The Family Altar
October 26.
"Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." Matt. 9:
2.
After the rise of popery it was a long, long time till the poor
Christians again heard the voice of their Savior forgiving them
their sins in His gracious and infallible Word. During the Baby-
lonian Captivity of the Church under popery, the Gospel of for-
giveness and salvation by grace through faith in the all-sufficient
merit of our Lord Jesus Christ was unknown to our forefathers.
Instead they were told to perform all kinds of penance, to make
pilgrimages, to buy indulgences, and, if they wanted to make sure
of their pardon with God, to enter a cloister and become monks
or nuns. Even when sick and dying, the comfort of forgiveness
for Christ's sake was withheld from them, and they were taught
to believe that they would have to suffer untold tortures in pur-
gatory for their unforgiven sins until the priest, by his Mass and
prayers, had released them. We would still be in this terrible
power of popery and suffer the agony of soul which our poor fore-
fathers suffered if God in His boundless mercy had not restored
unto us the light of His saving Gospel through Luther. But now .
we no longer need to go to auricular confession where the priest
sits as judge and has the power to impose all kinds of penances
upon people. As often as our sins assail us, and Satan accuses us,
we can open our Bible and read this comforting word of our Savior :
"Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." Christ alone
secured pardon for our sins. He alone has the right and the power
to forgive them. And He does forgive them in His holy Word
which we read or hear. When He says to the penitent sinner:
"Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee," that is then
no mere ineffectual, kind wish, but in that word sin is really and
effectually forgiven. 0 blessed people that we are in having re-
stored to us the pure Gospel with its sweet assurance of the for-
giveness of our sins in Christ, our only Redeemer!
The Gospel shows the Father's grace,
Who sent His Son to save our race,
Proclaims how Jesus lived and died
That man might thus be justified.
It brings the Savior's righteousness
Our souls to robe in royal dress;
From all our guilt it brings release,
And gives the troubled conscience peace.
it is the power of God to gave
Prom sin and Satan and the grave;
It works the faith which firmly clings
To all the treasures which it brings.
