# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S484
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

484 INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS

23. We reject as a dangerous error the doctrine, which dis-
rupted the Church of the Reformation, that the grace and the
Spirit of God are communicated not through the external means
ordained by Him, but by an immediate operation of grace. This
erroneous doctrine bases the forgiveness of sins, or justification,
upon a fictitious “infused grace,” that is, upon a quality of man,
and thus again establishes the work-doctrine of the papists.

Of the Church.

24. We believe that there is one holy Christian Church on
earth, the Head of which is Christ and which is gathered, preserved,
and governed by Christ through the Gospel.

The members of the Christian Church are the Christians, that
is, all those who have despaired of their own righteousness before
God and believe that. God forgives their sins for Christ’s sake,
The Christian Church, in the proper sense of the term, is com-
posed of believers only, Acts 5, 14; 26, 18; which means that no
person in whom the Holy Ghost has wrought faith in the Gospel,
or — which is the same thing — in the doctrine of justification, can
be divested of his membership in the Christian Church; and, on
the other hand, that no person in whose heart this faith does not
dwell can be invested with such membership. All unbelievers,
though they be in external communion with the Church and even
hold the office of teacher or any other office in the Church, are
not members of the Church, but, on the contrary, dwelling-places
and instruments of Satan, Eph. 2, 2. This is also the teaching of
our Lutheran Confessions: “It is certain, however, that the wicked
are in the power of the devil and members of the kingdom of the
devil, as Paul teaches, Eph. 2, 2, when he says that ‘the devil now
worketh in the children of disobedience,’” etc. (Apology. Triglot,
p. 231, § 16; M,, p. 154.)

25. Since it is by faith in the Gospel alone that men become
members of the Christian Church, and since this faith cannot be
seen by men, but is known to God alone, 1 Kings 8, 39; Acts 1, 24;
2 Tim. 2, 19, therefore the Christian Church on earth is invisible,
Luke 17, 20, and will remain invisible till Judgment Day, Col. 3, 3. 4.
In our day some Lutherans speak of two sides of the Church,
_ taking the means of grace to be its “visible side.” It is true, the
means of grace are necessarily related to the Church, seeing that
the Church is created and preserved through them. But the
“means of grace are not for that reason a part of the Church; for the
Church, in the proper sense of the word consists only of believers,
Eph, 2, 19. 20; Acts 5, 14. Lest we abet the notion that the Chris-
tian Church in the proper sense of the term is an external institu-
tion, we shall continue to call the means of grace the “marks” of

sa

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