# Der Lutheraner_Frankfurt am Main_Juni 1948_S45
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Number 6

June 1948

Page 45

Catechism ABC

Conscience

Conscience is the term for man's religious-moral capacity for judgment, God's tribunal within man, the uninterrupted divine self-attestation to man. In the first human beings, at creation, God's holy will was written into the heart. Through the fall into sin this writing was indeed not erased, but it was blurred. If man, in his act of disobedience (Genesis 3), cut the bond with his Creator down to the very last fiber, God nevertheless does not let him go completely during his lifetime. Conscience is the ineradicable remnant of the divine image, without which man would no longer be capable of redemption. The preaching of the Law, which prepares the way for the Gospel, takes hold in the conscience, for if there were no conscience left, the pastors could preach for a long time before they found any hearing.

Just as the natural man goes astray (Isaiah 53:6), so also his conscience errs. It is no longer the incorruptible witness against all evil, does not stir at every injustice the way, say, the fine magnetic needle continually points north; rather, history teaches that heathen peoples have sunk into the greatest vices without regarding them as sin. Many people have dulled and lulled their conscience, as acts of brutality in war testify, which at times reveal a complete lack of conscience. When the conscience awakens, it can torment a person. (Genesis 4:13–14)

The Christian sharpens his conscience on God's unchangeable Word. (Micah 6:8) He walks before God. (Genesis 17:1) His conscience is bound in God's Word. Therefore it is not advisable to do anything against conscience. The distress of conscience, the inability to remain silent about the abominations of ecclesiastical false doctrines, made Luther a reformer. God's Word rightly counsels the conscience. In faith in the forgiveness of sins through the Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world (John 1:29), we have a good conscience. A good conscience is a soft pillow of rest and more precious than all the goods of the world.

There are erring consciences that regard something as sin which, according to God's Word, is not sin. Whoever acts against his conscience sins in every case. We are to bear with the weak. (1 Corinthians 8) Yet we must try to set erring consciences right. We speak with Paul (Acts 24:16): I exercise myself to have a conscience void of offense toward God and men.

Faith

Christian faith is the unshakable trust in the living God who reveals himself to us in his Word. Its content is the triune God and his work of salvation in Christ. The invisible world is no less important to it than the visible. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

Faith is certain of its God: A mighty fortress is our God, a good defense and weapon! It is not a matter of the intellect, but a matter of the whole person. It lives from the Word of God, which it cannot do without. What water is for the fish, that the Word of God is for faith.

Faith walks a solitary path. While the overwhelming majority of people are enslaved by the spirit of the age, faith speaks with Luther: More depends on one Word of God than on heaven and earth. Faith is God's gift, not a moral self-decision of man, not a religious achievement of one's own, for it is indeed divine life. (John 1:4) Scripture places man's coming to faith on the same level as God's almighty working in the creation of the world (2 Corinthians 4:6) and the raising of the dead (Ephesians 2:5–6). God is the Alpha and Omega of our faith. Perseverance in faith, too, is God's work alone. (1 Peter 1:5)

Here we walk by faith. (2 Corinthians 5:7) The end of faith is the beholding of God in unveiled glory. (Job 19:27; Psalm 42:3; Matthew 5:8)

Grace
(See also: Means of Grace)

Grace is the divine favor and condescension, is the eternal mercy that surpasses all thought, with which God meets man, who is condemned to death and burdened with guilt. Out of grace he forgives him all sins for the sake of Christ's vicarious satisfaction (2 Corinthians 5:19) and makes him his child and heir of eternal life. (Romans 8:17) Apart from Christ, God knows no grace; he is not holy love but wrath. (John 3:36) Men show grace in contrast to justice; God grants it as the justice that holds true with him for Christ's sake. (Romans 8:31–34)

In the Gospel and in the sacraments, the salvation of God consisting in the forgiveness of sins is not merely offered to us but is really conveyed and communicated; therefore the Gospel, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper are called means of grace. This is in accordance with Scripture, in contrast to the Reformed teaching, which sees in the means of grace only outward signs.

Election of Grace

The Christian owes the origin of faith and perseverance in faith solely to the working of God through the Gospel. Scripture teaches us that God, who has called us through the Gospel, enlightened us with his gifts, and sanctified and preserved us in the true faith, had already resolved within himself in eternity, before the foundation of the world, to do this, and has chosen us for salvation. (2 Timothy 2:10; 2 Thessalonians 2:10–12; Acts 13:48; Romans 8:28–30; Ephesians 1:3–6) Election takes place on the basis of the merit of the Savior and extends over the whole path of faith of the children of God, from calling to the entrance into glory; it does not take place with regard to any moral advantages of the elect over others, nor because God foresaw that they would keep the faith to the end. Election has its ground solely in God's adorable love, with which he has loved us in Christ. It is said to Christians for their comfort that their salvation rests in the strong hands of God, who will surely carry through to completion the good work begun in them. (Philippians 1:6)

God
(See also: Eternity)

God is the uncreated, highest and most perfect Spirit, Life, Light, and Love. There is only one God. (Deuteronomy 6:4) The true God is the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:13) He is from eternity to eternity. (Psalm 90:2; Psalm 102:28) He is the Father of lights, the Creator of spirits, with whom there is no variation of light and darkness. (James 1:17) Through him all things were created that are in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible. (Colossians 1:16) He is eternal, omnipresent (Jeremiah 23:23–24), almighty (Luke 1:37), omniscient (Psalm 139:1–4), truthful (Psalm 33:4), love (1 John 4:8).

Just as we see the sun only in its own light, so God can rightly be known only in his Word, where he reveals himself. (Psalm 36:10) God indeed reveals "his eternal power and Godhead" also in nature and history, but this divine manifestation remains for us a book with seven seals unless we recognize his "name" from God's Word, namely himself in his will to punish sin but to save sinners. (Psalm 119:105; Psalm 19:8)

Dresden Lampert

[Image: advertisement frame with poem text]

God Father, Son, and Holy Ghost —
this is his most holy name;
so the righteous seed knows him,
names him, extols and praises him:
God of Abraham, God of Isaac,
God of Jacob, whom he loves,
Lord of Hosts, who night and day
gives us all good gifts
and works wonders all alone.

Paul Gerhardt, † 1676.