The Practical Treatment of the Doctrine of Justification 1

The article of justification, as the center point of Christian doctrine, is also the chief content of Christian preaching. The renowned Catholic priest Martin Boos2, who in the midst of papist surroundings had recognized the gospel of the glory and grace of God, called himself with fondness a preacher of righteousness which avails before God. All preachers should make claim to this title. The pericopes of the church year give ample opportunity to secure Christian hearers in this main part of Christian doctrine. It is surely true that in choosing the epistle pericopes the texts that describe sanctification have been predominantly considered. However, if one really looks, one may find in the Epistles enough saying that deal with faith. And certainly a preacher does right and good when, first of all, he presents and explains to his congregation in particular the actual sedes doctrinae3 from which our church from time immemorial has drawn the doctrine of justification, such as the well-known passages from Romans and Galatians. Generally, however, even an evangelical preacher, when it is proper with him, always preaches Christ, whatever text series he might follow, and to preach Christ is the same as to preach on justification. And how one should now speak and teach about Christ and the righteousness which is present in him, how one could explain this important matter quite clearly and comprehensibly to simple-minded Christians, may here be shown from Scripture. If one rightly examines the principal Scripture passages that here come into consideration, pays attention to the individual terms that the Holy Spirit has chosen, to the ordering and connecting of ideas, then one may herein find enough hints and clues for practical treatment, particularly homiletical treatment of the article of justification. First of all, Scripture clearly indicates the punctum criticum4 to which we are here concerned, namely, how man may exist in time and eternity before God, before Gods judgment. The that particularly Paul extols in his epistles is not righteousness that God demands from mankind, not righteousness of life, not the normal moral condition of man, but righteousness that avails before God, that God regards as such. It here concerns God's judgment, how man may obtain for himself God's judgment. Such expressions as () "will be justified in His sight"5, prove it. And so a Christian preacher must above all things and again and again refer his listeners to this point and in each of them bring to life the question that is still the most important question for every person: How do you intend to be justified before God? How do you stand before God? What does your God say and judge about you? And everything is truly located on this: not what men say and think about you or what you yourself have as an opinion about yourself, but what God considers about you. It
1

What is reported here was based on a presentation of this year's proceedings of the Pastoral Conference of the Minnesota and Dakota District. The publication of this in the "Magazine", which takes place at the request of the conference, should correspond to the tendency of the current volume our homiletic magazine, which will guide to a practical treatment of epistle texts. 2 Martin Boos (1762-1825) was a German Roman Catholic theologian who developed a doctrine of salvation by faith which came very near to pure Lutheranism. This he preached with great effect. 3 Seat of doctrine. 4 Critical point. 5 Romans 3:20.

cannot be denied that more experienced senses already somewhat include those who rightly comprehend the concept of "justification", righteousness that avails before God". Scripture thus also makes available easier, more comprehensible terms and expressions for us, from which one can first start with and through which one can convey the understanding of that difficult concept. Where the apostle wants to explain the example of David in Romans chapter four, how God "imputes righteousness"6 to men, he imports the words of Psalm 32: "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered!"7 Therefore imputed righteousness, the righteousness of God, is so much more than forgiveness of sins. The apostle uses both terms promiscue.8 That is why one couches that question of conscience in the form of: How do you attain forgiveness of sins? How can you obtain a merciful God? And this must justifiably be your main wish, your greatest desire, that God not consider your sins and may not attribute them to you. The question: How may I be justified before God? How will I be justified before God? or How do I obtain forgiveness of sins? The question ultimately boils down to the cardinal question: How am I saved? How do I obtain eternal life? The apostle says in Romans chapter four, where he deals with the doctrine of justification, from verse 13 on about the inheritance, how one gains eternal life. He emphasizes in Romans 5:9 that the ones being justified, someday are kept from wrath, and Romans 5:17 that those who have received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness someday will reign in life. In other words: Where there is righteousness, where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. The critical question is then expressed fully: how are we justified and saved before God. And who, then, would not like to be saved? Every shepherd of souls has the experience that his little sheep avert their eyes all too easily from the actual purpose and goal of life and want to lose themselves in earthly matters in their thoughts, questions, concerns, that honor and respect among men, temporal goods and happiness is still far too much among them. Now he thus puts the question in the foreground, in the center, again and again in public preaching, as well as in private, when he deals with individuals: How will you be justified before God? How will you get along with God? No one can escape from the length of the hand and the judgment of God. Each one must come to grips with God. How? Should this not be your main concern: that you may obtain a merciful verdict where men may not have a say, where men can no longer help you; that you may inherit eternal life when this temporal life with all its goods and pleasures has vanished? Where Scripture answers this fundamental question, it consistently opposes the false opinion of mankind. In Romans, where St. Paul outlines the doctrine of justification, St. Paul fights Jewish-Pharisaic self-righteousness. In Galatians, where he undertakes the same subject, he has to deal with false teachers who had intruded into the Christian community, who behaved like Christians, could speak beautifully of Christ and faith, but they set faith alongside works, e.g., argued circumcision as a necessary requirement of salvation. Likewise in Philippians.9 We must never lose sight of this contradiction. Because the largest part of visible Christianity by far is leavened by that Jewish leaven. The papacy establishes salvation on
6 7

Romans 4:6. Romans 4:7-8. 8 Together. 9 See 3:1ff.

external sanctimoniousness. The sects and enthusiasts also urge works, only more inward works, inward struggles, all sorts of penitential exercises, where they talk about the path that leads to heaven. Modern theology, whether it makes many words about justification by faith, nevertheless describes justifying faith as a moral act and power of mankind. Yes, that is the religion of reason that also still lies in the flesh and blood of Christians. It seems only to be all too natural and self-evident that man must somehow participate in his eternal fortune, that God's judgment over mankind is determined by man's conduct. We must defend and control against such common human delusions as often as we counsel our Christians about their soul's salvation and life. Scripture gives repeatedly in short, concise sentences the correct answer to the question, "How are we justified and saved?". Romans 3:28 says: "So we conclude that a man is justified without the deeds of the law through faith alone." This is the shibboleth of the Lutheran Church. Christian preachers would be well advised when they drive home to their Christians in flesh and blood, so to speak, such short, easy, comprehensible, powerful sentences, in order that they immediately find ground under their feet as soon as they get into serious moral dilemma. We find a similar concise confession of justification in Galatians 2:1516: "Albeit we are Jews by nature and not sinners from the Gentiles; yet we know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified." Three times St. Paul here professes the same truth, almost with the same words, that a man is justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Such an apparent tautology and verbosity is intended by Holy Spirit. We should not be tired of always saying the same thing. For flesh and blood, proud reason and tiresome Satan, unceasingly persuade Christians to the contrary, that faith in Christ is still not enough, even that the work of men is necessary for salvation. It is necessary to react to this and to silence reason and Satan and counter the old lie and old truth with: Not by works, but by faith alone in Jesus Christ. St. Paul says: We know that a man is not justified by works of the law, is justified by nothing other than ( ) by faith in Jesus Christ. Thus we also should speak and instruct our Christians to say with us: We know and have experienced it since we came into the throng, God disputes that with us, that there was no reliance on our works, that nothing else helped and saved there but faith in our Savior Jesus Christ. St. Paul says: We Jews, we are not sinners of the Gentiles, have not lived in such disgraceful works like the heathen, we also believe in Christ Jesus, we would be justified in no other way, as the godless heathens. And we say, and invite our Christians to agree with us: Even we Christians, who are reborn by God's grace and have worked much good, are able to display better works than the godless world, we even want to be justified and saved in no other way as in the way a poor thief and malefactor is justified and saved, without works, through faith alone in Christ. What the apostle further expresses as the opinion and attitude of his heart in Philippians 3:8-9: "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith" - we should hold as a rule10 to our
10

Philippians 3:16.

Christians that they may be similarly minded11, to let all other things go and only esteem as gain Christ and His righteousness. What the apostle presents in the passages cited, and similarly in short, almost stereotypical form, is presented in more detail in other places of Scripture. The locus classicus for the doctrine of justification is Rom. 3:21 ff: "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it -- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith" etc. As we lay the basis for further discussion this , we look first to the order of the terms that come into consideration here. The well known sentence of the Augsburg Confession, that we are justified and saved before God by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith, is the form, as taken from the content according to Paul's words. In the first place is "by grace". The grace of God is the moving cause of . In the second place belongs "for Christ's sake". Paul makes redemption, as is done through Christ Jesus, or more accurately, which is available in Christ Jesus, as the designated means of justification. We are redeemed by Christ from our sins, our sin is atoned for by Christ (). And faith appears in this context as means and organ, by which man applies to himself Christ and redemption, the atonement, the righteousness which is available in Christ Jesus. Therefore, faith is the final link in this affair. Whoever believes this has a share in the grace of God, in the merit and righteousness of Christ and therefore also has everything he needs. The modernists pervert this order usually by putting faith first in their doctrinal books and preaching books and superimpose what God does to the sinner on faith and thus already betray that they understand something completely different about faith and justification by grace that what Scripture reveals about this. We should, as often as we speak, preach, teach about justification always maintain the train of thought that Scripture provides us: by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith. We then remain factually on the right track. This disposition is based on the preaching of Luther and other orthodox fathers, and is also formally expressed, e.g., in Walther's sermons on justification. As we now set about further to examine the aforementioned concepts with Scripture, and watch how we bring our Christian people to the best understanding of it, it should be noted only in advance that every time we touch this material it should not be necessary that we treat all parts of the doctrine in extenso.12 The preaching of righteousness that avails before God indeed passes through all preaching, if they are the right kind [of preaching]. One time we talk about this topic in detail, another time less, another time we only indicate it. What we say about it, be it much or little, will always bring to remembrance the entire article and shed new light on it. We thus only speak and teach truly and clearly along the lines of Scripture. If we praise the grace of God one time, another time speak about Christ's redemptive work, another time about faith, then that would also go a long way to secure the hearts and consciences of Christians in the truth of the Gospel, provided we concern ourselves only within the confines of Scripture.
11 12

Philippians 3:15. at full length.

1. By Grace We are justified "by His", that is God's "grace", .13 The apostle repeatedly thinks of the grace of God where he speaks about righteousness that avails before God.14 Grace is the reason that God determines to consider us and accept us as righteous. Grace is favor and kindness. The grace of God is the supreme proof of God's love. The goodness and kindness of God extends over all creatures, the mercy of God over the poor and miserable, the grace of God benefits poor sinners. Grace is God's love of sinners. Grace belongs to the unworthy, as Luther so often emphasizes. Everyone can now perhaps easily understand if one says to him that God loves sinners and accepts the poor sinner into favor. But it is important that poor sinners also get a deep, lasting impression of this unique love of God that we call grace, that they see and taste some from it, how gracious is the Lord, that they heartily rejoice and learn to take comfort over the grace of God. Therefore, we must continue to pay attention to how the Apostle explains and interprets the expression, "By grace". He writes "and are justified without merit by His grace". "Without merit", , free, for nothing, or what is the same, "without help of the law"15, or "without works of the Law"16, that is a more full explanation of the term, "By grace". Grace is the counterpart of works of the Law. It says in Romans 4:4: "But to the one who deals with the Law, the reward is imputed not by grace, but by obligation." Two instances are conceivable. Either God gives something to someone by obligation and duty, namely when he has earned something with his works. Or He gives something to someone by grace, namely when he can present absolutely no work and merit. The one instances excludes the other. We read in Romans 11:6: "And if it is by grace, then it is not by merit of works; otherwise grace would not be grace. But if it is by merit of works, then grace is nothing; otherwise merit would not be merit." It thus serves for defining the term "By grace" when we show that we are justified without merit of works. In the previously quoted sayings the phrase "not by works of the law" stands out. "Not by works" or "Not by works of the Law" is inculcated probably about fifty times in the writings of the apostles. For this reason the Holy Spirit has strongly involved the interpreters of Scripture to inculcate this word well to their hearers. When we have made quite distinct and clear to our Christians what "Not by works" wants to say, and when we have convinced them of the fact that no flesh is justified by works of the Law, then we have taught them what grace is. The papists understand under works of the Law the works that God had specifically imposed in the Jewish law, in the ceremonial law. These are now of no more use in the New Testament. But with it they thumb their nose at Scripture. "Works of the Law" are obviously all works that God has prescribed in the Law, above all the works of the Ten Commandments, which all people are commanded. All these works are excluded from the article of justification. The one says or thinks to himself about it, and yet even such thoughts come to a Christian, because he still has flesh and blood: I have killed no one robbed and cheated no one, have not
13 14

Romans 3:24. Cf. Romans 5:17, 20; Galatians 2:21. 15 Romans 3:21. 16 Romans 3:28.

committed adultery, I have never knowingly done harm to my neighbor, I have spent my days in discipline and honor. Should God ignore the whole thing if He enters into judgment with me? We must answer: Not by works! The fact that you have avoided vice and shame does not clean and purify you before God. Another has something more to utilize than an honest name. He speaks and thinks: I have applied all good works to myself according to my ability, strived after that which is praise and virtue, I have not forgotten to do good and to share, I have not failed in alms and sacrifices. Should these good works not balance the scale when God delivers His judgment about me? We answer: No! Not by works! You cannot gain God's favor with your best works. Man may not so soon deny his own ideas and concepts about righteousness and otherwise conclude: Well then, I admit that the mere external work avails nothing before God. But God still looks at the heart. It depends on the attitude of the heart. The attitude of the heart is the only right value to men and his works, especially before God's eyes. And God now knows my heart's point of view and attitude. God knows that I sincerely mean it, that I dearly fear and love Him. My deeds always fall short of my will. But the will is still good. I just want what is right and best. Can God repudiate me? Many recent exegetes interpret the expression: "not by works" in this sense. They understand it as meaning that not the outward work, but the attitude of the heart the justifies people. God accepts the good will for the deed. The right attitude should be the bud and root of all good works, and God now already can see the future fruit in the bud. Thus Abraham had become justified before God not by outward works, but because he believed the promise of God and therefore had declared the right, God-pleasing attitude. But like the papist interpretation, this is no less of a gross distortion of the simplistic words of Scripture. Among the works of the law belong all works that God demands from men in the Law, and not only the works of the Second Table, but also above all things the works of the First Table. Also that man fears, loves and trusts, prays, praises and thanks God, falls under the rubric "works of the law". And even these noblest works that concern the true worship of God, these inward works, movements and resolves of the heart help nothing for the righteousness that avails before God. And so we must cut off all ways out of our Christians and evasions of their proud reasons and bear witness to them: Do not depend on the good opinion of your hearts, on your religious feelings, on your honest intentions! You cannot stand before God's judgment seat with them. All your works, external and internal, your perceived good works, and also the true good works that you accomplish by the power of God, your own thoughts, feelings, wishes, actions, behavior, you may call them how you want, whether you call it faith, you must do much, much in your eyes, if you ask for it and think about it, how will you stand in time and eternity before the most high God. We must also convince those who hear us why no flesh can ever be justified before God by works of the Law. Scripture demonstrates this with the words: "They are altogether sinners and lack the glory that they should have in God."17 The works of mankind are evil and cannot please God. Man does precisely nothing that God commands of him in the Law. Even the apparent good works of men, the children of this world, are an abomination before God. Because they come from hearts that are estranged from God and enemies of God. And the truly good works that a Christian does are still so weak and frail and imperfect and not enough in God's eyes. Because God demands perfect righteousness. And without this even Christians
17

Romans 3:23.

indeed still plentifully sin every day. And what good they do, this wrong and evil they do cannot possibly be compensated and render them harmless. Yes, God looks at the heart. But also evil thoughts still arise without ceasing from the hearts of Christians, of which they must be ashamed before God. Particularly in the critical moment when God again lets us feel His hard hand and obliges us to reflect on ourselves, in the hour of trial, in the hour of death, that we know that all our own work is a lost thing, that it falls on our conscience how much we fail, how little we have taken advantage of our lifetime for eternity, because we feel poor, bare, blind and miserable before God. It is then a welcome message to us, a sweet Gospel, when we hear: Not by works! You may dispense with all your works. Even God wants to dispense with them. Your works determine and influence nothing in the least of the opinion that God has of you, the judgment of God upon your person. Whoever has quite vividly recognized what "not by works" means also knows what it means that we are justified "by grace". Scripture also explains even further "by grace" to the positive side. The Scripture passages where it is emphasized that it is God, He alone, who justifies and saves mankind, that God for His own sake freely wipes out sins and accepts the sinner, that God puts His honor in it, that He spares the sinner instead of condemning them, declare and explain the matter that concerns us here, even if the word "grace" itself does not appear in them. And it is the task of the preacher of the Gospel, to make their hearers familiar with such greater, dearer promises of God. The prophet Isaiah writes: "You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense. You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities. I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right."18 God here gets involved in a dispute with His people. Israel should say how it wants to be justified before God. It is perhaps inclined to remind God of His many sacrifices, the battle sacrifices, food sacrifices, frankincense. But these sacrifices did not serve for God's glory, were not according to God's good pleasure. Israel lacked the right attitude, obedience. In reality, Israel can only bring one thing before God: its sin and iniquity. God has made it hard and with their sin and iniquity prepares heavy heartbreak. So man will appear before God as a poor sinner and offender, and he has nothing with which he could excuse his sin. His noblest work, sacrifice and worship is, if not hypocritical, then but a poor patchwork and piecemeal and does not conceal his nakedness. But behold, in this prosecution God speaks a merciful judgment to the sinner and offender who cannot defend himself. He wants to redeem his iniquity, and remember his sins no more. He says, "I, I blot out your transgressions." That He does, He solely and exclusively, as He says in Isaiah 43:11: "I, I am the Lord, and next to me there is no Savior." No other can otherwise contribute to the rescue of a poor sinner, least of all the sinful man himself, for he just brings only sin and with it the judgment of God. And God does it for its own sake. "I, I blot out your transgressions for My sake." Absolutely no cause and reason lies in man that God might identify to acquit him. The blotting out of sin has its foundation in God Himself, in God alone. Therefore, in the first place, it is God's good pleasure
18

Isaiah 43:23-26.

to mention our sins no more, to forgive us our sins. Thus God Himself declares by the mouth of prophets: Sola gratia! By grace alone! The nature of grace is, as [Franz] Delitzsch one time aptly remarked, that it is "motiveless" grace that has no reason, no motive outside its own, but is its own reason and cause, or is grounded alone in God. God is gracious to the sinner because He is gracious to him. The words of Isaiah 1:18 are about a legal transaction between God and sinful men: "So come then and let us reason with one another, says the LORD. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow: and though they are like crimson, they shall be like wool." Israel stands before God's judgment seat as a people heavy with iniquity, with blood-red sins, loaded with blood guilt. What can it otherwise justifiably expect there except the judgment of condemnation. But how does the Lord face up to the guilt-ridden and accursed sinners? What is His verdict? He says: Come, let us reason with one another. I want to give for your hearing a verdict about which you shall marvel. Freely, without sinners doing something about it, before they simply call and ask, from free compassion He offers them grace, that He wants to endure grace for judgment. He wants to change their blood-red sin into snow white. It does not say here how else that God grows and cleans sinners from their iniquities, but it is said about sins that are scarlet that they shall be as white as snow and wool. God regards the matter as if the sinner instead of being covered with transgression and blood guilt with vain virtue and righteousness, would be dressed in sheer innocence. Truly the Judge Who judges this way has weighed the hearts of sinners. That is grace. We see further in Isaiah 40:2 how the grace of God is reckoned with sinners: "Speak to Jerusalem and preach to her that her servitude has an end, that her iniquity is forgiven: for she has received twofold from the hand of the Lord for all her sin." What matters here is the last statement. Jerusalem has received twofold from the Lord, i.e., as the context requires: twofold grace and goodness. Her iniquity is forgiven, for that matter: paid; and now the prophet enhances the expression and emphasizes that the debt is paid twofold, more than once. And twofold grace and kindness she has received "for all her sins"; . It is this so-called pretii that establishes the price, that someone uses in order to obtain from him a treasured good. A purchase of commerce is presented here. God gives to sinners double goodness and mercy. And with what do sinners purchase and earn the grace of God? With their sins. They do not have another use, they are not able to pay another price. God deals with us as if we had earned vain mercy and blessing with our sins. In truth, we have earned wrath and punishment with our sins. But God is gracious, and now the prophet rightly wants to put into light and emphasize the wonderful justice of grace, that God, from Whom we deserve vain evil, instead of evil recompenses us vain good, that He devotes to us just as much and even more blessing than we deserve punishment. If sin abounded, then grace abounded much more. So exuberantly great is God's love to sinners. We finally recall the Scripture passages in which God is given praise and glory: that He forgives sins and justifies sinners. When the Lord passed by with His glory before the face of Moses on Sinai, the Lord preached about the Name of the Lord: "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin."19 The Psalmist agrees
19

Exodus 34:6-7.

in the same praise of God in the familiar words: "The Lord is merciful and gracious...." 20 The unique glory of God is that He freely forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, for nothing. Without this the sinner comes to meet Him. God wants to share this glory with no one else. The prophet Micah concludes his prophecy with the following doxology: "Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old."21 Yes, even Abraham believed in the wonderful God Who justifies the ungodly.22 Israel's God has no equal among the gods of the nations. The prophets praise in manifold ways the great deeds of the God of Israel. He has created heaven, earth and sea, and all that is in them. He has redeemed Israel from Egypt, guided through the wilderness, has given Him the heritage of the nations. He has glorified the enemies of his people in justice and righteousness. The incomparable greatness of God culminates in His grace that repays sin, the fact that He cancels the iniquity of His people. This is our God's majesty, that He is gracious to sinners and speaks righteousness to the Godless. And so the Christian preacher should never be tired to proclaim the luster and the splendor of the grace of God. We see that Scripture offers us ample material in order to bring to awareness and to take to heart what grace is and what it means, and to comfort them with the grace of God and to extol the grace of God among them. There are those, of course, who do not always hear the Gospel in a broken mood, so that they would be anxious for comfort. Nevertheless, it is the duty of the Christian preacher to open up to them the entire, full comfort of grace. Hours of anxiety and distress come to everyone who wants to be saved and would be naked before the hour of death, in which he confronts His God solitary, poor, and naked and is frightened before God's judgment. And he would be lost there if grace was not his anchor. Preachers equip their commanded souls with God's Word especially for the time they need help. And when this time is at hand, we apply directly the promises of God's grace to anguished, frightened hearts. When a poor sinner is tormented by his sins, his sin is always before him, then we give him the word of the Lord: "I, I blot out all your sins for my sake." You cannot excuse yourself before God. It is God Who justifies you. And it all comes down to what God judges about you, not on what you think about yourself. When someone is weighed down by the amount of his sins, then we tell him that God sets His glory and honor on him, that He covers the amount of sin, that He forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. If someone has blood guilt on his conscience, then we say to him God can and will change scarlet sin into white as snow. If one is worried about his estranged from God, evil heart that is still carried about by so many wicked thoughts, and if he thinks that he is not able to appear before God as he is, then we remind him of the wonderful way that God justifies the wicked. We should certainly not be weary in every possible way, publicly and privately, to shape into the hearts of our hearers the great, dear word "By Grace".

20 21

Psalm 103:8-10. Micah 7:18-20. 22 Romans 4:3, 5.

2. For Christ's Sake It is our God's glory and greatness that he forgives iniquity, transgression and sin. God freely justifies sinners, for nothing, without all their merit and worthiness. Now one might now draw the conclusion, as he certainly judges according to carnal reason, as it was not so much the sin in itself, as God considers sin not so great and severe, as God takes sin, as it were, into the bargain when he deals with mankind and accepts the sinner into favor. We must control such thoughts to the best of our ability. Even rationalistic preachers preached and preach about justification. They represent the matter as though God were a good, weak Father Who easily overlooks the errors of the children of men and turns a blind eye when the poor man follows his sensual inclination, once he exceeds the right measure in the enjoyment of earthly goods and pleasures. But this is a caricature of the doctrine of justification. No, sin is truly no trifle. Sin is , transgression of the unchanging commands of God. And our God is a holy God Who hates and detests all evil, Who is not pleased with wickedness. Our God is a just God and forgives nothing to the standard of righteousness that He has placed in His Law and renders to everyone according to their works. The soul that sins shall die. This is the irrefutable requirement of divine righteousness. The law of divine justice is also inscribed in the sinful man's conscience. If one tried to persuade a sinner who feels his sin, whose conscience is awakened: Oh, don't grieve so much about your sin, God doesn't care, you shall not surely die; he would thus reply: That's not true, that's a poor consolation, my conscience will not thereby rest. The holy, righteous God is about His Law and Order and accuses sinners and transgressors and rules them under curse, death, and damnation. But behold, Scripture reports, the Gospel now witnesses that divine righteousness and all requirements of divine righteousness has in fact actually taken place, for this reason, that Christ suffered and died. St. Paul emphasizes these thoughts precisely where he deals with justification. He teaches in Romans 3:24ff that we are justified by the redemption that is present in Christ Jesus, Whom God has set forth by virtue of His blood as a propitiation, and continues: "This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." God has sent Christ and surrendered in death, Christ has shed His blood so that in this way He would demonstrate His righteousness, His considerable righteousness that demands the death of sinners. God has heretofore passed over () sins in the time of the old covenant, has let go of them for the time being, has not suitably punished, has borne the sinner in great patience, and even if He did not leave them entirely unpunished, still He has recompensed them not according to merit, He did not corrupt or ruin them. Because of that He has foreseen it in the rendering of His righteousness at the present time. Now, in the new covenant, God has allowed His reciprocating righteousness full, free course, has repaid their actual wages of sin, while Christ died, the death of the sinner died. God wanted to justify sinners, while at the same time be and remain the righteous one, wanted, while He justified the sinner, not to conceal in the least His righteousness. Because He is the righteous one, He has punished sin precisely in Christ. Because He wanted to justify sinners, He has punished sin in a way that sinners do not perish but were finished from sin, guilt, and chastisement. So He justifies those who believe in Jesus, in Whom all demands of divine righteousness are fulfilled. We must never withhold this truth, which is variously attested in

other ways in Scripture, from our Christians when we comfort them with the forgiveness of sins. The consolation of forgiveness does not begin in the hearts and consciences of sinners if we do not also give them the assurance that satisfaction is rendered for sins, that divine righteousness is satisfied. The vicarious satisfaction of Christ, or what the thing is according to itself, the redemption that happens through Christ and is present in Christ, is the solid and unshakable foundation on which rests our justification and the comfort of justification. If this basis would be pulled away, then such words to a sinner in which sin has come to life like "God is gracious. Be of good cheer, my son, your sins are forgiven you" would not catch on much. The sinner would reply: No, my sin is always before me, is still in force and validity, my sin accuses me with a vengeance. And so everything lies on the fact that a preacher presents and extols the great work of redemption to those who hear him and properly paints the crucified Christ quite spiritedly before the eyes. They find rest for their souls in this [preaching]. If we are justified through redemption, then it happened through Christ Jesus. Christ, God's Son, has come and walked in our place. He is the Lamb of God Who bears the sins of the world.23 The Lord cast all our sins on Him.24 God has made Him Who knew no sin to be sin for us.25 Christ bears our sins. Of course, sin is no external load that one carries on one's back. Christ has taken our sins upon Himself, i.e., He has take our sins on His conscience. He has attributed our sins to Himself. He has shown Himself to God as if He were the sinners and wrongdoers. He has made the declaration to God: I want to be the guilty one. Demand it from me! And God has hung our sins on Him. God has attributed to Him our sins and iniquities. God looks at Him as if He had done wrong all the things we have done wrong. Christ is the offender before God's eyes. No doubt we still feel the sin in our members and still feel the sting of guilt in our conscience. But it does not hinge on how we view the matter, what we feel and sense. It all depends on how God views the matter. God now simply sees all our sin and transgression lie on the one Christ. This is the wonderful swap and exchange Luther so often points out, that a poor sinner may say to Christ: You are my sin. And all our sins Christ has borne in His body on the tree, the tree of the cross.26 Christ died on the cross. Death on the cross was punishment of the criminal. The cross was a tree of the curse. What we have perpetrated is recompensed on Him. Christ was a curse for us.27 He was wounded for the sake of our transgression and bruised for the sake of our sins. The chastisement lies on Him, therefore we are free.28 Christ died for our sins.29 Christ has suffered once for our sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones.30 And so we are redeemed from sin, guilt, chastisement. The great, precious Word of redemption through Christ is the center of all Christian preaching. And no preacher should imagine that he need not tell His people anything more, they would know this well enough. No, so long as we still have to deal with sin,

23 24

John 1:29. Isaiah 53:6. 25 2 Corinthians 5:21. 26 1 Peter 2:24. 27 Galatians 3:13. 28 Isaiah 53:5. 29 1 Corinthians 15:3. 30 1 Peter 4:18.

so long as we still sojourn in this sinful flesh, we have need of the Gospel of our redemption. This is the bread of the soul, the remedy for our wounded consciences. Scripture relates the redemption that is done by Christ not only with clear, plain words, but also uses all sorts of images and parables from ordinary human life or from the history and circumstances of the people of Israel in order to make quite clear this important matter. And it is the duty of an evangelical preacher to speak in just the way Scripture speaks, to retain the forma docendi31 that the Holy Spirit has chosen and to illustrate by interpretation the actual figurative ways of speaking the high and blessed mystery of our redemption and to give this comprehension to the simpleminded. The phrase is found in Romans 3:24 , literally: through the ransom that is in Christ Jesus. Scripture says something similar, e.g., in 1 Peter 1:18-19: "And know that you were not redeemed with corruptible silver or gold", literally: are redeemed, "from your vain way of life according to fatherly ways, but with the precious blood of Christ, as an innocent and unblemished lamb." Jesus Himself testifies that He wants to give His life as a ransom in the place of many, .32 The image of a debt and imprisonment for debt is based here. We men with our numerous transgressions have contracted a heavy debt before God. We owe ten thousand talents to the heavenly King. And so we are indebted to God, imprisoned by God. We are legally children of wrath and damnation. And we do not come out sooner from this imprisonment, from this prison, until we have paid the last penny. But we are not able to pay back a single penny of our guilt. We are not able to undo sin with our effort. Christ has come, our friend and guarantor, and has paid it for us. He has applied His own life, His blood for us. And the precious blood of Christ, the Holy and Righteous One, the Son of God, compensates for all sin and guilt of the entire world. Yes, the debt is settled, balanced, paid (), twice, yes, paid a thousand times.33 We are thus ransomed, redeemed, done with guilt and imprisonment from debt. We rightly say: God forgives our guilt. God freely forgives our sins, for nothing, without our merit, without demanding any compensation from us. On our part, we are not able to pay and do not need to pay. We add: Someone else has paid for us, Christ our Savior. God thus regards it not only as if the debt would be balanced, but also the debt is truly balanced. We have won through Christ, as it were, an entitlement to God's forgiveness. The writing of debt that testifies against us is crossed out, precisely crossed out with the blood of Christ, through which the debt is settled and wiped out. Thus our conscience has a firm basis and support. If our sins make advances on us, if Satan enumerates our many debts, if we are frightened before God's judgment, then we utilize this precious ransom, Christ's blood and righteousness, that shrinks guilt and consciousness of guilt, and we can confidently lift up our head to God. We owe him nothing more. He has nothing more to require of us. How beautifully and accurately the highest and most important transaction that the sinner has with God can be illustrated with this example! Sin is presented elsewhere in Scripture as dirt and uncleanness. We are all as an unclean thing before God and cannot allow ourselves to be seen before God as we are. The petition is

31 32

form of teaching. Matthew 20:28. 33 Isaiah 40:2.

made to God: "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin."34 And now in the New Covenant we have a free, open fountain against sin and uncleanness.35 We are washed with pure water and from an evil conscience.36 Christ has made the purification of our sins through Himself.37 The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin.38 Jesus Christ has washed us from our sins with His blood and has made us kings and priests before God and His Father.39 Christ is called the Paschal Lamb, the sacrificial Lamb in Scripture.40 Christ has given Himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God as a sweet savor.41 One may instruct Christians about the importance of Old Testament sacrifices, they are useful for understanding New Testament redemption. When an Israelite had sinned against one of the commandments of God, he brought a sacrificial animal to the temple, laid his hands upon it, confessed his sins over it, and thus symbolically transferred his sins onto the sacrificial animal. The innocent animal was then slain, handed over to death instead of the man who had deserved death. The blood of the sacrificial animal in particular served as the covering, as the atonement of sins, as is often highlighted in the Law. By means of the blood poured out by the priest at the altar or painted on the horns of the altar and thus, as it were, was held before God, it covered up the sins of man before God. The sacrificial meat was finally lit on the altar for a sweet odor to God. God's pleasure was now turned towards the sinful man again. This was all shadow and type and is fulfilled in Christ. Christ is the true sacrificial Lamb and Paschal Lamb. The sin and iniquity of mankind is transferred to Him. This is slaughtered, sacrificed for us. The blood of Christ, the innocent and spotless Lamb, atones for the sin of mankind. Our guilt and iniquities are made good before God. There is no memory of sin with God. Christ is the Atonement () for our sins and the sins of the whole world.42 We are reconciled () to God through the blood of His Son.43 We are now again children of delight. The apostle calls Christ a mercy seat in Romans 3:25. God has presented Christ as a mercy seat in His blood, by virtue of His blood. The Old Testament mercy seat was a holy device of the Israelite holy place and also had some significance. It was a cover manufactured from solid gold. This cover covered the Ark of the Covenant. The stone tablets of the Law were kept in the Ark of the Covenant. The Law formed in stone continually reminded Israel of its transgression. The golden cover of the ark was sprinkled every year on the great Day of Atonement with sacrificial blood, with the blood of atonement. The two golden cherubim were located on the cover above the mercy seat. The God of Israel lived and reigned among His people above this mercy seat. When God remembered His Law and the transgression of Israel, He had to be angry with His people. But now the mercy seat covered up the law and
34 35

Psalm 51:2. Zechariah 13:1. 36 Hebrews 10:22. 37 Hebrews 1:3. 38 1 John 1:7. 39 Revelation 1:5-6. 40 John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:19; 1 Corinthians 5:7. 41 Ephesians 5:2. 42 1 John 2:2. 43 Romans 5:10.

transgression of the law before God. The cover sprinkled with the blood of atonement was an atonement device (), He atoned for the sins of Israel. The mercy seat sprinkled with blood was in the middle between the people of the Law that was accused by the Law and the great God. God's countenance was continually directed on the mercy seat and the blood of the atonement, and as God looked on the atonement and the atonement device, He no longer remembered the sins of the people. The mercy seat with His blood changed God's view of wrath in a glimpse of grace. God was reconciled to His people. All this was shadow and prophecy. Christ is the true Mercy Seat. He is marked with blood, with His own blood. The sprinkled, overflowing with blood Christ, Christ with His blood and wounds stands in the middle between sinners on earth and the holy God in heaven and covers and protects sinners from God's wrath, conceals their sins before God, and obtains grace, exemption, and reconciliation for sinners. We sinners no longer appear before God in our own form, but in the person of another, in the person and form of Christ. God regards us through Christ, and so He no longer regards us as we are, but only as Christ is, no longer sees our sins, impurity, unworthiness, but sees us covered with Christ's blood and righteousness, wrapped in Christ's blood and wounds. Our sin is extinguished in the blood of the atonement. We are now so pure and beautiful and perfect in God's eyes, as if we were Christ Himself. In these and similar ways a preacher sets the New Testament mercy seat before the eyes of children of the new covenant! The "Mercy Seat" is truly a striking image of the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. We return to our starting point44 after we have explained the term "redemption". It says that we are saved through the redemption or by means of () the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Through the redemption of Christ is established the righteousness that avails before God, our forgiveness of sins and life and salvation is acquired with it. The modern theologians make a sharp distinction between redemption and justification or forgiveness of sins. They teach the "possibility" of forgiveness of sins is revealed by Christ's redemptive death, and faith lifts up this possibility of this human behavior into a reality. This goes directly against Scripture. No, we are justified by Christ, by the redemption of Christ. What justifies us before God is not any of these acts and conduct on our part, but only what Christ has done and suffered for us. God regards solely the work and merit of Christ when He declares us righteous. This whole business, God's judgment of our person, is already decided in and with the redemptive work of Christ. Scripture testifies that we, as we are redeemed and reconciled, in so doing have been justified. We read in Romans 5:9-10: "Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life." Here the other certain fact is inferred from the fact that we are reconciled by the death of the Son of God, or what is the same, being now justified by His blood, that we are kept by Christ once from wrath, that we shall be saved by Christ's life. "Reconciled" is considered here as synonymous with "justified". The apostle writes in Romans 5:18-19: "Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous." Through the righteousness of one Man, Christ, has come the justification of life of all mankind. Through the obedience of one
44

Romans 3:24.

Man, through the active and passive obedience of Christ many were set forth as justified before God. Scripture testifies that in and with the redemption and atonement is the forgiveness of sins. We have in Christ "redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." 45 "God was in Christ and reconciled the world to Himself, and did not impute their sins to them." Here the statement is explained in more detail, that God reconciled the world to Himself in Christ, through the other, that he did not impute their sins to them, to mankind. If a preacher brings to light the redemptive work of Christ, when he unsheathes the "It is finished" of the dying Redeemer, when he rightly preaches Christ, then he bestows the comfort of justification to his hearers, the forgiveness of sins. He will comfort poor troubled sinners in the following way: Behold, Christ died for you, has given Himself for you, He has taken your guilt upon Himself, atoned for your chastisement, so you go free from sin, guilt, and chastisement. Christ has satisfied the righteousness of God with His suffering, death, and blood, has satisfied God's wrath, so now God's favor and pleasure is turned to you, you are reconciled to God, you have a gracious God in Christ. Christ has entered for you before God with His blood and His righteousness, with His perfect merit, so you are pure before God's eyes, righteous, perfect, just as God wants you. We have first explained that God justifies the sinner by grace, and what we have then added, that we are justified by Christ's redemption, entirely agrees with it. "For Christ's sake alone" does not negate, but only confirms "by grace alone". Because that Christ has redeemed sinners with His blood, it is itself an outflow and effect of divine grace. We sing: "By grace God's Son, our only Savior, Came down to earth to bear our sin", etc.46 Christ Himself says: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son" etc.47 The apostle writes: "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."48 The fact that Christ came into the world and died for sinners is a proof of the unimaginable and inexpressible love of God, of God's love for sinners. God has set forth Christ to be a mercy seat in His blood. "God was in Christ and reconciled the world to Himself."49 In other words, it was the gracious will of God and God's pleasure to reconcile the sinful world to Himself through Christ. We said earlier that God, because He justifies sinners, at the same time satisfies His righteousness. He proves the righteousness of God in Christ's suffering and death. God cannot and will not forget His righteousness. The righteousness of God is now and forever the motive of redemption, it has happened through Christ Jesus. God could have given His righteousness in other ways. He would have remained that He was, the Righteous One, the Good One, the Perfect One, even if He would have relinquished their self-inflicted doom. Yes, the natural course of righteousness would have been that the sinner himself atoned for his sin, eternally atoned. The fact that righteousness now took a different direction, that Christ substituted for sinners and has died the death of the sinner, we have grace alone to thank, the unfathomable and gratuitous grace of God. It is the abyss of divine mercy that has swallowed up all sins through Christ's death. Let a preacher therefore beware, above all things, Rationalists and do not portray redemption through Christ as a kind of necessity, as if God would have owed the world or His own self, to
45 46

Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14. LSB 566:3. 47 John 3:16. 48 Romans 5:8. 49 2 Corinthians 5:19.

rescue and to save the world. That would be reducing and defaming the grace of God and the merit of Christ. We are right in saying that God reconciled the world by Christ's sacrificial death, this is a change of mind, God's wrath is transformed into love and pleasure. But we go one step further according to Scripture and add that God Himself also has planned and organized this according to His incomprehensible grace, that righteousness is satisfied by Christ and wrath would be appeased. God has in Christ reconciled the world to Himself. We arrive here at last at a mystery that we are not able to clear up with our reason. One time God appears as the wrathful God Who does not let sin go unpunished, another time as the gracious and merciful God Who does not desire the death of a sinner and therefore has disposed Himself to save sinners from death and wrath. The one is the revelation of the Law, the other the revelation of the Gospel. We cannot possibly summarize with our own devices both revelations, both pretences of God in one picture, in one overall view. But here we should not speculate and search, but unconcernedly hold fast both views about the critique of reason and preach and especially also in preaching and instruction, on the one hand, the wrath of God over sinners, that burns down to the lowest hell, but on the other hand and above all things, extol the grace of God in Christ that has been intent to extinguish wrath and hell fire. 3. Through faith. We are justified before God by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith. The two terms "faith" and "justification" are intimately linked in Scripture and are in many ways associated with each other. It means that we are justified "through faith", 50, or 51. In addition, the manner of speech "by faith" is found, e.g., in Romans 1:17, 3:30; Galatians 2:16. We usually speak of "justification by faith". One can also perhaps translate in German with "as a result of faith". The translation "because of faith" or "for the sake of faith" also is appropriate with the sense of the Greek particles. It would be wrong, one wanted to ban from ecclesiastical language the expression that we are justified "for the sake of faith" because it is often misinterpreted. Scripture speaks that way. Luther, for example, often says in his great Galatians commentary: propter fidem justificamur, as well as per fidem justificamur.52 The sentence, "that faith is reckoned as righteousness to man"53 essentially contains the same thoughts, or the other statement that we are justified when we believe "with the mouth one confesses and is saved".54 But how is this now to be understood and explained: that we are justified by faith or from faith, that faith justifies us? That is the main point. The moderns describe justifying faith as a moral act of man. This is now the demand of God to man in the New Testament: that he believes in the Son Whom God has sent. Faith in Christ is the proper New Testament behavior. This belief excludes fear, love and trust in God, includes in itself the fulfillment of the whole Law. Whoever therefore believes in the heart, that is, according to his conviction, then, as God would have it, he appears before God's eyes as a righteous man. In the sayings of Scripture
50 51

e.g. Romans 3:22, 25, 30. Romans 3:28. 52 "We are justified because of faith", "justified by faith". 53 Romans 4:5, 22. 54 Romans 10:10.

quoted above and many others also faith is in direct contrast to all work and activity of man. Not only grace and works, but also faith and works are opposites according to Scripture. We read in Romans 3:28: "We now hold that one is justified without works of the Law by faith.". And Galatians 2:16: "Yet we know that man is not justified by works of the Law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also believe in Christ Jesus, in order that we are justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law." "Not by works", "by faith alone" - what does that mean? That does not mean: Not by others works and goodness, not by any others conduct, but only by this one Man's work and conduct, this one Man's goodness and disposition, namely by faith is man justified and saved. No, with the phrase, "not by works" is excluded from the article of justification any works and conduct of man, any disposition, even faith, faith as action and disposition of mankind, and by faith that alone justifies, that is set against all the work and conduct of mankind, is clearly taught that faith here in no respect comes into consideration as the conduct of mankind. God regards nothing that man does or thinks, nothing that is on or in him, when He declares mankind as righteous. And this is the first thing that a preacher must also inculcate to his hearers when he speaks about faith: Not that you all are so pious and faithful, not these good dispositions of your heart, faith, not that you do God a favor and believe in His Son, that is not what helps you before God and rescues you from judgment. He must carefully avoid all expressions and statements which could give the impression as if faith therefore justifies, because he has such a good work or has such a beautiful virtue. But it is not time to determine positively what faith has to mean in the business of justification. A comparison between Galatians 2:16 and the following verse makes this quite clear. In Galatians 2:16 the apostle emphasizes, "that we believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ." This is followed by the sentence in verse 17: "But if we were found to be sinners, that we sought to be justified by Christ, is Christ then a servant of sin? Far be it." The apostle again here incorporates in the antecedent the statement of verse 16, in order to reject in afterthought an inference that one could draw from this. From the fact that we are justified by faith in Christ, it does not follow that Christ was a servant of sin, and now we are likely to serve and obey sin. But while Paul again incorporates the thoughts of verse 16, he gives it another form. He does not say in verse 17 that we are justified by faith in Christ, but that we are justified by Christ ( ). Justified by faith in Christ and justified by Christ is one and the same thing. And that's the way it is in every place where Scripture speaks about faith in Christ, the emphasis is on the object. Faith is directed to Christ, we believe in Jesus Christ ( ), faith apprehends Christ, faith adheres to Christ, holds and seizes Christ. Even where only summarily "faith" is mentioned, still specifically the Christian faith, faith in Christ, is meant. And it is just Christ and His merit that faith holds and seizes, that justifies us. Not that we are the ones who believe it, not that we do this noble work or bear in our bosom these noble sentiments and show we are faithful, but that it is Christ, with Whom we are united in faith, it is He Who justifies us before God and brings us God's merciful judgment. Even in Romans 4:5: "But to the one who does not work but believes in Him Who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness", all weight lies on the object of faith. Faith adheres to Jesus Christ, trusts in God, the wonderful God Who justifies the ungodly, and to that extent and for that reason it is reckoned as righteousness. In Romans 4:16 it says: "Therefore righteousness must come by faith, in order that it may be from grace." Therefore, that righteousness comes by faith is to prove that it comes from grace. Faith adheres to grace, builds

and trusts solely on the free grace and mercy of God. Faith adds nothing to what God does and has done in Christ, but sprouts, as it were, entirely in its object: God's grace and Christ's merit. So in the 4th Article of the Augsburg Confession the term "by faith" is explained in detail by the apposition: "so we believe that Christ has suffered for us, and that for His own sins is given forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and eternal life." Whoever rightly recognizes the content and subject matter of faith, Christ, and His righteousness also knows what faith is and what is the meaning of faith in justification. In other words, justifying faith is, as the ancients called it, medium . Faith conducts itself as purely receptive in the business of justification; it takes what God gives. The Apology says: "Faith is a divine service and latria, in which we are the recipients of gifts." Romans 3:25 illuminates this quite clearly in comparison with Romans 3:22. We read these words in Romans 3:25: . God has presented Christ as a propitiation or mercy seat by faith in His blood or by virtue of His blood. What does this mean here, this "by faith"? The opinion is apparently not that mankind's faith only makes Christ to be a propitiation, that atonement and salvation is wrought by mankind's faith. Christ is propitiation, mercy seat by virtue of His own blood. Sin is atoned for once and for all by Christ's blood and death. Redemption has long been accomplished by Christ. And by faith we obtain, seize, we apply the atonement and redemption that is in Christ Jesus, that it becomes our own. But likewise this , "by faith" is understood in Romans 3:22. It says: . Luther has aptly translated it: "But I say about such righteousness before God, that it comes by faith in Jesus Christ." Paul does not mean that the righteousness that avails before God comes about, is caused by faith. No, he explains in the following the term , "righteousness before God" by the completion of the redemption that happened by Christ Jesus. Through Christ's suffering and death, through Christ's redemption the righteousness that avails before God is obtained and established once for all. And faith now increases in this precious commodity, the righteousness before God that is in Christ Jesus, and it is suitable to him. So righteousness "comes" to us by faith. Romans 5:17 expressly describes justifying faith as a "receiving". St. Paul writes: "Much more will those who receive () the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ." The righteousness that avails before God is here called a gift, a gift of God, a gift of grace. Romans 5:15 had already said that this grace and gift is in the one man, Jesus Christ. This gift is finished and prepared in Christ. And it all comes down to receiving the gift. This receiving is faith. Whoever receives this gift appropriates and takes up for himself, whoever believes this, will then one day with Christ prevail in life. Therefore by faith we seize, receive, grasp, and keep Christ, God's grace in Christ, and in and with Christ the redemption by His blood, forgiveness of sins or, what is the same, the righteousness that avails before God. So we now understand the aforementioned various ways of speaking of Scripture. We say according to Scripture that we are justified by faith. That is to say that we take delivery by faith the righteousness that avails before God, whoever receives this, has it, and therefore is justified before God. We say with Scripture that faith is reckoned as righteousness to man, that faith justifies. But faith justifies precisely only insofar as he appropriates the justifying verdict of God, which is based only in God and Christ. We say that we are justified from faith, as a result of faith. But precisely as a result of faith that involves and pulls together Christ and His

righteousness. We say that we are justified when we believe and because we believe. That is to say: when and because we apply to ourselves Christ and His righteousness in faith. It is always God and Christ alone Who work and create everything that serves for our salvation. And faith simply recognizes this and accepts what God in Christ does and has done. Thus "by faith alone" "from grace alone" and "alone, for Christ's sake" is not altered but only confirmed and reaffirmed. The proper practical treatment of the lesson about faith appears by itself positively from the aforementioned. A preacher has broad discretion, which initially affects the expression forma dicendi.55 He must and should speak about faith in the same way Scripture speaks about it. He must and should impress upon his hearers: It is faith alone that justifies you, by faith you are able to stand before God. Whoever believes is justified, is saved. Whoever does not believe is condemned. So if you believe from the heart, you are justified. Not by works, by faith alone, from faith! But now the preacher must also only diligently apply it to explain these different ways of talking and to get across to his hearers the proper concept of faith. Everything is located in the object of faith. So let the preacher set this object, Christ and the righteousness that is in Him, the grace of God in Christ, in the proper light, indeed precisely even when he acts by faith. Luther consistently used both ways of speaking, "proclaim by faith" and "proclaim Christ", as identical statements. One doesn't struggle too much to analyze the psychological act of faith. No, let one paint quite lively the crucified Christ before the eyes of his hearers, direct their attention, thoughts, and ideas on this one Man, Jesus Christ, seek to imagine Christ in their heart. If this succeeds, then the purpose that one has in mind is achieved. Whoever has Christ in heart and mind has proper faith. Justifying faith is the taking hand, solely a taking, nothing else in addition or incidentally. This proper, Scriptural notion of faith should never come from the mind of a preacher. When he speaks about faith, provokes and entices to faith, the fundamental of his speaking should be: Behold, God justifies you by vain mercy and compassion. Christ, the Lord, is your righteousness. The gift of God in Christ is righteousness, perfect righteousness that avails before God. So only take what God gives you, take it, grab it with both hands. You do not need to give or pay something for it. God commands no commitment from you, nothing in return behind it. He gives free of charge, freely, unconditionally: you need only to take, grasp, and hold what He gives you, then you have it, then you are justified before God. Yes, all preaching about faith should sound this way: you only need to take and believe that God requires nothing of you, not: God has done His part, now you must do yours and at least do and believe this one Man. Of course, one might also, following the example of Scripture, thus turn around and say: This is God's will, that you believe in His Son. Believe in Christ! God seriously wants to have this from you. But one should not forget that this is not a legal requirement, chiefly not a demand in the true sense of the word. No, it is Gospel in the highest potency when one suggests to poor, afflicted sinners that this is God's earnest, holy will that they believe and are saved, when one urges and compels them in God's Name to come to Christ, and persuades them and impresses on them: "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price!"56 The faith by which we are justified before God is a
55 56

style. Isaiah 55:1.

taking. So let a preacher rightly take advantage of the well-known image of the beggar who receives and accepts a rich gift from his benefactor. If a merciful philanthropist hands a great sum of money to a poor helpless man who suffers want in all things, then this is gift and present in the truest sense of the word. The benefactor gives money to the poor man, freely, without cost, without requiring or expecting any gift in return or repayment. And by the beggar gratefully accepting this rich gift, there is nothing further to him than the thought that he himself might contribute to his happiness through such taking, no, he naively takes and knows, and witnesses by his taking, that he owes his happiness solely to the benevolent giver. Let one rightly think and teach this way, but one must still bring another concept into consideration. Faith is a relative term. One cannot think of anything about faith if one does not say to whom one believes what one believes, to whom faith makes and trusts. Now we believe in Christ, we apprehend in faith the grace of God in Christ. But this invisible content of faith confronts us in tangible form and shape, namely, in the Word. Word and faith are correlatives. Word and faith are consistently and closely linked with each other in Luther's writings. Where our Lutheran Confessions treat in detail the article of justification by faith, in the Apology and in the Formula of Concord, it always comes back to the principle that the entire treasure, God's grace, Christ's merit, forgiveness of sins, righteousness, life and salvation, is collected into the Word and that faith adheres to the Word. Scripture teaches and says so. St. Paul writes in Romans 1:16-17: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness that avails before God is revealed from faith in faith", or, as one can translate , "for faith". And Romans 3:21-22: "But now the righteousness of God has been revealed apart from the law, and the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it. But I say about such righteousness before God that it comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all and for all who believe it." The righteousness that avails before God is revealed in the Gospel, is indeed already revealed in the Law and the Prophets, in the Old Testament. It is found in Christ and is taken and adopted in the Word together with Christ, in the Gospel of Christ, in the promise of Christ. It is revealed, presented to sinners, performed, communicated in the Word. And so in the Word, through the Word, faith comes to all who believe, who believe in the Word. It is appropriated "for faith" ( ), appropriated for this end, that one takes and apprehends it in faith, and faith takes the treasure from the Word. By believing the Word, we dedicate ourselves in so doing to Christ and the righteousness of Christ. God "put forward" Christ as a propitiation, this propitiation in the Word, has openly placed [Christ] in the preaching of the Gospel for the sins of the world, and so we believe in the Word and apply to ourselves "by faith" the atonement and redemption that is found in Christ Jesus.57 God was in Christ and reconciled the world to Himself, and did not attribute to them their sins, "and has established the Word of reconciliation among us". The apostles and all preachers of the Gospel proclaim this word of reconciliation and ask all who hear it in Christ's stead: "Be reconciled with God!" i.e. believe what we say to you, believe in the Word and take on the reconciliation that God in Christ has achieved.58 Romans 10:6ff. conveys righteousness by faith and testifies that one does not need first to call Christ down from heaven or up from the deep, that Christ already
57 58

Romans 3:25. 2 Corinthians 5:19-20.

descended from heaven, became Man and died, has risen again from the dead and has accomplished everything well, and then continues: "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart; that is, the word of faith that we preach." In Christ, the God-man, the crucified and risen, ready and prepared righteousness is available and comes near to individuals through the Word. The word is preached, and one need only to hear the word, believe the word and to take it to heart. Thus one has righteousness and is justified before God. That iniquity is forgiven, is atoned for, should be preached according to God's will now in the time of the New Testament.59 It is Christ Himself, Who fulfills redemption and has acquired righteousness, Who preaches to the poor as the One Exalted by the Spirit and announces redemption.60 He has commanded His disciples to preach forgiveness of sins in His Name.61 And whoever receives such preaching in faith boasts: "I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness."62 Consequently a preacher must now also underline the importance of the word as a means of grace, namely regarding its vis communicativa.63 The following circle of thoughts should constantly recur in preaching: Here you have the Word. The Word is really near you, it is always in your ears. Here you have Christ in the Word, here you have righteousness, grace, comfort, peace, joy, happiness and everything good. Therefore hear only the Word! Believe in the Gospel! Believe and accept what is given to you here in the Word! I proclaim and preach to you in the name and mandate of God that iniquity is forgiven. Only hear and believe what I say to you! When you rightly hear and learn and take to heart only the Word and preaching, then you have everything that you need, a gracious God and eternal life. What we have said about justifying faith on the basis of Scripture is explained by the example of Abraham's faith at the end of Romans chapter four. And we should practically use this kind of example. Exempla illustrant.64 We read in Romans 4:18-22: "In hope he [Abraham] believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, 'So shall your offspring be.' He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was 'reckoned to him as righteousness.'" Abraham believed in hope against hope. According to the common course of events there was nothing for him to hope. But he did not consider his own deadened body and the deadened body of Sarah, did not look at what lay before his eyes, but looked only at God and God's promise, according to which he should be a father of many nations. He gave glory to God in that he did not doubt, but knew in the most certain way, was firmly convinced about it, that God could do what He has promised. We should apply this to ourselves. "But the words 'it was counted to him' were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe
59 60

Isaiah 40:1-2. Isaiah 61:1-3. 61 Luke 24:47. 62 Isaiah 61:10. 63 communicative force. 64 They illustrate examples.

in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification."65 We believe in God, Who has raised Jesus from the dead. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Crucified and Resurrected, in Whom we have perfect righteousness, as the Gospel witnesses. And this is the type and nature of proper faith: he completely disregards his own person and looks solely at the promises of God that promises us vain grace, comfort, and joy in Christ. Faith is a marvelous thing. We go out, as we believe, as it were, completely from ourselves and cling with every fiber of our hearts to the great and rich promises of God, rest with our soul entirely in the Word that presents to us the righteousness that avails before God. According to the natural course of things, according to the judgment of reason and our own conscience there is nothing for us to hope. For we are sinners and deserve only death and destruction. But we believe in hope against hope. We forget ourselves, who we are, and direct hearts and thoughts solely on the Word that eternally stands firm outside ourselves, on the gracious promises of God of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life, and not doubt that God actually does and gives what He promises in His Word, that all of God's promises are "Yes" and "Amen" in Christ, and give God glory with such confidence. Accordingly, a preacher should say to his hearers: Pay no attention to what is before your eyes! You probably still feel sin in your flesh daily. Your conscience often gnaws and bites at you. If you look at yourself, you have to hope for nothing good. But you must and shall entirely ignore your unworthiness and incompetence, your own person, your deeds and conduct, your own righteousness and unrighteousness. This is proper faith. Behold what lies outside of and around you! Fix your eyes straightaway on the Word. The comforting voice presses against you throughout Scripture: Be of good cheer, my son, your sins are forgiven! You shall not die, but live! And what God promises you in His Word is Truth, it has power and validity. Therefore give God glory and do not doubt, but believe in the most certain way that the gracious promises of God also concern us and will come true for you. Let this be your watchword: "I believe what Jesus' Word promises, whether or not I feel it." Finally, it should be noted that the question of the origin of faith does not belong in the periphery of the article of justification. When one discusses the doctrine of conversion, then one has to tell them that God alone works faith. If one wanted to answer the question of how we can exist in time and eternity before God, speak in detail of the gracious work of God in the hearts of mankind, then one would avert the view of the hearers only about the nervus rei66, the "Christ for us", what God is doing outside of us. We fare best in preaching, in theology, when we look for ourselves at each piece, each article of salutary truth. We now only know in part. One is therefore content in the practical treatment of the doctrine of justification to bring to light the type and nature of justifying faith, that it is the organ that apprehends and takes the gift of God in Christ. We investigated, step by step, the preaching of the Scriptures about the righteousness that avails before God. It has three parts. We are justified before God by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith. But this preaching also has an introduction and a conclusion that we must not overlook.

65 66

Romans 4:23-25. chains of guilt.

We must pay attention to the context in which the article of justification is found in Scripture. Isaiah 1:18-20 introduces the gracious judgment that God speaks to sinners: "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" etc. What precedes it? A grave, sharp reprimand of the prophet. Isaiah punishes the ingratitude and apostasy of Israel 67, the hypocritical sacrifices with which the people sought to cover and gloss over its evil ways. The reprimand continues at verse 21 and following. The princes of the people are "murderers", "companions of thieves." We hear the New Testament preaching of comfort in Isaiah 40:1-2: "Comfort, comfort My people! says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and preach to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned" etc. At the same time another, harsher voice is heard: "It is a voice of a preacher in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the landscape a level way for our God" etc.68 The speech of the wilderness preacher closes with the words "And thus", when the way is prepared, "the glory of the Lord", His glorious grace, "shall be revealed." The way to the Lord and His grace is revealed by the preaching of repentance. In the second half of Romans chapter one St. Paul describes in thirsty colors the moral condition of the heathen world. The heathen have not honored God nor gave thanks to Him as their God, have set the creature in the place of the living God. For this reason God gave them over to shameful passions. Fidelity and faith have disappeared. They are "filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil, whisperers" etc. In Romans chapter two the apostle passes judgment on the Jews. They are no better than the heathen. They set themselves up as magistrates and instructors who teach others that one does not steal, should not commit adultery, and yet they do precisely what they forbid others to do. In chapter three the sins of the heathen and Jews are summarized. The general human corruption is described with wellknown words of Old Testament Scripture: "There is no one who is righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks for God, they have all deviated; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." And at this point the introduction about justification is now introduced: "But now the righteousness that avails before God has been manifested apart from the law" etc. 69 Preachers must never lose sight of this connection when they bear witness about justification by faith. What use is the most precious gift when one allows it to fall on the ground or into the well instead of being handed to the needy? What help is the most powerful ointment and pharmaceutical if it does not contact the sore spot? How good and helpful is the most precious preaching about justification if it slides over the heads of the hearers, let alone over their hearts and consciences? The consolation of justification, divine grace, sticks only in a battered and anguished heart and conscience. Secure and careless hearts are only angered and hardened when one gives them only friendly, good words and comforts them with the grace of Christ. Therefore, it is the sacred duty of an evangelical preacher, who does not blindly throw
67 68

Isaiah 1:2. Isaiah 40:3-5. 69 Romans 3:21ff.

away the entrusted treasure, but shall bring to man, to prepare his hearers' hearts to receive the blessings and consolations of the Gospel, and always to prepare anew the way to Christ by the preaching of repentance. The Gospel is so dear to him, the salvation of hearers lie so near and dear to him, he must so seriously chastise sin, and indeed so chastise that the sinner feels his sin and is restless about it and therefore is worried how he may stand again before God. And it is necessary, following the example of Scripture, not merely to speak in general about sin, but to point out individual sins, and especially those sins that are common to all mankind, and also still cling to Christians. Even Christians still have, because they are flesh and blood, their share of the general corruption of mankind. People do not thank God as their God. Their heart hangs, instead of on the living God, on the corruptible creature. And how easy Christians still forget about the daily blessings of the benevolent Giver of all good things! How Christians still have love for vanity! People ask nothing from God. There is no fear of God before their eyes. And how often Christians set the fear of the Lord before their eyes, do what they please, and ask nothing afterwards whether it pleases God! People speak lies. The poison of asps is on their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. And even from the lips of Christians often overflow with bitter, poisonous speech. "In their paths are ruin and misery."70 In other words: In their paths are found misery and repression that trample over them and they are plunged into misery. One kicks, suppresses, and oppresses others in order to raise himself. And how often Christians also even deny and violate all consideration for their neighbors! Further, it is necessary to call sin by the proper name, to paint it as black as it really is. The prophet Isaiah called the princes and judges of Israel, "companions of thieves." They were not common criminals who break into houses at night. But they took bribes, could be bribed. All unrighteousness in doings and dealings is theft. Isaiah calls the rulers of the people, "murderers", and that is because they did not embrace the widows and orphans themselves, did not justifiably help provide for them. Whoever denies help and mercy to their neighbor breaks the Fifth Commandment, is guilty of his brother's blood. It is necessary to expose the sins of the time, the moral damage of the current race. We have pointed to the bloodcurdling image that the apostle outlines in Romans chapter one about the Roman culture of his time. It remains intact even to this day. The present generation, who have brought so much in culture, art, science, education, industry, is morally lazy and rotten, a stinking rotten carcass. Modern culture is only a glistening cloak of shameful lusts and vices. And even Christians are infected by the general moral decay. Many have lost shame and discipline, sensation and conscience for decency in many parts. It also applies to those, heathens and Jews, who think themselves better than others, and who judge and master others and yet do the same thing, only in other ways, to punish others! Woe to those who gloss over their malice and wickedness with external worship! It is necessary to fight and to control sin with a holy, divine seriousness, and therefore also the incorrigible sinners who do not want to let go of their sin, to proclaim God's wrath and judgment and to retain their sin, in order that they are still scared about them, before it is too late, and thus others learn to be afraid of sin. To the extent that a preacher holds the office and ministry of John, the office of repentance, he will also provide entrance and reception to the Word of reconciliation. If he diminishes in admonition, chastisement, threats, is lax in discipline, silently passes over certain
70

Romans 3:16.

things, may not lay a finger on certain detriments, then what will be the result? It not only loosens the bonds of discipline and morals in the fellowship, but the main thing, the Gospel of Christ and of the forgiveness of sins, no longer comes into its own, the people are dull, sleepy, and indifferent, and even the sweetest and most delicious preaching of justification will no longer make a real impression on many. If, however, the preacher with all diligence, in all faithfulness points out to Israel its sin and transgression, publicly and privately, if he, as often as necessary, if he roughly embeds in the rotten flesh with the Law of God, even if now and then storm and weather sweeps through the fellowship, then the air is cleansed and the old Gospel of the grace of God in Christ shines in new splendor from the darkness and shines in the hearts, again pricks the ears of the hearers and hearkens with desire to the blessed message of the free mercy of God. Therefore we must earnestly see to it as well, so dear to us is the Gospel, so much for us is located in the high article of justification by faith, that our Christians properly grasp and receive the treasure that we administer. And as I said, only a worried and contrite heart that is anxious about its salvation is the proper vessel for divine grace. Of course, the preacher also misses his purpose when he only chastises in order to chastise, when chastisement is for him an end in itself. He should not forget that he is and should be a preacher of righteousness that avails before God and precisely resolve all human nature under sin, so that the poor sinner reaches with heartfelt desire for some consolation of sinners. The doctrine of justification is also indeed added to the concluding statements in relevant passages of Scripture. After the apostle has extensively dealt with and justified this article in Romans chapters 3-5, he continues in Romans 6:1: "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" This is the logic of the Old Adam: grace blots out all sins. God forgives and overlooks all our missteps by grace. The old sins are taken away. So we can confidently go on sinning, or at least don't need to take our way of life too closely. What we are doing wrong, grace will even it all out. Yes, we promote the glory of God if we have even more opportunity to exalt His grace among us. But on behalf of all believing and justified Christians, St. Paul repudiates with indignation all such conclusions: "By no means!" In Romans 6:2ff he calls Christians to remember that they died and rose again with Christ in Baptism, are dead to sin and transferred to a new divine life and nature. Whoever is justified from sins, to whom the guilt of sin is forgiven, who is exempt from chastisement, is also free from the spell, coercion, and service to sin, sin has no more power over him. For this reason, the justified sinner should henceforth no longer render obedience to sin and to evil desires, but to betake all his members for service and obedience to God. We must inculcate this to our Christians, who still have the Old Adam in themselves, that there is a contradiction in themselves, to take comfort in grace and at the same time still to serve sin, that grace makes it possible for them and forces them and obliges them to die to sin and to walk in holiness and righteousness that pleases God. We must present to them that whoever sins from grace has not recognized grace at all, abuses grace, grace that has the opportunity for the elimination of sin, runs counter with this noble, holy good; plays fast and loose with the grace of God in Christ. A similar inference to Romans 6:1 is introduced and rejected in Galatians 2:17. "But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!" It is true that we are found and sought as sinners to be justified by Christ because we could not help ourselves against sin. Christ justifies sinners. But it by no means follows that Christ would be a servant of sin. Thus the scoffers say: Jesus Christ is a servant of

sin. Christians make it look easy. They sin, like other people, and sin with desire and will, and then cast all their sins on Christ, in order that they repent of it and do good. So Christ gives His own a free pass from sin and encourages sin. True Christians who comfort themselves from the heart of the merits of Christ resist such loose talk and think and speak this way: "For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor."71 That is to say: What I destroyed, I want to rebuild, the damage that I have done, I would like to make amends, I seek healing for the damage, healing for my sin, in Christ, the Savior of sinners. For this reason I represent myself as a transgressor. For this reason I acknowledge that I have truly destroyed and caused damage. So I plead guilty and confess that sin is a tiresome, evil thing. I just want to get rid of it and am rid of it through Christ. How could I now still take pleasure in this tiresome thing called sin? No, sin is hateful to me, and so I flee and avoid it as much as I can. A justified Christian thus thinks and speaks this way. And a preacher should instruct his hearers to think and speak this way. The proper Christian way of thinking is described in greater detail in Galatians 2:19-20. A Christian preacher should make an effort to awaken and strengthen this way of thinking in his Christians. Paul confesses in the name of all justified sinners: "For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." I died to the Law by the Law. Christ has made satisfaction for the Law, so I am redeemed from the Law, not only from the curse, but also from the constraint of the Law. I stand and live no longer under the Law. So that's why I now no longer lead an unfettered life of unlimited leisure. No, I now live with God. I live and serve God and His will with a free, joyful spirit. My whole life is consecration to God, Who I know reconciled me through Christ. I have been crucified with Christ. It is my sin and guilt that is nailed on Christ's cross and is painted with the blood of Christ. So I am intimately bound up with Christ. And so I live and die in Christ. Yes, Christ lives in me. "One there is for whom I'm living,/Whom I love most tenderly;/Unto Jesus I am giving/What in love He gave to me."72 Christ, God's Son, has loved me so intimately and fervently, He Himself has risked His own life for me. I owe Him my life. Therefore I will henceforth give my life to Him and love the One Who first loved me. What I now live in the flesh, I live in faith in the Son of God. My whole life is and should be nothing else than talking and doing, should be a continual praise and thanksgiving sacrifice I offer to Christ, my Savior. The apostle admonishes Christians to stand in the freedom that Christ has set us free in Galatians chapter five.73 He offers for their consideration that they are thus already fallen from grace if they would be justified by the Law, if they muddle only a little leaven, a little worksrighteousness in this high article. He repeatedly emphasizes that we anticipate the righteousness of God by faith alone.74 At the same time he remembers that faith proves itself active in love, in all sorts of works of love.75 The freedom we have in Christ is not a carnal freedom. Because of this, it is incompatible that one gives room to the flesh.76 A spiritual being
71 72

Galatians 2:18. TLH 348:2. 73 Galatians 5:1. 74 Galatians 5:4, 9. 75 Galatians 5:6. 76 Galatians 5:13.

and life follows from this. Christians have received the Spirit from the hearing of faith.77 And so they walk in the Spirit and control in the power of the Spirit the lusts of the flesh and produce all sorts of sweet, delicious fruits of the Spirit.78 Because Christians still partake of the flesh and therefore are always still trying to draw Christian liberty to fleshly things, a preacher should not neglect always to point out the consequences and effects of justifying faith that become apparent in the life and conduct of Christians. So repentance is the necessary introduction, the admonition to sanctification the necessary annex to the consolation preaching of justification. But we must always be on guard, if we are talking in connection with the doctrine of justification, the doctrine of repentance, and the doctrine of sanctification, that we do not give the impression as if repentance or sanctification would be a condition on the part of man, on which hangs the gracious judgment of God. The statement that we are justified by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith, needs no supplementing or hedging in by neither side. We must maintain and make it clear that repentance precedes justifying faith and follows sanctification, and that what precedes and what follows, that which lies in the middle, the actual main thing, is subservient, that repentance only prepares the way to Christ and sanctification is an indicator of the state of grace. Even what we say about repentance and sanctification must at the same time say and help that the free grace of God in Christ, in which faith builds and trusts, maintains the dominant position in evangelical preaching. G[eorg] St[ckhardt] A.D. 1893 Translated by Rev. David M. Juhl A.D. 2013

77 78

Galatians 3:2. Galatians 5:16-23.