designed by Norma Boeckler
J-853
"If we call Sacraments rites which have the command of God, and to which the promise of grace has been added, it is easy to decide what are properly Sacraments...Therefore Baptism, the Lord's Supper, and Absolution, which is the Sacrament of Repentance, are truly Sacraments. For these rites have God's command and the promise of grace, which is peculiar to the New Testament. For when we are baptized, when we eat the Lord's body, when we are absolved, our hearts must be firmly assured that God truly forgives us for Christ's sake. And God, at the same time, by the Word and by the rite, moves hearts to believe and conceive faith, just as Paul says, Romans 10:17: 'Faith cometh by hearing.' But just as the Word enters the ear in order to strike our heart, so the rite itself strikes the eye, in order to move the heart. The effect of the Word and of the rite is the same..."
Apology of the Augsburg Confession, XIII,#3. Number/Use Sacraments. Louis: Concordia Triglotta, St. Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 309. Tappert, p. 211. Heiser, p. 94.
J-854
(1)"Yea, as I live, Jehovah saith, I would not have the sinner's death,
But that he turn from error's ways, Repent, and live through endless days.
(2) To us therefore Christ gave command: 'Go forth and preach in every land;
Bestow on all My pardoning grace Who will repent and mend their ways.
(3) 'All those whose sins ye thus remit I truly pardon and acquit,
And those whose sins ye do retain Condemned and guilty shall remain.
(4) 'What ye shall bind, that bound shall be; What ye shall loose, that shall be free;
Unto My Church the keys are given To ope and close the gates of heaven.'
(5) The words which absolution give Are His who died that we might live;
The minister whom Christ has sent Is but His humble instrument.
(6) When ministers lay on their hands, Absolved by Christ the sinner stands;
He who by grace the Word believes The purchase of His blood receives.
(7) All praise, eternal Son, to Thee For absolution full and free,
In which Thou showest forth Thy grace; From false indulgence guard our race.
(8) Praise God the Father and the Son And Holy Spirit, Three in One,
As ‘twas, is now, and so shall be World without end, eternally!”
Nicolaus Herman, 1560, "Yea, As I Live, Jehovah Saith," #331, The Lutheran Hymnal, Trans. Matthias Loy, 1880, alt. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941. Ezekiel 33:11. (This is easily sung to Old Hundredth.)
