# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S53
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 53 —

From him we Lutherans should learn. This the Apology teaches when it says: "Therefore, as often as we speak of the faith that makes righteous or justificante [justifying], these three items or objects [Objecta] are always together: First, the divine promise; second, that it offers grace freely, without merit; third, that Christ's blood and merit are the treasure through which sin is paid. The promise is received through faith; but that it offers grace without merit, therein all our worthiness and merit go down and to the ground, and the great grace and mercy are praised. The merit of Christ, however, is the treasure, for there must be a treasure, a precious pledge, by which the sins of all the world are paid. The whole Scripture of the Old and New Testament, when it speaks of God and faith, uses much of this word: goodness, mercy, misericordia, and the holy Fathers in all their books all say that we are saved through grace and goodness, through forgiveness. So often, then, as we find the word mercy in Scripture or in the Fathers, we should know that what is taught there is faith, which grasps the promise of such mercy. Again, as often as Scripture speaks of faith, it means the faith that builds on pure grace, for faith does not make one pious and righteous before God because it is in itself our work and our own, but only because it takes the promised, offered grace, given from rich treasure, without merit." (Page 96, 97.) This passage is important here because it shows that the Book of Concord understands something quite different by the means of grace than the enthusiasts do. They always suppose that it is with the divine promises as it is with a human word, where the thing indicated is not yet in the word; but with God the thing is wrapped up in the word. Hence the symbolical books make use of the language of the Bible, which often names the abstract and means the concrete; so Paul, who by promise always understands that which is promised. Thus in the Smalcald Articles the sacraments are called "means by which the promise is to be imparted to those who desire it." Here also belongs what is said in the Large Catechism: "Next we believe that in Christendom we have forgiveness of sins, which takes place through the holy sacraments and absolution, besides all manner of consoling sayings of the whole Gospel.... Outside Christendom, however, where the Gospel is not, there is also no forgiveness, just as there can be no holiness. Therefore all have cast and separated themselves out who do not seek and want to earn holiness through the Gospel and forgiveness of sins, but through their works. Meanwhile, however, because holiness has begun and grows daily, we wait until our flesh is put to death and buried with all its filth, but comes forth gloriously and rises to full and perfect holiness in a new life. For now we remain half and half clean and holy,