# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1864_S248
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

248 The First Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy.

sinners fallen under the divine right and cursed and condemned by the
Law, in order to make them blessed through and in Christ. But grace, when
the word mercy follows it, certainly has a wider scope than this, and
embraces every moment of the reconciling and redeeming love of God, from
the eternal counsel of the triune God for the redemption of the sinful
world through Christ, up to the perfecting of the elect unto eternal
blessedness and glory in Christ. The word mercy, however, expresses the
affection of God's burning love in the face of the unfathomable and
indescribable spiritual and bodily misery of the sinful human race. And
since the ambassadors in Christ's stead, who plead "Be reconciled to
God!", are meant especially to receive a deeper impression from this, the
word mercy therefore follows the word grace with particular emphasis in
St. Paul's greeting to Timothy and Titus as well.

And it is certain that the more deeply we, as servants of Christ, have
experienced and daily experience in ourselves, as poor sinners, the mercy
of the Lord toward us, the more we shall be able to portray and commend
it impressively to our sin-troubled parishioners, in preaching and in the
cure of souls, especially in Christ crucified for us all. The peace that
is wished for, however, is the effect of the grace and forgiveness of sin
offered in the Gospel in Christ, when the penitent sinner lays hold of it
and holds fast to it by faith and so obtains a peaceful conscience before
God.

With grace and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ we
preachers are to greet our congregations, then, not only when we step
into the pulpit, but both are also to be continually the foremost content
of our sermons. For where the preaching of the Law, of the killing
letter and of condemnation, is not followed by that of grace, and where
renewal and sanctification — the beginning righteousness of life — is not
derived from the forgiveness of sins and peace with God, there it is
certainly a wasted sermon.

4) As in other passages, so also here God the Father is called Savior,
insofar as he, precisely through the gracious sending of the Son, is the
supreme and foremost cause of our salvation. For apart from Christ he is
no Savior, but rather, in his Law, a God who demands with inexorable
severity, who threatens, curses, kills and condemns — a jealous, holy and
righteous God against us sinners, as children of wrath. Our hope is
called the Lord Christ here for this reason: because from him alone, and
from the salvation and reconciliation accomplished by him for us, which
faith lays hold of, there flows the firm and certain hope of eternal
life, eternal blessedness and glory in him. And this hope keeps the heart
of the Christian joyful in the midst of the sufferings of this time and
under all manner of cross and tribulation; for all the sufferings of this
time are not worthy of the glory which shall be revealed to believers on
that dear last day, on that day of the fulfillment of their hope.
(To be continued.)