# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S56
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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books therefore also describe the means of grace now as means which produce faith in the heart of man, now as vessels in which God presents His heavenly goods. For when God comes to man, He finds him 1. destitute and 2. dead; therefore God must now do both to him through His means of grace: He must 1. raise him from death and 2. endow him with the goods of His house. So God is our physician and our magnanimous Giver, and His Word is partly medicine, partly bearer of the heavenly treasure. If we had the power for faith in ourselves, then it would indeed be enough for the Word simply to announce the treasures to us, but we do not even have the power to will, to seek, to grasp; therefore this twofold power of the means of grace is necessary for our salvation, that it awakens us to new life and that it gives us what we do not have.

Thesis 7: "The Gospel is therefore not a mere historical narrative of the accomplished work of redemption, but rather an efficacious declaration of peace and promise of grace from God to the world redeemed through Christ, and so at all times an efficacious means of grace, in which God on His part brings, presents, distributes, gives and bestows the forgiveness of sins and righteousness obtained through Christ, although not all to whom God sends His earnest call of grace accept this invitation of the reconciled God, and thus do not become partakers of the accompanying goods."

A main question in this whole controversy is: What is the Gospel? The answer to be held fast is: It is God's pardon to the world. Because He has been reconciled through Christ, He now also wants this to be preached, so that the whole world may be moved to let itself also be reconciled with Him. The Formula of Concord says: "We must by all means hold stiffly and firmly to this, that as the preaching of repentance, so also the promise of the Gospel is universalis [universal], that is, extends over all men, Luke 24. Therefore Christ has commanded to preach in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins among all nations." (p. 709.) So in the symbolical books too the Gospel is called, in short, absolving: "The word of absolution proclaims peace to us and is the Gospel itself." The Reformed suppose that the Gospel is a narrative, a historical report of what God has done; but that God also presents grace in this Word, that they deny. Our Church, however, teaches that whoever listens to the Gospel and believes is justified. When, therefore, the Gospel is proclaimed, it is absolution, and those who do not believe it hear it to their own judgment. The opponents on the other hand suppose that the Gospel brings a treasure only for the penitent. They confuse here the two things: the nature and character of absolution and the right application by the ministers of the Church. For they are to preach the Gospel in such a way that it is applied to the penitent. What they say of the Gospel is a miserable doctrine, and it stands with the hearers as with people who have staked their money in the lottery