# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S34
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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lie on the one man Jesus Christ, as the Holy Spirit testifies through Isaiah, ch. 53:6, then they certainly do not lie on the world; but if they do not lie on him, then it cannot fail, they must certainly still lie on the world. Likewise, if Christ himself has become guilty of all our sins that we have ever done, then we are absolved of all sins, free and released; yet this has not happened through ourselves, our works or merit, but through him; but if he is innocent and does not bear our sins, then we must bear them ourselves and die under them, as under a heavy and unbearable load, and perish forever and ever. But God be praised and thanked, who has given us the victory and overcoming through Jesus Christ, our dear Lord, Amen." (Commentary on Galatians, VIII, p. 2172 ff.) The enthusiasts [Schwärmer] usually conceive the matter so: that our dear Lord Jesus Christ suffered, died and rose again, and brought about generally what Scripture calls reconciliation, only so that the dear God could now, solely on account of his conversion, still take a man into heaven. They do not believe that through Christ everything without exception has been done that had to be done so that God can save us and give us eternal life; but that through Christ everything has been done, and therefore without our doing God gives us heaven freely for nothing, that they do not believe. Something, they think, still remains for man to do, and this something, they think, is conversion. But Scripture teaches that Christ has done everything and has already earned for us reconciliation with God, righteousness, claim to the sonship of God, so that it only lies ready and is distributed in the holy Christian church through the Gospel. Now no one has anything more to do than to accept salvation. For righteousness is there, the reconciliation of God with all men has taken place, and there is nothing more to do but that man take comfort in what Christ has done. That is what we mean when we speak of a complete redemption. Not that man already has something and God supplies the rest, nor that God has done something and man adds what is lacking, but that God has already done everything entirely alone. When Lutherans, who otherwise use Lutheran expressions, deny that God is reconciled with the whole world, they must again and again deny what they have admitted. An angry God cannot offer forgiveness, but only the God who, as he has revealed it in the Gospel, loves all in Christ, because they have been earned through him. To be sure, the man who is to be saved must be converted, but this conversion is not what God saves for, but the way on which man comes to faith, which does nothing but accept the complete and already given redemption.