The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1908, Page 35

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

35

grace in Christ. Seals, as you know, are affixed to
important documents, such as deeds of lands, to
prevent fraud and to remove all doubt as to their
validity. Thus: we may call the Sacraments two
seals attached to the precious promises of the Gos-
pel to make me certain and sure that my sins are
forgiven, that life and salvation are mine. By
these two seals our weak faith is to be assured of
God’s grace. —

The people of the Old Testament had two Sacra-
ments, Circumcision and the Passover, Gen. 17,
Y—l4; Ex. 12, 3—11. We Christians likewise
have two, holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
The Romish Church, indeed, claims that there are
seven Sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Confes-
sion, the Lord’s Supper, Matrimony, Ordination of
Priests, and the Extreme Unction of the dying;
but if we examine this claim closely in the light of
what we have heard, we shall soon find that five of
these acts cannot truly be called Sacraments, lack-
ing as they do either God’s command, the external
means, or the promise that God will thereby offer
and convey unto men the grace which Christ has
merited. For this reason we can recognize only
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as Sacraments.

F. J. L.

Justification Before God.

(A paper read before Immanuel Lutheran Conference, and
published by its request.)

III.
We become righteous by the obedience of Christ,
in whom God has justified the world.

} 1.

God justifies the ungodly. But we have heard
that he who justifies the wicked is an abomination
to the Lord. Are we’ to think that God pronounces
woe upon .those who call evil good, and that He
Himself makes light of sin? Far from it; for,
“The righteous Lord loveth righteousness,” says
Ps. 11,7, and Ps. 5, 4 declares: “For Thou art
not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness.” God’s
remission of sins does not mean that sin is not
condemned and punished. When God justifies us

by grace, it is not the same case as when an indul-

gent father smilingly overlooks the disobedience of
his son. Nor should we imagine that God thinks
thus: I am the Lord; there'is none higher than I;
I do as I please —who dare oppose me if I please
to forgive? Itis true: “Our God is in the heavens:

He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased.” He
does not, however, forgive us in the same manner
as a sovereign king may sometimes pardon a crim-
inal — without regard to justice. Though God is
supreme, yet His own justice, which He has pro-
claimed and according to which sin must be pun-
ished, that righteousness which is in God, must be
declared and set forth; for God Himself has done
so, Rom. 3, 25. 26. God’s grace does not simply
override or set aside His own inherent righteous-
ness. How can God count the sinner just? How
ean the just God justify the ungodly? This ques-
tion naturally arises and should be answered, as it
has pleased God to furnish us with the reply in
Scripture.

From the Bible we learn that justification, or
forgiveness, has been won and merited, though we
receive it by grace. It has been purchased by
Christ. This is no contradiction to what we said
before. If you are presented with a fine garment,
it costs you nothing; yet you know without being
told that it cost dear before you received it as a
gift. So we are justified freely, our righteousness
before God is by grace, we pay nothing for it, we
receive it without money and without price; still
it was earned, this gift was paid for.. Grace which
forgives is grace in Christ, for Christ's sake, won
for us by Christ. ;

In saymg that Christ won God’s favor for us,
we do not mean to declare that God did not wish.
to be gracious; but we wish.to state how God can
be just and yet be gracious towards us sinners.
God Himself satisfied His divine justice by sending
Christ into the world, as it is written: “God sent
forth His Son.” “God so Hoe the world that He
gave His only-begotten Son.” Without Christ there
is no saving grace, no justifying grace, that is to
say, if God does not.take Christ’s work into con-
sideration, He must condemn us. We must know
of Christ and His work, if we would Understand
the doctrine of justification.

Christ is the Son of God from eternity, and in
the fullness of time He became man; since that
time He is God and man in one person: He became
the God-man to be our Savior. He saved sinners
by doing the will of God. Whatever He did ‘and’
suffered in the days of His earthly: career was in’
obedience to His Father, as it i is written. Phil. 2;-8:
“And being found in fashion as a man, He ‘humbled’
Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross.” It is beyond our present pur-"
pose. to describe in detail the spotless life of this