# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1859_S14
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

14 The History of the Doctrine of the Ministry, etc.

Word and through the Word he wills to give us everything, and without
the Word he wills to give us nothing."3)

"For the church springs from the word of promise through faith, and is
nourished and sustained by that very same word of promise."4)

3. The Sacraments Are, through the Word of God, What They Are.

"The sacraments cannot exist without the Word, but the Word can indeed
exist without the sacraments, and in a case of necessity a person can be
saved without the sacraments, but not without the Word."5)

4. The Word Is the Visible Form of the Divine Essence and Will.

"This is the chief article and the high, chief sanctuary, from which
the people are called holy. For God's Word is holy and sanctifies
everything it touches; indeed, it is God's holiness itself."6)

5. In the Word the Office of Jesus Comes to Its Manifestation, and
Proves Itself to Be the Testimony and Communication of the Life of
Christ.

"The Christian spiritual priesthood, in which Christ alone is blessed
and living, eternally the highest Priest, and therefore also his whole
priesthood, and everything contained in it, is eternally holy and
living.— His law is faith, which is a living spiritual flame, whereby
the hearts are kindled by the Holy Spirit, born anew, and converted. —
The living Word of Christ, when it is preached, gives the Spirit, who
with living fire writes the law of God into our heart.7) — Thus the law
of Christ is not doctrine but life, not word but essence, not sign but
the fullness itself. But the Gospel is a word, through which that very
life and essence, the fulfillment, comes into our heart and mind."8)

6. Christ Alone Bears the Office and Has Never Relinquished It.

"For we must believe and be certain that Baptism is not ours, but
Christ's; that the Gospel is not ours, but Christ's; that the office of
preaching is not ours, but Christ's; that the keys, or the forgiving and
retaining of sins, are not ours, but Christ's. In sum, the offices and
the sacraments are not ours, but Christ's."9)

"For our faith and sacrament must not rest upon the person, whether he
be pious or wicked, ordained or unordained, called or having crept in,
the devil or his mother: but upon Christ, upon his Word, upon his
office, upon his command and ordinance."10)

3) Sermon on the Day of the Holy Three Kings. W[alch]. Vol. 13, 313.
4) On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, vol. 19, 128. 5) On the
Private Mass and the Consecration of Priests, 1533. Vol. 19, 1537. 6) On
the Councils and the Church, 1539. Vol. 16, 2785. 7) On the Abuse of the
Mass, to the Augustinians at Wittenberg. Vol. 19, 1398. 8) The same,
1399. 9) On the Private Mass and the Consecration of Priests, vol. 19,
1550. 10) The same, p. 1551.