# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1859_S360
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

360 A Comparison of Luther with Arndt and August H. Francke in This Regard, etc.

gold, pure eternal life? That this does not happen, however, is a sign that the old Adam and the devil are always dragging us down from faith and from the Word. Therefore learn this: both must be present — you must have the Word, and thereafter hold fast to the Word with faith, and, so far as possible, not doubt it; then you shall have everything that the Word promises you and that you need for the preservation of body and soul."

From all this one sees that Luther uses the word spoken to the man sick of the palsy in such a way that he takes it as directed to all the baptized, since it is contained in the Gospel, in absolution, and in the sacraments.

He therefore writes further: "Now when our dear Lord Christ had thus preached to the man sick of the palsy and had forgiven him his sin, the scribes began to think that Christ blasphemed God in willing to forgive sin. This too is a necessary point, one on which much depends; therefore we should note it carefully. For one sees this thoroughly in all fanatics and sectarian spirits, that they are all caught in the error of not understanding how sins are forgiven. For ask the pope and all his doctors, and they will not be able to tell you what absolution accomplishes; for the whole papacy rests on this doctrine: that grace is poured into man through a secret working; whoever wishes to attain to it must feel contrition, confess, and make satisfaction. But if one asks what absolution and the keys do, they say it is merely an outward order kept in the church. Thus they base the forgiveness of sins not on the Word and faith, where it must nevertheless be established, but rather on our contrition, confession, and satisfaction.. So the Anabaptists likewise say: What should baptism do for the forgiveness of sins? It is, after all, only a handful of water. The Spirit must do it, if we are truly to be made clean from sin; the water cannot do it. Thus they too draw the forgiveness of sins away from the Word, and will not let it remain there, as the devout little folk here say — that such power has been given to men. The sacramentarian fanatics likewise say: In the sacrament there is only bread and wine; therefore forgiveness of sins cannot be found there — the Spirit must give it, the flesh profits nothing. In sum: no sectarian spirit, no priest, nor monk has been able to see that the forgiveness of sins is a power given to men, as it stands here in the Gospel. Therefore learn here to be able to speak of the matter thus: I know well, and I also confess, that God alone forgives sin; but I must also know this — by what means I may perceive that my sins are forgiven, or what the means is through which my sins are forgiven me. There Holy Scripture teaches me and all Christians that when I want to have forgiveness of sins, I must not set myself in a corner and say: My God, forgive me my sin; and thereupon