.  Thus the world [LS XXX/24, 186-2] was seen through Christ's passion and death as free and released of all guilt.  When Jesus, on whom the whole burden of sins lay, had fought His way through so that God according to His stringent righteousness found it just to take the guilt [SCR 48] away from Him and to justify Him,

the Swede Anders Nohrborg [Christian Cyclopedia]  [SCR 47] (died in 1767 as royal Swedish court preacher at Stockholm), may here find a place.  He writes: "Had God not raised our mediator, He would have given us to understand thereby that He was not yet content with us. But now that Jesus is arisen, so has God thereby declared that He has been satisfied, wherefore also Jesus was in His resurrection justified as Mediator in the stead of sinners. And in so far as the whole human race, when it is considered generally and as one person, was at the same time justified together with Him, was it also admitted as a fruit of this justification, into God's covenant of peace, and so the peace which had been lost in Adam was again established between God and men." (Swedish: Den fallna människans salighetsordning, Norwegian: Det faldne Menneskes Saliggjørleses-Orden; German title: Ordnung der Seligmachung des gefallenen Menschen, p. 103?).

[KM paragraph]

The same: "It remains in this analysis to apply it to ourselves, whereby the question immediately arises whether all men were justified with Christ, since He was justified in their stead. To deny this outright and beforehand would be the same as to rob us men of a great consolation, and it would at the same time argue against God's Word, which explicitly teaches so.  But if one were on the other hand to affirm this question in such a way that the conclusion should be drawn that now man needs no further justification, after he has been justified once in and with Christ, then this likewise argues against God's Word, and lays the foundation for a carnal security.  So here caution is required, to hold to the proper middle way, so that the truth may not suffer injury on either side. The Apostle Paul sheds light on this matter, when he makes a comparison between Adam and Christ, the two heads of the human race. As regards Adam, he stood in the examination not only for himself; but in his single person he represented the whole human race, whose cause lay upon him, either to preserve it or to ruin it, so that what he did and what consequently passed upon him, were later to be imputed to the whole (human) race and pass upon the same, Rom. 5:18-19.  Now, that which this first Adam had spoiled, our Saviour, Christ, who is called the second Adam and the other man (1 Cor. 15:45-47) transferred to Himself, in order to restore it again, and the Apostle shows that the same applies to Him, only conversely.  Thus Jesus also represented in His one Person our entire race, which was regarded under Him as one body, one person, one multitude, whose head He was.  And because the whole guilt of sin of the world was laid upon Jesus, this guilt could no longer remain lying on the world, for it could not be in two places at once.  Thus the world [LS XXX/24, 186-2] was seen through Christ's passion and death as free and released of all guilt.  When Jesus, on whom the whole burden of sins lay, had fought His way through so that God according to His stringent righteousness found it just to take the guilt [SCR 48] away from Him and to justify Him, it is clear, that the guilt, with all its condemnation, was not only removed from Jesus, but also from the world; for the guilt could not then fall back again upon the world, in so far as its authorized representative, on whom all its guilt lay, had repaid the same.  So we see that also upon the world a justification was given in the same hour when Jesus was justified, and at the same time with him. Rom. 5:18" (p. 116).  When Holy Scripture says: "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins" [1 Cor. 15:17], when the article of the resurrection of Christ is called by the Fathers the most Christian article, when the Church is jubilant in her Easter hymns on account of it, so must certainly the Holy Spirit, the holy apostles who wrote by the Holy Ghost, the Church, and the Fathers must indeed have had reason for using such language and for attaching such importance to the resurrection of Christ. Now Scripture says: He was [KM 24] given over for the sake of our sin, etc. What does this mean? Christ was given over for the sake of our sin, the Lord dies on the cross not with His own sin but with the guilt of the world, whose guarantor He was. When He died, the debt was paid; then the whole world could shout: For me, for me satisfaction has been rendered according to the law of a surety (or guarantee). But Christ did not remain in death, He is risen, raised by the Father. What has been testified thereby? One can rightly say that the resurrection of Christ guarantees His true divinity; it teaches that there will indeed follow a universal resurrection of the dead; but it means still more. The Apostle says: Christ was raised for the sake of our righteousness. Through the glory of the Father Christ was declared righteous. The vicarious substitute is released, because He had paid all debts for which He had undertaken the role of Substitute. But since His payment was made for men, so they too are thereby free and let go. As Christ died as Saviour, so also He was raised from the dead as Saviour.

Thesis 6: "This grace, forgiveness, righteousness, life, and salvation, again acquired for all men by Christ's redeeming work, God brings to men in the means of grace. For the evangelical promise, which is contained in the Word of the Gospel and in the holy Sacraments, is not an empty sound or a promise devoid of contents, but a powerful ministration (Darreichung) and presentation (Schenkung) of all the goods which God promises in this Word of His grace."

In this paragraph there is summarized the doctrine of the means of grace, how they in their correlation come into consideration, namely that the whole treasure, as it has been purchased by Christ's doing and suffering and sealed by His resurrection, is deposited in the means of grace and conveyed there, in order that men might apprehend the treasure in these means of grace [SCR 49] and become partakers of it. It is particularly emphasized that the promise of God is not an empty sound, but a ministration / presentation / communication / proffer / administration (Darreichung) of the benefits, so that God really also brings in the means of grace that which He has promised in the Gospel,  and likewise is it with the Sacraments. Thereby we distinguish ourselves from all who do not believe that there are means of grace, through which God really offers, presents, and gives us what Christ has acquired for us by His suffering and death.

When someone, in fear over his sins, asks the enthusiasts  (Schwaermer): What shall I do to be saved, that I receive grace and certainty of God's grace, that my sins are forgiven?  The enthusiasts reply: Pray, pray; fall on your knees and wrestle with God until He first gives it into the heart.  And when they then feel as if God had given it to them in their hearts, then they jump up and shout: Glory, now I have grace! Now far be it from us to deny that the Spirit of grace also makes Himself noticeable in the heart of the sinner, if man does not wantonly close himself to His workings; but it is a fearful mistake if one holds this feeling, which stirs in the enthusiasts through their praying and wrestling, to be that grace itself.  In the best case (because very often this feeling is still effected by entirely different causes, not by the Holy Spirit) it is an effect [emphasis added] of grace by the Holy Ghost that the enthusiasts call grace.  But grace is, yes, something outside of us [objective, BTL], not in us, just as righteousness is something outside of us.

[KM paragraph]

Therefore when a poor sinner comes to a Lutheran pastor and says: Where then am I to find grace? I have now realized that I am a poor lost and [KM 25] condemned sinner, that I therefore cannot stand before the righteous God! So answers the Lutheran pastor: Comfort yourself with God’s grace. But this grace is in the Gospel and in the holy Sacraments. Believe that what God has told you there, and comfort yourself with the grace which is thereby given you. Comfort yourself with your Baptism and that grace was already given to you in it. Use the Absolution, go to the Holy Supper, because there it is that God offers, communicates, gives, and seals to you grace and forgiveness of all your sins. But this is just what the fanatics deny. They know indeed of a grace, but they do not know where to find this grace; so they want on their knees to pray for it.  It would be terrible indeed to say anything against prayer; for we know that God has commanded it, and promised that He would hear us; but likewise dreadful it to think that prayer is a means of grace. After all, only he can pray surely who already [LS XXX/24, 186-3] has grace. To invoke God for grace I can indeed and ought to do in prayer;  but to convey, give, bring grace, this prayer cannot do. But herein all the sects err. They all say of the Word of God that it has a witnessing and perhaps also an causing power, but they deny the imparting power of it.  But one must distinguish between the vis et virtus operativa et collativa, [SCR 50] the effective and the imparting power.

Johann Benedict Carpzov [† 1657, the Elder] writes: "The Augsburg Confession here in the 5th Article treats of the Word and the Sacraments in so far as they are efficacious means and active in the manner of physical operation (physischer Wirkung), inasmuch as the question in this place is: Whence comes faith? and whether Word and Sacraments effect it? For beyond this manner of working there applies to the Word and the Sacraments still another, which is of a moral sort, and consists in the giving, imparting or offering, communicating and sealing of the justifying benefit. For one may not confuse that which Word and Sacraments do in so far as they produce, nourish, or awaken faith, with that which the Word does in so far as it first of all contributes (concurrit) to justification. For while in the first case Word and Sacrament act as tools which not only effect (effectiva) the supernatural powers towards believing, but also excite (excitativa) the spiritual movements of faith, in the second case, that is in justification, they are tools which only give, communicate, and seal the justifying benefit, which is Christ's obedience. In short, Word and Sacrament are considered in a twofold manner: 1) as effective and kindling (effectiva et excitativa) tools, in so far as they effect (bewirken-produce) faith; 2) as giving, imparting, and sealing (dativa, collativa, et obsignativa) tools, so far as they first of all contribute to justification" (Isagog. in libros symbol. Lips. 1675, p. 251: Google Books).

The sects think that the Word does not have this giving and conveying power. Therefore they do not believe that the means of grace are the hand of God, through which everything which we need for the salvation of our souls is bestowed to us. But whoever does not believe this, does not at all believe that there are means of grace.  He who wants to speak of means of grace, must believe grace to be acquired already, which grace one obtains through such means, through which God distributes it as with His hand: for if means exist by which grace is conveyed, then this can be the case only because grace already exists. But after we have considered and adopted the fifth thesis, it is to be assumed that we are all convinced of this: righteousness has already been  acquired, grace is already there, and now we may confidently go and say: Word and Sacrament are the hand of God, [KM 26] through which there is offered to us what Christ has acquired and brought us from the grave. When therefore we speak of the power and effectiveness of the means of grace, the meaning is this: that Word and Sacrament are not a mere notice and proclamation, nor a mere power generating faith, but a giving, imparting, and sealing of the goods themselves which they notify and proclaim. Rom. 1:16 calls the Gospel a power of God unto salvation. So not only a testimony of salvation, not only a direction how to obtain righteousness, [SCR 51] but an imparting of the same is here ascribed to the Gospel.

[KM paragraph]

It is to be strictly distinguished then between the effecting and the communicating power; for the Word of God is a Word of the Spirit, which produces divine and heavenly effects in us, works in us repentance, faith, and sanctification, but it does not bring us only the message that all the benefits of grace are there and intended for us, but it brings us also the goods themselves. It is not like a message accidentally heard behind the bars of a prison, but the sort which an authorized ambassador of the King brings with his sealed letter of pardon.  [LS paragraph] 

Such an authorized agent is every believing Christian now after Christ's death and resurrection, after God has sent the message of pardon out into all the world.  If people don't believe him, he takes the Bible and says: Here it stands, only take it out: God so loved the world, or: God was in Christ, etc. So when a preacher comes before his people and proclaims: God was in Christ, etc., so this is nothing other than when the authorized agent steps before the condemned criminal and says: Do not worry, you shall not be killed; I declare herewith to you in the name of [LS XXX/24, 187-1] His Majesty the King: you are pardoned.  And when the preacher points to the Word of God and the Sacraments, then if the criminal would not believe him he acts as would the authorized agent: he then points to the sealed letter of pardon and says: there it stands, read it yourself.  So the preacher says to the anxious and apprehensive one: Here, read God's letter of grace, sealed with the blood of Christ and attested by the Holy Ghost, and believe it, so it will be confirmed by the same spirit in your heart. [KM paragraph]

So then one should distinguish between the power of the means of grace according to which they can work faith and everything which must happen in a man in order that he remain a child of God, and the power and effect by which they also really impart and transmit that which the words openly say. The former power is conceded by most of those who still want to be Christians.  Zwingli of course did not concede it; he said that God needed no wagon, and that anything to do with the sensible has no power in the realm of the spiritual.  However, far from it that all who are in the Reformed Church, should believe this; so it is rather a fact that all simple-minded people in the sects believe Christ's words, which say: My words are Spirit and are Life, and do not explain them to mean: My words convey the message about the spirit and life.  But they all deny that the Word has power to impart that of which it speaks. They mean that the doctrine of conversion would thereby be overturned. [Note: see Brief Statement – Conversion]  Now everyone must of course be converted if he wants to go to heaven, but it is not through conversion that he gets to heaven and comes into possession of the benefits of grace, but thereby that God gives them to him. Of course he does not get them if he does not take them, but his taking does not make the goods, but God's grace and the redemption of Jesus Christ. [SCR 52] These are therefore present and valid even without man's acceptance, but he has not yet stretched out his hand and not yet taken them, yes, he has struck the Hand of Grace, God's hand that was outstretched [KM 27] and presenting His goods to him, and he has thrown the benefits from him and trampled them underfoot. Nevertheless God had held out in all seriousness and truly presented the benefits to him, else how could he have trampled them underfoot?  But what God presents, He bestows forever. Whoever therefore, e.g. is baptized, has through this means of grace forever received forgiveness of sins, redemption from death and devil, and eternal life. To be sure it happens unfortunately that someone goes along for many years and lives in sin and shame, therefore tramples God's lofty benefits underfoot all this time; nevertheless they are and remain given to him.  Therefore he may at any moment return to his Baptism and grasp and use the long despised and spurned benefits, without committing a theft. Even Lutheran preachers here often confuse may believe (glauben duerfen) and can believe (glauben koennen).  We maintain according to God's Word that there exists no man who is not permitted to believe, but at the same time we concede that there are only too many who can not believe.  Therefore the Law must be preached in all its sharpness so that the people might first learn to recognize and feel the misery of their sin, and then the Gospel in all its sweetness, in order that God might graciously move them, so that they can believe; for permission to believe is self-evident.

[KM paragraph] 

But the enthusiasts tell a man whose heart is smitten by the Law: you are now indeed alarmed over your sins, and God's grace must help you, but now also watch and do not grasp too quickly.  First go into the closet, praying and wrestling with God until you have worked through to the feeling of grace; then you may believe that you have it. That is a godless way of dealing with souls. In this way one can lead them to despair but not to a true certainty of their salvation.  Therefore one should speak thus to the sinner: You confess then that you are a sinner, and are you heartily alarmed of this, that you lie under God's wrath?  If that is how it is with you, then believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, so will you be saved. So the Apostle said to the jailer: believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, so will you and your house be saved. And to think: he says that to one who was about to commit suicide by his own hand, but who was now in anguish over his sins and asked: "What must I do to [LS XXX/24, 187-2] be saved?"  What would a Methodist then have answered?  He would well have said: Yes, not so fast.  Just try again, pray and wrestle; but it can take a long time before grace comes to a breakthrough in you, and till you experience that the dear God has accepted you. But Paul was plainly no Methodist; that we see that from his behavior towards the criminal, the jailer.  And why could he speak so with him?  Because he knew that the Word was the means of grace, with which he presents life and salvation at the moment he spoke. [SCR 53] From him we Lutherans ought to learn.  This is what the Apology teaches, when it says:

[KM indent; LS paragraph]

53] As often, therefore, as we speak of justifying faith, we must keep in mind that these three objects concur: the [divine] promise, and that, too, gratuitous, and the merits of Christ, as the price and propitiation.  The promise is received by faith; the "gratuitous" excludes our merits, and signifies that the benefit is offered only through mercy; the merits of Christ are the price, because there must be a certain propitiation for our sins. 54] Scripture frequently implores mercy; and the holy Fathers often say that we 55] are saved by mercy. As often, therefore, as mention is made of mercy, we must [KM 28] keep in mind that faith is there required, which receives the promise of mercy. And, again, as often as we speak of faith, we wish an object to be understood, namely, the promised mercy. 56] For faith justifies and saves, not on the ground that it is a work in itself worthy, but only because it receives the promised mercy. (Apology of Augsburg Confession. IV, 53-56, Triglotta pgs 135-137, Müller pg 96-97; Tappert, p. 114).

[KM -indent; paragraph; LS paragraph]

This passage is important, because it shows that the Book of Concord understands by the means of grace something totally distinct from the understanding of the enthusiasts.  They always mean that it is with the divine promises how it is with man’s word, where the indicated thing still does not lie in the word; but with God the thing is wrapped in the Word.  Therefore the Symbolical Books make use of the language of the Bible, which often names the abstract and means the concrete; so Paul, who always understands by the term promise the thing promised. [Walther, the “confessional Lutheran”–BTL]  Thus the Sacraments are called in the Smalcald Articles "means which are to impart the promise to those that desire it." [?] Here applies what is said also in the Large Catechism:

[KM indent; LS paragraph] 

"54] We further believe that in this Christian Church we have forgiveness of sin, which is wrought through the holy Sacraments and Absolution, moreover, through all manner of consolatory promises of the entire Gospel. …. 56] But outside of this Christian Church, where the Gospel is not, there is no forgiveness, as also there can be no holiness [sanctification]. Therefore all who seek and wish to merit holiness [sanctification], not through the Gospel and forgiveness of sin, but by their works, have expelled and severed themselves [from this Church]. 57] Meanwhile, however, while sanctification has begun and is growing daily, we expect that our flesh will be destroyed and buried with all its uncleanness, and will come forth gloriously, and arise to entire and perfect holiness in a new eternal life. 58] For now we are only half pure and holy,  [SCR 54] so that the Holy Ghost has ever [some reason why] to continue His work in us through the Word, and daily to dispense forgiveness, [LS 187-2/187-3] 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." (Large Catechism,  Apostles Creed, Article III, paragraph 54-58, Triglotta pg 693; Müller pgs 458-459; Tappert, pp. 417-418).

Further:

"That such merit and benefits of Christ shall be presented, offered, and distributed to us through His Word and Sacraments." (Formula of Concord, Thorough/Solid Decl. XI. Election, parag. 15, Triglotta p. 1069, Müller p. 708; Tappert, p. 619).

[KM -indent; paragraph]

Here we hear how our Confessions testify that through the Sacraments the benefits of Christ are also given and distributed.  The ancient fathers, when they spoke of those who do not yet believe, mostly employed the word offere, meaning to set before and offer (vortragen und anbieten).  An imparting  (conferre- Mittheilung) is mentioned only in the sense that it includes the appropriation on man's side.  But from God's side the Sacraments apportion (teilen) the gifts as certainly as God does not lie. When God, accordingly, says to a man: Your sins are forgiven you, so has He [KM 29] thereby also certainly given what the words say and how they are.  If we speak here of “to communicate or impart (mittheilen), do not at all speak of what may take place under certain circumstances, but that the means of grace are never to be denied a power of imparting/communicating (mittheilende).  Admittedly for those who do not believe, nothing is imparted through them, if one wants to speak of the meaning of this word in the strict sense.  But we speak of what the means of grace have in themselves, and so we say: This power is not only that they indicate what God has done for us, nor only that God through them knocks at the heart of the sinner, but they also have the wonderful power that they give what the Word contains. When God says: “Thou art my child”, so am I also through that Word become His child, as the Savior says: Ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you. [John 15:3]  As the Word in creation had the power to call all things out of nothing into existence, so also in the justification of the sinner, only that here man has the terrible power to resist the Word. [KM paragraph; LS paragraph]

But now one asks: How can the Word of God work something without at the same time imparting grace?  So is the answer: these are two different things, to present (or offer) (darreichen) and to impart (or communicate) (mittheilen). When the Word presents the forgiveness of sins, that is one part, but when it works faith in the heart, so that the sinner now also seizes (ergreift) the proffered grace, that is the other part.  The better class among the Reformed grant the former, the others deny both.  For some do not deny that the Word kindles faith, but now according to them faith takes a walk and seeks where it may find God.  But God's Word teaches and a Lutheran also believes this, that in the Word already there is forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, and faith also grasps this.  When the Reformed also sometimes admit that the Word of God has also an operative, a converting power, but then they think, after all, that remission sins must be sought from heaven. [SCR 55] Against it we say that the Word not only changes us, and makes us fit for the gifts, but also brings and gives us the same, so that man, after hearing the heavenly gifts designated and described, need not inquire:  Yes, but how shall I obtain them?  But rather can he say: There in the Word they are, and in Baptism they are handed over to me. If he says: but I have fallen after Baptism, so one answers him: you admittedly have fallen, but Baptism has not fallen; that stands still together with all the gifts which God has placed into it; only embrace it again and take the benefits that were given to you at that time when you were baptized.

[KM paragraph] 

But the sects do not believe that. They think that it is conversion which again puts man in possession of grace, and it is this change for which one can think again that one has forgiveness of the sins.   [BTL- see Brief Statement, Conversion]   But this is to hitch the horse behind the cart.  [BTL- e.g. get the cart before the horse]  For if I build my state of grace on my new heart, then I build the cause upon the effect. It shows that they have an entirely different concept of faith from the [LS XXX/24, 188-1] biblical one;  they think that faith is a new feeling in the heart, which possesses nothing as yet, but only looks for something.

[KM paragraph]

How completely otherwise does our Catechism speak of the effect of the means of grace;  For example, to the question: What does Baptism give or profit? it replies: "It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare." And to the question: "How can water do such great things?" it answers: "It is not the water indeed that does them, but the Word of God, [KM 30] which is in and with the water, and faith, which trusts such Word of God in the water."  Likewise to the question: "How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things?" -- "It is not the eating and drinking indeed that does them, but the words here written. . . . and he that believes these words has what they say and express, namely, the forgiveness of sins." [KM paragraph, LS paragraph]

Also as soon as the Word issues forth, so I already have all that it indicates; while those who attribute to it only the effective / operative power (vis effectiva), regard it as a little seed from which everything must grow. Only in the Word lie both, the gift of grace as well as the strength to accept such gifts.  The requisite change, which must happen to every man if he is to be saved, God works, and He works it through the means of grace, through which man's heart is changed. This is called the order of grace, because namely God appoints a man by the Gospel, enlightens him with His gifts, and sanctifies and keeps him in the true faith.  But besides this man also must receive something which cannot be worked in himself: grace, forgiveness of sins, justification.  [BTL- Objective Justification] This latter occurs in God and is His, hence it cannot be worked in man, but it must be given to him.  This then is the imparting / communicating power of the means of grace (vis collativa).  The Symbolical [SCR 56] Books therefore also describe the means of grace at one time as the instruments which produce faith in the heart of man, and then again as vessels in which God giveth His heavenly benefits.  For when God comes to man, He finds him 1) destitute and 2) dead; therefore must now God through His means of grace do both for him: He must 1) awaken him from the dead, and 2) present him with the riches of His House. Thus God is our Physician and our generous Benefactor, and His Word is part medicine, part bearer of the heavenly treasure.  If we had the power in ourselves to believe, then it would admittedly be enough if the Word would simply announce the treasures to us; but we do not have even the power to will, to seek, to embrace,  therefore is necessary this twofold power of the means of grace to our salvation, that it wakes us up to new life, and that it give us that what we do not have.

[LS XXXI/1, 1-3: Lutheran Standard, January 1, 1873, page 1]

Thesis 7: "The Gospel is therefore not a mere historical narration of the accomplished work of the redemption, but much rather an effectual declaration of peace and a Divine promise of grace to [KM- towards???] the world redeemed by Christ, and thus always a powerful means of grace, in which God for His part brings, proffers, distributes, gives and bestows the forgiveness of sins and the righteousness acquired by Christ, although not all to whom God extends His sincere call of grace accept this invitation of the reconciled God, and thus also do not become partakers of the accompanying gifts."

A major question in this whole affair is: What is the Gospel?  In response it is to be held fast: it is the pardon [LS XXXI/1, 2-1] of God to the world. Because He has been reconciled through Christ, so He also wants this now to be preached, in order that the whole world may be moved to suffer itself to be reconciled to Him also.  The Formula of Concord says: "We must in every way hold sturdily and firmly to this, that, as the preaching of repentance, so also the promise of the Gospel is universalis (universal), that is, it pertains to all men, Luke 24:47.  For this reason Christ has commanded that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations." (Formula of Concord–Election, paragraph #28, Triglotta p. 1070-1071; Walch p. 709; Tappert, p. 620). Thus is also the Gospel simply called absolution in the Symbolical Books: "The word of Absolution proclaims peace to us and is the Gospel itself." [See Formula of Concord–Repentance, paragraph #39, Triglotta p. 261],  [KM 31; paragraph]

The Reformed think that the Gospel is a narrative, an historical record of that which God has done; but that God in this Word also presents grace, this they deny.  But our church teaches that whoever hears and believes the Gospel is justified [KM- become righteous].  Therefore, when the Gospel is proclaimed, it is Absolution, and those who do not believe in it, hear it to their own judgment. The opponents however think that the Gospel brings a treasure only for the penitent.  There they confuse two things: the type and nature of the Absolution, and its right application by the minister of the church. For they should preach the Gospel in such a way that it is applied to the penitent.  What they say about the Gospel is a despicable doctrine, and it is like those people who have taken chances in a lottery; [SCR 57] if they belong to the believers, then the Gospel also proclaims to them God's grace; if they do not, then the message is not valid for them. They just do not believe that God is already reconciled with the world, and that the Gospel is not otherwise than the pronouncement of this upon God's command and a communication / impartation (Mittheilung)  according to His order. When a man has been sentenced to death and the judge releases him, then the pardon does not consist in this that the judge personally cuts him loose from the gallows, but it consists in this that the judge pardons him, and this pardon comprehends everything else within it. Thus, when God acquits, then He has also justified through His Word. Whoever denies that the Gospel is an absolution of the world, actually denies the Gospel of Christ; then it is not a glad tidings, but an instruction regarding what one must do that God would be gracious to him.  The Lord says expressly that the Gospel should be preached in all the world "as a testimony against them." This glad news must be proclaimed therefore whether it is accepted,  or not, as the Apostle says, to the one as a savour of death unto death. [2 Cor. 2:16]  In the opposing doctrine man must first always have faith before a gift is there, while God's Word says: Believe, and you have it.  The opposing doctrine is therefore a godless doctrine, which ought to frighten one.  What profit is there by all their exhortation to faith?  What should I believe then if still nothing exists?  However, next to this thesis belongs immediately the absolution.

Thesis 8: "The holy Absolution is a preaching of the Gospel to one or more particular persons, who desire the comfort of the Gospel. The same is therefore also at all times valid and powerful / effectual (kräftig) of itself, for God therein declares Himself, through the mouth of His minister, as a truly reconciled God through the blood and death and blood of Christ and so distributes / communicates (theilt) for His part the gift of forgiveness and righteousness to all, who are being absolved, though many do not become partakers of the gifts of grace presented in the Gospel on account of their unbelief."  

When I hold confession and absolve, I am only a truly Lutheran pastor if I am sure of this: those who were there, those all have I loosed in the moment when I said to them the word of Absolution, and only those are true Lutherans who believe that they were actually acquitted by God.  None should think: if only the pastor knew what kind of person I am, he would not absolve me; but now I know it, and therefore his absolution is not valid.  Much more should everyone go from the church with this thought: Now has God pardoned us all and forgiven the debt.  Admittedly however, one can believe thus only if one believes that the world is redeemed; for if I believe that, then the Absolution is only the imparting of the fact to the penitents [KM 32] that they were redeemed 1800 [~ almost 2000] years ago, and the admonition: Believe this now, so you are all saved.  What wicked people you must [LS XXXI/1, 2-2] be if you do not believe that! [KM paragraph]

Now someone might think: [SCR 58] Accordingly one must also absolve all avowed wicked persons, even people like the monkey-advocate (Affen-Vogt?);  but Christ’s order stands against this: "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine." [Matt. 7:6]  Also a monkey-advocate (Affen-Vogt) would admittedly be truly absolved, if he heard the Gospel; but he would make a joke of it, and tread the gift underfoot, as the sow a precious pearl.  Because we know this of known unbelievers in advance, we do not absolve them, but not at all because we believe that they are not redeemed.  Oh, if the unbelievers knew and considered this, they would not see us as clerical, puffed-up people, who do not mean it well with them.  They in fact namely think that we absolve in this sense, because we are ordained masters, to whom there was conferred, in ordination, as through an electrical current, the power to forgive sins, so that, when we say: I forgive you your sins, these are forgiven by virtue of our Absolution. We do not teach this, but rather the papists do; they bind the power of absolution to the shaved priesthood.  But we say: That is no art to absolve someone; that any ordinary Christian man, every woman, every child can do too, if only he can relate that the Lord Jesus died for all and that whoever believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.  For absolution does not rest on the quality of the speaker, but on the Word of the Gospel about the accomplished reconciliation.  Therefore declares the Apology that whoever rejects absolution, does not know what the Gospel is [see Apology, Article VI-Confession and Satisfaction, parags. 3-6];  and Luther says that he prizes so highly the Absolution just so that people recognize the Gospel. [LS paragraph]   But the Gospel is the message, to be brought to the lost world, that it is redeemed – a message not as we convey other news, rather as from the great God in Heaven expressly transmitted. For this He makes His messengers confident and says: Only preach it confidently, I will not be a liar, but which I give in your mouth will make true.  Therefore says Luther: "A preacher can not help but must with his mouth pronounce an Absolution," for as soon as he makes mention of the Lord Christ, it is nothing but Absolution. [KM paragraph mark]

Therefore it is no presumption at all when a Lutheran pastor says that he can absolve, for he will not say it was the power thereby imparted by ordination into the Ministry, as something special, but rather the power is that of the Word, which the preaching office committed to him entitles him to preach.  But through the reciting and proclaiming the dear God wishes to distribute everything, and our Absolution in confession is only a definite expression, a short summary of what is proclaimed in the sermon, with the difference that it is now applies to the individual.  By virtue of the Office is called here by virtue of the Gospel which I have been called to preach; so Luther says that with the words: Whosesoever sins ye remit, etc., "is not used the power of him who speaks, but of those who believe" (St. Louis Edition XI, pg 733, parag. 20; Walch XI, 1002, paragraph 20; no American Edition).  Therefore one should not [SCR 59] say to the penitent: Think about what you are and if you do not recognize all your sins, and do not have such and such a degree of repentance over them, so you shall receive no Absolution. But one must put it like this: I now absolve you, thereby the forgiveness of all your sins is freely given you; therefore you are an accursed man if you do not believe this.  Therefore it is so great sin to go to confession and yet not believe the Word of Absolution.  If I were even the greatest sinner, so should I (in view of God’s [KM 33] disfavor) believe this Absolution.  Admittedly, so long as someone is a obstinate sinner, he cannot believe the Word; but the fault lies not with the Absolution, as though it were not efficacious.  Because the Absolution is nothing other than the Gospel, our Fathers did not by any means commit themselves to any particular formulas of Absolution;  whichever such formulas they may have used, this shows that they wanted to proclaim the Gospel to the sinner, and apply it to him.

There are especially two things to be emphasized hereby, firstly that the Gospel is an offer of grace, as well as that nothing must be added to make this offer valid on man's part.  If one makes the Gospel by its very nature dependent on whether man believes, then faith has nothing to which it can hold on.  But man must have something that he can believe, otherwise he cannot believe at all; if now the Gospel is not valid except that man first believe it, what is he then to believe?  One is, as Luther says, led to a monkey's tail.  This means the people who are in fear and have doubts about their salvation, are lead into a quandary.  Quite differently teaches our Augsburg Confession in Art. 25:

[KM indent; LS paragraph]

And the people are most carefully taught concerning faith in the absolution, about which formerly there 3] was profound silence. Our people are taught that they should highly prize the absolution, as being the voice of God, 4] and pronounced by God's command. The power of the Keys is set forth in its beauty and they are reminded what great consolation it brings to anxious consciences, also, that God requires faith to believe such absolution as a voice sounding from heaven,  [LS XXXI/1, 2-3]   and that such faith in Christ truly obtains and receives the forgiveness of sins.  (A.C.-Confession, Art. 25, parags. 2-4; Triglotta p. 69; Tappert, pp. 61-62).

[KM -indent; LS paragraph]

Accordingly Absolution is an object for our faith and not a mere guidepost to faith.  Always should the promise stand before our eyes, and in it are all frightened souls to seek solace and forgiveness and be uplifted by it.  In contrast, if faith is to be there first, then faith is made into something quite different from what it actually is; it is then no longer a grasping and accepting of the existing gifts.  The Apology teaches:

We therefore add as the second part of repentance, Of Faith in Christ, that in these terrors the Gospel concerning Christ ought to be set forth to consciences, in which Gospel the remission of sins is freely promised concerning [SCR 60]  Christ. Therefore, they ought to believe that for Christ's sake 36] sins are freely remitted to them. This faith cheers, sustains, and quickens the contrite, according to Rom. 5:1: Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. This faith obtains the remission of sins. This faith justifies before God, as the same passage testifies: Being justified by faith. This faith shows the distinction between the contrition of Judas and Peter, of Saul and of David. The contrition of Judas or Saul is of no avail, for the reason that to this there is not added this faith, [KM 34] which apprehends the remission of sins, bestowed as a gift for Christ's sake. Accordingly, the contrition of David or Peter avails, because to it there is added faith, which apprehends the remission of sins granted for Christ's sake. (Apology A.C.-Article XII (V): Of Repentance, parags. 35-36, Triglotta p. 261; Tappert, p. 186)

[KM, LS paragraph]

And in the Large Catechism:

28] But as our would-be wise, new spirits assert that faith alone saves, and that works and external things avail nothing, we answer: It is true, indeed, that nothing in us is of any avail but faith, as we shall hear still further. 29] But these blind guides are unwilling to see this, namely, that faith must have something which it believes, that is, of which it takes hold, and upon which it stands and rests….

30] Now, they are so mad as to separate faith, and that to which faith clings and is bound, though it be something external. Yea, it shall and must be something external, that it may be apprehended by the senses, and understood and thereby be brought into the heart, as indeed the entire Gospel is an external, verbal preaching. In short, what God does and works in us He proposes to work through such external ordinances.  (Large Catechism-Baptism, parags. 28-30; Triglotta pgs 738-739; Müller p 489; Tappert, p. 440).

If someone said to the enthusiasts: Here is bread, but that only has a nourishing power if it is enjoyed by one who is hungry, or: this medicine has its healing power only when a sick person takes it, so they would themselves realize that this is foolishness.  But so also the Gospel has its power not only when it is heard by a person penitent and hungry for grace, but also when it is proclaimed to the godless.  But this is true: whoever does not eat the bread, it does not nourish; whoever does not take the medicine, it does not heal; and whoever does not believe the Gospel, it does not comfort;  but even an enthusiast ought to see that the power of the Word does not lie in man, any more than the nourishing power of bread lies in him.

[KM paragraph]

From the assertion that the Gospel and Absolution are not powerful (kräftig) in the case of the impenitent, gives the most terrible consequences: Thereby is denied Christ's all-sufficient merit, the redemption and reconciliation of the world, for then must faith always be envisioned as a work which must be added, in order that there might be forgiveness in the Gospel.  Then it follows that Christ's merit is not all-sufficient.  But if Christ's merit is not all-sufficient, then also Christ is not true God.  One could also then not with a clear conscience preach the Gospel and allow communion to anyone of whom one was not certain [SCR 61] that he believed.  

Now indeed, as concerns the latter, no one is to be allowed to the Sacrament unless he is questioned and confesses that he believes; but whether he tells the truth or pretends I cannot know, because I cannot look into his heart. So I do what God commands me, and am certain that I truly absolve all; whether [LS XXXI/1, 2-4] they enjoy it, I do not know.  [LS paragraph]  It is even not only that a justification is only made possible, but has been acquired and has taken place. [KM paragraph]

As therefore we speak of the nature of the Gospel and the Absolution, so God's Word itself speaks of it, that God gives and bestows, without respect to whether the matter is accepted or not.  We simply adhere [KM 35] to the Word against the adversaries of this doctrine: "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself", 2 Tim. 2:13; "For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?  God forbid", Rom. 3:3-4. According to the doctrine of our opponents I would have to discard everything I had ever received, as soon as I began to doubt whether I in fact then believed properly.  If I had myself baptized today, but a year hence I developed doubts, whether I had properly believed it, so I would have to be baptized again.  But, thanks be to God, we may with certainty comfort ourselves of this: what God has done to us, He has done to us forever, and does not undo it from His side; we should only believe.  But cursed be the doctrine which makes the worthiness, power, and validity of the Absolution dependent on my faith.  For that is precisely the poor sinner's consolation, that he knows: the dear God does not deceive me when He speaks with me.  If therefore I was not in the right frame of mind before, I shall now comfort myself with this, that God does not repent of His gifts and calling.  So my Baptism is valid even if I fall and reject its grace. It may very well be that I have then fallen out of the ship into the sea of perdition, but the ship, with everything that can take me to heaven, is still there; I must only return to the ship and console myself anew with my Baptism.  Indeed, were it possible that someone could be godless and yet retain his Baptism, then he would certainly get to heaven; but that is simply impossible.  This is a very comforting doctrine for the terrified sinner, because it shows him that the devil has no right and no power over him, if only he does not throw away the Word.

[KM paragraph]

We cannot emphasize enough, what is said in the Augsburg Confession: the Absolution, which is spoken to me, is always God's Word. [see A.C.-Article XXV, Of Confession, paragr. 2-6, also Apology-Article XII (V): Of Repentance, paragrs. 40-41]  The meaning is not that the words are simply taken from the Bible, but: When the pastor absolves you, you can believe that it is God who says to you through the mouth of a poor sinner: as you believe, so it happens for [geschehe, KM- be it done to] you.  So godless would it be if you hear: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" and you would not believe this, even so godless it is when you are absolved and you say: That is not true, that to me forgiveness is here give, for I am a great sinner, [SCR 62] I indeed do not stand in faith, and so forth.  If the doctrine of the opponents were true, then the unbelievers would be right when they say: "Bah, what do we care what the clergyman says?"  Since then it would really be but an empty Word; but now their talk is so terrible for this very reason, because it is God's Absolution which they despise and ridicule.  As gold remains gold even though it is stolen or cast into the mud, so the Absolution remains Absolution, even though it is despised by unbelievers.  Even as prisoners who hear that they are pardoned, and say: But we like it in prison, are nevertheless pardoned, so likewise they are absolved who do not accept the Word and what it brings.  For the great King, God the Lord, has pardoned the world, and has sent forth His servants to bring this message to men.  Therefore Luther writes so gloriously:

Consequently, there must lie hidden in the keys of Christ his blood, death, and resurrection, by which he has opened to us heaven, and thus imparts through the keys to poor sinners what he has wrought through his blood. . . .

Remember that the keys or the forgiveness of sins are not based on our own repentance or worthiness, as they wrongly teach. Such teachings are entirely Pelagian, Turkish (Mohammedan), [KM 36] pagan, Jewish, like those of the Anabaptists, fanatics, and anti-Christian.  On the contrary our repentance and work, our disposition and all we are, should be built on the keys. We are to depend on them with as daring confidence as on God's Word itself. You must never doubt what the keys say and give you, at the risk of losing both body and soul.  It is as certain as if God himself were saying so, which indeed he does. It is his own Word and command. [LS XXXI/1, 3-1] But if you doubt the same you make God a liar. You pervert his order and base his keys on your own repentance and worthiness.  You should, indeed, repent. But to make repentance the basis of the forgiveness of your sins and of corroborating the work of the keys, is to abandon faith and deny Christ. By means of the key, he will forgive your sins, not for your own sake but for his own name's sake, out of pure grace. . . .

Do not allow yourself to be led astray by this Pharisaic babbling by which some deceive themselves, saying, "How can a man forgive sins when he can bestow neither grace nor the Holy Spirit?" Rely on the words of Christ and be assured that God has no other way to forgive sins than through the spoken Word, as he has commanded us.  If you do not look for forgiveness through the Word, you will gape toward heaven in vain for grace, or (as they say), for a sense of inner forgiveness.

But if you speak as the factious spirits and sophists do: "After all, many hear of the binding and loosing of the keys, yet it makes no impression on them and they remain unbound and without being loosed. Hence, there must exist something else beside the Word and the keys.  It is the spirit, the spirit, yes, the spirit that does it! Do you believe he is not bound who does not believe in the key which binds?  Indeed, he shall learn, [SCR 63] in due time, that his unbelief did not make the binding vain, Indeed, he shall learn, [SCR 63] in due time, that his unbelief did not make the binding vain, nor did it fail in its purpose.  Even he who does not believe that he is free and his sins forgiven shall also learn, in due time, how assuredly his sins were forgiven, even though he did not believe it. [LS XXXI/1, 3-1/… end of LS 3-1. Note: all of the balance of Thesis 8 omitted by Lutheran Standard.; see KM 38 where it is resumed again by Lutheran Standard.] St. Paul says in Rom. 3:3: "Their faithlessness nullifies not the faithfulness of God."  We are not talking here either about people's belief or disbelief regarding the efficacy of the keys.  We realize that few believe.  We are speaking of what the keys accomplish and give. He who does not accept what the keys give receives of course nothing.  But this is not the key's fault.  Many do not believe the gospel, but this does not mean that the gospel is not true or effective. A king gives you a castle. If you do not accept it, then it is not the king's fault, nor is he guilty of a lie. But you have deceived yourself and the fault is yours. The king certainly gave it.

Well, you say, here you yourself teach that the key fails.  For the keys do not accomplish their purpose when some do not believe nor accept. Well, friend, if [KM 37] you call this failing, then God fails in all his words and works. For few accept what he constantly speaks and does for all.  This means doing violence to the proper meaning of words. I do not call it a failure or a mistake if I say or do something, and somebody else despises or ignores it. But so they understand, teach, and observe concerning the pope's wrong key: The key itself can err, even though a person would like to accept and rely on it.  For it is a conditionalis clavis, a conditional, a vacillating key which does not direct us to God's Word, but to our own repentance.  It does not say candidly and boldly that you are to believe that I most certainly loose you. But it says that if you are repentant and pious, I loose you, if not, then I fail.  That is the clavis errans, the erring key. It cannot with any assurance say that I know for certain that I have loosed you before God, whether you believe it or not, as St. Peter's key can say.  But it must say something like this, that I loose you on earth, but I really and truly do not know whether you are loosed before God.  For faith has not been taught in connection with the keys, as one clearly sees in the bulls of indulgence wherein repentance and confession and money are required but nothing is ever said of faith.

This is quite evident, for they neither repent of nor punish such deceitful uncertainties, among themselves or in others. They proceed confidently as if such doubting were no sin at all, reasoning thus: It makes no difference whether I have hit the mark; if I have missed the mark, I have missed it.  They display no compunction of conscience or worry on account of such unbelief.  Yet it is an abominable unbelief on the part of both him who binds and looses as well as on the part of him who is being bound and loosed.  For it is God's Word and command that the former speaks and the latter listens. Both are bound, on peril of losing their soul's salvation, to believe this article as truly and firmly as all other articles of faith.  For he who binds and looses without faith, and doubts whether he succeeds in binding and loosing rightly, or thinks

[SCR 64] to himself quite unconcernedly, well, if the key hits the mark, it hits the mark, that man blasphemes God and denies Christ, tramples the keys underfoot, and is worse than a heathen, Turk, or Jew.  He also who is bound or loosed, blasphemes God, and denies Christ if he does not believe but doubts and despises what is done. For one ought and must believe God's Word with all seriousness and confidence. He who does not believe should leave the keys alone. He should rather dwell with Judas and Herod in hell, for God does not want to be reviled by our unbelief. It is truly not everybody's business to use the keys rightly.  [KM 38]  Again, he who believes or would gladly believe that the keys are doing their work effectively, let him rejoice and use them with confidence. The greatest honor you can bestow on God and his keys is to trust in them. It is for that reason we teach our people that he who is bound or loosed by means of the key, let him rather die ten deaths than doubt their efficacy. No greater dishonor can be done to God's Word and judgment than lack of faith in the same.  For this means as much as to say: God, you are a liar. It is not true what you say. I do not believe it.  Hence God must be a prevaricator.  He who binds and looses must be equally as certain, otherwise he is guilty of similar abominations.  But where has one ever taught or heard of such a thing under the papacy?  Indeed, if it had been taught, the wrong keys and their companions would never have come into being. And these two keys would have been the only ones and would have remained pure and unspotted.  How many bishops and their representatives use the keys in this fashion?  They do not believe the judgment of the keys is God's Word.  They are in the habit of treating them as if they were of an ancient, worldly origin.  But if they were to believe that it was the judgment of God in which they themselves should first of all have faith, at the risk of endangering their souls' salvation, they would not treat it so thoughtlessly but rather with fear and trembling (St. Louis Edition XIX p. 907–#8, 943-944–# 82, 946–948–#86-90; Walch XIX, 1126–#8, 1172–#82, 1175–#86-90; Luther's Works,  American Edition, vol. 40, pp. 328, 364, 366-369).

[LS XXXII/2, 11-1: Lutheran Standard- all text omitted from that point to this section from January 1, 1874, pg 11, col. 1; concluding portion]

Thesis 9: "The means, by which alone man comes into actual possession of the gift of grace acquired by Christ and proffered in Word and Sacrament, is faith, which believes the promise of grace of God and thus appropriates to itself the gift of the merits and righteousness of Christ presented in this promise of God, and consoles itself with the blessing of Christ as his Sin-canceler and Saviour."

For this purpose is the precious text of Rom. 4:16: "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed."[LS XXXII/2, 11-2]  Thereby testifies the Apostle Paul that faith is not about [KM-”let us say”- etwa] a condition, which must be fulfilled by our side if we should be partakers of the salvation which Christ has secured for us; no, he wants to say that when God calls us to faith, so he does not thereby say: My Son has done well enough for you and redeemed the world, but now also you must do something; on the contrary, it stands this way: Because we just have precisely nothing [SCR 65] more to do for our salvation, therefore faith is necessary;  if righteousness were admittedly not of grace, then something else would have to be required to obtain it; but now it is of grace, therefore faith is enough, because it is precisely an accepting. [KM paragraph]

If someone promises me something, or promises to give me something, what otherwise can I do than believe it?  Love helps nothing towards this, thinking about it does not help, also sanctification is no help; all this does not correspond to the nature of a free gift, namely that the same has come into my possession, but only so, that I accept it.  But this is [KM 39] just what faith is.  Here I hold as true this promise that God has given to me, me, me.  A woman came to see Dr. Luther with a great appeal saying that she could not believe that she would be saved, that she must be lost. There he let her recite the second article of the small catechism and then asked whether she could believe this?  And when she affirmed this, he let her go and said: So you believe this, so it stands well with you.  Whoever can indeed say this: "I believe in Jesus Christ . . . Who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil", there he has life and salvation.  [KM paragraph]

With this saying there is also repudiated the popish delusion, as if faith were a kind of virtue next to love and hope, and the enthusiastic (fanatical) delusion, as though faith as a change in the heart of man makes God pleased with man, so that for the sake of faith God had pleasure.  No, it is not faith which gives man value before God, but Christ, whom faith seizes.  It is as with a simple ring, in which a diamond is set.  From where now does it get its high value?  It lies not in the ring, but in the gem set in it.  So it is also with faith, which seizes Christ and thereby has a saving treasure in itself.  The Formula of Concord speaks of in such a way:

10] These treasures are offered us by the Holy Ghost in the promise of the holy Gospel; and faith alone is the only means by which we lay hold upon, accept, and apply, and appropriate them to ourselves. 11] This faith is a gift of God, by which we truly learn to know Christ, our Redeemer, in the Word of the Gospel, and trust in Him, that for the sake of His obedience alone we have the forgiveness of sins by grace, are regarded as godly and righteous by God the father, and are eternally saved….

13] For faith justifies, not for this cause and reason that it is so good a work and so fair a virtue, but because it lays hold of and accepts the merit of Christ in the promise of the holy Gospel; for this must be applied and appropriated to us by faith, if we are to be justified thereby. 14] Therefore the righteousness which is imputed to faith or to the believer out of pure grace is the obedience, suffering, and resurrection of Christ, since He has made satisfaction for us to the Law, and paid for [expiated] our sins….

16] This righteousness [SCR 66] is offered us by the Holy Ghost through the Gospel and in the Sacraments, and is applied, appropriated, and received through faith, whence believers have reconciliation with God, forgiveness of sins, the grace of God, sonship, and heirship of eternal life. (Formula of Concord, Thorough/Solid Declaration III-Righteousness of Faith, paragrs. 10-11, 13-14, 16; Triglotta pgs 918-921; Tappert, p. 541).

[KM -indent; LS paragraph]

The phrase "we are justified by faith" is a metonymic form of speech, that is, the thing containing is taken for the contents;   so it should be thereby said: We are justified by Christ which faith grasps.  As we say, "someone is satisfied by eating," and yet it is the food that satisfies him, not the eating, so say we to him who hungers spiritually: Would you be saved, so you must take what the Lord has offered you, but the taking does not still [KM 40] his soul, but the grace; so faith without Christ is worth nothing, and only faith in Christ is what makes righteous. [KM paragraph] 

There is something further which will in our time need to be emphasized yet more, that also faith is a pure gift of the grace of God.  Man, says the Formula of Concord, behaves in his conversion mere passive, i.e. only suffering; he does nothing, but something is done to him, and only when the dear God has created faith in us, then he can start to participate.  But lately the Iowa Synod has openly expressed the doctrine that the final decision for salvation lies ultimately with man.  They say that it is certainly true that man is saved by grace, but that when God offers grace, then man can provisionally have so much grace that he can now cooperate and decide for himself.  By grace, they say, man's will is liberated to such an extent that he can freely decide for acceptance or rejection of grace, so that man is saved by the faithful use of the offered power of grace to him. According to reason we, of course, cannot determine otherwise than this: When some accept grace and others not, while all are in the same powerlessness and guilt, so must it be that the former are better because they decided to accept the gifts.  God's Word alone declares that the condemnation of guilt comes upon man by reason of his own self hardening, but in contrast faith is a free gift of God's grace, whereby man possesses the righteousness of Christ.

Thesis 10: "Faith in Christ makes righteous and saves, therefore not because as an excellent work of man, that it acquires a bountiful merit before God, and as satisfaction for sin reconciling God with men, but because it is, from man's side, the receiving hand, which really embraces and accepts the treasure of the merits of Christ and so of forgiveness, righteousness, and salvation, which are [LS XXXII/2, 11-3] offered and given in the promise of grace.  Neither does faith justify and save before God because God is willing, out of free grace and love, to let it account as

...a meritorious work of righteousness [SCR 67] and of obedience towards God's Word, but because the treasure of the merit of Christ, which even the weakest faith grasps in the promise of the Gospel, embraces in itself truly a perfect satisfaction for all guilt and punishment of sin, as well as a perfect obedience towards all requirements of the Law of God."

This Thesis has been added to the previous one because beside the false doctrine that faith is such a high, meritorious work, still there is to be rejected yet a further false doctrine of the Arminians, who say: The grace of God consists precisely in this, that He is willing to regard faith of such value as to save man on its account.  Against this it must be held fast that even the weakest faith, even were it only a small spark insofar as it is only faith, has Christ with His entire merit, just because it seizes Christ, who indeed has rendered such a complete obedience and has through Himself accomplished so complete a Redemption, that whoever has Him is also altogether saved.  Now it remains, however, no matter whether someone is holding a gemstone with the strong hand of a man or with the weak fingers of a sick child, if he only holds it.

Thesis 11: "The faith of the individual also does not cause by its power that the evangelical promise of grace, which God pronounces in the Word of the Gospel or Absolution, to become really valid, effectual, and true, but it simply adheres to the promise of grace and forgiveness as divinely true and [KM 41] effectual, and by thus accepting the promise of God, it thereby at the same time grasps the gift of righteousness and salvation, and has what the words say and what they are."

The subject which is expressed here, we have already discussed in detail in the previous thesis, namely that faith does not give content to the Gospel and Absolution. The office of faith is not to give content, but rather to take out the content which God has placed in the means of grace.  Therefore we never find in Scripture the language, "on because of, or for the sake of faith", but always: "through or out of faith."  Here belong also all the passages of the Book of Concord in which it is said that the Gospel profits nothing without faith, although the treasure is all-surpassing.  For it is one thing that the treasure is there, and another that he profits something.

Thesis 12: "When an individual sinner through faith seizes the promise of the Gospel in Word or Sacrament, and to himself thus appropriates the treasure of the merits of Christ for his justification and salvation, it is so the same from God as in a judicial (forensic) action before the judgment seat of God for one such regarded, accounted and declared that now for his own person partakes of the merit and righteousness of Christ for his salvation, and also through the personal possession of the benefits of Christ is personally justified and an heir of everlasting life.”  [SCR 68] 

The intention of this thesis is to show that, although we teach that forgiveness of sins has been acquired for all men and the acquirement according righteousness and salvation is present for all people, and although we also teach, for another thing, that this treasure is also offered and presented to all in the Word and Sacrament, nevertheless we do not deny, that God regards the individual, if he only accepts this treasure and holds it in Christ and through Christ, as having this righteousness and that he in the same hour, so to speak, is written into the Book of Life, and that this is the Justification which in church usage is plainly called the Justification of a poor sinner, because there every individual stands before God in judgment and is declared free for his person by Him.  This actus forensis, i.e. legal/judicial action, continues throughout the whole life of man, for God is always again and again declaring man free from sin, death, and judgment.  So we teach: when the individual believer shares in the treasure which Christ has acquired, then God also holds this in His court, since he has come unto Christ, as the Apostle says: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus"; now he has part in the redemption acquired by Christ.  Before faith the sinner is righteous before God only according to the acquisition and the divine intention, but actually (actu) righteous, for his person righteous, indeed righteous when first he believes.  It is analogous with the reconciliation.  God is reconciled with us before we believe, [LS XXXII/2, 11-4] while we are yet enemies; but when we come to faith, we also are reconciled with God.  So for example Quenstedt says: As Christ reconciled us with God through his dying, so he reconciled us with God by virtue of his death while converting us through the Word of the Cross.  For a man's conversion consists just in this that he is brought to faith.  Thereby we with God are reconciled, after God with us is reconciled through Christ's death.  In the Formula of Concord it therefore says: "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all [KM 42] sin' (1 John 1:7), not only according to the merit [of the blood of Christ] which was once attained on the cross; but in this place John speaks of this, that in the work or act of justification not only the divine nature in Christ, but also His blood per modum efficaciae, that is, actually, cleanses us from all sins." (Formula of Concord, Solid/Thorough Declaration VIII, 59, Triglotta, pgs 1034-1035; Tappert, p. 602).