# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1860_S53
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— Page 53 —

I must not let the penitent recognition that I am a scoundrel before
God hold me back from using the key that looses; for this key seeks
out precisely scoundrels who are bound, and looses them. Preachers
have received from God the command to forgive the sins of the world;
I belong to the world, so my sins too shall be forgiven — this is how
I should reason when I recognize myself as a scoundrel before God.
God requires of me the acceptance of forgiveness, that is, faith, and
— since without contrition no faith is possible — contrition; but I
should not torment myself over the degree of my contrition. If I have
enough contrition that I would gladly have forgiveness, that is
enough. God does not say that contrition, but that faith, possesses
forgiveness. I should not ask at all whether I have a certain degree
of contrition, but whether I have faith, and if I notice that I am
still lacking in faith, I should begin to believe. One should not
torment oneself with the question of whether one once had a time when
one experienced extraordinary things in one's soul; for you may have
had glorious experiences thirty years ago, even have had them
continually for many years since, and yet feel nothing of them right
now. This matters too, for instance, in comforting someone who is
ill; I should not ask him, "Have you ever experienced this or that?"
and, if he says yes, tell him, "See, because you have experienced
that, therefore be comforted and believe that you are a child of
God" — instead I should ask him, "Would you gladly have the Lord
Jesus and his grace?" and, if he answers yes, proclaim to him the
full comfort of the Gospel.

Two questions concerning this fourth part of the thesis before us
were then put to the Synod and answered. First: we say that
absolution is never a skeleton key, but offers forgiveness every time
it is spoken, and we all firmly believe this — but should it not be
necessary, by an explicit declaration of the Synod, to put up a
safeguard so that this truth is not abused in the church?

"Answer: our situation is, in fact, still such that it is far more
necessary to first come to a truly thorough recognition of the truth
that has been stated, so that we may also learn to preach it joyfully
and to offer the great treasure of the Gospel in its full richness,
than to let ourselves be anxious about abuse. It certainly requires a
warning to us that we should put up no safeguard where God has put up
none. It is indeed certain that abuse must be warned against, but we
must take care that, once we have poured out the comfort of the
Gospel, we do not then hedge it again with provisos by saying: 'Yes,
my friend, but now you must be so and so disposed, if you wish to
dare accept this comfort.' We should bear well in mind that we have
no right whatsoever to attach conditions, and that the preacher who
pronounces a conditional absolution — conditional, that is, on God's
side — is accursed. — When we say that absolution is to be spoken to
every person and is always valid, someone might well get the idea
that no church discipline is needed and that everyone who comes must
always be admitted to absolution and the Lord's Supper; but that is
by no means what is meant by it. Although the whole world is to be
absolved according to God's command, absolution is nevertheless...