# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 03 01_S126
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

...that I should proclaim my Gospel. And whoever believes my Gospel believes God the Father, whose ambassador I am on earth; for He has said of Me to Moses: "I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not hear My words, which he shall speak in My name, of him I will require it." But since after My resurrection and ascension I will no longer remain on earth in bodily form, therefore I send you, the apostles, in My name into all the world, and I will that men receive your words exactly as if I Myself were present and speaking to them. And this is the meaning of this letter of credence. — But let us now hear what is most important, namely the mandate, or the instruction, as it is called, that was given to the apostles. He breathed on them, says the Evangelist, and said to them: "Receive the Holy Spirit; whosesoever sins you remit, they are remitted to them, and whosesoever sins you retain, they are retained." That is the instruction, that is the mandate that Christ gives His apostles. But He does not merely address them; rather He breathes on them with the breath of His mouth, which is a spirit of power; and He does this for this reason: first, that He might show and make known that He truly lives, as we have said before; further, that He might teach that He is true God, who by His power and might gives the gifts of the Holy Spirit. For by this breath of His mouth He gave the heavenly gifts of the Holy Spirit into the hearts of His disciples. Not, indeed, that He then bestowed on them those miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit which were poured out upon them at Pentecost, but He took from them their unbelief and gave them a strong faith; He took from them their fear and gave them a sure hope; He drove the darkness from the eyes of their spirit and enlightened them with a bright light of knowledge. These, and other gifts of the Holy Spirit like these, are what Christ imparted to the apostles by His breathing upon them.

What, then, does He command them to accomplish in this their mission? Here the words of Christ must be carefully noted and weighed; He does not say: "Take companies of soldiers and peasants and subdue the kingdoms of this world." He does not say: "Take Moses and set up among the nations a Mosaic constitution and government"; He does not say: "Take oil and anoint mass-priests" — but this is what He says: Receive the Holy Spirit, receive the gifts and the office of the Holy Spirit. For what use? Perhaps to rule with worldly majesty and power? By no means: but to forgive sins and to retain them, that is, to preach the Gospel, so that everyone who believes the Gospel may obtain forgiveness of sins, and everyone who does not believe may have his sins retained; for the words He speaks here — "whosesoever sins you remit, they are remitted to them" — have exactly the same sense and meaning as those He speaks in Mark: "Preach the Gospel to every creature; he who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned," and those He speaks in Luke: "Thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name among all nations." For to forgive and retain sin by the apostolic office does not mean, according to one's own opinion and arbitrary will, to make righteousness out of sin and sin out of righteousness; nor does it mean, by one's own power and authority, to forgive sin to anyone, even one who does not believe, and to retain the sin even of one who does believe; rather it means: to preach the Gospel of Christ, who alone is the reconciler for sins, and for whose sake alone God forgives sin, so that to him who believes in Christ his sins shall be forgiven, but to him who does not believe his sins shall be retained.

But besides this, it must also be recognized and considered how and in what manner the apostles are to forgive and retain sin. For the popes also claim for themselves the power to forgive and retain sin; for they boast that they are the successors of the apostles; but they employ a different manner of forgiving and retaining sin than Christ has commanded; for Christ sent out His apostles with the command and authority to proclaim His Gospel, and to consecrate, by Baptism, those who accept the Gospel, and make them disciples, and to strengthen their faith through the Lord's Supper; that is the true and heavenly way of forgiving sin, namely the preaching of the Gospel of Christ: "Go," He says, "into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature," and thus it was necessary for Christ to have repentance and forgiveness of sins preached in His name.

But how is this? Did Christ command this office of forgiving and retaining sin to the apostles alone? They alone, indeed, together with a few others, were present at that time when Christ spoke these words; but this office is not bound to their persons; rather it concerns the whole Church. "If he will not hear the church" (says Christ elsewhere), "let him be to you as a heathen and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven."

Also in His prayer in John 17, Christ says: "I pray not for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word," and to Thomas He says: "Because you have seen Me, Thomas, you believe; blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."

Although, however, every pious Christian forgives another his sin privately and individually, when he sets the Gospel of Jesus Christ before him and exhorts him to be of good cheer — indeed, even a pious woman, when she visits a sick person, forgives the sick person's sin, when she exhorts him to set all his hope on Jesus Christ, who alone is the reconciler for our sins and our Savior — through these words of such a woman, when the sick man receives and grasps them in faith, he grasps and receives also the forgiveness of sins. But in the public worship of the congregation the Holy Spirit has established this divine order, that everything be done decently and in order. Therefore a woman is not permitted to speak publicly in the congregation, nor indeed a man who has not been called; rather, for this the Church has her ministers, to whom the public ministry of the Gospel, that is, of forgiving and retaining sin, is entrusted.

From these testimonies of Holy Scripture you see that the office of forgiving and retaining sin, which is the office of preaching the Gospel, indeed belongs to the whole Church, but is so ordered that the Church may be built up.

Therefore, as often as we hear the Gospel — whether this happens privately and individually, or publicly — we should regard it as certain that forgiveness of sins is truly offered to us, which we also receive when we accept the Gospel in faith. This holds true, however, only of the ministry of those who set forth to the congregation the true and pure apostolic doctrine. For it is these who forgive sins — not, indeed, by their own power and authority, but by the power, command, and call of God the Father and of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has commanded them to administer this office in His name. The power and authority to forgive sin belongs to God alone; but the office and the administration of this power belong to the apostles and to all those who proclaim the Gospel of Christ purely and sincerely. Therefore we should love the office of the Gospel and do good to it, so that we may obtain its fruit through Jesus Christ our Lord, who together with the Father and the Holy Spirit is praised forever. Amen.

On the great comfort contained in the doctrine that Christ's body and blood are truly present in the Holy Supper and are received with the mouth.

Not infrequently the doctrine of the presence and the reception of the body and blood of Christ in the Holy Sacrament is portrayed as an entirely useless subtlety. People say: granted that one wished to understand the words of institution literally, what use could such an article of faith bring to Christianity? This question was already asked in Luther's time, and it is asked still today.