Lessons in the Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther For the Senior Department of Lutheran Sunday-Schools and for General Use · George Mezger
LESSON 36.
The Third Article. The Forgiveness Of Sins. Which is the Third Article? _I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins._ What does this mean? _In which Church He_ [the Holy Ghost] _daily and richly forgives all sins to me and all believers._ 1. We confess in our Catechism that the Holy Ghost forgives all sins to me and all believers. _We believe that there is a forgiveness of sins. God's Word assures us of this. _"There is forgiveness with Thee."_ Ps. 130,4. _How sorely do we need forgiveness of sins!_ You know that all men, also believers, commit sin. A child of God indeed earnestly strives against committing any sin, he tries not to transgress the commandments of his heavenly Father; but, alas! also God's children sin daily and much. _"There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not."_ Eccl. 7,20. With our sins we deserve nothing but God's punishment. _"The wages of sin is death."_ Rom. 6,23. _Without forgiveness of sins we are lost.
2. _But there is a forgiveness of sins with God._ He assures us in His Word that by grace, for Christ's sake, He will forgive me all my sins. He will do so _daily and richly._ Whenever we have sinned, we should come to Him and pray to Him: Forgive me my trespasses. Even as a child who has grieved his father by his disobedience penitently comes to him and asks his forgiveness, so we in true penitence should daily come to our heavenly Father, whom we have so sorely grieved, whose punishment we deserve, and ask His forgiveness. _He will not cast us out._ He will hear our prayer, and we will praise Him: _"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases."_ Ps. 103,2.3. The _publican_ came into the Temple and humbly said: _"God be merciful to me, a sinner!"_ and God was merciful to him; he went down to his house _justified._ He had received forgiveness of his sins. Luke 18,9-14.
3. God forgives us our sins. He is moved to do this _not by our good works or merits._ God does not see anything in us which could induce Him to forgive us our trespasses. We deserve nothing but punishment. _His free grace alone moves God to forgive us all our sins._ Our God is a merciful God. He takes pity on us, His sinful children.--By grace God _forgives_ us our sins, that is, He does not look upon our sins, does not _impute_ them to us, but declares us sinners _righteous._ In the beautiful parable of our Lord which we find Matt. 18,23 ff., the wicked servant asks his Lord to have patience with him, whom he owed so much. And the kind lord, moved with compassion, loosed the servant from his fetters and forgave him all his debts, which he never would have been able to pay. _Thus God, moved with compassion, does not punish us as we have deserved, and declares us free from debt, declares us righteous, or in other words, God justifies us._ 4. How can the just and holy God who has threatened to punish all who transgress His commandments forgive sins and declare sinners righteous? He does so _for Christ's sake. In Christ_ we have the forgiveness of sins. _"In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace."_ Eph. 1,7 Christ fulfilled the Law of God in our stead, He suffered the punishment for our sins, and so made good for us. _He has earned full forgiveness for us; for His sake all our sins are forgiven._
5. Who _receives_ forgiveness of sins? We confess that God forgives all sins _to me and all believers._ It is true, Christ has _procured_ forgiveness _for all men_--Christ died for every sinner. God, in His grace, _offers_ this forgiveness by the Gospel _to all who hear it._ We read: _"God was in Christ, reconciling the world_ [all men] _unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the Word of Reconciliation."_ 2 Cor. 5,19. Yet not all receive forgiveness, but only those _who believe in Christ and thus accept the forgiveness_ which Christ has earned for all men. Without faith in Christ there is no forgiveness of sins. _We are justified by faith alone._ 6. We receive forgiveness of sins, we are justified before God, _without the deeds of the Law, by grace alone, for Christ's sake, through faith in our Lord._ This is the _chief article of our Christian faith._ This doctrine is taught only by the Christian Church. _It gives all the glory for our salvation to God and affords true comfort to all sinners._ 1. _God has promised in His Word to forgive us all our sins daily and richly. Come to Him every day and with true penitence, with a contrite heart, ask His forgiveness for Christ's sake. He will graciously grant it._
2. _We are justified in the sight of God without the deeds of the Law, by His grace, for Christ's sake, through faith in Him. This is the chief doctrine of the Christian Church and the only one that gives lasting comfort to all sinners._ _Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases._ Ps. 103,2.3. _In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace._ Eph. 1,7. _God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and has committed unto us the Word of Reconciliation._ 2 Cor. 5,19.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.