# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S35
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 35 —

The benefits of the kingdom of God are not there only for those who are in this kingdom, but they are there for all and earned for all. There is room for all, but not all come into possession of this room. Those who are against the doctrine of the completeness of Christ's redemption usually say: Yes, Christ has redeemed us all, but we are completely redeemed only when we believe. But those who say this do not consider at all what they are asserting. For if I am to be saved by believing that I am redeemed, that I am reconciled with God, that my sins are forgiven me, then all this must already be there beforehand. No man will surely be so foolish as to think that by believing that something happens, he brings about that it really happens; whoever thought so would be a superstitious man. But a Christian is not that; therefore he believes what has happened. As certainly as God's Word promises us that we shall be made righteous, reconciled with God and saved through faith, so certainly must all these things be there before my faith, and they only wait for me to accept them. When we assert: What you are to believe must already be there beforehand, we do not mean thereby to give people the comfort: Even if you do not believe, it does no harm, you can slip into heaven anyway, for enough has already been done for you. No; rather we testify to them that their damnation, if they do not believe, will be so much the more terrible because God had already set the table and prepared everything, but they would not come; therefore none of the despisers shall taste his supper. That man is made righteous by faith alone is possible only because that which is necessary for being saved is already there and accomplished, so that from my side only the accepting is necessary. This accepting, however, is what Scripture calls believing. The righteous God could not take any man into heaven if he were not first reconciled with him; since he now takes into heaven all who believe, righteousness and reconciliation must already be there and have taken place. This Christ has earned for us through his life, suffering and death, and God confirmed it by raising him up, for it was the raising of our surety. The enthusiasts do not regard faith as a mere hand, but as a condition which man fulfils and on account of which God receives man into heaven, whereas faith is nothing but an empty hand that I stretch out so that God may fill it. If I therefore had nothing further than faith, and not Christ (which is of course not possible), I would go to hell together with my faith; for it is not the act of faith that makes me acceptable to God, but Christ is it, and his righteousness, which I grasp with the hand of faith. But that is what all enthusiasts overlook. They want to find some place for the activity of man; so they put it now in his faith, now in his repentance, now in his conversion, now in his sanctification. Of course