Lecture: 18
Summary/Highlights
Few people have a more stressful life than a prisoner who is awaiting execution but has heard a rumor that he has been pardoned. God could leave us all in a similar situation, but thankfully, he does not. If our loving God sacrificed his only Son to save us, how could he do this? From the moment Jesus was born, God spread his message of grace through the angels and shepherds, and Jesus continued this with the Great Commission.
Walther follows this with a recap of absolution, reviewing Matthew 9. He then cites Luther on the topic of forgiveness. He supports the doctrine that the power of announcing absolution has been given to men with Matthew 18:18 and John 20:23. We hear the news of forgiveness from men, but it is God who is speaking through them. When we are in need of assurance of forgiveness, God has given us baptism, communion, absolution, and His Word.
If you insulted someone, how would you know you were forgiven? It would be foolish to simply wait until you felt at peace with them in your heart. If he or she gave you a gift, you could not be sure that they had forgiven you; maybe he would simply be showing you that, unlike yourself, he was a kind person. No, you would know you were forgiven when you heard him tell you that you were forgiven. In the same way, our feelings cannot tell us God's attitude, and he sends rain and sun on both the good and the evil. We need to hear our forgiveness from him through the means of grace.
"The true interpretation of the words of Christ: 'Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them,' etc., is, that they establish the authority, not of the person who speaks, but of those who believe these words." In contrast, the Papacy teaches that when the pope and priests absolve or refuse forgiveness, it happens because they possess this special power and because they said so. No, the power is the power Christ and his sacrifice; we announce it as his representatives.
The keys are not based upon our contirition or worthiness; our contrition, works, believing heart, and all that we are, must be built upon the keys. "With entire boldness we must confidently trust in them as in God's Word, never doubting in the least...what the keys state and confer is as certain as if it were stated and conferred by God Himself. For it is certainly He that is speaking in this matter, since it is His command and Word, not the word or command of man. If you doubt this, you make God a liar, pervert His ordinance, and found His keys on your contrition and worthiness."
God does not first bind or loose sins in heaven, then let us represent this by binding and loosing on earth. We could not know what he bound or loosed! Also, the keys are the keys of heaven even though they are used on earth. When we bind or loose, it is accounted as done, and there is no need for God to do it after.
More random highlights:
- In baptism, the water has no power of its own. The power comes from the Spirit working through the Word.
- Communion is all about God's grace and forgiveness
- We can't ascend to God; He descended to us. This means that good works earn us nothing. All we need to do to be saved is believe. We are given God's love and kindness as a free gift.
- Contrition is necessary, but not as a means for acquiring forgiveness. We can turn up our nose at a meal, but our rejection doesn't change the fact that it is available. All men's sins are forgiven, but they can reject this forgiveness and refuse to believe it.
- The worthiness, or lack of worthiness, of a pastor does not affect absolution; even wicked servants can spread a king's message.
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