What Freedom A Christian

3.8 See, how rich therefore is a Christian, the one who is baptised! Even if he wants to, he cannot lose his salvation, however much he sin, unless he will not believe. For no sin can condemn him save unbelief alone. All other sins – so long as the faith in God's promise made in baptism returns or remains –all other sins, I say, are immediately blotted out through that same faith, or rather through the truth of God, because He cannot deny Himself. If only you confess Him and cling believing to Him that promises. But as for contrition, confession of sins, and satisfaction – along with all those carefully thought out exercises of men – if you turn your attention to them and neglect this truth of God, they will suddenly fail you and leave you more wretched than before. For whatever is done without faith in the truth of God, is vanity of vanities and vexation of spirit.
Martin Luther, Babylonian Captivity of the Church

Perseverance, Lutheran Confessions

"Fourthly, The entire [the holy Catholic, Christian] Church confesses that eternal life is attained through mercy. For thus Augustine speaks, De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio, when indeed he is speaking of the works of the saints, wrought after justification: "God leads us to eternal life not by our merits, but according to his mercy." And Confessions, Book ix.: "Woe to the life of man, however much it may be worthy of praise, if it be judged with mercy removed." And Cyprian in his treatise on the Lord's Prayer: "Lest anyone should flatter himself that he is innocent, and by exalting himself, should perish the more deeply, he is instructed and taught that he sins daily, in that he is bidden to entreat daily for his sins." But the subject is well known, and has very many and very clear testimonies in Scripture, and in the Church Fathers, who all with one mouth declare that even though we have good works, yet in these very works we need mercy."
Ap VI 201

Accordingly Daniel also prays (9:18, sq.): "For we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do it; defer not for thine own sake, O my God; for thy city and thy people are called by thy name." Thus Daniel teaches us in praying to lay hold upon mercy, i.e. to trust in God's mercy, and not to trust in our own merits before God. We also wonder what our adversaries do in prayer, if, indeed, the profane men ever ask anything of God. If they declare that they are worthy because they have love and good works, and ask for grace as a debt, they pray precisely like the Pharisee in Luke 18:11, who says: "I am not as other men are." He who thus prays for grace, and does not rely upon God's mercy, treats Christ with dishonor, who, since he is our high priest, intercedes for us.
210, 211

"Let us, therefore, hold fast to this which the Church confesses, viz. that we are saved by mercy."
223

It is a great temptation for those who have been justified by faith, to move from faith alone and include works for justification. It is even taught by some in such a way that works serve to complete faith, rather than follow as an adornment. They therefore judge their justification, or state of grace, according to their performance of whatever works they have set up as necessary, for such works are evident to them while the promise of God in the gospel is unseen and cannot be grasped or measured by works.  However, we must remember that we are forgiven and justified by grace thru faith alone in the merits of Christ. It then follows that where this justifying faith is present, good works will also be found, but since the saved and justified still sin much every day, mercy alone preserves us as God leads us by the Spirit and raises us up again when we fall. It is purely pharisaical to say that God preserves in faith by the Spirit those who are able to refrain from sinning to such a degree that God must abandon them, for they are then praying as did the Pharisee, "I thank you God that I am not as other men are." We are not forgiven by mercy and then made to retain this forgiveness according to works. Rather, we are forgiven by mercy and sustained in this forgiveness by mercy in spite of our many sins. Yet it does not follow that true faith abides with impenitence.

A False Shepherd

Two Opposing Views Of The Good Shepherd

The original Apostolic Lutheran Church "Principles of the Doctrine of Christ" rightly divided sin and grace, law and gospel. However, certain men have crept in unawares and have perverted the old doctrines of our church to such an extent that the new edition of the "Principles" present to us a different Jesus Christ.

The new 'Principles' state that man is not awakened to the knowledge of sin by the Law, but is convicted "before the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ." Let us consider this picture of the Good Shepherd. To be convicted of sin is to know that one is a sinner and under the judgment of eternal damnation by God. According to the modern Principles, the sheep of the Lord are not comforted by the Shepherd, but when they see Him they are filled with fear and terror because of their sin and must fall groveling upon the earth not daring to even look upon Him for fear of judgment and punishment. The sheep would rather flee and hide from the holiness of this Shepherd. Such is the Christ preached by the false prophets among us.    

Scripture teaches that conviction of sin comes only by the Law, the Ten Commandments. "Nay,  I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet" Rom 7:7. The sinner who trembles before a righteous God at Mt. Sinai is then led to Christ our Savior. Scripture states Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world, but to bring grace. "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" Jn 1:17,18. He came unto us as a Brother, humble, bearing flesh and blood. When the accusers brought the adulteress to Jesus He did not convict her but said, "Neither do I condemn thee." Scripture give us a much different picture of our Good Shepherd and teaches that Jesus is the Good Shepherd who calls unto Himself all who are weak and heavy laden, all who are sick with sin, all who are lame, and all who fear the righteous judgment of God. To such ones our Good Shepherd promises healing, cleansing and forgiveness. He promises that he will not reject even the poorest and weakest sheep, but will tenderly care for it, and when one is too weak to walk He will carry it on His shoulders. He says that He will gently lead His little lambs, and all who come unto Him He will in no wise cast out. Scriptures states the sinner can freely approach this Good Shepherd because He knows our infirmities and has given His life for our sins. And most wonderfully our Good Shepherd says He gives unto His sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish because they are under the protection of the Father.

How can a church flourish when sin is not rightly comprehended and Christ is made into Moses?  The single greatest error and cause for our current deplorable condition as a fellowship is that the holy Law of God has been rejected.  When the true knowledge of our bondage to sin by natural birth is not known, neither can one come to know the wonderful life, liberty, and freedom we enjoy under the care of the true Good Shepherd. May God strengthen the remnant of true believers among us.

Steven E. Anderson
6/28/2011

Baptism: A Washing of Regeneration

"Not because of deeds [done by us in righteousness but in virtue of His own mercy by] the washing [of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit]. Titus 3:5
The enemies of the grace of God, under the pretext of love, have preceded us and distorted all those other passages. Therefore this passage summarized those. "By mercy," he says, "we are saved." But by what road does mercy come to us? "By washing." They say: "Washing can refer to the Word, the Gospel, the Holy Spirit, namely, that we are baptized in the Spirit. If He is conferred, then Baptism is a washing of regeneration, that is, it is a sign of those who are regenerated. In other words, the washing of regeneration is bestowed on those who have already been regenerated through the Holy Spirit." If we say: "By what authority do you establish this as the meaning?" there is no one at home. Therefore they say that no outward thing justifies or profits a person. But Baptism with water is such a thing; and therefore wherever it is said of Baptism that it justifies, they add a gloss, as, for example, in the passage from Peter (1 Peter 3:21), which they take to mean: "You have had a seal impressed upon you by which it is declared that you have been baptized through the Holy Spirit." I can practice this art too, and better than they, but I ask them to prove it. Therefore I could say: "The blood of Christ does not profit us, because it is an outward thing. Christ was conceived [by the Holy Spirit], as we pray; therefore He does not profit us." This is their foolishness. We, too, say that an outward thing is nothing, if it is by itself; then it is utterly [without profit]. But if it is joined to the very will of God, then it does profit because of the will that has been attached to it. One cannot convince the sectarians of this, and to this argument they do not answer a word except to stick to their refrain about "an outward thing." Why do they teach this? We know. But if God binds His Word to a tree, it now becomes not only an outward thing, but through the Word there is the presence, will, and mercy of God. Thus in Baptism there is not only mere water, because there is present here the name, or all the divine power joined through the Word in Baptism, and God Himself is the One who baptizes. Take note of this. But they do not listen, but stubbornly harp on the words: "An outward thing does not [do it]." Beware of their madness, because when an outward thing is grasped through the Word of God, it is a saving thing. If the humanity of Christ were without the Word, it would be a vain thing. But now we are saved through His blood and His body, because the Word is joined to it. Thus, Baptism bears the Word of God by which the water is sanctified, and we are sanctified in the water.

Martin Luther, Lectures on Titus
You have here a commendation of Baptism such as I can hardly find anywhere else in the New Testament.

St. Augustine on Original Sin and Baptism

"Unto this end the Son of God was manifested." Ah, my brethren, all sinners are born of the devil, inasmuch as they are sinners. Adam was made by God: but when he consented to the devil, he was born of the devil; and all that he has begotten are as he was. With concupiscence itself we were born, and our birth comes of that condemnation, before we add to it debts of our own. If we are born with no sin, there is no reason for hastening with our infant children to baptism for their absolution. There are two births for your understanding, my brothers, of Adam and of Christ: two men, but of them one man is man, the other man is God. Through the man that is man we are sinners: through the Man that is God we are justified. One birth has cast us down to death; the other has raised us up to life. One draws sin along with it, the other delivers from sin. For to this end came Christ as man, that he might do away with the sins of man. "To this end the Son of God was manifested, that he mighty destroy the works of the devil."
St. Augustine, Later Works, Homilies on 1 John

Luther on Baptism and Confession

You cry, "What good has come of Luther's new teaching?" I must ask you in turn, "Tell me, what good has remained among you?" You have not left one thing incorrupt. You have, as you heard, disgraced the mass, our unique and highest treasure, with countless idolatries and abominations and crushed underfoot the right Christian usage, disturbed the faith, and silenced the Word. Baptism has remained for the children, though used clumsily and indolently enough. But as soon as the child has grown up and come to the age of reason, you have straightway strangled him, worse that the Turk does, and have taken his baptism away again through your damnable doctrine of penance and works whereby he learns to scorn his baptism, as now lost through sin and become of no value and henceforth to seek salvation through his own works. It is exactly as though baptism had been a temporary human work, just as the Anabaptists teach, and not an everlasting covenant of God. Tell me here, what good is left among you? I will not ask what good would have come of it, if we also could not have maintained against you our baptism, sacrament, gospel, faith, and Christ. For you have taught nothing right, but have taught everything contrary to baptism, sacrament, and penance. That is clear.

Among the Turks, however, there is the avantage that if someone is baptized, he is certainly not instructed in what is contrary to his baptism. Rather, the evil Turkish life and example is dangerous and offensive. And if someone were to teach directly against baptism, it would be easy to resist, because the Turk is no Christian and is scorned by a Christian, along with his doctrine. But here among you not only the example and life are dangerous, but you also teach against baptism and storm against it with words and works and do that in the name of Christ, as the dear fathers of souls and friends of baptism. That cuts like a sharp razor, as the Psalm [52:2] says. St. Peter, too, complains about you in II Peter 2 [:18], "For, uttering loud boasts of folly, they entice with licentious passions of the flesh men who have barely excapted from those who live in error."

Martin Luther, AE LW vol. 34 pp 31,32
Luther's accusation of the Roman Catholic Church written at the time of the Diet of Augsburg whence came the Augsburg Confession.

Free From Guilt

For an evil conscience can in no way be satisfied or converted to God unless it has died. Otherwise it always flees from God, from whom it should neither flee nor shrink, since God is such a good God that He should be the sole Refuge of all those who despair and are destitute of the help and comfort of all creatures. But a heart conscious of its guilt would rather be changed into a thousand forms and sooner rush through rocks, fires, bronze mountains, and finally to the devil himself than approach God.
Is it not great and deplorable wretchedness that we fear and shun Him concerning whom Holy Scripture so often asserts that He has become our Refuge from generation to generation? Indeed, if father and mother forsook us and cast us off, He would receive those who have been cast of, as Ps. 27:10 states: "My father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up." Therefore if all creation were to declare nothing else than that you are lost, cursed and damned, you would nevertheless have to say with Ps. 73:26-26" "Just as long as I have Thee, my flesh and my heart may fall, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." What do I care if only I have a gracious God?
AE Luther's Works vol. 7 pp 335-336.