Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. This last weekend was a blast! We had Octoberfest on Friday and fun was had by all. The food was good, the beer was plentiful, and many memories were made. Then Saturday I went to the baptism of my friend's son, and then worked the rest of the day. Sunday I went to church and led liturgy and then taught adult Bible Study. After that our "usual" gang of three married couples and another single guy and myself all hung out, ate dinner, and played games. It was a nice weekend.
This next weekend I am going to run over to Indiana to see an old college friend. I am looking forward to that, but have to get all my homework done this week so I am not worried about that looming over me. It has been rainy here for four days straight now. I do not mind the cooler and cloudy weather, but the rain does make a nuisance for a lot of things. Also, because it slightly cooled off, they turned on the boiler system for heat. The only problem with this is the system is so old and inefficient that the only options are to turn it on full blast or shut it off. So in my morning class this morning, it was extremely hard to stay awake because I didn't have coffee, didn't shower to wake up before I went to class, and it was 80 degrees in the classroom. However, I made it through, and have now showered and got my cup of coffee.
I am going to share with you today a paper I wrote for Systems IV on Absolution. We were asked to write a response to a church member who came in to our office and told us about this website he had found regarding absolution and wanted to know our opinion on it.
The website is: http://www.lawspublishing.com/quest4.htm
Read the website and see what you think about its stance on absolution. Then if you would like you can continue by reading this short paper. I got an A on it so I must be fairly accurate on the Lutheran stance on absolution.
This website on forgiveness is not a hundred percent wrong; however, it certainly has its flaws. I agree that the disciples were to be ambassadors of peace, I agree that the disciples were to continue the work that Christ had begun, and I agree that the message they were to take to the world was the Gospel. However, where I begin to not agree with him is where he changes the Gospel that these disciples are supposed to take to the world. He changes the Gospel from being the message of Christ dying on the cross for the sins of all mankind, graciously and freely giving forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life to all who believe in Him, to Christ dying on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life to all who obey God’s will. He makes the Gospel message something we do rather than the free and merciful gift is from our Lord. This author then continues to very strongly and boldly keep using this idea of us “obeying” God’s will. He correctly states that it is God who saves not man, but then immediately puts man back in the subject as the one who renders obedience to his newly defined “gospel”. By changing the definition of the “Gospel” that these disciples are supposed to be taking out to the world, forgiveness is earned by living faithfully and obediently by the man.
I also agree with his point that Jesus is the Son of God, and in the passage of Mark 2 only God has the authority to forgive sins. That is because at this point The Father has sent the Son and has given Him authority to forgive sins, but the Son has not yet given that authority to His disciples. This is what is happening in John 20 where Jesus does give His disciples the authority to forgive sins and now man does have the authority through the name of Jesus to forgive sins just as Christ did in Mark 2.
The final line of this article which blows my mind is the clear marker that this does not line up with Lutheran teachings on absolution. The apostles, who are supposed to be telling the world the Gospel of Jesus Christ, are now telling the world God’s will. This is his new definition of “gospel”. The “gospel” is God’s will that man is suppose to obey with the end result of forgiveness of sins, except for the fact that the true Gospel of Jesus dying on the cross is forgiveness of sins. God’s Gospel message is that He sent His Son to die for our sins, because He knew we could never live faithfully and obediently to His will. We cannot by any amount of effort live obediently to God’s will or otherwise known as His Law, the Ten Commandments. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). This is the whole reason Jesus, the true Son of God, was sent to die on the cross, for the forgiveness of sins of mankind who could not live obediently. The forgiveness of sins is the Gospel message that the apostles were sent out to tell the world. The end result per se is the salvation and eternal life that come through the faith in Jesus Christ being the true Son of God who died for the forgiveness of sins.
So by redefining the term “gospel”, this article makes forgiveness of sins a result of works righteousness. Since forgiveness is a reward for the man’s works or obedience, then it makes sense that only God can give that “reward” since man cannot reward himself for his own actions.
I have already in my own words rightly defined the term Gospel. Therefore from here on out, in explaining how absolution works in the Lutheran beliefs, it will be under that definition of Gospel. So what is the Lutheran view of absolution? Absolution is the forgiveness of our sins that we confess. As Luther says in the Small Catechism, “we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness, from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in Heaven.” I highlighted three parts of the quote in bold to compare how our view is different from this article. The first part, I am certain the author of this article would say he would agree with me on, even though I do not think he actually does. “We receive” absolution, it is one hundred percent passive, something given to us. The author would most likely say that yes we receive it, after we have been obedient to the will of God. However, I say in the Lutheran understanding we receive it when we confess our sins. When we admit that we have not been obedient to God’s will and have lived according to our sinful nature rather than God’s will, this is when we receive forgiveness. The second part is where we differ the most. We receive absolution from the pastor who is speaking the words, just as certainly as if Christ Himself were standing there speaking the words over us. This is the authority that Christ gave to the apostles in John 20:21-23. The authority to forgive sins that the Father gave to Christ to use during His life and ministry on earth, Christ now gives to the apostles to continue to do after Christ ascends and returns to the Father. Christ gave this authority, otherwise known as the Keys, to the apostles or better understood as the leaders of the church. The Keys do not belong to one certain person, or one certain type of person, rather they belong to the Church, the people of God to use responsibly and reverently. The apostles were the first leaders of the church and after them, the Church continues to hold the Keys, having the authority to forgive the sins of repentant sinners. So when a pastor speaks the words of absolution over a repentant sinner, it is just as if Christ Himself is standing over that repentant sinner speaking the words of absolution. Likewise, if a pastor withholds the absolution of an unrepentant sinner, it is just as if Christ Himself is standing over the unrepentant sinner withholding the words of absolution. Christ began this work in His ministry and He gave that authority to the apostles or to the Church to continue to do after He is gone. This is why we say that the pastor speaks these words and we believe them as if God Himself was saying them to us. The final part is the phrasing of “our sins are forgiven before God in Heaven”. This author says that it is only God who forgives sins, so I assume he would be uncomfortable saying our sins our forgiven before God. He would most likely want to change that to “our sins are forgiven by God”. However, because the Church holds this authority to forgive sins, and then gives that authority to Her pastors, it is actually the pastor who is forgiving your sins in the stead and by the authority of Christ. Therefore your sins are forgiven by the pastor and are now forgiven before God who acknowledges the pastor’s forgiveness as His own.
These three parts that are different from this article hopefully help show that we as Lutherans believe fully in the Office of the Keys as a very serious and powerful thing. Mere men hold the authority of Christ, which is the authority of the Father, to forgive or withhold forgiveness of sins. This is no light matter and needs to be taken very seriously and reverently so that one will always do so faithfully. However, on the same side, for the one who is repentant of his or her sins, he or she may take great comfort in knowing that the words the pastor is speaking over her or him is the true authority of Christ and that his or her sins are one hundred percent forgiven. He or she does not have to wonder if God has forgiven him or her, because the pastor has pronounced that he or she is forgiven and therefore his or her sins are absolutely and certainly forgiven before God.
The main Scriptural text for our view of absolution is John 20:21-23. After Christ has resurrected from the dead, is glorified in the flesh, and about to return to the Father, He gives the authority He brought with Him from the Father to His Church through her first leaders of the apostles. This is why in John, which is post-resurrection, the verb “to give” is in the perfect passive indicative. It is a completed action with an ongoing result. Christ has given His authority to the apostles. Whereas in Matthew 16:19 and 18:18-19, which are both pre-resurrection, here the verbs are future perfect passive indicative. This action will happen in the future with an ongoing result. So before His work is done on the cross and through the empty tomb, Christ tells His disciples that they will, future tense, receive the keys to the kingdom, the authority He has to forgive or withhold forgiveness of sins. Then in John after His work is done and completed, and He appears to the disciples, He gives them the Holy Spirit and then has given them, perfect tense of already has happened, the keys to the kingdom. However, since both are perfect and have the ongoing result tense, this is not something they have the power to do once and done. They will hold the keys to the kingdom, having the authority to forgive sins as assuredly as Christ Himself, until Christ returns. That is also why these keys do not belong only to the apostles in their lifetime, but rather to the Church for the entirety of Her lifetime until Her Lord comes again. This is also why Christ “breathed the Holy Spirit” on them. It was not as if they did not already have the Spirit working in them before this moment, but Christ used a physical action of breathing on them, something they could see, hear, and feel, to be assured that now that they held these Keys, they had the Spirit with them to guide, direct, and protect them as they began to use this new very serious and powerful authority.
The Gospel is Christ died for the sins of all mankind and He gives this to us freely and graciously. We can never be obedient to God’s will, which is why He gives us the forgiveness of our sins out of His grace, mercy, and love for us. This Gospel message is to be preached to the world, not so that they can be obedient and earn God’s forgiveness, but rather so that they may realize they are sinners who need a savior, and they may believe that the forgiveness Christ offers all people through His death and resurrection is assuredly for them individually and personally. Therefore, Christ gave the authority to forgive sins to His Church, so that Her leaders may speak those words of forgiveness over the people so that they may be assured and wholeheartedly believe that they are forgiven before God and have salvation and eternal life in His name. This is what Scripture tells us, and this is what we preach and practice in the Lutheran Church.
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