# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S33
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 33 —

nothing of works that are commanded in God's law or by men; but alone it preaches and teaches of the incomprehensible, inexpressible mercy and love of God, which he has shown toward us unworthy and condemned sinners: namely when he, the most gracious, most merciful Father, saw that we were so miserably oppressed by the curse of the law and held so powerfully under it that it was impossible for us ever to work our way out of it by our own strength, or to redeem and free ourselves from it, he therefore sent his only-begotten Son into the world, laid all the sins of all men upon him, and said to him thus: Be you Peter, who denied; Paul, who persecuted, blasphemed and used all violence; David, who committed adultery, etc.; likewise the sinner who ate the apple in Paradise, the murderer who hung on the cross; in sum, you shall be what all men are, as if you alone had done the sin of all men; therefore think now how you pay for them and make satisfaction. Then the law comes at once, accuses him and says: Here I find this one among the sinners, yes, one who has taken upon himself the sins of all men and bears them, and I see otherwise no more sin in the whole world than upon him alone; therefore he must suffer and die the death of the cross; so the law presses upon him with its accusing and terrors with all its might and kills him. Through such innocent death of Christ the whole world is cleansed and freed from sins and therefore redeemed from death and from all evil. Since now, through this one Mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ, sin and death are taken away, the whole world would be altogether so pure that our Lord God could see in it nothing other than pure righteousness and holiness, if we could only believe it. And even if something of sins were still left over, God could not see such sins before this clear bright sun, which Christ is. On that side there is no lack; for Christ has borne the sin of the whole world and made satisfaction for it; on our side there is lack, who believe it weakly. If we believed it fully, we would already be altogether saved and in Paradise; but the old sack that still hangs about our neck does not let us come to such sure faith. Therefore it is highly necessary that we press the article of the righteousness that we have in Christ without ceasing, make it great and glorious against the righteousness that comes from the law and works; though there is no language or eloquence in the whole world that could grasp its greatness and glory sufficiently, to say nothing of expressing it. And this very argument that St. Paul handles here is most excellent and powerful against every kind of righteousness of the law, to say nothing of the straw righteousness of human ordinances. For of the two one must certainly and indisputably be true: Namely, if the sins of all the world