# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1892_S5
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1892. 5

A paper by Prof. O. Hoyer on the topic:

"The Unbelief of Those Who Are Lost Is Solely Their Own Fault"

was taken up for discussion. Five sessions were devoted to the discussion of the *Referat* [paper read to the convention].

Faith is not the believers' own work but solely and alone a miracle of divine grace wrought through the means of grace; conversion is not wholly, nor half, nor in any part, not the smallest or least part, the work of the converted, but wholly and altogether a divine operation, solely a work of the Holy Spirit; this our Church has confessed from the beginning. But once again to sink deeply into this doctrine, to trace the grace of God in the work of faith and conversion by the guidance of Holy Scripture, to demonstrate and acknowledge the undeserved grace of God at every stage of the work of conversion and of the labor of the Holy Spirit upon the unconverted and within the converted, so far as Scripture reveals it, for this the last years, with their doctrinal struggles, have given ample occasion.

What blessing and what gain such deepening has brought to individuals and to whole congregations! How many a one has now for the first time become vividly aware: Yes, in the work of conversion and salvation everything is, from beginning to end, nothing but God's grace. It is often already God's prevenient grace when a person makes outward use of the means of grace; it is God's grace when his heart opens so that he heeds the Word of God; it is God's grace when through the preaching of the Law he comes to a living knowledge of his sins and to terror at the damnation he has deserved; it is God's grace when through the Gospel faith is kindled, which lays hold of Christ's merit; it is God's grace which through such faith regenerates him to new spiritual life; it is God's grace that as a new creature he puts his new spiritual life into action through prayer and, as God's work, is fruitful in good works; it is God's grace that he now wills the good, and it is to be ascribed to God's grace when the willing becomes the accomplishing of the good. God's grace alone it is, too, that through the means of grace sustains faith and rekindles it when it has died out; it is his grace when a person dies in faith and carries off the end of faith, the salvation of souls.

How such deepening serves to glorify the grace and mercy of God, who not only had salvation obtained through his only-begotten Son but also, through the working of faith, himself puts people in possession of it, who not only presents the robe of righteousness of his