When those doubts arise, I can look to the words Christ spoke to His apostles (quoted by Josh): “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them,” and I can know that those words of forgiveness were, indeed, spoken to me. I can cling to that promise given in John’s gospel, delivered through the words of a pastor.

Really, the pronouncement of forgiveness to the individual sinner is not so much different than a preacher’s general proclamation of the Gospel to an unbeliever. In both cases, it is God working through Christians to deliver the good news of Christ.

As I’ve said before, the pastor is an ambassador, given specific duties to perform. This is established when Jesus told his disciples in Matthew, “Whatsoever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” John’s version is even more transparent: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” We take these words of Jesus very seriously in the Lutheran church.

Is the result the same if the individual goes directly to God, without the intervention of a pastor or layman?

When you are praying silently in your room, no word is spoken to you. It’s not that God doesn’t forgive your sins in his heart or something like this, it’s that he has appointed specific ways of declaring this to you. Paul says that faith comes by hearing, so why stay away from where you can hear that which your faith needs?

Thanks for the “long” comments. I find this very helpful in understanding the Lutheran perspective, especially from someone who’s an “insider” and having to explain things in condensed form. I have been completely unexposed to this theology before (raised Baptist), so thank you for opening the window, so to speak, and letting us look in on your thinking.

I find these concepts fascinating and am letting them soak into my mind. For the first time, I appreciate how cross-oriented the Lutheran approach is, and how focused on Law and Gospel it is. We certainly can learn from this in our reformed and baptistic circles.

You’ve written about the role of a pastor in giving God’s gift. In light of the priesthood of all believers, is this role limited to the pastor (in Lutheran teaching)?

I am an LCMS Lutheran. I joined the LCMS after 20+ years as a baptist/modern evangelical. I hope I can speak to your question.

Luther was all about the doctrine of justification, or simply put, how one’s sins are actually forgiven and heaven is opened to us. When I was being catechised, my pastor hammered home to me that we are saved by GRACE (meaning the unmerited forgiveness of sins) ALONE throught FAITH ALONE.

This has a unique meaning to Lutherans. We believe Christ died for the sins of the whole world. But how is this forgiveness delivered to individual people? The “means” or “delivery” of grace is brought to the world by the Holy Spirit through the work of the church. This includes the proclaimation of the Gospel and the Sacraments. We believe that the hearing of the Word creates saving faith and the Word with water (baptism) and the Word with wine and bread literally deliver the grace of God to us. This is what Scripture teaches.

Our pastors are called and ordained by the church, (in the LCMS this means the congregation, not a set heirachy), to administer the Word and Sacraments. This pattern of being “called” was established with the apostles in the Scriptures. Pastors hold a unique function in the life of the church. A Lutheran lay person could and should perform an emergency baptism and teach the Word to his family, and tell a repentant sinner his sins are forgiven in Christ. But a Lutheran would also say believers should receive the Grace of God in the Church through the pastor. This is what Christ intended when He called us to be His Bride.

In our church services, before the Pastor announces absolution to the congregation we have corporate confession. I wouldn’t call it a mystical grant of mass forgiveness, but the troubled conscience can accept the words of the Pastor as if they were said by Christ Himself. On the flip side, the publicly unrepentant sinner would be barred from the Lord’s Table by the pastor and most likely would not participate in the confession.

As an example:

After WWII, several Nazi criminals faced with the death sentence asked to be absolved by a Lutheran Pastor. A couple of the criminals refused to repent of their war crime sins. The Pastor withheld absolution from these men. The Pastor was exercising the office of the Keys just as Christ did when he withheld forgiveness from the self-righteous but freely forgave those who were sorry for their sins.

It’s pretty simple really. When I go to church, I hear God’s law and I am convicted of my sin, I hear the Gospel and faith is sparked in me by the Holy Spirit. Faith leads me to repentance and rejoying in what Christ did for me. I receive His Body and Blood shed FOR ME into my physical being during communion, which we also consider to be a fortaste of the heavenly feast, and my faith is strengthened even more. I go home in Peace. This is what Lutherans call living in the shadow of the cross.

Sorry this is so long

Mary

On Heidelberg/Belgic confession, I was happy with them but I could not sign Dort. So here are just a few that tipped me over to the BoC.

In the BoC I found

1. Justification held primary.
1.The sacraments were strongerly stated.
2. Law and Gospel was a policy.

Hence the Lutheran tradition has always been marked by these because their BoC said more. They are marked by these and identified by these, they are a bit more homogenous. Compared to the Calvinistic confessions which stated less, there is a lot of heterogeneity in Calvinism - you get Prebyterian Calvinism, Baptistic Calvinism, Episcopalian Calvinism and even Charismatic etc etc.

In fact, isn’t there even a question amongst the Calvinists today as to who is the “Truly Reformed”?

Lastly I judge the BoC to have a good handle on the nature of Christian life.

Matt P,

The Lutheran pastor does not hand to the believer his own forgiveness for the sins of his people. That would be blasphemous. No, when he absolves, he hands over the same forgiveness won by Jesus for the sinner at the Cross. The Cross is the ground of what the pastor does (or ought to be doing at least). He ministers the benefits of the Cross to the sinner.

The sinner hears again what Jesus said at the Cross - Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Note that this was stated by Christ before you were born, before you can do anything for God etc etc. While we were yet sinners Christ already died for us.

Well of course, why seek forgiveness if you do not think you are a sinner at odds with God in the first place?

Anyway I will leave that to Josh who is more capable of clarifying this issue than I.

LPC

To my Baptist viewpoint, it sounds like a mystical grant of mass forgiveness without regard to the state of the hearer. (This is a common argument against liturgical services–dead formality instead of our genuine vibrant services. ) I guess the question, to me comes down to this: Is the result the same if, say, a layman granted absolution? Is the result the same if the individual goes directly to God, without the intervention of a pastor or layman? Is God’s work or God’s grace, or whatever we’re calling it, available for the individual without a human intermediary?

Thank you for the links. I will check them out. Now I have no excuse for being under-informed! Blessings!

A couple of good intros to the Lutheran faith and thought are ‘The Spirituality of the Cross’ by Gene Veith ( an absolutely excellent little volume) which can be found at http://www.newreformationpress.com along with some other cool resources. The other one is “Why I am a Lutheran: Jesus at the Center” by Daniel Preus. This can be found at http://www.cph.org ( I think both books are published by CPH. Either would be a great resource to help get you started.