The Third Article.
The Forgiveness Of Sins.
Which is the Third Article?
_I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Christian Church, the communion
of saints; the forgiveness of sins._
What does this mean?
_In which Church He_ [the Holy Ghost] _daily and richly forgives all
sins to me and all believers._
1. We confess in our Catechism that the Holy Ghost forgives all sins to
me and all believers. _We believe that there is a forgiveness of sins.
God's Word assures us of this. _"There is forgiveness with Thee."_ Ps.
130,4. _How sorely do we need forgiveness of sins!_ You know that all
men, also believers, commit sin. A child of God indeed earnestly
strives against committing any sin, he tries not to transgress the
commandments of his heavenly Father; but, alas! also God's children sin
daily and much. _"There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and
sinneth not."_ Eccl. 7,20. With our sins we deserve nothing but God's
punishment. _"The wages of sin is death."_ Rom. 6,23. _Without
forgiveness of sins we are lost.
2. _But there is a forgiveness of sins with God._ He assures us in His
Word that by grace, for Christ's sake, He will forgive me all my sins.
He will do so _daily and richly._ Whenever we have sinned, we should
come to Him and pray to Him: Forgive me my trespasses. Even as a child
who has grieved his father by his disobedience penitently comes to him
and asks his forgiveness, so we in true penitence should daily come to
our heavenly Father, whom we have so sorely grieved, whose punishment we
deserve, and ask His forgiveness. _He will not cast us out._ He will
hear our prayer, and we will praise Him: _"Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all His benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who
healeth all thy diseases."_ Ps. 103,2.3. The _publican_ came into the
Temple and humbly said: _"God be merciful to me, a sinner!"_ and God was
merciful to him; he went down to his house _justified._ He had received
forgiveness of his sins. Luke 18,9-14.
3. God forgives us our sins. He is moved to do this _not by our good
works or merits._ God does not see anything in us which could induce Him
to forgive us our trespasses. We deserve nothing but punishment. _His
free grace alone moves God to forgive us all our sins._ Our God is a
merciful God. He takes pity on us, His sinful children.--By grace God
_forgives_ us our sins, that is, He does not look upon our sins, does
not _impute_ them to us, but declares us sinners _righteous._ In the
beautiful parable of our Lord which we find Matt. 18,23 ff., the wicked
servant asks his Lord to have patience with him, whom he owed so much.
And the kind lord, moved with compassion, loosed the servant from his
fetters and forgave him all his debts, which he never would have been
able to pay. _Thus God, moved with compassion, does not punish us as we
have deserved, and declares us free from debt, declares us righteous, or
in other words, God justifies us._
4. How can the just and holy God who has threatened to punish all who
transgress His commandments forgive sins and declare sinners righteous?
He does so _for Christ's sake. In Christ_ we have the forgiveness of
sins. _"In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of His grace."_ Eph. 1,7 Christ
fulfilled the Law of God in our stead, He suffered the punishment for
our sins, and so made good for us. _He has earned full forgiveness for
us; for His sake all our sins are forgiven._
5. Who _receives_ forgiveness of sins? We confess that God forgives all
sins _to me and all believers._ It is true, Christ has _procured_
forgiveness _for all men_--Christ died for every sinner. God, in His
grace, _offers_ this forgiveness by the Gospel _to all who hear it._ We
read: _"God was in Christ, reconciling the world_ [all men] _unto
Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed
unto us the Word of Reconciliation."_ 2 Cor. 5,19. Yet not all receive
forgiveness, but only those _who believe in Christ and thus accept the
forgiveness_ which Christ has earned for all men. Without faith in
Christ there is no forgiveness of sins. _We are justified by faith
alone._
6. We receive forgiveness of sins, we are justified before God, _without
the deeds of the Law, by grace alone, for Christ's sake, through faith
in our Lord._ This is the _chief article of our Christian faith._ This
doctrine is taught only by the Christian Church. _It gives all the glory
for our salvation to God and affords true comfort to all sinners._