LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 71

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of the sinner before God, by grace alone, received through faith
alone, based on Christ’s merits alone, grabbed him, shook him,
transformed him, and threw him further into a public fray
which he did not seek. In questioning indulgences, he struck
the Medieval Roman Church at its core, money. And in the
struggle that followed he was given clarity in the Gospel.
Romans 1:16–17 says that “the gospel is the power of God for
salvation to everyone who believes.” This truth struck Luther
like an anvil one day in the spring of 1518. The Gospel grabbed
him, and he realized fully and clearly that the justification of the
sinner before God is a completely legal, forensic act of God. It’s
God’s power. God’s action. God’s forgiving. God’s justifying. God’s
reckoning righteous for the sake of Jesus alone. Augsburg
Confession Article IV was completely his as he himself declared
from the Coburg Castle where he waited the outcome of the
Augsburg Diet in 1530.
Our churches teach that people cannot be justified
before God by their own strength, merits, or works.
People are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through
faith, when they believe that they are received into
favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake.
By His death, Christ made satisfaction for our sins. God
counts this faith for righteousness in His sight
(Romans 3 and 4). (AC IV)
Jesus Christ was “delivered up for our trespasses and raised for
our justification” (Rom. 4:25). “For our sake, he made him to be
sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). The sinner is justified,
declared not guilty. Christ did it all. Faith grabs hold of all Jesus
did, does, and has. The conscience, the bad conscience,
tormented by sins, tormented by works righteousness, is freed,
and forgiven! JOY!
Our Book of Concord is from beginning to the end a manual for
“Here we stand!” and “Here we go!” It’s all about the conscience
freed from sin, guilt, and death. Listen to the mission statement
in the preface to the Book of Concord.
We understand that we owe our subjects this … that we
should take pains, with the greatest earnestness and to our
utmost ability, to attend to those matters which promote the
extension of God’s name and glory, the propagation of His
Word, (from which alone we hope for salvation), the peace
and tranquility of churches and schools, and the
instruction and consolation of disturbed consciences.
(Preface to the Book of Concord, 22)
Melanchthon’s Preface to the Apology summarizes the content
of the Augsburg Confession: That is, matters “pertaining to
religion and the instruction of consciences” (par. 4).
Melanchthon wrote in the Apology:
But since in this controversy the chief topic of Christian
doctrine is treated, which, understood aright,
illumines and amplifies the honor of Christ [which is of
especial service for the clear, correct understanding of
the entire Holy Scriptures, and alone shows the way to
the unspeakable treasure and right knowledge of
Christ, and alone opens the door to the entire Bible],

President’s Report, Part 3

and brings necessary and most abundant consolation
to devout consciences. (Ap IV 2)
On the conscience and repentance, the Apology states:
Christ, in the last chapter of Luke (24:47) commands
that repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in His name. For the Gospel convicts all men
that they are under sin, that they all are subject to
eternal wrath and death, and offers, for Christ’s sake,
remission of sin and justification, which is received by
faith. The preaching of repentance, which accuses us,
terrifies consciences with true and grave terrors. [For
the preaching of repentance, or this declaration of the
Gospel: Amend your lives! Repent! When it truly
penetrates the heart, terrifies the conscience, and is no
jest, but a great terror, in which the conscience feels its
misery and sin, and the wrath of God.] In these, hearts
ought again to receive consolation. This happens if
they believe the promise of Christ, that for His sake we
have remission of sins. (Ap IV 62)
At every turn in our Confessions the truth of the Gospel and the
teaching of the Bible are held forth to console consciences.
Repentance. Confession. Baptism. The Keys. Supper. The
doctrine of good works. Customs and ceremonies. Vocation.
Marriage. Men and women. Sex. In all these matters tormented
consciences are set at ease!
The entire Catechism, indeed, the entire Book of Concord is a
manual on conscience.
On human nature and sex in the context of celibacy, which
tortured monks and pastors and priests, the Smalcald Articles
state,
Now, as little as we or they have been given the power
to make a woman out of a man or a man out of a
woman, or to nullify either sex, so little have they had
the power to [sunder and] separate such creatures of
God, or to forbid them from living [and cohabiting]
honestly in marriage with one another. (SA III XI 2)
Why All the Falderal?
I have a theory on why the world is coming at us so intensely
with the sexuality issues. The conscience and natural
knowledge of God, not to mention divine revelation and thus
the teaching of the historic church, must be opposed with the
greatest intensity. The world believes that all must be made to
affirm what the conscience knows is false. Paul tells us the truth
is written on every heart (Rom. 2:15). Thus, we understand the
most outrageous actions of those seeking to deny what God has
put on their heart. They think the government must be forced
to deny natural law. The schools must be forced to deny God’s
eternal truth. The church must be made to reject the clear
teaching of the Bible. The conscience, natural law, and the Bible
must be attacked and denied with everything the devil, world,
and flesh can muster. But this effort is all in vain.
Those who reject the truth demonstrate in the most radical way
that the doctrine of justification is the most fundamental and
pervasively significant thing in all human existence.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2023 (68TH) LCMS CONVENTION | 71