# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 12 08_S44
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

[Continuing from the previous page.]

...purchase forgiveness of sins for you: on the cross he let himself be tortured for you, and you thank him for it so little that it no longer even occurs to you, not even there where you would need him most, where it is a matter of the forgiveness of your sins.

B: Yes, Pastor, one simply was not taught that way before; no one put it to me like that.

Pastor: But you did learn the Second Article too; only you have never reflected on it, and you have not properly taken to heart what you learned — that is the fault. Now look! As often as you have gone to the Lord's Supper without repentance, without faith in the Lord Christ — for it never occurred to you that you needed him for it, whose body and blood you were nevertheless to receive in the Supper for the forgiveness of your sins — so often have you gone unworthily every time. See to it that this time it goes better.

B: I will, Pastor. I wish someone had told me this sooner.

Pastor: You see, that is why it is good that you have come to me and registered yourself. Now think the matter over further, and pray God that he kindle in you the right light and grant you a rich blessing in his Holy Supper.

B: I will, Pastor. I thank you for telling me this.

Pastor: Farewell, B.; the best thanks is if you let my words bear fruit in your heart.

B: If it be God's will!

Second Dialogue.

Margaretha: I would like to go to confession.

Pastor: Very well; why do you wish to, then?

M: So that I may confess my sins.

Pastor: Do you indeed have sins?

M: We are all of us sinners and fall short of the glory we ought to have before God.

Pastor: But do you also know your sins?

M: One has known ones and unknown ones.

Pastor: But the known ones one surely must know, otherwise they would not be known ones; do you know yours?

M: I have never done anything wrong, and no one can say anything against me either.

Pastor: So you have no sin?

M: No one is without sin; I am not saying that I have no sin; one often sins without even knowing it.

Pastor: And yet you say that you have never done anything wrong. Do you not know what the apostle John says: "Whoever sins also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness"? Since you must after all admit that you have sin, how then can you say that you have never done anything wrong?

M: I am simply not so learned that I can answer every question right off, and I cannot put on airs the way some do either — but perhaps that makes me just as good. —

Pastor: It is not a matter of learning and knowledge here, M., and still less will putting on airs help anyone; for here we stand before God, who tries hearts and minds; what matters here is sincere repentance over your sins.

M: Oh, my sins simply are not so many.

Pastor: That will not justify you, M.; you know, after all, what James says: "If anyone keeps the whole law but fails in one point, he has become guilty of all of it." And whom do you think the better Christian — one who finds few sins in himself, or one who finds many?

M (taken aback): Well, I simply think a true Christian is godly and does nothing wrong, and so he cannot find many sins in himself either.

Pastor: I think David and the apostle Paul were godly people, and more godly than the two of us — do you not think so too?

M: Yes, certainly, indeed!

Pastor: And yet the one says: "Who can discern his errors? Forgive me also my hidden faults." "My sins have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they have grown too heavy for me." And the other says: "I am carnal, sold under sin. I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells nothing good." These men, then, must have found more sin in themselves than you have, and yet they were more godly — indeed, precisely for that reason they were more godly. Therefore I tell you: the better the Christian, the greater the sinner.

M: Hm!

Pastor: Whom do you think knows your heart better, God or you?

M: God, surely.

Pastor: And he says: "The intention of the human heart is evil from its youth." Of this it is written: "God looks down from heaven upon the children of man, to see if there is any who is wise, who seeks after God; but they have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one." Now, you surely also have a human heart and are a child of man, so that what the holy and all-knowing God says here will hold true of you and your heart as well; and even if you yourself had not yet perceived it in yourself, you ought nevertheless to believe God and humble yourself and recognize that this alone is already enough to condemn you — that you have until now not recognized your sin at all, and in the self-righteousness of your heart have defiantly and carelessly set yourself above God's Word and testimony. For if you had taken God's Word more to heart, and paid better heed to the thoughts of your own heart, your sinful corruption would long ago have become plain to you. But that you have not done this until now is by itself already sin enough to condemn you.

M: Well, then in God's name I must simply be condemned.

Pastor: My speech vexes you, as far as I can tell; you think I am doing you too much wrong. But do you believe what stands in the Catechism?

M: Of course I could believe that! You always think one believes nothing at all.

Pastor: Then you must also believe that you are condemned and lost for the sake of your sins; for that too stands in the Catechism, and you have confessed it often enough out of your Catechism, but have never yet reflected on it, and — do not let this vex you, for it is true — for that reason have therefore never yet believed it either. You surely still know the Second Article together with its explanation, where it says: I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, etc., etc., is my Lord, who has me — now how does it go on?

M: "—who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, has purchased and won me—"

Pastor: Very well. Did you hear what you just said? Why do you call yourself there a lost and condemned person? Because from the Ten Commandments standing before it you must recognize (if you consider them earnestly and are honest) that you have kept none of them as you should, and are therefore under God's wrath and curse.

M: One simply does what one can.

Pastor: And thinks that this settles the matter, without noticing that one thereby condemns oneself all the more. For those who occupy themselves with the works of the law are under the curse, as Paul says in Galatians 3: "For it is written: Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to do them." Now you cannot say that you have abided by all of it — otherwise you would be without sin — so you are therefore under the curse; and yet, in spite of this, you still occupy yourself with the works of the law, that is, you still wish to become righteous through your works, because men can say nothing wrong of you, as you claim — and thereby you deceive only yourself, so that you must remain under the curse.

M: Oh, I believe too that the Lord Christ died for us.

Pastor: Him you would now gladly make your helper in time of need; but he does not accept you.

M: Why not me, then? Am I really so bad?

Pastor: No, you are too good. For he says: "I have come to heal the sick, and not the strong; I have come to make sinners blessed, and not the righteous." But you are strong; you feel yourself anything but sick in your soul; you are righteous, and even though you admit that you are a sinner, you are by no means a poor, needy, lost sinner, and he has come to seek that which is lost. You are unwilling to let your feet be washed by him, for you think that this is not needed in your case; the filth with which you have defiled yourself in your walk of life is, you think, not worth mentioning: therefore you have no part in him.

M: For what, then, did I go to the Lord's Supper, if not that I might obtain a part in him?

Pastor: Dear Margaretha, the Holy Supper is instituted only for sinners — never forget that — for poor, penitent sinners who recognize and feel their sin and hunger and thirst after God's grace. That is why it is said to each one there: broken for your sins — shed for your...

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