2. Directing the Prophetic Office in the State of Exaltation.

2. Directing the Prophetic Office in the State of Exaltation.

In the state of exaltation, Christ directs the prophetic office through intermediaries. Even within the Lutheran Church, Christ's prophetic office has been limited to the state of humiliation, and then the teaching now coming from earth has been entrusted to Christ's royal office. °°? This is only a formal difference. If one puts the teaching under the royal office, then Christ is presented as a king who also teaches through his servants or messengers. But the Lutheran teachers, who with Gerhard and Quenstedt follow the teaching that they ascribe the prophetic office to Christ even in the state of exaltation, have good reason for this.° There is reason in Scripture to regard the teaching which is now taking place in and through the Church as a continuation of the teaching of Christ on earth. Joh. 20:21: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." In the Apostle Paul, Christ speaks, as Paul strongly recalls in 2 Cor. 13:3: "Forasmuch as ye seek to be made aware of him that speaketh in me, which is Christ. °° But it is not important whether the teaching of Christ is brought under the prophetic or royal office in the state of exaltation. But it must be firmly established that in all teaching, which now takes place in the Church and through the Church, Christ is actually the one who teaches. All human teachers: the apostles, the preachers, all Christians, can only be considered as instruments of Christ. In the Church, no human word, but only Christ's word is to be taught until the Last Day. Joh. 8:31-32: "Eav bpeic peivnte év TO AOy@ TO EUG KTA.; 1 Tim. 6:3-6: Ei tic... ut] mpoogpyetat vytaivovow Adyots Tois ToD Kupiov Hav TInood Xptotod... tetwq@tar. Petr. 4:11: et tig AaAEt Ws Adyta Oeod. Now how did Christ ensure that even after his exaltation only his word would be taught on earth? He gave his word to the apostles not only for oral preaching, but also for writing it down. °° Thus he made his apostles infallible teachers of the whole world. Furthermore, he gives

Doctrine of inspiration. 339-340] teachers and pastors to the church until the Last Day, Eph. 4:11; but these are bound in their teaching to the infallible word of the Apostles, that is, to Christ's own word, Joh. 17:20.°°) Finally, Christ fills all his Christians with spiritual wisdom and knowledge, so that they can also teach and admonish one another, Joh. 7:38. 39; 4 Mos. 11:29; but this teaching and admonition is not done with their own independent word, but through the Word of Christ. "Let the word of Christ dwell abundantly among you in all wisdom." Col. 3:16: So Christ is by his word the only teacher in the church and through the church until the last day. Therefore the word which the Christian church proclaims in its missionary vocation is simply called "the word of the Lord. 1 Thess. 1:8: "From you the word of the Lord is without end" (Gy' vu@v yap éEHyntat Adyoc tov Kupiov). All teaching that is not merely proclamation of the Word of Christ is false doctrine, pseudo-prophecy, and is forbidden in the Christian Church per se. °°

for those who through them" (the Apostles) "will believe in me", he is referring to the infallible apostolic word as the source and foundation of the Church's faith until the Last Day. When souls come to faith through the ministry of preachers, it is because and in so far as these preachers preach the inspired word of the apostles.

keep silent his words, and let them be valid in the worldly and domestic regiment; here in the church let him speak nothing but this rich landlord's word; otherwise it is not the true church. Therefore let it be said: God speaks. Let it be so in this world. If a prince wants to rule, his voice must sound in his country and house. If this happens in this miserable life, we should let God's word sound in the church and in eternal life..... even though there is much chatter outside God's word, yet the Church is not in the chatter, and they shall become mad; they cry only ‘Church, Church’, one should hear the Pope and the bishops.... A Christian should hear nothing but the word of God. Otherwise, in the secular regiment, he hears another, how to punish the wicked and protect the pious, and of the household. But all here in the Christian church it shall be a house, since only the word of God resounds. "Let them cry out madly for ‘church, church, church' for without God's word, it is nothing." What Luther says here against the Papists is, of course, also true against all modern fanaticism and against "science" which claims to rule the church. Luther's well-known word that a preacher, if he is a proper preacher, should not seek forgiveness of sins for his sermon also belongs here. Every preacher must be able to say: "I The truth that Christ is the real teacher in the Church is of the greatest practical importance. It is, as already indicated, the powerful admonition that men should not undertake to teach their own word in the Church, for this is an interference with the prophetic, or royal, ministry of Christ, who alone wants to have his word proclaimed in the Church. All heresy is a crime against majesty. Not only the Papists, but all those who teach "without and against God's Word" in the Church are in rebellion against Christ. All false teachers are therefore called 1 Joh. 2:18 avtiyptotot. This is to be noted against the modern disregard of false doctrine. The truth is that Christ is the real teacher in the Church, and for all hearers and readers of the Word of God the great consolation is that in this Word, which comes to them through human instruments, Christ himself acts with them, as well as the admonition not to despise the Word of God coming to them through human instruments, but to receive it with all reverence, for: "He who hears you hears me, and he who despises you despises me", Luke 10:16.? have been an apostle and prophet Jesus Christi in this sermon. Here it is not necessary, nor good, to ask forgiveness of sins as if it had been taught wrongly; this is the word of God, and not my word, which God neither forgives nor can forgive me, but confirms, praises, crowns, and says, "You have taught right, for I have spoken through you, and the word is mine. Let him that boast not of his preaching, let him only tarry to preach; for he is sure to deny and blaspheme God. (Sz. L. XVII, 1343 f.) Correct also is Strong: "All modern prophecy that is true is but the republication of Christ's message — the proclamation and expounding of truth already revealed in Scripture. (L. c., p. 389.) Philippi: "Where from Montanus to Irving a new prophethood has tried to assert itself in the Christian church, it has always proved to be false.... There are only teachers and preachers of the Word of God, through whom the Lord receives his prophethood, which is once and for all complete, but which continued preservation of the prophetic Word and its enlightening spiritual effect can of course again be described as a continuation of the prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ, just as the conservatio mundi was probably called creatio continua. (L. c., p. 22.)

unfortunately do not believe that we hear God's Word when He speaks to us through a human being. For we value the word according to the greatness and prestige of him who speaks; we hear the man who speaks as a mere man and think it is the word of a man. And therefore we also despise it and become tired of it, but we do. 341] Finally, it must be pointed out that the Son of God is the person of the Holy Trinity, even before his incarnation, in the Old Testament, who spoke to the people and mediated intercourse with them. The Scriptures testify, a. that the prophets spoke through the Spirit of Christ, 1 Petr. 1:11, b. that it was the Son of God who communicated with men, Isaiah 6 (cf. Joh. 12:41), dealt with Israel in the desert, 1 Cor. 10:4.°7) We should thank God for putting his divine word into the mouth of the man or servant who is like us everywhere, who can speak to us and comfort and lift us up with the word.... But now it is not the word of the parish priest, nor of St. Peter, nor of any other servant, but of the divine majesty itself". (II, 905.)

Central District of the Missouri Synod 1883 (speaker: P. C. M. Zorn), especially p. 59 ff. Here is the thesis: "Our Lord Jesus Christ is that person of the Holy Trinity who first reveals himself in the Old Covenant. In its execution it says: "When one opens and reads the Bible [Old Testament]: God spoke, God did this, and asks: "Which person is meant by this? the answer is: "First of all, God the Son. This is not to say that the Father and the Holy Spirit are not also revealed in the Old Testament. The thesis is only to say that the first and foremost emerging, acting and speaking divine person in the Old Testament, the first and foremost revealing Jehovah, is our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only has Christ revealed Himself through special appearances in the Old Testament, but He is the God of the Old Testament in general, unless it is clear from the context that it is necessarily the Father or the Holy Spirit. Luther says: "It is revealed to us almost everywhere in the Old Testament under the name of God Christ." (II, 853.) Hengstenberg: "Throughout the entire Old Testament there is the doctrine of the angel of the Lord, whose mediation is to be thought of "everywhere" (?) "where God enters into relationship with mortals, even where they are not explicitly thought of.... In the first two passages (Gen. 16:13; 32:31) we can specifically prove that God was seen through the mediation of His angel. Gen. 16:7 goes first: And it was the angel of the Lord who found them. And according to Hos. 12 it was the angel of the Lord with whom Jacob was in contact at Pniel, incidentally the invisible God", 1 Tim. 1:17, not a double mediation, under the Old Covenant the angel of the Lord, under the New Covenant the only-born Son,... but in the angel of the Lord the Logos presents himself in the prelude to his incarnation. The Old Testament itself proceeds from this view, announcing to Zechariah and Malachi that in the Messiah the angel of the Lord will appear among his people. And John follows this view when he tells Joh. 1:11 that the Messiah has come into his possession, in chapter 12:41, "Isaiah saw Christ. (Commentary on John I, 61 f.) The high priestly [sacerdotal] office of Christ. The grace which Christ proclaims as Prophet, he has acquired as a priest. This close connection between the prophetic and high priestly office must be kept in mind from the outset. The high priestly office gives the content for the prophetic one. If Christ in his high priestly office has brought about only a quasi-reconciliation of people with God, then the prophetic office has only a quasi-reconciliation to proclaim. If, on the other hand, Christ brought about a real, perfect, objective reconciliation of all people with God through his substitutionary life and suffering, the Gospel is now a message of grace for all people, which they only have to accept through faith in order to gain possession of the grace acquired by Christ. It is well said that, for example, the Socinians, rationalists, etc., by their denial of the vicarious satisfaction of Christ, leave only the prophetic office of Christ standing. But this is not exactly what is said. With the denial of the high priestly office, the prophetic office in the biblical sense also falls away. In his prophetic office Christ is then no longer the giver of grace for a world of sinners that is under the curse of the law, but only a moral preacher who teaches and tempts people to acquire salvation through their own efforts of virtue. So much depends on the correct understanding of the high priestly work of Christ! What is the high priestly work of Christ? The high priestly office of Christ in the state of humiliation. Christ, whom the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments explicitly call "priest",°’ has reconciled all humanity with God in a state of humiliation. 2 Cor. 5:19: "God was in Christ and reconciled (kataAAdoowv) the world to Himself." — Scripture, however, does not only report the fact of reconciliation, but above all describes the mode and manner of reconciliation (modus reconciliationis) or the means by which reconciliation is effected (medium reconciliationis).

and accordingly in the New Testament tepeve, apytspeve, tepevc péyas etc., Hebr. 5:6; 8:4; 10:11; 2:17; 3:1; 4:14; 5:16. ~ 343] Christ has reconciled people with God by offering himself (seipsum) to God as a sacrifice of atonement. Joh. 17:19: "for their sakes I sanctify myself"; °’» 1 Tim. 2:6: "He who gave himself for salvation for all"; 1 Joh. 2:2: "The same is the reconciliation (tAaop6c) for our sin, not only for ours, but also for the whole world. According to Scripture, this is the difference between the exemplary priestly work in the Old Testament and the unique priestly work of Christ in the New Testament: In Veteris Testamenti sacrificiis offerebantur victimae a_ sacerdotibus distinctae, Christus semetipsum sacrificavit. [In the sacrifices of the Old Testament, the victims were offered separately by the priests, Christ sacrificed himself] (Baier.) [Ed. - see vol. 3:109, quote from § 8] In the New Testament Christ is both priest and victim at the same time, Hebr. 7:27: 6c obk éyet KO’ HuEgpav avayKnv donEp oi APYLEPEIC MPOTEPOV DAEP THV 1di@v GpLApTLaV OBvoias dvaéspEtv EmEITA TOV Tod AGod TODTO yap Exoinosv Eanas Eavtov avevéyKac. This self-sacrifice of Christ, however, according to the Scriptures, comprises a double aspect: Christ gave himself for us in his holy life (obedientia activa), Hebr. 9:14: "offered himself without spot to God" (Eavtov mpoonveyKEV GLOLOV &uopov tH Os;?, Hebr. 7:26 etc., and in his suffering and dying (obedientia passiva), Eph. 5:2: Christ has " given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice" (Ovoia, sacrifice). — Through this high priestly work accomplished by Christ on earth, God is now reconciled with men once and for all, that is, God's grace has been turned to men, Hebr. 9:12: 516 tov idtov aipatos sionAOEev eodma€ etc ta ayia, aim@viav Avtpwow Evpdpévoc This is what Scripture teaches of the fact and the means of the reconciliation of the world through the self-sacrifice of Christ. The individual aspects will be discussed in more detail later. However, the following must be added immediately: If men are reconciled to God through the sacrifice offered by Christ, or, which is the same thing, if the guilt of sin of men

by offering himself to God by his death, makes to himself, so that ay1dCo is equal to TpOGMEePw Coit Ovoiav (Gy1aCew, wrypA:? [HEBREW], such word of sacrifice in the Old Testament, Deut. 15:19 ff.) — Christ is priest and victim at the same time."

is obedience to the divine law. before God is redeemed, then through this sacrifice men are also redeemed from all the terrible consequences of the guilt of sin, from death, from the power of the devil, from the dominion of sin, etc. This effect of reconciliation, which is directed by Christ, is described in Scripture in a comprehensive and very detailed way. The power of death is abolished by Christ, 2 Tim. 1:10: Christ "took away the power of death and brought life and an imperishable being to light".?) The power of the devil, which he had over men out of God's judgment, is destroyed. Hebr. 2:14: " Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil."°® From the dominion of sin men are redeemed through Christ's atoning sacrifice, Tit. 2:14: "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity (am6 morc avoutac) and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."® All this must be diligently inculcated on the basis of Scripture, so that it may be recognized that through Christ we are redeemed from all evil, but in such a way that the remission of sin through Christ's once offered sacrifice always remains in the foreground and is taught as the cause and source of redemption from death, the devil, the dominion of sin, etc. Because our guilt of sin before God is paid off, we are also redeemed from death, etc.?®)

15.

kingdom; vbv 6 Gpyov Tod KdopOv TOUTOD EKBANOYoETa EE, Joh. 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; Col. 2:15.

central and focal point not in the abolition of death, but in the lifting of the divine sentence and human guilt, which are the cause and the power, the actual deadly thing of death. This is why, as our confession also teaches in accordance with Scripture, the lifting of the state of guilt of the abolition of the dominion of death is objectively preceded by the lifting of the guilt. (Das Bekenntnis der luth. Kirche von der Verséhnung, etc. By Dr. G. Thomasius, with an afterword by Dr. Th. Harnack. Erl. 1857, p. 138 f.) The vicarious satisfaction. Satisfaction vicaria. Vicarious satisfaction. An ecclesiastical expression for the high priestly activity of Christ in the state of humiliation is "vicarious satisfaction". The meaning of this expression is that Christ has vicariously (in place of men) done to God, who is angry at the sins of men, that which transforms God's wrath on men into grace against men. The expression is not contained in Scripture. But the thing designated by the expression is nothing other than the teaching of Scripture about the redemption that has taken place through Christ. This ecclesiastical expression has not been placed unevenly on the same line as Opoovotos. Just as Guoovotoc briefly expresses the teaching of Scripture about the true Godhead of the Son of God, so in the expression "vicarious satisfaction" we have a summary of what Scripture teaches concerning redemption through Christ, in opposition to false doctrine. The expression "satisfactio vicaria" expresses the following truths clearly inscribed in Scripture: I. There is in God an unchanging justice towards men, according to which he demands from men perfect conformity with the Law he has given them (institia legislatoria, normativa) and, in the event of disagreement, is angry with them to the extent that he pronounces on them the judgment of eternal damnation (institia legislatoria, normativa). The iustitia legislatoria expresses Christ in Matt. 22:37, 39: " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,... Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The iustitia vindicativa in case of transgression is testified Gal. 3:10: Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them. That this curse extends into eternity is expressed by Christ Mark 9:48: " Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." For the purpose of combating satisfactio vicaria, the more recent theologians set aside the biblical doctrine of iustitia legislatoria and its consequence, iustitia vindicativa, by asserting "that punitive justice refers more to the world government in the sense of Providence, and gentleness more to the economy of salvation". The justice of God should not have a "private law" character. °) These are anti- biblical sayings. According to Scripture, the legislative and punitive justice of God does not only refer to the world government in general, but is so eminently "private law" that it refers to every human individual, both in terms of demand and in terms of punishment and curse: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God" and "Cursed be everyone who does not abide in all that is written! In this relationship of legislative and punitive justice to every individual of the human race, the further judgement of Scripture is based on the fact that all human beings, because they do not comply with the requirement of the law of God, can still comply (Rom 8:7), are sinners, guilty of God, and indeed are under the wrath of God or the curse of the law. Rom. 3:9-18: Jews and Gentiles are under sin; Rom. 3:19: all the world is guilty before God (vaddixoc, delinquent); Rom. 5:10: men exOpoi, that is, hated by God, subject to His wrath; °8° Eph. 2:3: by nature the children of wrath, téxkva pvdoet opyjc. — IL. God has laid upon Christ and Christ has placed himself in the place of men both under the duty and the punishment of the divine Law given to men. Christ's fulfillment of the Law given to man in the place of man is testified Gal. 4:4-5: "God sent His Son, born of a woman and put under the law (yevépevov v6 vopov), that He might redeem those who were under the law." °°! Christ's vicarious suffering of the punishment to which men were subject by their failure to fulfill the law is testified in Gal. 3:13: "Christ redeemed us (eEnydpaoev) from the curse of the law" (scil., the law given to men, v. 10), "because he became a curse for us"; 2 Cor. 5:14: "One died for all"; 1 Petr. 3:18: "Christ suffered once for our sin, the righteous for the unrighteous. That Christ only "for the best", but not "in the place" of men (loco hominum)

active sense (so e.g. Beck and Ritschl), but passive: to whom God was enemy, who were under God's wrath."

text. is a rationalistic-dogmatic reinterpretation of the above and other scriptural statements. °°?) — III. Scripture also clearly expresses that through Christ's vicarious action and suffering God's wrath against human beings or—which is the same thing—God's condemnation of human beings is now completely annulled. Rom. 5:18: "By one" (namely Christ's) "righteousness" (ducai@pa, v. 19: bxakorjc) "the justification of life has come upon all men"; Rom. 5:10: When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (ex8poi, passive: Deo invisi) ". Luthardt rightly remarks on the latter passage: "It is a change of position on the part of God. That the reconciliation of the world, which happened through Christ, is a change of mind not on the part of men but on the part of God, is also

rightly wrote against v. Hofmann: "This whole long interrogation of apostolic statements does nothing else but follow vaép ("died for us, given" etc.) and wants to make us understand that it must be translated everywhere not 'instead of ours' but 'for our best’. Of course it can be translated everywhere "for our good", because since it was for our good that the Lord died instead of us, "for our good" also fits into the context. This does not tell us anything new, even v. Hofmann, for the old rationalists have often told us so; the only question is how the death of the Lord was for our good, and whether it was not for our good precisely because it took place in our place. (Der Schriftbeweis des D. v. Hofmann. Schwerin 1859, p. 482 f.) That avti also has the meaning "in place", "instead", one should not deny in view of such passages as Matt. 20:28 and 1 Cor. 11:15: Correctly Meyer on Matt. 20:28 (to give his life means the substitution. That which is given as ransom takes the place of those who are ransomed with it. The Avtpov is an avtiAvtpov (1 Tim. 2:6), avtéAdaypo (Matt. 16:26)." Also vmép has the meaning instead of places like 2 Cor. 5:14: sic vaép nméavtov, Petr. 3:18: dixatoc vaep ddikwv. Steiger aptly remarks on the latter passage: "The sharp comparison of these two predicates leaves no one with a sense of language in doubt for a moment that vaép expresses a change of person, that the meaning of the apostle is that we are the unjust who deserve suffering through our sins, that Christ did not deserve any and yet took it over, namely by suffering what sinners should have suffered, that is, instead of them and thus for their own good. makes an unnecessary and contrary to Scripture concession when he remarks (Dogmatik, p. 246): "The representation is not directly expressed, but underlies the whole view and representation. expressly stated in 2 Cor. 5:19, where kOopov KatadAdoowv éavta is further determined by pn AoyiCopEvos adtoics Ta TapaatHpata abtmv. The reconciliation of mankind with God took place through the fact that God in himself, in his heart (in foro divino), did not ascribe sins to men, but forgave them, i.e. let the anger about the sins of men come to an end, not through his absolute perfection of power, but through the intervention of Christ as a mediator (ueoitns Osod kai avOpanov [1 Tim. 2:5 - one mediator between God and men]), specifically the doing and suffering of Christ (6v evdc mapamtapatoc [Rom. 5:18 - by the righteousness of one], 16 tig braKoT ¢ tod évdc [Rom. 5:19 - by the obedience of One] — 616 tod Bavatov tod Yiod adtod [Rom. 5:10 by the death of his Son], sic bxép Tavtwv dné0avev [2 Cor. 5:14 - One died for all]). This is the teaching of Scripture about the reconciliation of the world brought about by the incarnate Son of God. And This teaching is not a "theory" either, as Luthardt (Dogm., p.

before the emergence of the expressions satisfactio and satisfactio vicaria, and that is why it is also known by the Christian church in its songs. Not only "the underlying idea" is correct, as is often expressed nowadays, but the thing itself is completely correct, that is, according to Scripture. Luthardt's objection that "what Christ did and suffered does not completely coincide in the sense of mutual reckoning with what we would have to do and suffer" is based on the modern theological revelation of the principle of Scripture. If anything is clear on the basis of Scripture, the fact is clear that the redemption effected by Christ was "in the sense of mutual reckoning". Scripture presents the "mutual reckoning" in all its factors. Christ, with all that he has done and suffered, stood up for the world, for all people. The reckoning is therefore extensively perfect. Through Christ's actions and sufferings the world has indeed been reconciled with God, that is, God's wrath against the world has been lifted, pm) AoyiCopEvoc adtoic TH NAPAATOLATA odtHvV [2 Cor. 5:19 - not imputing their trespasses unto them]. The reckoning is therefore extensively perfect. At last God himself has acknowledged the account in the sense of a complete "mutual reckoning" by raising Christ from the dead. For just as Christ was given away for our sin, so he was also raised 51a Thy Stkaimow Hnudv [Rom. 4:25 - for our justification] Thus, according to the divine reckoning revealed in Holy Scriptures, there is a complete "mutual reckoning" between God and the sinful human world through what Christ did and suffered. As far as Luther's and the dogmatist's doctrine of vicarious satisfaction is concerned, the statements already mentioned in the section "Grace in Christ" (p. 19 ff.) belong here. Luther declares it to be a characteristic of paganism ("the faith of the Turks and Jews") if someone wanted to think that God was "without comfort" - and by this he understands Christ's vicarious satisfaction - gracious to people. All terms that belong to vicarious satisfaction are expressed in Luther's work, for example in his explanations of Jn 3:16-21 (StL. XL, 1084 ff.), In 1:29 (VII, 1716 ff.), Gal 3:13 (IX, 367 ff.). The writings of Luther against the antinomians also belong here (XX, 1610 ff.), just as all fighters against vicarious satisfaction are trapped in antinomianism. Objective and subjective reconciliation. According to Scripture, there is an objective reconciliation of all people with God, that is, a reconciliation not to be brought about by human beings first, but one brought about by Christ 1900 years ago. The reconciliation is there, it is there above all the actions of men and apart from them. It is an accomplished fact, like the creation of the world. Rom. 5:10: "we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son"; that is, at the time when Christ died, our reconciliation with God came about. Just as the death of Christ lies backwards, so does the accomplishment of our reconciliation. 2 Cor. 5:19: "God was in Christ reconciling" (scil, at the time when Christ lived and died on earth) "the world with Himself. The kataAAdooew, Rom. 5:10 and 2 Cor.. At the time when Christ offered his atoning sacrifice, God let his wrath go against men. This is not a human explanation, but that of the apostle, when he adds to the words: "God was in Christ and reconciled the world to himself": wn AoyiGopuEvocs avtois TA TA TAPAATHLATA avtov, by not attributing their sins to them, that is, by forgiving sin to the whole world even then in his heart, justifying the whole world. For "not imputing sin" is, according to the language of Scripture (Rom. 4:6-8), as much as "forgiving sin," "justifying" sinners. According to Scripture, furthermore, the fact that Christ was raised from the dead is an actual absolution or an objective justification of the whole world of sinners, Rom 4:25: nyép6n die trv dukatwot hav [was raised again for our justification]. °°» So clearly Scripture testifies to the objective reconciliation of all human beings with God, effected once and for all by Christianity!?°4) Of this objective

their unclean sin, men were afflicted with God's holy wrath, éy@poi 9e0b. Rom. 5:10, Deo invisi; but by letting Christ... die, God caused the erasure of their sins, so that God's wrath ceased. The same thought is contained in Romans 5:10, but in passive expression.... The reconciliation of all men was made objectively through Christ's death." The Southern District Report of the Missouri Synod, 1883, pp. 20 ff. There it says: "Through the work of Christ a perfect reconciliation of God with men has been effected. The work which Christ, as the 'mediator' (1 Tim. 2:5) between God and man, did was pleasing to God, as Eph. 5:2 of Christ says, that he 'gave himself for us for a gift and sacrifice, God for a sweet odor'. Just as God, by the grace of Christ, who did not know of any sin, made it a sin for men (2 Cor. 5:21), that is, Christ counted the sins of men as his own, he also regarded the atonement made by Christ as if it had been made by men themselves. The Holy Spirit writes through St. Paulum a Cor. 5:14: "We hold that if one died for all, they all died. Through Christ's suffering and death, the sins of all people are atoned for as fully as if all thousands of millions of people had themselves suffered eternal hell punishments. The result is now: God is completely reconciled with all human beings and with every single one of them. No human being needs to do or suffer anything else to reconcile God, to attain justice and happiness. The Holy Scriptures testify to this explicitly. 2 Cor. 5:19 we read: God was in Christ and reconciled the world to Himself", that is, at that time, 1900 years ago, when Christ fulfilled the Law for mankind and endured the punishment for the transgression of the Law on the part of mankind, God reconciled mankind to Himself. We need to look at the simple, clear words here and let them work through us. We know what it means to be reconciled with someone. We then say of someone that he is reconciled with another when he has let go of all the anger that he once had against the other for whatever reason. In the same way, God has let all wrath go away for the sake of Christ's work against those whom he was angered because of their sins. This is expressed in the words: reconciliation that has taken place, the Gospel is the message, which is why it is called 2 Cor. 5:19 6 Adyov Tig KaTAUAAaYyT \c. And so it is that men are now reconciled with God, either in turn or subjectively, through nothing other than faith (sola fide). In other words, we are now reconciled with God through faith, because the reconciliation through Christ's satisfaction is already present and is proclaimed and presented in the Gospel. For faith in the reconciliation that objectively exists, Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:20 calls for: KATOAAGYNTE TO Ose [be ye reconciled to God], and confesses in Romans 5:11 in the name of all Christians that through Christ we "now"—that is, in becoming believers and in justification—"have received reconciliation". °° According to Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions also emphasize the truth that there is only one way of man's subjective reconciliation with God: through faith in the reconciliation or forgiveness of sins acquired by Christ. Apology: "Faith reconciles and makes us righteous before God, if and when we take up the promise by faith. "Sic igitur reconciliamur Patri et accipimus remissionem peccatorum, quando erigimur fiducia promissae misericordiae propter Christum." [Google] "Fides nos Deo reconciliat", namely quia accipit remissionem peccatorum. [Faith reconciles us to God," namely because it receives the remission of sins.] 7° "God reconciled the world to himself. In Christ, God now stands by man as if he had never offended him with sin, as if there had never been a division between God and man. Here the so-called objective justification is clearly taught; for if God is reconciled with men through Christ, if he has nothing against them, if he has absolved them of their sins in his heart, he considers them righteous for Christ's sake.... Thus, according to Scripture, there is a reconciliation of God with men and a justification of them before faith. The circumstances of Christ's death also point to this: Christ's call: The darkness until the ninth hour, when Christ died (at the ninth hour the sun came forth again as an image of the sun of grace that rose again for us through Christ's death), and the breaking of the curtain in the temple (for through this miraculous event God has indeed declared that every sinner now has free access to him).

we receive it by faith, so that katoAAaynv Aap aver [reconciled] == ducatovobat [justified]; see 2 Cor. 5:21: kataAAGynte TH Os [‘Be ye reconciled to God’].".

108, § 114 [Zrigl. 155, Art. TV [I]., 114]; 119, § 61 [171, Art. I, 61]. rey What is recorded here cannot be rectified later. If it is stated that humanity is completely reconciled with God through Christ's actions and sufferings, there is no longer any room for the false doctrine, which has appeared in many forms, that mankind must still bring about their reconciliation with God wholly or partly by themselves. All rationalist, Roman Catholic and modern theological doctrine of works has lost its ground. °° The objective reconciliation of all people with God, brought about by Christianity, forces the correct understanding of the Gospel and faith. The Gospel can now be nothing other than the proclamation and presentation of the forgiveness of sins acquired by Christ,?*® and the saving faith can now be nothing other than the mere acceptance of the forgiveness of sins acquired by Christ. °°) The reinterpretation of the saving faith attempted by old and new false teachers into a human

Christ's perfect work. He writes: "There is the article that the children pray: "I believe in Jesus Christ, crucified, died, etc. No one has died for our sin but Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus alone, the Son of God; again I say: Jesus alone, the Son of God, has redeemed us from sin, that is certainly true and all Scripture; and should all devils and the world be torn apart and burst, it is true. "But if he alone can take away sin, we cannot be redeemed by our works." E.A. 25:76.

forgiveness of sins in his [Christ's] name; this is nothing else, but that one should preach the gospel which proclaims to all the world that in Christ sin has been swallowed up in all the world, and that he therefore died to take away sin from us and rose again to eat it and destroy it. (St. L. XI, 693.)

faith alone; for it is vainly a mere promise and offering of divine grace. Whoever believes in it receives the grace" etc. (St. L. XI, 84.) Furthermore: "Faith holds up hands and sackcloth and allows only good things to be done. For as God, the Giver, by his love gives such things, so we are the recipients by faith, which does nothing, because we receive such a gift. For it is not our doing and cannot be earned by our work; it has already been given and given; only that you open your mouth, or rather your heart, and keep quiet and allow yourself to be filled. Ps. 81:11" (StL. XI, 1103 f.). 351] achievement, good human behavior, etc., is immediately recognized as false doctrine in the light of the objective reconciliation brought about by Christ.® On the other hand, if the Scriptural doctrine of perfect reconciliation through Christ's substitutionary satisfaction is not recognized or relinquished, the rationalistic, Roman, Arminian, modern-theological works doctrine follows quite naturally. If Christ either did not do enough for mankind at all or only partly, man is left to do what Christ failed to do. Then only the quantity and the external form of the righteousness of the works is possible. The Gospel is then not 6 Adyov tig KaTAAAayij< [the word of reconciliation], 2 Cor. 5:19, 0 Adyoc Tis yapttos [the Word of His grace’], Acts 20:32, etc., but descends to an instruction how men themselves can, through more or less their own actions, fully gain a merciful God. The Gospel thus eo ipso becomes law. Accordingly, faith is then also not the simple acceptance of the reconciliation brought about by Christ, but rather the human achievement, whereby the human being places himself in favor with God.. The doctrine immediately loses its Christian character and becomes pagan works teaching as soon as the perfect reconciliation of all people is revealed through Christ's substitutionary satisfaction. Moreover, the whole doctrine immediately becomes practically useless, since no conscience that has been rightly determined by the law of God will be able to rest until it is based in faith solely on the reconciliation brought about by Christ and proclaimed in the Gospel.

reason in the fact that one does not recognize the perfect redemption of the whole world of sinners which happened through Christ. He writes (Pastorale, p. 157; [Pastoral Theology (2017), p. 186]): "Admittedly, whoever does not believe that Christ has already completely redeemed the whole world, and that the good news of the Gospel is therefore nothing other than an absolution to be brought to the whole world, founded on that redemption which has already taken place, which, in order to obtain its blessed fruit, requires nothing but faith in it or, in a word, acceptance... he, of course, will never be able to convince himself of the preciousness of private confession and absolution". The objections against the vicarious satisfaction. In discussing these objections, we are approaching the saddest chapter in the whole history of mankind. People cannot reconcile themselves with God. Out of love for humanity °°? God has taken reconciliation into his own hands, in such a way that he did not spare his own Son either, but instead placed him in the place of humanity under the duty and curse of the law given to humanity. Men are to be able to say, according to Rom. 5, that they have been justified by Christ's blood (6txka1w8évtEc év TH Gipatt adTOD [Rom. 5:9 — justified by his blood’]), have been reconciled to God through the blood of His Son (katnAAadynuev TH Oe@ 51a tod Vavatov tod Yiod abdtot — [Rom. 5:10 - we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son]). Yea, by Jesus Christ, through whom they have received the reconciliation, they shall turn to God himself, as to their now gracious God, and of the hope of God's glory (kavympevot év 10 Os@ [v. 11 — joy in God] — kavyopeba én’ Ednidt Tic 60EN¢ ToD Weod [v. 2 — in hope of the glory of God’]). The human objections to the reconciliation brought about by Christ's 'vicarious satisfaction’ had to be discussed already in the doctrine of grace, when it was a question of describing the saving grace as a grace in Christ or for Christ's sake. °») The following points will be repeated and further elaborated here.