# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1902_S33
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Tenth Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1902. 33

...else were left to us but to cry out woe over the whole world and over
ourselves.

Therefore we must remain unconfused by the old error, forever freshly
dressed up again, that the essence of Christianity consists in man's
morality. No, no! Christianity consists in faith in the Gospel, in faith
in the forgiveness of sins that Christ has acquired for mankind. By
preaching this, we save [make blessed] people and thereby attain the
purpose of the Christian church.

2.

Secondly, the Christian church is to provide people with a quiet
conscience before God, and thereby with the highest happiness that exists
here on earth for mankind. Through the ministry of the Christian church a
person should be able to say — and indeed be able to say in every
condition of life, even in sickness, in poverty, and in the midst of death
— "I know that I have a gracious God; God is not angry with me, but God
loves me as a father loves his child." If a church, so far as it is able,
does not accomplish this, then it is of no use in the world. Christ's
testament reads: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you," John
14:27. The church must execute this testament of the Lord.

But how does this happen? By what alone does the church provide rest to
consciences? By what alone can it work in human hearts the confidence: we
have forgiveness of sins, a gracious God? Solely through the Gospel, solely
by the way of faith in Christ, the Savior of sinners. "Therefore being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and
rejoice in hope of the glory of God," Rom. 5:1-2. The doctrine of works,
trust in one's own morality, leaves the conscience forever restless, under
the accusation of the divine Law. God's Law is a mighty thing. It is a
divine thing. God's Law, as it is written in Scripture and as it is also
written in our own heart, does not cease to condemn us and to make an evil
conscience for us, so long as anything sinful is still found in us. This
condemning judgment of God's Law cannot be lifted by human opinion and
doing, but only by another, divine judgment — by the divine judgment of
the Gospel, whereby God himself, for Christ's sake, absolves sinners from
their guilt of sin. The evil conscience in man yields to only one
treatment: the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, must be applied to
the heart through faith. Professor Harnack, to be sure, believes he can
quiet consciences without Christ's blood. He instructs people that they
should...

[Signature at the foot of the page: "3" — a printer’s sheet signature, not a folio.]