LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1971, Page 102

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

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ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE ALC 103

We believe God’s grace is great enough for us to
live together in the freedom He has granted us.

I come, as an evangelist, to urge you to the great
mission of the church, Our real task for this day is to
preach the Gospel with such clarity, conviction, and
power that a restless world will hear. We live in a
troubled time —a time of massive dislocation of social
justice, a time of distorted sexuality, a time of growing
secularization, which is another name for a growing
atheism. God calls us to a task as great as that of the
Reformers. This is not a time to engage in the subtleties
of theology but a time for the firm proclamation and
obedience to the love and grace He has promised us.
How great is His grace!

I come as a sinner to testify to His saving grace. This
is what we all are — sinners saved by grace. It is neces-
sary for us to say this everywhere to everyone. I do not
do this for your sake but for my own, for this is my
calling, and I am compelled. At San Antonio, when to
my surprise, The American Lutheran Church chose me
among many able and fine men to carry this burden,
I could only respond spontaneously and from deep
within. For me the most beautiful confession of faith
is what I learned as a child in that little country church
from Luther’s Catechism:

I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the

Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the

Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost

and condemned creature, bought and freed me from sin,

death and the power of the devil, not with silver and
gold, but with His holy and precious blood and His inno-

cent sufferings and death, in order that I might be His
own, live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in

everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness, even
as He lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most cer-
tainly true. And I believe that I cannot with my own
reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or
come to Him, but the Holy Ghost has called me through
the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts and sanctified
and preserved me in the true faith, just as He calls,
gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian
church on earth and preserves it in union with Jesus
Christ in the one true faith.

This is the faith in which I live and for which I
would die. And so would you. Missouri Synod, we love
you. We love you with the love of Christ, a love which
is not of our making but a gift from Him. We pray
for you, that you may do God’s bidding, that your
strength may be renewed like the eagle’s, that the Lord
Jesus Christ may reign in your lives so that you may
be His witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth.
“You are the people of God,” Paul writes in Colossians,
“you are the people of God, He loved you and chose
you for His own.

“Therefore, you must put on compassion, kindness,
humility, gentleness, and patience. Be helpful to one
another, and forgive one another whenever any of you
has a complaint against someone else. You must for-
give each other in the same way that the Lord has for-
given you. And to all these add love, which binds
things together in perfect unity. The peace that Christ
gives is to be the judge in your hearts; for to this peace
God has called you together in the one body; and be
thankful.” (Col. 3:12-15)

May God bless and keep you.

Dr. Kent KNuTSON