# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1859_S361
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

A Comparison of Luther with Arndt and August H. Francke in This Regard, etc. 361

wait until an angel comes down from heaven and says to me: Your sins are forgiven you. For God has promised that he will condescend to find me and himself promise me the forgiveness of sins. This happens, first of all, in holy Baptism, for there is his command, that I should be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And further, along with this command, stands the promise: Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved. Mark 16. Yes, you say, is not baptism only water? True it is, but such water is not alone; God's Word is with it. So too, when you go to your pastor, who has a special charge for this, or otherwise to some Christian, and ask him to comfort you and absolve you from your sins, and he says to you: In God's stead I proclaim to you, through Christ, forgiveness of all your sins — there you should be certain that your sins are truly and certainly forgiven you through these outward words; for baptism and the Word will not lie to you. This has not been preached in the papacy, nor does any papal preacher understand it to this day. Therefore thank God for such grace and learn this, that God wills to forgive sin. But how? In no other way than as it stands here: that he has given this power to men. As Christ here begins this and afterward commands that from now on it should be so kept in the church until the end of the world, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins be preached in his name. So that everyone should learn to seek the forgiveness of sins among men and nowhere else. For there alone shall one find it, for thus reads our Lord Christ's command in Luke 24: Did not Christ have to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and have repentance and forgiveness of sins preached in his name among all nations? And Matthew 18: Truly I say to you, whatever you loose on earth, etc.; likewise John 20: Whosesoever sins you forgive, etc. For God will not permit that each person should want to build himself his own private stair or ladder into heaven; he alone will be the builder. Therefore, if you want to have forgiveness of sins, go and be baptized, if you are not baptized; or, if you are baptized, remember that same promise which God made to you at that time, and be not unbelieving. Likewise, go and reconcile yourself with your neighbor, and thereafter seek absolution. And as you hear that forgiveness of sins is promised to you in the name of Jesus, so believe it, and then you truly have it. Go thereafter also to the venerable Sacrament and receive there the body and blood of Christ, so that you may be assured that such a precious treasure is valid for you and is your own, that you should enjoy it, etc. So that one should not despise baptism, absolution, preaching, and the sacrament, but should seek and fetch the forgiveness of sins through them. For to this end God has called and ordained your pastor, your father, your mother, and your nearest fellow Christian, and has placed his Word in their mouth, that you should seek comfort and forgiveness of sins with them.