# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1908_S8
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

8 Proceedings of the twenty-second convention

This faith is the great leveler in the Christian Church. Through this faith all are justified before God, as it is written in Gal. 2:16: "We know that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ." Through this faith all are equally children of God. Gal. 3:26: "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." Through this faith all have received the Spirit. Gal. 3:2: "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith?" Through this faith all have peace with God and the hope of eternal life. Rom. 5:1-2: "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ . . . and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Through this faith all distinctions of sex, age, station, nationality, education, etc., are abolished before God.

The Holy Spirit, as it were, never tires of impressing this again and again in Holy Scripture. After the Apostle Paul in Gal. 3 had called out to the Christians: "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus," v. 26, he continues: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (πάντες ὑμεῖς εἷς ἐστε ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ), v. 28. The enumeration in Col. 3 is more detailed still, where the Apostle says of the members of the Church: "Where there is neither Greek, Jew, circumcision, uncircumcision, barbarian (βάρβαρος), Scythian, bond, free, but Christ is all, and in all," v. 11. Through faith in the Gospel, those who are heathen by descent become "Abraham's seed," "Abraham's children." Gal. 3:7: "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham" (οἱ ἐκ πίστεως, οὗτοι υἱοί εἰσιν Ἀβραάμ); and Gal. 3:29: "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed" (εἰ δὲ ὑμεῖς Χριστοῦ, ἄρα τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ σπέρμα ἐστέ). In the prophecies of the Old Testament there is mention of a great assembling of the nations on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, e.g. Is. 2, 60, and often elsewhere. Through faith in the Gospel the nations, without changing their place, have come to Mount Zion; as the Epistle to the Hebrews expressly interprets the Old Testament prophecies of the assembling of the nations, Heb. 12:22: "Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem." As we also sing in the hymn in honor of the Holy Spirit:

O Lord, by the radiance of Thy light
Thou hast gathered into the faith
The people out of all the world's tongues;
To Thee, Lord, be this sung in praise —
and again:

The whole of Christendom on earth
Holds in one mind quite evenly.