Lutherans are all about the salvation of the world, the forgiveness of sins, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the very name of Jesus, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Whenever we hear the “forgiveness of sins” it is a big deal. This is what Jesus is all about. Naturally, this is what Lutheran worship is all about. How do we know we are forgiven, that Christ’s death and resurrection applies to us? We find out when we gather together in his name.
Salvation and the forgiveness of sins mean a lot of things. In general, we receive the salvation of our personhood and the salvation of the community. We are being saved from our own sin and corruption, but also from the sins of others that were inflicted upon us, and the corruption of a fallen cosmos. Ultimately this salvation comes through the restoration of all things in our new humanity that we have and shall have because of Christ’s incarnation, death and resurrection, being joined to him in faith, and justified by his grace.
This salvation comes to us through a verdict, “innocent.” This is the verdict that we receive on the Last Day in final judgment. Yet, it is also a verdict received in the here and now. It has already been done. There is simultaneously a “now and not yet” component to our salvation. Here and now, our bodies are still held captive to the law of sin and entropy. But having the forgiveness of our sins, we look forward to the day of resurrection. The judgment on the day to come is two fold: we are declared innocent of our own sins, but we also receive vindication and restitution for our sufferings and the dark, evil injustice that has been thrust upon us. Judgment isn’t always negative, but it is also a positive thing when things are restored to order.
In the life of the Church this forgiveness extends from Jesus, flowing from him to us and to one another. Asking God for forgiveness is hardly something that we move beyond in our daily lives as Christians. Forgiveness takes on this dynamic focus in worship, specifically in the Lords prayer, which is a "daily" prayer. In it we petition God, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”. And we also ask him to “deliver us from evil”. Furthermore, when Lutherans sing, “Lord have mercy” in this way, they identify with all the characters in the Gospels who beg the Lord for mercy, whether it is forgiveness or healing, it is both. Not only do we see ourselves in the Gospels as contemporaries, but we also hear the Lords forgiveness to us in these narratives. We are poor beggars, and likewise ask, “Lord have mercy” to save us from our own sins and the sins of others. We ask this because we know he will come to save us.
In Lutheran worship we do not merely hear “about” forgiveness, or talk “about” forgiveness. Neither do we talk “about” God. Rather, we hear and receive God’s forgiveness directly – it breaks forth from the cross reaching us in the “here and now” through the Word which is Spirit and Truth. We boldly proclaim it because God has authorized us to preach this way.
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” and when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld” (John 20:21-23). And “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Matthew 18:18-19.
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