# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S37
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 37 —

again through pure divine grace, for without it he never comes to faith either. This double side of the view we must also practice in another way. We say, for example, of Christ on the cross: he hangs there as a sinner and at the same time as a righteous one. Is he now a sinner, or not? As to his person, not, for he has done no sin, and in that respect he is a righteous one; but for the world, whose substitute he is, he is a sinner, indeed, as Scripture says, "sin," so that he must be the greatest sinner who has ever been on earth, because the sins of all sinners are reckoned to him. Thus Christ, considered according to his person, is the righteous one; according to his mediatorial office, the sinner. So it is also with believers. If one looks at them according to their person, they are sinners, "for we sin much daily and well deserve nothing but punishment"; but because they are at the same time in Christ Jesus through faith, so that the righteousness which Christ has earned and given them rules and reigns in them, they are received as children of God into the kingdom of heaven. So it is also, in a certain respect, with the world: in itself it lies in wickedness, under the curse and in damnation, but as redeemed through Christ, because he has made satisfaction for it, God is reconciled with it. In this respect it holds that there is no more sin in the world. Christ has taken it away and borne it into the grave; in this respect the whole world too is free, loose and rid of death, devil and damnation. And this is not to be kept silent but is to be preached. The fear that people might become secure through it must not hold us back. It may well be that someone thinks, when he hears such a sermon: If all sin is already wiped out, then I have no trouble, then I am saved even without faith, and so misuses the word of grace to his ruin. But the question now is not how this doctrine can be misused, but what has been done for our salvation. Now we are to proclaim the whole counsel of God, so we must not keep this doctrine silent out of fear that it could be misused. It is precisely this fear that holds the enthusiasts back from proclaiming Christ's redemption without any limitation. They always think that if they proclaimed God's grace freely to everyone, they might make people secure. — The Formula of Concord speaks of this whole matter thus: "Concerning the righteousness of faith before God we believe, teach and confess unanimously .., that a poor sinner is justified before God, that is, absolved, freed and released from all his sins and from the sentence of well-deserved damnation, and also accepted to sonship and inheritance of eternal life, without any merit or worthiness of ours, also without all preceding, present or following works, out of pure grace, solely for the sake of the sole merit, the whole obedience, bitter suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord Christ, whose obedience is reckoned to us for righteousness. Which goods are offered to us in the promise of the holy