I have said before in these pages that what we as Lutherans really need to do in life is look at the end and work or way back to the present . We have been given the gift of eternal life and through Christ we live that life now. In light of the end when Christ gathers all his own together from every tribe and tongue and nation and people, we look to present circumstances and put all of our life into bringing others into fellowship with Him.
Though it seems strange the ministry is about the forgiveness of sins. It is about delivering the forgiveness won by Christ on the cross. Jesus said in Luke 24 –45Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
One of the missionaries in his papers and documents in applying for missionary status was asked what he felt his major task was as a Pastor and missionary. His answer awed and inspired me because it is so true of all Pastors of the true church – “to offer the forgiveness of sins by any means necessary”. That is what we are to do. Anything else is commentary.
