For Seeking Truth and Consoling Troubled Consciences, by Martin Luther

For seeking the truth and consoling timid consciences, these theses will be discussed in turns according to our custom, under the direction of Reverend Father Martin Luther, Augustinian. 1518.

1. Among those ecclesiastical remissions, the remission of guilt far surpasses the remission of penalty.
2. The remission of guilt soothes the heart and removes the greatest of all penalties, namely, the conscience of sin.
3. The remission of penalty sometimes increases a bad conscience, sometimes nourishes worse presumption.
4. The remission of guilt reconciles a person to God; the remission of penalty reconciles a person to others, that is, to the church.
5. When guilt and conscience are remitted, there is no penalty in the penalty, but joy in tribulations.
6. A person can be saved without the remission of penalty, but by no means without the remission of guilt.
7. It is more beneficial for salvation if, absolved from guilt, one omits the redemption of penalties.
8. The remission of guilt does not rely on the contrition of the sinner, nor on the office or power of the priest.
9. It relies rather on faith, which is in the word of Christ saying: “Whatever you loose,” etc. [Matthew 16:19]
10. For it is true that not the sacrament of faith, but the faith of the sacrament (that is, not because it is performed, but because it is believed) justifies.
11. Christ did not wish human salvation to depend on human hands or judgment.
12. But as it is written: “He upholds all things by the word of His power,” [Hebrews 1:3] and: “purifying their hearts by faith.” [Acts 15:9]
13. Those who assert the uncertainty of the remission of guilt due to the uncertainty of contrition err to the point of unbelief.
14. No matter how uncertain both priest and sinner are about contrition, absolution is valid if one believes oneself absolved.
15. Therefore, it is certain that sins are forgiven if you believe they are forgiven, because the promise of Christ the Savior is certain.
16. One absolved by the key ought rather to die and deny every creature than to doubt their absolution.
17. To doubt that one’s absolution is pleasing to God is to simultaneously doubt that Christ was truthful when He said: “Whatever,” etc. [Matthew 16:19]
18. Building the remission on contrition is building on sand, that is, on human works, rather than on the faith of God.
19. It is an injury to the sacrament and a machinery of despair not to believe in absolution until contrition is certain.
20. Indeed, to want to build the confidence of the conscience on contrition is to declare God a liar and oneself truthful.
21. Such people presume most ruinously on their works and strengths, not on the mercy and word of Christ.
22. Indeed, they perversely want to establish the word and faith themselves, rather than being established by the word and faith.
23. Priests are not the authors of remission, but ministers of the word in the faith of remission.
24. The power of the keys works a firm and infallible deed by the word and command of God, unless you are deceitful.
25. The priest has sufficient evidence of contrition if he perceives the sinner asking for and believing in absolution.
26. Indeed, it is much more necessary to ask him whether he believes himself absolved than whether he is sufficiently sorrowful.
27. The priest must also beware not to explore contrition alone so that a person believes themselves absolved because of it.
28. Rather, the words of Christ “Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven” [Matthew 9:2] must be impressed upon him, more than examining his worthiness.
29. Consequently, the words of Christ “whose sins you forgive,” etc., [John 20:23] are understood not of penalties but of guilt.
30. Just as a priest teaches, baptizes, and truly communicates, yet these are the workings of the Spirit within,
31. So he truly forgives and absolves from guilt, yet this is the work of the Spirit within.
32. In all these things, while he ministers the word of Christ, he simultaneously exercises the faith by which the sinner is inwardly justified.
33. For nothing justifies except faith alone in Christ, to which the ministry of the word by the priest is necessary.
34. Without this faith, the contrition of sinners is a work of despair and more offensive to God than reconciling.
35. A priest can abuse the key and sin by absolving someone he should not have, being restricted,
36. But the absolution is not null unless the faith of the absolved is also null.
37. Just as in baptism and the Eucharist, even a restricted and prohibited key truly baptizes and communicates,
38. So in penance, however prohibited, it truly absolves, provided there is no deceit in the absolved.
39. Even a lighthearted and joking priest or one acting knowingly against the restriction still truly baptizes and absolves.
40. Imagine a case (per impossibility) of someone being absolved without contrition but believing themselves absolved; this person is truly absolved.
41. No reservation of cases or restriction can stand against this if it was and remains unknown.
42. The sacraments of the new law are not such effective signs of grace that it is enough not to put up an obstacle in receiving them.
43. Rather, whoever approaches any sacrament without faith, approaches it falsely and to their own judgment.
44. The sacraments of the old and new law differ in that the former were of the flesh, while the latter are justifications of the spirit.
45. In the new ones, there is the word of the promiser; in the old ones, this was lacking, and hence the faith of the receiver of remission.
46. Just as venial sins do not pertain to the confession and absolution of the keys, neither do all mortal sins.
47. If a person were required to confess all mortal sins and be absolved from them, they would be required to do the simply impossible.
48. No human knows how many times they sin mortally, even in good works because of vain glory.
49. One should only confess those sins that are certain to themselves or others as being mortal, that is, crimes,
50. For the rest, despairing of oneself, one should trustfully throw oneself into the abyss of the mercy of God who faithfully promises.

To sum it up:

The righteous will live by faith, not by works or by the law. Romans 1. [Romans 1:17]