# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 06 13_S84
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

not only because Christ commanded it to the apostles, and, with them and in them, to his whole Church, of which they were the first members, and of which they were, so to speak, the first stock — to whom, therefore, Christ also gave, at his departure, the express command: "Teach all nations — and teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you"? If, then, no one now doubts that one may and should still preach, baptize, and administer the reverend sacrament of the altar, because this was commanded to the disciples, what reason is there, then, that compels us to make an exception in the case of the forgiveness and retention of sins?

Yes, some think, for that a holiness is required which only the apostles possessed. But they are mistaken; the holy apostles too were sinners and remained sinners, as they themselves plainly confess. Indeed, if it depended on the holiness of the one who pronounces the absolution, then no saint in the world, indeed no angel, would be holy enough for it. Comfortless, truly utterly comfortless, would be the forgiveness that rested on human holiness, or even on the holiness of an angel.

This, indeed, others recognize well; hence they say that the disciples had the privilege of being able to grant the forgiveness of sins, not, to be sure, because they were holier than other men, but because they alone were able to know to whom they could and should forgive sin, and to whom they should retain it; but this gift, they say, no one has any longer. But, my dear friends, this too is an error. Even the holy apostles could be deceived, and they were, for a time, deceived by, for example, the sorcerer Simon, by Ananias and Sapphira, and by other hypocrites. The apostles too were not knowers of hearts; only Jesus Christ needed no one to bear witness of man, for he knew well, as John says, what was in man, and saw their thoughts already from afar. It is therefore likewise untrue that the apostles had the advantage of being able to forgive and retain sins because they were so enlightened that they could see into the heart of every man. That whereby the apostles were distinguished from all other Christians consisted, rather, in this: that they could not err in the preaching of the Gospel, and could confirm their teaching with miracles and prophecies; further, that they were called to be his messengers not mediately through men, but immediately by the Son of God himself, and were, with their preaching office, bound to no single place in the world, but sent out among all the peoples of the earth.

Christ did indeed, according to our text, breathe on the disciples, before handing over the office of the keys, with the words: "Receive the Holy Spirit." But we may not draw from this the conclusion that the extraordinary apostolic gifts are necessary for the administration of that office. Christ did not, at that moment, impart to the disciples the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit at all, for that happened on the day of Pentecost; rather, the Lord gave them thereby only the spirit of joyfulness and of courage, which was so needful to them for the carrying out of their difficult office, and this same spirit he still pours out today upon all his faithful servants."*)

On what, then, does the opinion rest that the office of the keys died out with the apostles? It rests solely on human fancy and thinking, and lacks all foundation in Holy Scripture. In Scripture, rather, we find clear and plain grounds for the opposite.

First, Christ says, as already mentioned: "Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you," and then he says expressly: "Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations." Luke 24:46-47. As surely, then, as it is certain that Christ hereby gave a command, not only for the apostolic age but for all times, to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins, so surely is it certain that he also gave the power to absolve for all times. For what else is absolution but the application of the preaching of the grace of Christ to one or several particular persons? And what, in turn, is the preaching of the Gospel but a perpetual absolution of all the penitent? And what, in particular, does one who baptizes another do, other than say to him: your sins are forgiven you, God receives you into his covenant of grace, you are now God's child, you shall now be saved? What further does one who administers the Holy Supper to another do, other than say to him: you too have a share in Christ, in his sacrifice, in his atonement? Are not, then, the sacraments wholly open absolutions — that is, is not the grace of the Gospel, in the sacraments, also offered, given, and sealed to individual and particular persons who desire it? Is it not, therefore, an evident contradiction to maintain that we indeed still have power to baptize and to commune, but no longer power to absolve? Are not, if one wished to draw a comparison, Baptism and the Lord's Supper indeed something even higher, even greater, than absolution? Whoever, therefore, says: how dare a man presume to forgive sins! must, by necessary consequence, say still more: how dare a man presume to baptize, and thereby to carry someone into heaven! or to administer the Holy Supper, and thereby to distribute the sacrifice of the Son of God, indeed his very body and blood!

O, do not therefore let yourselves be led astray by the empty chatter of unbelievers. As surely as Christ founded his Church not for the apostolic age but for all ages, and gave his Gospel to all nations, so surely is the power still present today to forgive and to retain sins on earth. As surely as Christ will remain with his own and will not forsake them until the end of the days, and as surely as the power of his death and his resurrection extends over all sinners, so surely can the comfort still today be given, in the name and in the power of Jesus Christ, to sinners who believe: "Your sins are forgiven you." The Church of Christ is and remains a kingdom of heaven on earth, in which the heavenly ladders of the Gospel, of the holy sacraments, and of absolution are set up, by which all sinners can climb up to heaven. It is true that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit have ceased, which were necessary so that the abolition of the old, divine covenant and the establishment of the New might have a divine seal; but after the Church of the New Testament stood firmly founded over the graves of the apostles, no more miraculous gifts were needed; but the gifts and means of the Holy Spirit unto salvation, unto grace, and unto the forgiveness of sin remain, as surely as the kingdom of grace of the Church cannot be overcome even by the gates of hell." — (Conclusion follows.)

*) In the little book on confession (written in 1521 at the Wartburg), Luther points out yet another reason why Christ, in handing over the keys to the holy apostles, said: "Receive the Holy Spirit." He writes: "Here it is concluded that no one can forgive sin unless he has the Holy Spirit. — Yet again: should I not have forgiveness of my sin any sooner than my confessor had the Holy Spirit (and no one can be certain of another, whether he has the same) — when, then, would I be certain of my absolution? Answer: No one binds or forgives sin, save only the one who has the Holy Spirit as surely as you and I can know it... But this is no one, except the Christian Church, that is, the assembly of all believers in Christ; she alone has these keys — of that you are not to doubt. And whoever appropriates these keys to himself apart from her is a thoroughgoing, hardened sacrilegist, a robber of the church, be it the Pope or whoever else it may be.... Therefore no one should receive an absolution from the Pope or a bishop as though it were they themselves who absolve. God preserve us from the absolution of the Pope and of bishops, of which the world is full. These are the devil's absolutions. But... if a stone or a piece of wood could absolve me in the name of the Christian Church, I would accept it." S. L. W. XIX, 1051.

God's Word and Human Peace.

Is it not, writes Luther, a thousand times better that one keep God's Word than that one forsake the Word and keep peace, even though, so to speak, that peace were heavenly? What more should I say? I do not wish, without God's Word, to live even in paradise, but with the Word it is easy to live even in hell, just as indeed we live in this world as in hell, and comfort ourselves with all this hope which God's Word shows us, and through this hope we overcome all manner of cross and misfortune. It would, indeed, be well to be wished that there were no unrest; but since this cannot be attained, it is better that a thousand Anabaptists, a thousand sacramentarians, a thousand rebels arise, than that in all the churches together there be a unanimous, peaceful, yet false and impure doctrine. (On Psalm 120:7.)

Antiquarian Business.

The undersigned takes the liberty of hereby giving notice to lovers of older Lutheran devotional and other books that he has put on display in his place of business, at the lowest possible prices, a by no means insignificant collection of such writings.

St. Louis, June 9, F. W. Barthel,
1846. South Second Street No. 52, immediately next to Mr. Tschirpe's pharmacy.

Copies of Luther's House Postil ordered through the editor may also be picked up here. — D. H.

Printed by Weber and Olshausen.