In this first session, I'll begin by giving a historical introduction to the Augsburg Confession. 

If you haven't yet taken Dr. Daniel van Voorhis' course, A Brief History of the Reformation, I encourage you to enroll in that course as well. Dan does a great job of setting the historical stage of the Protestant Reformation, which is helpful as we examine the Augsburg Confession.

With that, let's get started! 

- Scott

00:00 [ Music ]

00:15 >> Hello, my name is Dr. Scott Keith.

00:17 Over the next few weeks, we will be going through a course

00:22 on the theology of the Augsburg Confession.

00:25 This is session one.

00:27 Before we go through the theology, it will be important

00:30 little bit of the history. I also discussed what is the Augsburg confession, why was the Augsburg

00:36 confession written. As we do that, I'd like to refer you back to a previous 1517 Academy course

00:44 that was done by Dr. Daniel Van Boris. He did a short course on the history of the Reformation.

00:50 You may want to watch that before watching this, as I will refer to several of the events in

01:00 about in that Academy course.

01:03 So as we talk about the history of the Augsburg Confession,

01:06 we need to go way back to the beginning of the Reformation.

01:10 We need to remember what happened in 1517.

01:14 This is a 1517 Academy class, and our organization

01:17 takes its name from the event that sparked the Protestant

01:22 and the Lutheran Reformation, which

01:23 is Martin Luther, Dr. Martin Luther,

01:30 in Wittenberg, Germany.

01:32 In those theseses, he discusses some of the errors

01:35 that are going on in the church of his time.

01:38 And really that sparked what we now know

01:41 as Protestantism, the Protestant Reformation,

01:43 Lutheranism and the Lutheran Reformation.

01:47 As Dr. Luther did that,

01:49 he set himself up in opposition to the church of his time.

01:54 He continued to write over the years

01:56 and every writing that came from his pen

02:00 more and more opposition between Dr. Luther, the fledgling Lutherans, and the Lutheran Reformation.

02:08 In 1521, this controversy becomes so great between Dr. Luther and the Roman Catholic Church of his time

02:16 that they call him to something called a diet, which is simply a gathering.

02:21 This diet is in 1521. It's in a town called Worms.

02:30 and at the diet of worms in 1521 Dr. Luther is put under what's called an

02:36 imperial banger. This ban makes it so that he cannot safely travel without

02:43 threat of being captured and in fact without threat of being killed. From this

02:48 point on from 1521 Ford Dr. Luther dies in 1546 he remains under this ban and

03:00 on his head, he can be killed and the person that kills him will not only not be punished,

03:06 but would collect a bounty and reward for killing him.

03:10 But Dr. Luther has in the lecture, we might call him a prince or a provincial ruler who

03:18 is at least interested in his new theology and is being converted to his new theology

03:23 and feels like what Dr. Luther has to say is important.

03:30 Now, at this time, Martin Luther is teaching at the University in Wittenberg, which is

03:35 also under the Elector's protection, and the Elector is the one who provides the funds

03:40 for the university to operate.

03:43 And so after 1521, when Dr. Luther is placed under this imperial ban, he is spirited away

03:51 by people employed by his Elector to protect him, and he's taken to a castle called Wartburt,

03:58 where he's protected.

04:00 He makes his way back to Wittenberg after some controversies happen in that town.

04:05 And he continues to write and to preach and to teach.

04:10 And as he does so, he collects around himself some figures that are,

04:15 will prove to be helpful in the spreading of the Reformation.

04:19 One of those figures is the author of the document we'll be studying over the next couple weeks.

04:24 His name is Philip Malangthon.

04:26 Philip Malangthon is a teacher.

04:30 we would call a classicist, that is he is somebody that is trained in Greek and Hebrew and Latin.

04:38 And he's studied classical literature like Aristotle and Cicero and Homer.

04:43 He is an expert in this field. He is what's known also as a humanist.

04:48 We don't mean that as a secular humanist as we would in our own day, but a humanist in this time

05:00 In other words, if a person in previous to this time wanted to study Aristotle, they would

05:06 likely study a commentary, a third hand commentary on Aristotle, rather than learning the languages

05:12 and digging into the text of Aristotle himself.

05:16 And Melanchthon is part of a movement that attempts to turn this around called humanism.

05:22 Their cry is \"ad fontes,\" the Latin term \"ad fontes,\" or \"return to the sources,\"

05:30 turn to the biblical sources as well.

05:33 So that scholars in biblical study will learn Greek

05:38 and Hebrew and even Aramaic so that when they study the Bible,

05:42 they don't study commentaries on the Bible,

05:45 or even Jerome's translation of the Bible into Latin,

05:49 but they study the Bible in the original languages

05:51 in the original text as much as is possible.

05:55 Malenctin is a leader, though he's very young,

06:00 and he too comes to teach at the University of Wittenberg as a professor of

06:05 Greek originally, later also as a professor of theology and comes under the

06:12 tutelage of Martin Luther. Other minor characters are helpful in our story, a

06:16 man named Justice Jonas, who's a pastor and teacher in Wittenberg. He

06:21 becomes sort of the translator of the translators. He's the one that'll take

06:30 He writes in Latin and puts them into German, the language of the people.

06:34 And he contributes himself.

06:37 So why is this important?

06:39 Why is this history important?

06:43 We are leading up to a precedent, a tipping point from which there is no return in the

06:49 Protestant Reformation.

06:51 We left off in 1521, but that's not where the story ends.

07:00 Lutheran reformers or Protestant reformers or as they're sometimes called

07:05 \"witten-burgers\" because they are teaching in the town of Wittenberg or

07:09 evangelicals because they're focusing on the proclamation of the gospel. They

07:14 all now continue to write. As early as 1521 you have Philip Melanchthon's seminal

07:21 theological text called \"The Common Topics of Theology\" and then they just

07:30 see grows and grows and grows.

07:33 The tension that exists between the evangelicals

07:36 or the Wittenbergers and the Roman Catholic Church

07:40 seems to be coming to a boiling point,

07:42 a point where there's no return.

07:45 And the evangelicals are continuing

07:47 to ask for something called a church council.

07:51 Now there have been several church councils

07:53 in the 1500 year history of the church at this time.

07:57 And these are typically called

08:00 And what they would do is they would gather together the leaders in the church, bishops and cardinals and even the pope to come together and discuss these matters of theology so that they can have some agreement moving forward from that point on.

08:14 And the evangelicals, the Wittenbergers, Luther and his friends, they have been asking for a council since 1521.

08:30 and the

08:32 church and the church and the

08:34 church and the church and the

08:36 church and the church and the

08:38 church and the church and the

08:40 church and the church and the

08:42 church and the church and the

08:44 church and the church and the

08:46 church and the church and the

08:48 church and the church and the

08:50 church and the church and the

08:52 church and the church and the

08:54 church and the church and the

08:56 church and the church and the

09:00 for there to be any continuity of opinion when addressing the new evangelical reforms going on

09:07 up in Wittenberg. The Holy Roman Emperor of the Time, his name is Charles V and the Pope,

09:13 Clement VII. They're dealing with a conflict where the Muslim Turks are invading their land

09:21 from the east, and this causes them to be distracted by the very real threat of being taken over by

09:30 rather than dealing with what they might call a war of words happening up in what we now consider

09:36 northern Germany. Now even though this war of words going on in northern Germany is causing them

09:42 to be very upset, they are more distressed by the idea of being completely taken over by Muslim

09:48 invaders. And so for a time, even though the pope especially wants to address what Luther is

10:00 He has to place his attention along with the emperor on the invading Muslim armies.

10:06 But, right about 1530, 1529, 1530, so we've advanced sort of eight years in our story.

10:16 Something happens.

10:17 The threat of the Muslim invaders becomes so great that especially the emperor realizes

10:30 together and possibly if needed form a unified army to counter the attack of the Muslim invaders

10:39 if it becomes necessary. Also, and because of this, Charles V finally gives the pope enough money

10:48 to hold what we all thought they all thought would be a counsel, but instead what is called

11:00 event than a council, still very formal.

11:03 Still would have the power of both the emperor

11:06 and the pope behind it to make decrees

11:09 and to say that this is agreed upon or not agreed upon.

11:13 And so what happens is the emperor,

11:17 Charles V puts out an imperial order.

11:21 And it's an imperial order that they will meet

11:23 in a town called Hogsburg in order to discuss

11:30 forms that are coming out of Wittenberg.

11:33 Also important for all of us to note

11:36 that at this time, the reform had spread much beyond Wittenberg

11:42 and had made its way into most of Saxony

11:44 and was moving into other parts of Europe.

11:47 And so it's not just the threat of the Muslim invaders

11:52 that are scaring everyone enough to finally call this meeting,

11:55 but it's a fact that this reform, especially

12:00 by teaching, by traveling teachers and by preachers, traveling preachers,

12:04 had made its way into other parts of Europe.

12:09 And they were now even calling themselves Lutheran or Evangelical.

12:14 So the emperor calls a diet.

12:17 This summons comes first to Luther's Elector.

12:22 And the Elector responds by saying, \"Listen, this is our chance.

12:30 wanted all these years to give an answer to what it is we're teaching. Now, if the Roman Catholic theologians and leadership had been paying attention, they could have pieced together the overall evangelical teaching.

13:00 But what they wanted was an official statement of faith.

13:05 Not just a book, not just a set of books, not even a catechism,

13:11 which is a brief introduction or brief teaching.

13:14 They wanted a thorough confession that addressed most topics of theology

13:20 as they're presented in the scriptures.

13:22 And they wanted to know what the positive confession of these new evangelical

13:30 So as the Elector receives this summons from the Emperor so that a confession can be prepared,

13:37 he asks Luther to gather around himself a group of theologians that can assist in the writing of this confession.

13:44 You see, it's important that this confession not be just Luther's confession,

13:49 that it not be just Malenkton's confession, or even that it not be just the Elector's confession.

14:00 the whole small sea Catholic as in universal church on earth.

14:05 In order for that to happen,

14:07 it can't be from just one man, from just one person.

14:11 So Luther gathers together some of his great friends and a mentor,

14:17 and even students.

14:19 He gathers together Justice Jonas,

14:22 Philip Malangthon and Spalatin,

14:24 and a few others, and they get together.

14:30 town called Torgau, where they come together and they write an article called

14:36 the Torgau Articles. Now this is part of what becomes the Augsburg

14:42 Confession, but what's most important to note here is that this is a team effort.

14:47 This is a pre- Augsburg Confession team effort by a group of theologians in the

14:53 process of what will end up becoming the Augsburg Confession. The Torgau

15:00 seem to be complete enough. And so they call together another conference in an

15:04 account called Schwabach, which is an upper Germany. And there they come to

15:08 an agreement on another document simply called the Schwabach articles.

15:12 Now these articles address a little bit more than the Torgo articles. They go a

15:18 little bit more in depth. There is some agreement in disagreement. In other

15:22 words, they talk about articles upon which the Roman Catholics and Evangelicals

15:30 discuss in one of the later classes called church usages.

15:34 But again, these articles too don't seem to be

15:37 the complete picture.

15:38 They don't seem to be ecumenical enough,

15:41 that is inclusive enough of the whole teaching

15:44 of the church to be sufficient to present

15:47 to the emperor at Augsburg, and so they continue on.

15:51 Now, by this time, it's important that they actually

15:54 begin to make the trip to Augsburg.

16:00 to what I said earlier in this first session of the course,

16:04 that Luther as a 1521 is essentially a condemned criminal,

16:09 that he cannot safely travel.

16:11 In fact, for the rest of his life,

16:14 he stays in the protected area of his elector

16:17 for the rest of his life.

16:19 And so while it would make sense on the surface

16:22 that Luther be the one to both write

16:25 and present the new evangelical confession of faith

16:30 He can't. He has to stay behind.

16:33 And so he stays back in town called Cobourd.

16:37 Not too far from Augsburg,

16:39 close enough so that messengers can bring draft copies of

16:44 the eventual document for him to review.

16:46 And the rest of the crew, the rest of the team,

16:51 including Philip Malangthen,

16:52 head on to the Diet at Augsburg.

16:56 Now, here's the big question.

17:00 come, and if the two previously written and previously arranged articles of faith will

17:05 not be sufficient, and if they have to present a new, more inclusive, more extensive, and

17:12 more comprehensive article of faith, who is it that should write it? It's decided that

17:18 Philip Melanchthon will be the author. Of course, they have an author in their midst. He is

17:22 a writer. He is though also a tinker. He is somebody that becomes very nervous that what

17:30 said perfectly. And so through multiple correspondence back and forth with Luther regarding the

17:36 content of this confession, Luther is finally the one that has stopped the tinkering and

17:42 says, \"This is good. It is good enough. I cannot think of even a word that I would

17:47 change, present what you have.\" So what they end up with is a confession of faith that

18:00 describing positively what it is that they believe, and then even some

18:06 negatively what they do not believe or what they object to. The last 21s are

18:11 articles where they have disagreement with the current Roman Catholic Church of

18:15 their time on the teaching of particular items and faith. In this class

18:20 we will likely only have time for those first 21 positive articles of faith as we

18:30 25th, 1530, they come together for the diet.

18:35 And it is time for them to present

18:36 their confession of faith.

18:39 And they need to decide upon who will read this.

18:43 And so they get somebody named Dr. Bayer

18:47 for whatever reason, but maybe particularly

18:50 because his voice was loud enough

18:52 that it could carry not only in the chamber hall

18:55 where the Augustana or the Augsburg confession

19:00 and Dr. Baer does this. He reads all 28 articles of faith and a loud, clear voice so loud so that it could be heard outside, but not loud enough, apparently, according to the correspondence to wake up the Emperor, who seems to have slept through the entire reading.

19:30 signed, say, just by Luther or Justice Jonas or Philip Malenkton or any of the other theologians

19:36 who said about in preparation for the Augs for Confession, and it is not just signed

19:41 by Malenkton, who at the end of the day was the author, the person who wrote the confession.

19:47 Malenkton does indeed sign it as the author, but it is also signed by all of the evangelical

19:54 princes who are in attendance that day.

20:00 ecumenical. They make this document Catholic, small C, universal. They make this document

20:08 have force. You see, not unlike the framers of the Constitution and those who signed

20:14 the Declaration of Independence, they are literally putting their lives, their honor,

20:19 and their property on the line to back this evangelical confession of faith. They are

20:30 To assist in the fight if the Muslim invaders were to come into our lands,

20:35 you need to understand that this is what we're fighting for.

20:39 This is our confession of faith.

20:42 Now this Augsburg confession, as it's now called,

20:46 is handed over to the emperor and the officials at the diet,

20:52 and they take it and they never give it back.

20:55 It's never returned to the evangelicals or to the leutherons,

21:00 time. But there are many people in the audience, students, and attendees supporting evangelicals

21:07 who take notes. And based on the notes in on Melanchthon's memory, it's later recreated,

21:13 and what we now call the unaltered Augsburg Confession. We call it unaltered for a couple

21:20 of reasons. If you'll remember just a few minutes ago, I said that Melanchthon is a constant

21:30 the Augsburg Confession.

21:32 He changes it, changes it, and changes it again.

21:36 Those changes are called by Latin names

21:40 called the Veriata and the Inveriata, just variations.

21:44 One more important and one more substantial

21:47 and the other less important and less substantial.

21:50 The two major changes come to the Augsburg Confession

21:54 about 10 years later in 1540 and in 1542.

22:00 of the ones that are signed by later reformed theologians, and it's why the Lutheran Church

22:07 of our time will often say that we follow the original OGG for confession, or our confession

22:13 of faith is the original or unchanged, unaltered version of 1530.

22:20 So what's the importance of this document?

22:23 This document is far reaching.

22:30 first Protestant confession of faith. In fact, we get the term Protestant from the protesting

22:37 states. In other words, there are leaders at the Oxford Confession. There are princes, electors,

22:44 town mayors, governors that sign this confession who are in charge of states or countries or

22:52 municipalities. And they are protesting the Roman Catholic Church and the dogma of the time

23:00 standing on the side of the theology as represented in the Augsburg Confession,

23:05 and they become the protesting states or the Protestants.

23:10 This confession of faith is not just for Lutherans, it is not just even for Protestants.

23:15 It was intended to be the biblical faith as in a summation of 28 articles so that when

23:24 somebody wanted to be able to explain what does it mean to be a Christian, and what

23:30 God or what do you believe about justification or the church or grace or

23:34 faith that they could go to this in an easy brief manner explain their

23:40 confession of faith. It was far reaching at the time. Many churches of the

23:46 fledgling Reformation signed on to the Augsburg Confession of their Confession

23:50 of Faith. It was identified over and over again as to what do we believe and

24:00 How do we answer when we say, \"What do we believe on justification?\"

24:04 Of course, we go to the Scriptures.

24:07 And nothing, not even a wonderful document like the Augsburg Confession,

24:11 can replace what is said in portions of the Scripture that speak directly to that.

24:16 But sometimes an article of faith that can join together the concepts in Scripture

24:22 on a doctrine like, \"How am I saved?\"

24:30 teaching as we find it in the whole of scripture is helpful.

24:34 It's also helpful for us to be able to say,

24:37 I confess this or that.

24:40 That's why in the Christian church for centuries,

24:43 we have confessed the ecumenical creeds.

24:45 We have confessed the apostles' creeds,

24:47 the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed,

24:49 and said, this is what it means to be a Christian.

24:53 It's no different here in the Augsburg Confession.

24:57 As we continue through these next five courses,

25:00 We will set out to do is cover approximately five topics of faith in every course.

25:07 To simply say, what do we as Christians believe concerning God, concerning sin, concerning

25:14 justification, concerning the means of grace.

25:18 And I will do my best as we do that to not only tell you what the Augsburg Confession

25:22 says, but to help explain a little bit about what the background is when each of these articles

25:28 are presented there.

25:30 Hope you enjoy the course and thank you for joining us.

00:00 [Music]

00:15 Hello, my name is Dr. Scott Keith.

00:18 I'm Executive Director of 1517.

00:21 This is the History and Theology of the Augsburg Confession Session 2.

00:30 and invite you to follow along with us. You can go to bookofconchord.org if you'd

00:37 like. There you'll find the entire book of Concord online. The Book of Concord

00:43 is a complete collection of Lutheran confessions. All of the Lutheran

00:47 confessions are in there. You'll have the three ecumenical creeds, the Augsburg

00:52 Confession, the defense of the Augsburg Confession. Both of Luther's

01:00 a test met confession called the small call articles because it was meant to be presented

01:05 at a conference in the city of small call. You'll have Philip Melanchton's final confession

01:11 in the book of Concord called the on the powers and primacy of the pope. And then you'll have

01:16 both of the formula of Concord's the epitome and the solid declaration. So if you go to book

01:23 of concord.org, click on the Augsburg confession on the side. You can follow along. Also,

01:30 to use a printed version and maybe don't have it,

01:32 in the Academy notes we'll provide links to various places

01:36 where you can find various translations

01:38 of printed versions of the Augsburg Confession.

01:42 Again, this is a translated document

01:44 when you read it in English.

01:45 That's good to keep in mind.

01:47 Originally written in Latin and German,

01:51 usually translated from the Latin into English.

01:53 And so there are options of translations here,

01:55 just like when you're studying the Bible.

02:00 the NIV, the NASB, same thing here with the book of Concord, and so we'll put all of the options

02:06 out there for you to choose from. Okay, so today we'll be discussing the first five articles of

02:14 the Augsburg Confession. I love these first five articles for various reasons. The approach,

02:22 the organizational approach that Melanethan takes, especially in these first five,

02:30 for not just the other 23 articles of the Augsburg

02:34 Confession, but really the whole of Christian thinking.

02:38 So why is, well, for a long time before Philip Malangthon,

02:44 organizing Christian thought had been done

02:46 in a particular manner.

02:48 You might call it a Kretal manner.

02:51 You're gonna, you would start essentially

02:53 with the doctrine of God the Father,

02:55 move on to the doctrine of God the Son,

03:00 And then if you kept going, you'd kind of start from first things as we encounter them in the Bible.

03:05 You might start with creation of the earth and all stars and the world and people.

03:10 And then you'd kind of go to the next one, which is the fall into sin.

03:14 Now, Melanchth in 1521, when he first writes his Lochie community, he changes that up,

03:20 and he takes what we term a \"soteriological approach\" or an approach that's oriented towards

03:30 creation, he begins with the idea that we are all in sin.

03:35 And this is remarkable.

03:36 This is a remarkable change in the history of Christian thought.

03:40 One that unfortunately, I think, Melanchthon goes back on in his later career.

03:46 And here in 1530, about nine years after that original organization in 1521,

03:53 we kind of see him at a halfway point as he's changing back to a more classical

03:58 organization.

04:00 Really, that's encountered here as we begin with Article 1,

04:06 which is the doctrine of God.

04:08 Now, just to give you the list of what we'll do today,

04:12 Article 1 is the doctrine of God,

04:14 Article 2 is on original sin or even sin,

04:19 Article 3 is on the Son of God,

04:21 Article 4 is on justification,

04:24 and Article 5 is in the office of the ministry.

04:30 important. It's important because it follows the flow of life and we'll see

04:37 this more and more with the Augsburg Confession as we dig into it. Not to jump

04:43 too far ahead but Article 6 is going to be on the new obedience or good works.

04:47 And so you can kind of see the direction he's going. Why start with article on the

04:54 doctrine of God? Well in Melanchthon's case there's two reasons why that's

05:00 and maybe not as important in 1521 when he first did this in the Lochie.

05:05 Because here we have to remember that this is being presented as a confession of faith to the entire church.

05:12 And so one of the big goals for the evangelicals is to show that what they believe,

05:18 teach and confess is truly in agreement with what the church has believed,

05:23 taught and confessed throughout the centuries.

05:30 had addressed these issues in a creedal fashion before. Think the Apostles creed, right? You have

05:37 Article 1, the Doctrine of God, Article 2, the Doctrine of Jesus Christ, Article 3, the Doctrine of the Holy

05:44 Spirit. Well, why had the Church increased, addressed the doctrines in this manner? Because these were the

05:52 things that came under attack. These were the doctrines that there was disagreement on. Not everybody

06:00 in Creedal or Orthodox Christianity regarding Christ being both true God and true man.

06:06 And throughout the centuries, when the church brought together a council, as discussed

06:11 in the last class, these councils were typically brought together to decide some article having

06:17 to do with the doctrine of God.

06:19 Who is God the Father?

06:20 Who is God's Son?

06:21 Who is God's Holy Spirit?

06:24 Do we worship three gods or one God?

06:26 How does this all work itself out?

06:30 ends what he does in Article 1 and why he starts there instead of jumping right to

06:35 soteriology as he wants to say from the outset, \"Listen, the evangelicals in

06:41 Wittenberg are teaching Kretal Christianity from beginning to end.\" And

06:46 I'm going to show you that by in Article 1 summing up what the Creed say

06:52 about God, just to let you know that we are in the inside on this conversation

07:00 In fact, we'll see that Malengthan actually spends some time

07:04 in this article condemning the heresies or the wrong teaching

07:08 that have been condemned by the church regarding

07:11 the Trinity throughout the ages.

07:13 So that leads me to the next part I want to talk about

07:16 before we go through the Augustana

07:17 or the Augsburg Compassion.

07:20 You will notice, if you have it open in front of you,

07:23 that there are positive presentations of faith here.

07:27 Who is God?

07:28 Was it mean to be a divine essence?

07:30 mean to be three persons, wasn't mean to be equal, but you'll also notice that some

07:35 things are rejected. These things usually are the names of people, the names of wrong

07:41 doctrines, or the names of heresies or wrong teaching that have been identified throughout

07:46 the years. They sometimes have fancy names like mannequins, but we'll do our best as

07:53 we go through the course to explain what each one of these is rejecting and why that's

08:00 So here we go, Article 1 on the doctrine of God. What does the Augustana,

08:07 what does the Augsburg Confession have to say about Article 1 on the doctrine of

08:11 God? Pretty simple, really. If you're familiar with Cretal Christianity, if you

08:16 belong to a church that teaches Orthodox Christianity, which I'd say most

08:21 mainline denominations and even most non-denominational churches in the United

08:30 unfamiliar to you. It's going to teach Trinitarian theology, right? Now, anybody

08:36 that's ever sat through a bad children's message that tries to explain the

08:40 Trinity will know that this is not an easy thing to understand or explain. And

08:46 so, when the Church tries to explain Trinitarian theology, it usually does

08:52 so by describing attributes instead of difficult concepts that can lead us

09:00 Now, the attributes that the church uses to describe the Trinity are those things

09:05 that we can derive solely from Scripture.

09:08 And so you'll get usually sets of lists, this and this and this and this and this,

09:13 but not that, right?

09:15 Malakthon does the same thing here.

09:18 In Article 1 on the doctrine of God of the Augsburg Confession, Malakthon begins by saying,

09:24 \"Listen, we worship a God that is one God.

09:30 This is one God.

09:32 And then you might notice that he uses language

09:36 that is philosophical in nature.

09:39 Now, this is always a slippery slope.

09:41 This is always a sticky thing to do.

09:45 But especially when it comes to like

09:47 the two natures in Christ or the Trinity,

09:50 it's sometimes a little necessary.

09:53 Mainly because we have a very hard time wrapping our heads

10:00 right? So what he says is this, listen we worship one God, we don't worship three

10:07 gods and this one God is one and united a unity in divine essence. Now all that

10:16 means is that in the essence of what God is, God is one. Right? If you're going to

10:23 dig down to the absolute core of how to think about God you would say that God is

10:30 This is what God does when it reveals himself and he says, \"I am.\"

10:35 Right?

10:36 He's using a name for himself that's really a verb, a verb of identifying being.

10:42 He doesn't say, \"We are.\"

10:44 \"I am.\"

10:45 \"I am one.\"

10:47 \"I am one.\"

10:48 And then we come along and say, \"Just for the help of defining this a little better

10:53 in divine essence, God is one.\"

11:00 And then we read the scriptures as Malangt did and we find out that as God reveals himself,

11:07 even though in divine essence he is one, he reveals himself to us in three persons,

11:13 the three persons of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

11:21 Now as God reveals himself as one in one in essence, but three in person,

11:30 obviously become a little bit confusing, and at times people have tried to elevate

11:35 one person of the Trinity over another person of the Trinity and to make one

11:40 more equal and one less equal or two less equal and one superior. And so

11:46 Melanchthon goes right at that at the beginning. He says, \"One divine essence,

11:51 three persons, and these three persons are equal.\" Right? They do not split the

12:00 up in a way that is uneven, but they are equal. And that these persons that exist of themselves

12:08 are yet one in divine essence. Now at this point, you're doing what any Sunday schooler

12:14 does when they hear this and they're going, \"What? What do you mean? This is getting exceptionally

12:18 confusing?\" And I say, \"You're right. It is.\" The doctrine of the Trinity is a very difficult

12:30 to describing which is what we ought to continue to do here.

12:34 God is one, one in divine essence.

12:37 God is three persons.

12:39 These three persons are equal.

12:41 And the Augsburg then, confession then begins to reject

12:45 anything that denies those three basic tenets.

12:49 Again, God is one in divine essence.

12:52 God is three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

12:55 And those persons are equal.

13:00 of believing that there's duality in personhood or duality in essence here,

13:07 as the mannequians do. Malignant denies Gnosticism, which is teaching that flesh is bad and only spirit

13:16 is good, and that no person of the Godhood could exist in the flesh thus they wouldn't be God. So

13:22 that's denied. He denies the Aryans following Arius here who would say that the sun

13:30 God the Son was of a different kind of substance

13:33 than the Father, and so on and so on, right?

13:37 Another one is anti-Trinitarian,

13:40 elevating God the Father to a level

13:42 that the Holy Spirit and the Son don't arise to.

13:47 But again, all that's really going on here

13:50 in Article 1 is that Melanthon is affirming

13:54 what the church had taught for 1500 years

13:57 regarding the Trinity.

14:00 God in the three persons and these three persons are equal.

14:04 Okay?

14:05 And then we go on to original sin.

14:09 Now this is one where there's potentially for malignant and the evangelicals much disagreement

14:15 with the Roman Catholic Church of their time.

14:18 In fact, this is one where if you're having a conversation with your friend who's a Christian,

14:24 there might be natural disagreement between the two of you.

14:30 today we have the most disagreement in our church. What does it mean that every person born after Adam and Eve is born into sin?

14:42 In fact, that's how Melanchthon begins this article by simply saying, \"All who are born according to the natural course of things,\" right? Think ahead here. That's going to exclude one person.

15:00 and human father come together and make a baby according to the natural course of things are born in sin.

15:08 They are born with lust, he says. Now,

15:11 this is an old word that he's using here, and we might say it this way.

15:15 They are born with impure desires. Now those impure desires are not just of a sexual nature,

15:21 but they're impure in every way. They cause us to commit sin against our fellow man time and time again.

15:30 cause us to try to make ourselves a God who is capable of saving ourselves rather than

15:37 trusting in Christ alone and God to save us.

15:42 We think so much in this impure lust that we are the opposite, that is that we are righteous,

15:49 that we actually believe we have no need for God to come down in a miraculous way to

15:53 save us.

16:00 Everyone born according to the natural chain of events is born not with the ability to

16:07 save themselves but with the exact opposite.

16:11 Completely full of impure desires towards themselves and other people and God and completely

16:17 lacking all righteousness.

16:20 Now righteousness just means what it sounds like.

16:22 It's just rightness or uprightness.

16:25 Think of it this way.

16:27 God is perfect and holy.

16:30 is able to stand before that perfect and holy God in a state of equality with them,

16:36 with him, because they are righteous. They are upright. They can stand there proud

16:41 before a perfect and holy God. Malainkton says, \"You may be confused about this,

16:47 Church of my time, but that's not any of us.\" No matter how hard we try, no matter what we do,

17:00 the kicker for the church of his time and for the church of our time.

17:04 He goes right to the heart of the matter and says, \"Original sin is truly sin.

17:10 It's not a baby sin, it's not just being born of two sinful people, it's truly sin.\"

17:18 Now what he's doing here is he's changing the definition of his time.

17:23 In his time, the thing that was really condemning were the individual bad sins

17:30 Right, that's why there was a distinction in sins between what was called mortal sins

17:35 and venial sins.

17:37 Sins that killed and sins that were just pretty bad.

17:40 But he says here by saying original sin is truly sin and condemns that the fact that

17:47 you are a sinner is a condemning thing.

17:50 The fact that you are not born perfectly upright and righteous and able to stand before

17:55 God without someone intervening on your behalf is the problem.

18:00 that you are turned in on yourself and a selfish person who thinks of your own gain,

18:05 first and foremost, the fact that you believe you can save yourself, the fact that you don't

18:09 do what is right by your fellow man, the fact that in thought, word, indeed, you are a sinner

18:15 is a condemning thing.

18:18 And then he goes, what's the answer?

18:20 He said, you need to be regenerated.

18:23 This is where he says, everyone born of the natural course of things needs regeneration

18:30 You need to be regenerated. You need somebody to come in from the outside and save you.

18:36 You need to be lifted out of this state.

18:39 You need to be covered by somebody else's righteousness.

18:42 You need to be washed and made clean.

18:44 Standing on your own, you won't be able to do it.

18:47 And he goes right at the heart of the theology of his day.

18:51 He denies somebody called Pelagius and Pelagianism,

18:56 who would teach that man is not by nature sinful.

19:00 In defining original sin the way he does, he defies something else called semi-plagianism,

19:07 which is thinking that man could kind of help himself even though they were still sinful.

19:14 He's denying all those who say a person can do anything towards their own salvation.

19:21 Period. The end.

19:25 Now this naturally leads us to a question.

19:30 I cannot save myself if I need somebody else's righteousness to be washed over me in baptism

19:37 because I am not righteous enough to save myself.

19:40 Who is it then that is my righteousness?

19:44 If you can see here and follow me with this, Melanchthon is a natural author here.

19:52 He is leading his readers down the path that he wants them to follow.

19:56 He's saying to them first in Article 1, we believe the same thing that

20:00 you do concerning God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one in essence, three in person.

20:08 And we deny the same things that you ought to be denying, but you don't.

20:12 We deny that a person can make themselves righteous.

20:14 We affirm that a person who is born and sin is born helpless and unclean, and that they

20:19 need somebody else to save them.

20:22 And then naturally comes from that, again, the question, \"Who is it that will save us?\"

20:30 God. And he says, listen, God, the word, the son, the second person of the Trinity became

20:40 flesh. And in the words of John chapter one, and he dwelt among us. And that this is this

20:48 Christ, this son, this God man, is two natures that are inseparably united in one person.

21:00 This Christ is truly God, 100% God, and truly man, 100% man at the same Christ.

21:09 And that this Christ took on our burden, took on our sin, and that this one Christ,

21:16 true God and true man, was sacrificed for not only our original sin, but for the fact

21:23 that we are sinners and for all of our sins, period.

21:30 one basket and says, \"Your separating of sins here, church of my time, is a problem.\"

21:37 So I'm going to put them all over here, original sin, the fact that you're a sinner

21:42 and the necessary sins that you commit because you're a sinner are all over here in this

21:46 one basket.

21:47 And guess what?

21:48 Christ died a sacrificial death for them all.

21:54 And then he ends where the Scriptures end, right?

21:57 What concerning Christ?

22:00 who gave himself as a sacrifice for all of your sin ascended and was exalted at the right hand of the Father and made us another promise.

22:10 He promised that He will come in glory one day and that when he does, He will judge the righteous and the unrighteous as just that righteous and unrighteous.

22:30 Well, what's the question?

22:32 If Christ is exalted and is coming again,

22:35 and He's coming again to judge me

22:36 as either righteous or unrighteous,

22:38 how is it that I can be judged righteous

22:40 if I am this thing that you said in Article II,

22:43 I'm a sinner, how will I be judged righteous?

22:48 He already let you in on it.

22:49 He said in Article II, you need regeneration

22:52 by the spirit and baptism.

22:54 You need somebody else's righteousness to flow over you

22:57 like a washing flood.

23:00 Who that person is in Article 3, this person whose righteousness needs to flow over you

23:06 and the regeneration of baptism is Christ the Lord.

23:12 And then you might ask, well, how do I get that?

23:14 How do I become a part of that?

23:17 How do I grab hold of that washing flood of righteousness?

23:22 He says, well, you have to be justified.

23:25 You have to be made right.

23:27 You have to be declared right.

23:30 before he deals with justification.

23:33 There he says this, \"Historic words that change the church forever from this point

23:40 on them.

23:41 We now live in the history, in the adoption, in the fulfillment in a way of these words

23:51 that Malangthon wrote 500 years ago when he said, \"We cannot obtain forgiveness to sins

24:00 we receive forgiveness sin by grace on account of Christ or for the sake of Christ or because of Christ

24:10 through faith and

24:12 That this faith is reckoned to us or declared to us or proclaimed over us as

24:20 righteousness

24:21 Now here's the thing

24:30 made righteous. In other words, they're not from the inside out infused with some kind of substance that changes them into something else.

24:39 But that rather they are declared righteous. That God looks down upon these sinners as we saw in Article 2,

24:47 who are in need of the Son of God that we saw in Article 3, and he sees through faith, he sees Christ standing in front of that person

25:00 He looks at you, the center, and he does not see your sin, but he sees that Article 3

25:08 Christ standing right in front of you.

25:11 And on account of that Christ, for the sake of that Christ, because of that Christ, he

25:15 says, \"You are righteous, even when you are not.\"

25:23 This changes theology from this point on.

25:30 from this point on. This is a historical moment in the history of Christianity greater than most

25:37 because it changes the direction of how an entire people believe they obtained salvation before a righteous God.

25:48 Malangtham, he's good at his job. And so Article 4, of course, leads us to another question.

26:00 that when God looks at me on that final day

26:03 and is deciding whether or not to declare me righteous,

26:07 he needs to look at Christ.

26:08 How do I get Christ to stand in front of me?

26:13 Melanchine says, of course, through faith, right?

26:17 Obvious question comes then,

26:19 how do I obtain this faith?

26:21 How do I get this faith?

26:22 If I need this faith, you just said I couldn't do it

26:26 through merit of my own, through work of my own.

26:28 So how do I get it?

26:30 So, Melanchthon goes into Article 5 on the Office of the Holy Ministry.

26:37 Now this is easy and difficult at the same time.

26:42 Easy because the task itself is not a difficult one.

26:46 Difficult because it's hard for us to understand.

26:50 Faith, saving faith always comes to us on the lips of another person.

27:00 sinful ears of another and from those ears into the heart and by the work of the Holy

27:05 Spirit that heart of stone is turned into a heart of flesh and is able by miraculous

27:11 work of the Spirit to believe.

27:14 And so the answer to the question of how do I get this faith, how do I obtain this faith

27:19 is pretty simple.

27:20 You need another sinner to preach to you the good news of Jesus Christ.

27:30 You need another sinner to place the flesh and blood of Christ in your mouth connected

27:35 to the water and the promise of the forgiveness of sins on account of Christ.

27:40 You need somebody to stand before you and say in the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven.

27:47 And so Melanchon says here in Article 5, \"To obtain faith, God instituted the Office

27:52 of the Ministry.\"

27:54 That is, the He said, \"We can't, it's like calling 911.

28:00 after somebody had a heart attack and say,

28:02 somebody call 911.

28:05 We got a point to somebody and say,

28:06 you, you call 911.

28:10 Which is what God does.

28:11 He points to individual people and he says,

28:13 you go to that place and in my name,

28:17 you proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ,

28:19 you baptize and you give them the supper.

28:23 And in such a way, faith is given and sustained.

28:26 And Christ stands before that people are not account

28:30 they are declared righteous. So he says to obtain this faith, God instituted the

28:35 office of the ministry, those people that are sent to a particular place to

28:39 serve a group of sinners. That is provided that the gospel and the

28:43 sacraments, which is what they're then called to do. Through these means he gives

28:49 the Holy Spirit who works faith when and where he pleases. What does he mean by that?

29:00 where malignant denies the Gnostics, denies the people that say only the Spirit, only the

29:08 Spirit's tool is good and the physical is bad.

29:11 And I'm going to explain to you that what the Scriptures teach us and what the Augsburg

29:14 Confession affirms is that we have a God of stuff.

29:19 We have a God that likes to mix it up in the dirty, down low.

29:23 We have a God that likes to work through sinners and physical means, for whatever reason.

29:30 why, but he likes to get his hands dirty. We can see this as he forms Adam from the dust of the ground.

29:37 As he forms Eve by taking a rib out of Adam, his hands are never clean,

29:43 and here too his hands are never clean, because he likes to work through means.

29:48 Things like simple water, things like bread and wine, and he connects these to the promises

30:00 When water is connected to my word, it saves.

30:05 It regenerates.

30:06 It makes new.

30:08 When we pour that righteousness over a sinner and say,

30:12 in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

30:14 you are baptized.

30:16 The promise is salvation and regeneration and making new.

30:20 When we place the bread and the wine into the mouths of other sinners,

30:25 we know that along with that bread and wine is coming,

30:27 the body and blood of Christ connected to the promise

30:30 the words of Christ, \"Do this in remembrance of me for the forgiveness of your sins.\"

30:36 Through those down dirty means he saves.

30:41 I often when I'm teaching this at the university for the young adults there, like to say that

30:47 could God open up a thunderbolt over my head and simply like Zeus from on high, use

30:54 that bolt of lightning to put faith in me?

30:57 He sure could.

31:00 of other pagan religions.

31:01 Our God works in the down and dirty.

31:04 He says, \"With this proclaimed word

31:07 from one sinner's mouth to your sinner's ear,

31:09 with this plain water connected to my word,

31:12 with these plain elements of bread and wine,

31:14 you receive my body and blood,

31:17 and that these give faith, these sustain faith,

31:20 these keep in the faith.\"

31:23 This is why we avail ourselves of the gifts

31:26 on Sunday morning.

31:30 of the ministry because of the means of grace.

31:34 The means by which God communicates His grace to sinners

31:38 like you and me.

31:40 And then Melanchth and ends here by rejecting the

31:43 Anabaptist and others who teach that the Spirit comes to us

31:47 not through means, but by our own preparation and sort of

31:52 just sitting and thinking about it and willing it to have it.

32:00 to us on the lips of another, through the externally proclaimed gospel, through the

32:05 externally given water in the Word, through the externally given gifts in the sacrament

32:10 of the Lord's Table.

32:13 And that's Article 5 on the Office of the Ministry.

32:17 This has been Session 2 of The Theology of the Augsburg Confession.

32:20 I'm Dr. Scott Keith.

32:21 See you for Session 3.

32:30 (upbeat music)

How did you enjoy the first session?

Now that we have a little better understanding of the historical context, let's move on to the text of the Augustana, or Augsburg Confession. In this second session, we will take a look at the first five articles: God, Original Sin, The Son of God, Justification, and The Ministry.

- Scott

I hope you enjoyed last session's discussion about the first five articles of The Augsburg Confession. This week, we'll continue our discussion by taking a close look at articles VI-X:

VI. The New Obedience (or, Good Works)
VII. The Church
VIII. What is the Church?
IX. Baptism
X. The Lord's Supper

As always, let me know if you have any questions that come up while we're going through this material at instructor@1517.org.

- Scott

00:00 [Music]

00:15 Hello, my name is Dr. Scott Keith.

00:17 This is Session 3 of the Theology of the Augsburg Confession.

00:22 Today, in this session, we will be going over Article 6 on the new obedience.

00:30 article on Good Works, Article 7 on the Church. And then an interesting twist,

00:37 which we'll spend some time explaining, we'll also talk about Article 8 on what

00:42 the Church is. We'll talk also about Article 9 on baptism, which we discussed

00:48 a little bit in the last session, but we'll go into more detail, and also Article 10 on

00:53 the Holy Supper of our Lord, for the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion, also which we

01:00 last session, but which we'll do in more detail now.

01:04 OK, so remember that I was complimenting

01:08 Melanchthon on how he constructed this document,

01:11 that it had a natural flow, that he was discussing not only

01:15 what is the problem that you're a sinner, not only

01:18 what is the solution that you need Christ, not only how

01:21 is that solution applied directly to me in justification,

01:25 but how do I grab hold of it and how this faith is obtained.

01:30 question or the natural progression might be asked after the office of the

01:34 ministry where we find how we get this faith, how we become part of the gospel,

01:39 how we become gospels. We might ask the question, which every new

01:44 Christian I think asks when they realize that they've been saved by grace

01:49 alone through faith alone on account of Christ alone and that they have offered

01:53 nothing to their salvation but their sin and that God has saved them anyway and

02:00 they want to know now what. And that's the question that Malenk then answers

02:06 here in Article 6-2 in the new obedience. He is answering the now what?

02:11 Now what do I do? But if we think back to the introduction on the Augsburg

02:17 Confession, we will remember that this is a confession also addressing certain

02:22 issues of the time that we're being asked of the fledgling Lutheran. You may

02:30 It's important not only to ask what are these scriptures saying to me, but it's also important

02:36 to ask what are these scriptures saying to the people at the time?

02:39 Acknowledging that those scriptures were written to an original audience.

02:44 For instance, Paul's letter to the Romans was originally written to the church in Rome.

02:50 Now, it had something to say to the church in Rome of Paul's time, and it certainly has

03:00 important to know some things going on in the Church of Rome. If you read Galatians, what's going on in the Church of

03:05 the Inclation, and so on. So what's going on here? Why is specific article on the new obedience on good works?

03:14 Why a specific article on what happens after justification? I'm going to give you two reasons. First one, the

03:30 focused on the doctrine of justification. They had already been accused of being

03:35 only justification oriented. In other words, only oriented on preaching the

03:41 salvation that comes on account of Christ by grace through faith and in the

03:46 work of God alone because of Jesus. They'd already got this reputation and the

03:51 Roman Catholic Church was already accusing them of not knowing anything

04:00 I'd say that when Luther first started reforming, he wasn't the only one trying to reform the church.

04:06 In fact, there were many other people of his time, famous humanists, other theologians, other reformers, who also tried to reform the church,

04:15 but were themselves going after a more moral reform than theological reform of the church.

04:22 And so this article addresses that question. As the Lutherans are accused of not caring about good works,

04:30 what do they have to say to it?

04:32 Literally, they're standing there at the diet

04:34 before the emperor, as though the emperor is a judge saying,

04:38 \"You don't care about good works.\"

04:41 And here's Melanchthon's answer saying, \"Yes, we do.\"

04:44 Now secondly, within Lutheranism by this time,

04:49 there's already been a controversy on this top, right?

04:53 It's called the antinomian controversy.

04:55 Think of it this way.

04:56 There were a group of people,

04:58 led by one person particularly,

05:00 Now that we've rediscovered the gospel, we no longer have the need to preach the law in our churches.

05:09 Law and gospel, two terms we probably ought to define.

05:12 First of all, easy definition.

05:15 Anything that you read in the scripture is that looks at you or that tells you you have to do something is the law.

05:23 Right? You must do this. You ought to do that.

05:30 So love.

05:32 Anything that you come across in the scripture

05:34 is and speaks to you and says,

05:36 all of this has already been done freely

05:38 for you on account of Christ is the gospel.

05:41 The law requires the gospel gives.

05:44 The law demands, the gospel gives what is demanded.

05:47 The law says be perfect, is I am perfect?

05:50 Christ says I am perfect in your place.

05:52 Law gospel, law gospel.

05:55 So there's already been an argument that would say,

06:00 If we are evangelicals, then shouldn't we only preach the gospel in our churches?

06:06 And they said, \"We don't need to preach the law,

06:09 \"antinomians, no law, or against the law.\"

06:13 And Malefin was one of the primary figures,

06:16 and will continue to be one of the primary figures that rises up and says,

06:20 \"No, the law still needs to be preached in our churches.\"

06:23 These people still need to know that they are sinners in need of a Savior.

06:30 Christ came to die for them. We must preach this in our congregation. That's why, and on

06:39 Luther's encouragement as well, Lutherans from this point on have been known as law gospel

06:44 preachers. A preacher gets up on Sunday morning and that preacher might start out

06:49 by telling you, just as Malaython did back here in Article 2 on Original Sin, that you

07:00 by what you have done and by what you have not done,

07:03 that you have fallen short of the glory of God.

07:05 And then they'll go into,

07:07 but Christ has died for you, article three language,

07:10 that He has justified you on account of Christ,

07:13 article four language, and that He gives you,

07:15 that gives freely as they are given out

07:18 by the office of the ministry, article five language.

07:23 I'm hoping you can see the math that Malanthan

07:25 is asking you to follow the path

07:27 that He's trying to lead you down.

07:30 And so then he addresses the two concerns here in Article 6, right?

07:34 So you have the emperor saying, you guys don't teach good works.

07:38 Yes, we do.

07:39 And he has from his own camp saying we don't have to preach about good works or what's

07:43 commanded of us anymore.

07:45 And he's saying, yes, we do.

07:47 At both of them.

07:49 So in Article 6 on the new obedience, he says this, and this is very important.

07:55 Because this is a hallmark of his language from this point on.

08:00 from this point on concerning good works.

08:03 Remember, let's go back to Article 5 for a second.

08:07 \"To obtain faith, God instituted the office of the ministry

08:10 \"that is provided for the proclamation of the gospel

08:13 \"and the giving of the sacraments.\"

08:14 And that it's through these means

08:16 that God gives the Holy Spirit who works faith

08:20 when and where he pleases.

08:23 And then he says, \"But or and this faith

08:30 produced good works. Now I could get really technical for you and say that from a

08:36 length and this is a Aristotelian necessity or in Aristotle's philosophy

08:41 this is a necessary thing but it's a little easier to just say to use the

08:48 pictures that the scripture uses right when it says things like a good fruit a

08:53 good tree bears good fruit this good tree bears good fruit necessarily

09:00 tree is created to do, to bear fruit. And if it is still a good fruit tree, it will do

09:07 it. It doesn't have to be yelled at to produce the fruit. It doesn't have to be preached

09:13 at to produce the fruit, but it has to produce the fruit. Otherwise, it's not a good tree.

09:19 And the same thing here. Malignant and the same. If you are in the faith, if you are

09:30 and justified by God on account of Christ in Article 4,

09:33 and have heard the message of reconciliation

09:36 from the pastor's lips to your ears,

09:39 or in the waters of baptism, or even in the supper,

09:42 if this is you, you will produce good works.

09:48 And then he goes a step further, and he says,

09:49 \"In fact, against my Roman Catholic opponents here

09:53 \"who are accusing me of teaching us of teaching

09:56 \"that we don't command them,

09:57 \"and against my own camp of antinomians

10:00 they're not necessary, I'm going to say we must do all works that are commanded by God.

10:08 But he's going to give a little side note, a little parenthetical note here.

10:15 But we must not be commanded to do the works that are of a man-made nature.

10:23 And here he makes a distinction and he causes us to ask, right? He calls us to ask this.

10:30 are commanded by God, and which are man-made ceremonies. What is it that is actually commanded

10:37 by God? When Christ is asked this question, when he's asked what are the most important

10:43 commandments out of the 10, how does he answer? Love the Lord your God with all your heart,

10:49 with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. And the second

11:00 love your neighbor as yourself. This is what's commanded by God, that you love

11:06 God completely and freely and that you love your neighbor as yourself because

11:10 when you do that it's how you love God. But the smart person might ask, \"I can't

11:17 love God with my whole heart, soul, and mind.\" And it's impossible for me to love

11:22 my neighbor as myself. I'm a length and I think agrees. In Article 2 he already

11:30 But you have to remember that he also already taught you Article 3.

11:34 Christ's covering is necessary for you Article 4.

11:37 That God because of his grace gives you Christ to cover you in Article 5.

11:41 That he gives you faith which turns you into this new thing freely.

11:46 And so that you are this good tree.

11:49 Not because you're good, but because he has declared you as such and placed you in Christ.

11:54 And in Christ you are a new creation and in Christ this new obedience is something that is yours.

12:00 God has said it is.

12:05 I'm pretty famous for saying Lutherans don't know the Bible at all, which we often don't.

12:10 But we have a couple of verses nailed, right? Ephesians 2, \"For grace you've been saved

12:14 through faith in this not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not by work so that no one

12:18 can boast.\" But we often leave out from the 8 and 9, we often leave out the 10th, right?

12:30 in advance for you too.

12:33 I love the newer translation of this to walk in.

12:37 Signifying that these good works that you do

12:39 are just part of everyday life

12:41 and that God has prepared for you to walk in them

12:43 and that the works that aren't man-made

12:47 and that are from God are about the loving your neighbor.

12:51 Who is your neighbor?

12:52 Those people that God has placed into your life directly.

12:55 How do you do good works to them?

13:00 and mother and daughter and child by being what God has already said you are in your

13:06 Christian vocation. Right? We do these good works and we must do them and we do do them.

13:12 Malaykthin goes on to say, \"We should do good works for God's sake.\" And here's the kicker,

13:18 \"but never put our trust in them.\" In other words, we don't do good works even after we're saved

13:30 Don't you trust that I love you now that I believe in you now because of the good things I've done?

13:36 No says my thing. You can never trust in them. Why because they'll always fail. You're still that sinner

13:42 You're still remade in Christ every time you hear the word preached every time you receive the sacrament

13:48 You trust in God on account of Christ alone as your only hope

13:53 You do good works because you're a new creation, but you don't trust in them

14:00 and answers in the last nine because forgiveness comes through faith alone without any merit

14:07 in you.

14:10 So in the church of his time, obedience meant essentially participating in the sacraments

14:18 of the church.

14:19 And when you participated in those sacraments of the church, you were doing good works,

14:22 which were pleasing to God.

14:30 the next question that he thinks they might ask, what about the church then?

14:36 Why would, how can we ever tell people to go to church if it's not a good work that they're

14:41 earning God's favor for? Malaython says that's not in article 7, he says that's not what the church

14:48 is. Well then what is the church? It says Malaython the church is the assembly of believers among whom

15:00 an easy definition that we struggle with it to this day. What is the church? Well, you see over

15:08 there where they're preaching the gospel and where they're administering the sacraments to

15:13 sinners in need, that's the church. Pretty simple. It's not the hierarchy, it's not the structure,

15:19 it's not the politics, it's not the elections, it's not the paving the parking lot. All those are

15:30 operating a church, but those are not the church.

15:36 And Malaykthon says quite simply here in Article 7,

15:39 \"It is sufficient for the true unity of the church to be known by this alone,

15:47 that the gospel be preached, and that the sacraments be truly administered

15:53 according to the Word of God.\"

16:00 for the remission of sins.

16:02 Christ says, \"When you come together in my name,

16:06 celebrate the supper, say take eat,

16:10 the body of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

16:12 give Him for you, take drink,

16:13 the true blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

16:15 shed for you for the forgiveness and sins.

16:18 Proclaim my law and my gospel.

16:22 Be that sinner's mouth that the Holy Spirit uses

16:25 to create faith in another sinner's heart.

16:28 That's enough, that's the church.

16:30 But he knows, he knows because he's a smart guy that's not going to be enough.

16:37 And so he anticipates the next question.

16:40 And they're saying, so that's the church and he says yes, that's the church.

16:46 Where the gospel is preached and the sacraments are administered.

16:50 That's all the church is.

16:51 He says yes, that's all the church is.

16:53 And they say really?

16:54 And he says, okay, I'm going to give you one more here in Article A.

17:00 detail. I'm going to deny some things and I'm going to affirm some things. So here in

17:07 Article 8 we get what the church is. And you get the really simple answer that we use

17:14 in all of our theological works. So this day that the church is nothing more than the

17:20 assembly of all believers everywhere throughout all time. So any time believers have come together

17:30 and have proclaimed the gospel and administered the sacraments

17:34 throughout all history everywhere on earth,

17:37 that is the church.

17:40 And if you want to know what the church is,

17:43 it's that simple.

17:45 The assembly of all believers throughout all time.

17:49 Now, somebody might say,

17:51 \"Well, I'm pretty sure that when I go to church on Sunday,

17:54 that we have some people there who don't believe.

18:00 who are just going through the motions.

18:02 I'm pretty sure we have people mixed in with us

18:04 who were just born in the church and they'll die in the church,

18:06 but they've never paid attention to one twit

18:09 to what the pastor's saying.

18:12 We call those people hypocrites.

18:15 Emma Langton says, yes, indeed,

18:18 there are mixed in with the true believers in the church,

18:21 hypocrites and sinners who remain.

18:25 They're among those who've been declared righteous

18:28 and are godly on account of Christ.

18:30 And the Church of His time says, \"Well, that's a problem.

18:34 It's a big problem.\"

18:36 Because the Church of His time, the Roman Church of His time would teach that the sacraments

18:42 are only effective, right, if the person giving the sacraments is a true believer, and that

18:48 everything's sort of working in order as it's supposed to, without all these hypocrites

18:51 mixed in.

18:52 It's called donatism.

18:53 It was a heresy.

18:54 And some like-then addresses that.

19:00 The sacraments, when they're administered according to the manner which the Bible teaches,

19:06 he uses this word called efficacious.

19:09 You can think of it this way. I always use it with the example.

19:12 If you've ever had back pain or knee pain and you've taken an Advil or a Tylenol or something like that

19:18 to help with the back pain or the knee pain, some sort of pain reliever.

19:22 So if you have back pain or knee pain and you take a couple of Advil or you take a couple of Tylenol,

19:30 will probably work and has the power potentially to ease your pain.

19:37 But I think we've all experienced times, maybe when we've had a bad headache,

19:41 and even though a couple of lads or a couple of tylenol might normally work

19:45 to solve that headache, to make it go away or to lessen the pain,

19:48 sometimes the headache is so bad that it just doesn't work,

19:50 or the back pain is so bad that it just wasn't work,

19:53 that that pain reliever isn't always effective.

19:57 But it is efficacious, right?

20:00 make up of those pain relievers are still have the power to potentially help the pain.

20:05 And that's, that's what efficacious means.

20:08 It can do it, even if it doesn't always do it.

20:12 Right? Even if it's not always perfectly accomplishing the desired end.

20:17 And so Melanchthon says the sacraments are efficacious.

20:21 They're helpful and powerful.

20:25 Even if they are administered by hypocrites and wicked people.

20:30 Your pastor is a hypocrite.

20:33 If he's administering the sacraments according to the testimony of scripture, it's efficacious.

20:40 And then again, he denies the donatist or the people, the heresy that denied that fact.

20:47 And then we get to the meat and potatoes of the thing.

20:50 Then we get to the down and dirty.

20:52 We're right back at it.

20:54 Malangthon as heady, a theological nerd as he can tend to be, he can't always stay in

21:00 don't stay in the clouds. He comes right back down to, we talked about what the church

21:06 itself, where the gospel is preached and the sacraments are administered. We talked about

21:11 what the church is, the assembly of believers, even hypocrites among them. And then we're

21:15 going to talk about what the church does, right? It preaches the word and it administers

21:20 the sacraments. He'll do this in four parts really, or five parts really. And we're going

21:30 stick to the first two.

21:32 He says, \"The church baptizes people,\"

21:35 Article 9 on baptism.

21:38 The church baptizes people.

21:42 He says, \"Baptism is necessary.

21:45 Baptism is the washing of the words.

21:47 Pouring water on some sinner

21:51 connected to the command of the Lord,

21:54 which says, \"Baptize the name of the Father, Son,

21:57 and Holy Spirit for the forgiveness and sins,

21:58 for the remission of sins,

22:00 generation of the center, that baptism is necessary. It ought not be denied. We ought

22:09 not fight against being baptized. It's necessary. It is necessary because it's a means of grace,

22:18 right? That's backing us up all the way back to the office of the ministry, where he says,

22:23 \"Through these means, through preaching and the sacraments, He gives the Holy Spirit,

22:30 where he pleases. Now we're told baptism is one of these means. Means by which the Holy

22:37 Spirit is given to produce and sustain faith. And then he goes on to say, \"Listen, I'm going

22:45 to hit something you real hard today.\" He says, \"Children ought to be baptized too.\"

23:00 through a miracle of the Holy Spirit is brought from unbelief to belief, is brought from being on the outside of the house of faith, to being on the inside as a child of God.

23:11 They are regenerated. They are made new. The old sinner is drowned in the waters of baptism, and the new believer in Christ is brought to life.

23:20 It's necessary. It doesn't require your understanding of what's going on. It requires water being poured over your head

23:30 of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

23:33 By one sinner to another sinner so that that sinner can be drowned and be brought to life

23:37 as a new creation.

23:39 It's necessary, even children.

23:41 And in doing this, he condemns one of the movements of his time called the Anabaptists,

23:47 who would teach something other, including the idea that a person absolutely had to know

23:52 what was going on.

24:00 or the sacrament of the altar or the Eucharist. It comes to us under many names.

24:07 And here we get what over time has been become in Protestant circles one of the most

24:15 controversial Lutheran teachings to date. He says this in Article 10, \"The true body

24:23 and blood of Christ, the true body and blood of Christ, the actual body and blood of Christ,

24:30 Not a metaphorical body and blood, not a symbolic body and blood.

24:34 The true actual body and blood of Christ are present, are given

24:39 under the form of the bread and the wine.

24:43 You'll sometimes hear Luther and say things like in with and under.

24:46 When the bread and the wine are given and received,

24:50 in with and under comes the body and blood of Christ.

24:53 He says against going against something called receptionism.

24:56 He says the body and blood of Christ with the bread and the wine are both

25:00 distributed, given, and received.

25:06 He says this this contrary doctrine of the sacramentarians is rejected and he rejects some other things.

25:14 But what's important here?

25:17 What's important here is that Malaython is acknowledging the scriptural teaching of Christ when he institutes the Supper.

25:24 When he says take eat,

25:27 this is my body.

25:30 take drink. This is my blood given for you for the forgiveness of your sins.

25:36 That we acknowledge that this still is real bread and wine, but that we acknowledge the miracle

25:43 that in with and under, along with, present under the form of the bread and the wine comes the body

25:49 and blood of Christ. But not just for the sake of the body and blood of Christ coming to us,

25:53 but as a tangible reminder and as a tangible proclamation that this is for the forgiveness

26:00 All of it. A renewal of faith. A communion with Christ and a communion with one another.

26:08 A real gift. A free gift. Requiring nothing of you.

26:15 Take it. This is my body. Take it. This is my blood.

26:20 That's why a very good translation of this is the one we're reading today.

26:25 This truly is a holy thing. This truly is a holy supper.

26:30 given to us by our Lord.

26:34 That's it for today.

26:36 Next session, we'll go through some of the other doctrines.

26:40 Another five.

26:41 I thank you for joining us for this 1517 Academy.

26:45 This is Dr. Scott Keith.

26:46 We'll see you next time.

26:48 [MUSIC PLAYING]

We're halfway through with Theology of the Augsburg Confession! I hope you're enjoying this course.
In this fourth session, we take a look at Articles XI-XIV:

XI: On Confession
XII: On Repentance
XIII: The Use of the Sacraments
XIV: On the Order of the Church

- Scott

00:00 [ Music ]

00:15 >> Hello, this is Dr. Scott Keith, Director of 1517.

00:19 This is the 1517 Academy with theology of the Augsburg Confession.

00:24 This is Session 4.

00:30 four articles or four doctrines. We'll do article 11 on confession article 12 on

00:36 repentance article 13 on the use of the sacraments article 14 in on order in

00:44 the church. The first one. Now again we're gonna back up just remember where

00:51 is we came from here. We ended on baptism in the Lord's Supper in the last session

01:00 they are a means of grace.

01:03 Also called sacraments.

01:05 Sometimes in Lutheranism, we're asked

01:07 how many sacraments do we have,

01:09 and we're usually wary to answer that question.

01:12 We'll usually say, well, we have baptism in the Lord's Supper,

01:16 but we don't often want to give a number,

01:18 say like two or seven like the Roman Catholic Church does.

01:22 Instead, we'll often describe what a sacrament is.

01:26 It's something instituted by God for our benefit,

01:30 forgiveness of sins usually combines a physical element along with the promise of forgiveness

01:36 of sins and institution by Christ saying do this in remembrance of me.

01:44 But sometimes we'll sneak in something else, something called absolution.

01:49 That is the forgiveness of sins, the particular forgiveness of sins from one person to another

01:54 person saying in the name of Jesus Christ I forgive your sins.

02:00 Because at times many Christians, and sometimes more often than we'd like,

02:06 we are worried. We're worried about whether or not we're actually forgiven.

02:12 We're worried about whether or not what we've done because it's so bad,

02:17 could actually be covered over by Christ's righteousness. We're worried

02:22 whether or not we're on the in instead of on the out. So I'm Langton here in

02:30 in the article on Confession says this,

02:33 it's interesting that the article I think is titled

02:35 Confession, but when Melanchthon describes it,

02:38 he goes right to absolution, which is forgiveness.

02:41 Not just a confession, but forgiveness.

02:44 And Melanchthon here says,

02:45 \"Private absolution should be retained,

02:48 \"that's kept within the church.\"

02:49 That's one center sitting down before another center,

02:52 usually a pastor and confessing their sins

02:55 and having that person particularly forgive them

03:00 He says, \"This ought to be retained in the church.\"

03:05 Now, again, this is maybe in the face of what's taught in our churches these days,

03:10 even in our Lutheran churches these days, where private confession is often not retained.

03:16 If confession privately or publicly is retained at all.

03:21 He says, \"It ought to be retained, but it's not necessary to enumerate all sins.\"

03:30 Luther's own history, there was a time which in a sense led to his evangelical discovery

03:36 where he attempted day after day after day to go to his confessor and to confess every

03:41 sin which he committed and he found out it was impossible.

03:45 And that if we tried to think of and remember and confess every sin which we ever committed

03:50 that we end up in this whirling, swirling conundrum of doubt, wondering if we've ever

03:56 done it all.

04:00 enumerate all your sins as you saying, listen, this isn't about the work of

04:04 confessing. And if you're doing a good job at the work of confessing, this is

04:09 about your conscience is troubled by something you need to know that Christ

04:13 has covered that sin or those sins and I hear as the pastor or I hear as one

04:18 hearing your confession need to forgive you and to set you free. My Dr.

04:25 Father Jim Nesukein tells the story of a time when he was doing a lot of

04:30 his earlier career, his church sent him on quite a bit of travels to help the church

04:35 at large.

04:37 And that he got into the habit of taking off his collar before he got into the plane

04:42 so that no one would recognize him as a pastor and start a conversation that would keep him

04:47 awake.

04:48 Because as he's traveling from place to place, sometimes the only sleep that he's getting

04:51 was asleep on the plane.

04:53 So after one particularly long trip, he goes into the bathroom, he takes off his collar,

05:00 and just as they're taking off,

05:03 you should look up a picture of Dr. Nesticon on the internet.

05:06 He's a large man.

05:08 And he says, \"As often happens when you're a large man on a plane,

05:12 they sit you in the middle next to two other large men.\"

05:15 And this is Dr. Nesticon squeezed in like a sardine to his plain seat,

05:20 next to this other large man.

05:23 And just as they're taking off, the man looks at him and says,

05:25 \"You're a pastor, aren't you?\"

05:30 Dr. Nesgin says, \"Yes, I am.\"

05:33 He says, \"What kind?\"

05:35 He says, \"Well, I'm a Lutheran pastor.\"

05:38 So that's interesting.

05:39 The man says, \"I grew up a Lutheran.\"

05:42 And then according to Dr. Nesgin, the man spends the next hour and 45 minutes or so

05:47 of the flight back to Minneapolis telling him the stories of the time that he spent

05:53 in Vietnam.

05:55 And telling him that he had left the church.

06:00 a place where he would be welcome after all of the things that he had done during the war and after.

06:08 And Dr. Nestigan did what he was best at. He sat there with an open ear and probably a bit of a smirk and smile on his face.

06:21 Kind smile though. Listen.

06:30 The flight attendants announced that you're on your initial descent.

06:34 He looks over at the man.

06:35 You know that time in the flight where you're supposed to make sure your seat belt is buckled.

06:39 He looks over at the man and simply asks him, \"Are you finished?\"

06:43 The man says, \"Finished with what?\"

06:47 And Dr. Nesstigen says, \"Are you finished confessing your sin?\"

06:51 He says, \"You've been confessing to me for the last hour and 40 minutes.

06:55 All I want to know is, \"Are you done?\"

06:57 \"Do you have anything else on your mind?\"

07:00 anything else that's burdening your conscience.

07:03 Is there anything else you need to say to me?

07:07 And the man thinks about it for a second and then he says,

07:11 yes, I think I'm done.

07:14 At that point, Dr. Nesigin says,

07:16 \"He unbuckled his seatbelt and began to stand up,

07:19 just as all the stewardesses come running

07:20 because a six foot three 250 pound man is standing up

07:24 and starts hovering over another man.\"

07:27 And he says, \"It's okay.\"

07:30 places his hand on the man's head and says,

07:34 \"In the name of Jesus Christ, I forgive you all of your sins.\"

07:39 And he sits back down and buckles the seatbelt.

07:43 The man, the Vietnam veteran, the broken man,

07:46 sits next to him with tears in his eyes and says,

07:49 \"What do you mean?\"

07:51 He says, \"I mean, your sins are forgiven.

07:54 You don't have to go searching after them anymore.

07:57 You don't have to keep dredging them up.

08:00 yourself filthy again in the dirt of the past. Christ Jesus has suffered all for

08:06 you and has covered you in His righteousness. You are forgiven. And He

08:12 says, \"You've got to be kidding. I've never heard anything like that before.\"

08:16 Dr. Nes

08:30 How do I get this?

08:32 Well, of course, Dr. Neskine points him to the fact that he should be finding a church

08:37 where they tell him this every Sunday.

08:40 But then gives him his card and then the famous words of Dr. Neskine says, \"I've recorded

08:44 a message there just for you.

08:46 If no one answers, hit three and you'll hear me say, 'In the name of Jesus Christ,

08:50 I forgive you all of your sins.'\"

08:55 Absolution is necessary in the church.

09:00 We are in deep need of knowing that Christ has died for even the worst things we've done,

09:06 even the worst things any of us have done. And here in Article 11, when Malenkton says simply,

09:15 \"private absolution should be retained.\" We ought to listen. It's important.

09:23 Article 12 on Repentancy says, \"A truth that we all need to be reminded of.\"

09:30 Those who sin after baptism received forgiveness of sins whenever they come to repentance.

09:36 Absolution should not be denied them.

09:39 You see, the church of his time had a tendency to deny forgiveness or to hold back forgiveness

09:47 if they thought that the confession was not contrived enough, if they thought it was not sincere enough.

09:55 And he's saying they ought to be like gymnastic and on the plane.

10:00 repentance. They ought to hear the confession even when the person doesn't

10:04 know they are confessing and not measure their sincerity but stand up and in the

10:08 name of Jesus Christ, forgive them of their sins. \"Absolution,\" he says, \"should not be denied

10:14 them.\" He goes on to define what true repentance means. He says true repentance

10:30 a tax with what? With the knowledge of the sins they have committed. And true

10:40 contrition also has as a part of it believing the gospel. That is believing

10:47 that for Christ's sake when the person hearing your confession says to you in

10:52 the name of Jesus Christ your sins are forgiven and they absolve you believing

11:00 but because of the declared words of forgiveness that are Christ Jesus, the

11:04 Word made flesh coming to them. He says this is the only faith that will

11:11 comfort the terrified conscience. This is the only faith that will comfort the

11:15 heart. And then he acknowledges, I think what we can all acknowledge as a

11:22 given. But you say sometimes we have to say what is a given because it's not

11:30 We have to have common sense when we know most of the world sense is not common

11:36 So he says it

11:39 He says the fruits of repent repentance

11:42 What are the fruits?

11:44 Amendment of life and attempting to forsake sin

11:49 As dr. Nestigan put it not diving back down into the muck that is your sin and continually drugged it back up in your life

12:00 ought to follow. It makes sense. If you were so terrified, if your conscience was so smitten

12:09 with this sin and somebody has come and let you go from that sin, has released you, has

12:14 forgiven you in the name of Christ, that sin is no more should you want to grab that

12:30 But should the fruits of repentance follow? Absolutely.

12:34 Natural question comes up. What happens when we do grab those sins back?

12:38 We do participate in them even though we ought not want to.

12:44 That's when we're reminded that private absolution should be retained in the church.

12:50 So that we can hear the words forgiveness one more time.

12:54 In the name of Jesus Christ your sins are forgiven.

13:00 He goes on into Article 3, say.

13:03 And you have to notice there that while he's not calling confession and repentance and

13:09 sacrament, he is kind of lumping it in to the sections on the sacrament because his order

13:14 goes from baptism to the Lord's Supper to confession to repentance and then in Article

13:20 13 answering the question, \"How are these things used in the use of the sacraments?\"

13:30 things under the heading that we get way back in Article 5 on the means of grace.

13:37 They're all sort of getting lumped in into this means of grace.

13:42 God gives us His grace on account of Christ through means, proclaimed words of forgiveness,

13:47 in sermons, in private absolution, in public absolution, in baptism, and the Lord's Supper.

13:53 This is how this stuff comes to us through the church.

14:00 use of the sacraments, Melanchthon says this. You see, the sacraments, he says, are not only

14:06 signs which identify us as Christians, right? Because that's the answer of his day and often

14:13 of our day. How do we know that we're a Christian? Well, we'll go to church on Sunday,

14:17 right? That's how we know. How do you know your neighbors are Christian? Well, if their

14:21 car is parked in their driveway at 10 a.m. on Sunday morning, maybe they're not. If their

14:30 Like it says, the use of these sacraments, the sacraments aren't just a sign which identifies

14:36 as Christians. They may be that, but it's not just that. But rather, they're also signs

14:44 of God's will toward us for the awakening that's getting hold of, the grabbing hold

14:51 of, the engendering of, and the strengthening of our faith. Think of it this way. We want

15:00 things as our signs that we hold up to the world. We want to say these are ours,

15:06 aren't we great people? We use the sacraments. We're Christians. Malainthon

15:13 says okay, sure. We can identify Christians as those who make use of the

15:19 sacraments. But aren't they more signs of what God wants for us than of what we

15:30 Aren't they signs of God's will toward us that God wants us to have this saving faith that God wants our

15:36 Consciences to be consoled that God wants us to go from death to life

15:42 That God wants us to go from grief to joy

15:47 That God wants his blessings to be showered upon us

15:51 That God wants us to have true faith in him

16:00 Isn't that what their signs of?

16:03 He says, \"That's why the sacraments require faith.\"

16:08 And then you're going to go back and you're going to say, \"But I thought we couldn't do anything.\"

16:13 And this is where you get the glorious message that is the conundrum of Christianity.

16:19 Does God require that you have faith in order to be saved?

16:23 Answer, yes.

16:25 Did you make that faith in yourself?

16:30 because God always gives what He requires.

16:34 Knowing that you can't, He does.

16:38 Knowing that you wouldn't, He sent His Son.

16:41 Knowing that you're not righteous,

16:43 He sends the righteousness to stand in front of you.

16:47 Faith is required and that faith is a gift,

16:49 that even when you have it, it's yours,

16:51 but it's not you that worked it in you.

16:54 It's God who worked it in you on account of Christ

17:00 And they're rightly used when they are used for the purpose of strengthening the faith

17:10 which they give initially too.

17:13 It's a glorious message.

17:17 It's the message of our redemption in Christ.

17:21 It's the message of God's one-sided gift towards us.

17:25 It's the message that it's not all of our repentance, which in the words of Dr. Rosenblatt

17:30 is always half-assed, but in God's faithfulness towards us

17:35 in the forgiveness of sins on the count of Christ,

17:37 in absolution, in the giving of faith,

17:40 in the strengthening of faith through word and sacrament,

17:44 through simple lips to simple ears and hearts.

17:51 And then we get the question, which is a very good question,

17:55 and one which is on the mind of many current Christians

18:00 There's order and disunity of bounding in the church.

18:05 In Article 14, Melanchthon deals with order in the church.

18:10 This has a lot to do with who is it that serves us in the church on Sunday morning.

18:17 Is there somebody whose job it particularly is to be this person that when we go there,

18:30 of that it is responsible for making sure that the word is proclaimed in all of its

18:36 efficaciousness, that the sacraments are given in all of their power.

18:41 M. Langton says, \"Yeah.\"

18:45 He says, \"Let's be clear on this.

18:50 No one should publicly teach or preach or administer the sacraments in the church without

18:54 a regular call.\"

18:56 What does this mean?

19:00 when I go to church on Sunday or whenever or you go whenever and you sit

19:07 down and there's a pastor at the front and that pastor is faithfully

19:12 proclaiming the Word of God and that pastor is faithfully administering the

19:16 sacraments it's not your job to hop up and push them out of the way and say

19:20 don't worry about this I got this let me do this for you it means that as a

19:25 body of believers when we come together it's whether that body be local

19:30 church, whether it be a group of local churches or whether it be a national or

19:34 worldwide body of churches, that we have the responsibility to a point to call

19:42 even to ordain people to be in those positions for particular bodies of

19:48 believers so that they know where to come to get the goods and they know who

19:54 will be handing out the goods when they get there.

20:00 but it's really not. Again, it's like the 911. Somebody has a heart attack. You don't trust it to the crowd to call 911.

20:11 You point to say it, somebody you say, \"You.\" It's your job. You call 911.

20:18 Malignant is saying here it's the job of the church to point individual pastor and say, \"You.\"

20:30 And that no one over there should just pop up without,

20:35 if that person, especially if that person is already there and say,

20:39 \"Push me out of the way and say I got this.\"

20:42 We call that a regular call.

20:45 They are called to serve.

20:47 They are called by God to serve.

20:53 No one should publicly teach or preach,

20:55 \"Admissions to the sacraments in the church without a regular call.\"

21:00 legalism. This is for assurance. This is so that we know when we show up that someone

21:08 will be there to forgive our sins, that someone will be there to preach the gospel

21:13 to us, that someone will be there to baptize, that someone will be there to put the body

21:18 and blood, the bread and the wine into our mouths and tell us in the name of Jesus Christ

21:30 order in the church. Confession, repentance, use of the sacraments, order in the church.

21:38 We get a complete picture of the life in the church. I told you earlier that one

21:44 of the reasons I love the Augsburg Confession is because Melancton not only

21:48 takes us through topics of theology but he takes us through our life. We have one

21:55 God in divine essence three in persons who create us and made us. Even though he

22:00 perfect because of Adam and Eve's sin, we're all born sinful. He sent his son to be our

22:08 everything, to live the perfect life in our stead, to die the sacrificial death we could

22:14 not, to rise again on the third day as the first fruits of our resurrection. On account

22:20 of that same Christ we are justified, that he gives the office of the ministry so that

22:30 produce good works, go into the world, live your calling, doing just that. That He gives

22:36 us the church. So that in the church we can hear that gospel so that we can receive the

22:42 sacraments. He gives us baptism and the Lord's Supper as a means of His grace. He provides

22:50 pastors and teachers and family members and pastors especially to hear our confession

23:00 And then he tells us why he does these things.

23:04 And then he provides a means by which these things

23:08 ought to happen in the church. Not just the teaching of

23:12 doctrine, but a progression of life in the

23:16 church on account of Christ. This has been

23:20 Session 4, the Theology of the Augsburg Confession,

23:24 1517 Academy, and I'm Dr. Scott Key. See you next time.

23:30 (upbeat music)