Sunday, December 9, 2007

Can UOJ Be Wedged into This Passage?


"Scripture thus uses the term faith, as the following sentence of Paul testifies, Romans 5:1: Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Moreover, in this passage, to justify signifies, according to forensic usage, to acquit a guilty one and declare him righteous, but on account of the righteousness of another, namely, of Christ, which righteousness of another is communicated to us by faith...1 Corinthians 1:30. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. And 2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. But because the righteousness of Christ is given us by faith, faith is for this reason righteousness in us imputatively, i. e., it is that by which we are made acceptable to God on account of the imputation and ordinance of God, as Paul says, Romans 4:3, 5: Faith is reckoned for righteousness."
Apology of the Augsburg Confession, III. #184. Of Love and the Fulfilling of the Law. Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 205f. Romans 5:1; 2 Corinthians 5:21. Tappert, p. 154. Heiser, p. 60. (Emphasis in original.)

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GJ - The UOJ Enthusiasts, especially in WELS, like to use a forensic concept to argue their case that the whole world has been declared NOT GUILTY! because of the cross (or the resurrection of Christ). The Moment of Absolution has not been fixed, so sometimes they use the actual death of Christ. At other times they use the resurrection of Christ. Their arguments are like a vast ocean, two inches deep.

The universal decree--apart from the Holy Spirit at work in the Word of God, apart from the Means of Grace, apart from faith--is derived from Walther's Easter absolution sermon. The same nonsense is repeated in various Synodical Conference sources, including Pieper, J. T. Mueller, Theo Engelder, J. P. Meyer, Norm Madson, Sig Becker, Valleskey, Kelm, Dan Preus, Rolf Preus, and Pope John the Malefactor. In fact, Pope John offered Rolf the Left Foot of Fellowship when they were in complete agreement about UOJ.

In the Apology of the Augsburg Confession is a clear statement that the not guilty verdict comes to us through justification by faith. Every few months WELS will publish another little article about the NOT GUILTY! decree and declare the whole world has been given the same verdict. How does such colossal ignorance of Romans and the Book of Concord continue to exist?