Welcome
Help support this site:
Sermon List
Search
About
The following reading from the CONCORDIA edition of the Book of Concord is for the Old Testament, Isaiah 11:1-10 for the Advent 2, series A, December 8, 2013. It is from Apology, Article XXI, pages 203-204. Why should one go to a fallible human being when the merciful, incarnate Son of God has been designated as the One to whom the nations will inquire? Click here for the reading formatted for the back of a standard CPH bulletin. Pastor Doug May
We will show that the adversaries truly make the saints not just intercessors, but atonement makers, that is, mediators of redemption. In a person who makes atonement, two things are required. First, there should be a Word of God from which we certainly know that God wants to listen to, those calling upon Him through this atonement maker. There is such a promise about Christ, "Whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you" (John 16:23). There is no such promise about the saints. Therefore, consciences cannot be completely confident that we are heard by the invocation of saints. This invocation, therefore, does not spring from faith. We also have the command to call upon Christ: "Come to Me, all who labor" (Matthew 11:28). "In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples - of Him shall the nations inquire" (Isaiah 11:10)… What commandment, what example, can the adversaries produce from the Scriptures about the invocation of saints? The second requirement for an atonement maker is that his merits are shown to make satisfaction for other people so that through them, just as by their own merits, other people may be regarded righteous… Christ's merits are given to us so we are regarded righteous by our confidence in Christ's merits as though we had merits of our own. (paragraphs 16-19)
These are excerpts from the Book of Concord.
|
Unique Visitors: