# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S29
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 29 —

One says, namely, when one wants to present the whole doctrine of justification, as a rule that there are three causes, when one wants to describe the whole doctrine by means of the principle of causes. One then asks first, what is the effecting cause, what the moving cause, and finally what the means-cause, through which that which the effecting cause has intended for me comes into my possession? That first cause of justification is the triune God; but everyone who still wants to talk about justification grants that; therefore we do not want to speak further of it here. The second cause is twofold, an inner and an outer. The inner is God's grace and mercy; no one denies that again, not even the pope. But now comes a new question, namely: what is the outer moving cause? Here we say: That is the redemption of Jesus Christ, which moves the dear God to declare us poor, accursed sinners righteous. Of means-causes there are again two kinds, the one on the part of God, the other on the part of man. On the part of God they are Word and Sacrament. Here all the parties diverge. On the part of man it is faith, and here there is a truly Babylonian confusion among the sects, when it comes to explaining what faith is. To one it is something that goes on in the understanding, to another that which he feels in the heart, etc. If we want to become conscious of our unity, it will therefore be a matter first of the outer moving cause of justification, the redemption, and of the means-causes, that is, Word and Sacrament and faith. If we are agreed on these points, we are truly agreed also in the whole doctrine; for it is in these points that all the difference in Christendom is found. True, one cannot consider this doctrine without also considering the total corruption of man, on account of which he is by nature a child of wrath and damnation; but the eye must remain directed above all to how the lost and condemned man becomes righteous and saved.

Thesis 4: "As in Adam all men have fallen and have come under God's wrath and eternal damnation as the punishment of sin, so also in Christ, as the second Adam, all men have been truly redeemed from sin, death, devil and hell, and God is truly reconciled with them all."

In this thesis it is stated that, just as in Adam the Fall and its consequences have come upon all men and so all share in this Fall, so also the redemption accomplished through Christ Jesus has taken place not for a few only but for absolutely all men, thus also for those who are lost. This is proved by Holy Scripture when it speaks of redemption through Christ without limitation and ascribes to it a universality such as to the fall of Adam. "Christ," says the apostle, "is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for