Fundament 13: Means 4: German theologian vs. Luther’s teaching

      This continues from Part 12 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a translation of Franz Pieper's essay on the foundation of the Christian faith ("Das Fundament des christlichen Glaubens"). — Pieper now brings the full force of Martin Luther to bear on this subject, on the doctrine of the Means of God's Grace.

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Text preparation and translation by BackToLuther using DeepL, Google Translate, Microsoft Translate, Yandex Translate. All bold text is Pieper's emphasis. All highlighting, red text, and most text in square brackets [ ] is mine.

Das Fundament des christlichen Glaubens.

The Foundation of the Christian Faith.

[by President Franz Pieper, Concordia Seminary; continued from Part 12 - page 249]

Among the teachers whom Christ gave to his Church after the time of the infallible Apostles of his Church, no one has so clearly recognized from his own experience the Christian doctrine of the means of grace in its primary fundamental meaning and taught it so powerfully in his writings as Luther.  

“an historical monster”

Adolf Harnack, of course, as we have already heard on page 132, claims that Luther himself knew best that the Christian did not live by the means of grace. Such an assertion should not be possible for a historian. It's an historical monster. In nearly all his sermons, lectures and writings, Luther explains: The Christian lives, as only from the sola gratia, as only from the means of grace. Whoever with the Reformed enthusiasts lets go the external means of grace ordered by God, namely the external Word of the Gospel, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, as the foundation of his faith, thereby with the Papists also lets go the “by grace alone” as the foundation of his faith. He does not understand by saving grace the gracious disposition of God (gratuitus Dei favor), which is present through Christ's vicarious satisfaction for all people and is revealed and offered by the means of grace to the saving faith as the only fixed foundation, but he understands “grace” as with the Papists, a so-called “infused grace” (gratia infusa). He falls back into the Papist works doctrine and thus also into all its evil consequences: into the monstrum incertitudinis gratiae, and he must perish in doubt and despair, unless he, by God's grace, in challenge and need of death, places himself on the only fixed foundation of faith, the objective means of grace. Through Luther, the Reformer of the Church, God has again pointed the whole Church, indeed the whole world, to the fundamental importance of the means of grace ordained by Him. We put a few pronunciations of Luther here. 

These are words that are generally known in our circles. But it is necessary and useful that also [page 250] we remember them again and again, because even in practice we forget only too easily that God wants to act in spiritual matters only through the means ordered by Him.

Luther distinguishes between the kingdom of nature and the kingdom of grace in terms of God's revelation and effect. In the kingdom of nature God works everywhere and distributes his goods and gifts for earthly life. He does that even where his Gospel is not. But in the kingdom of grace, in which he distributes the forgiveness of sins acquired by Christ and thereby satisfies and governs the heart and conscience, God has bound his revelation and efficacy to his Word. This subheading includes Luther's words in his church postil on Luke 2:49:

“What does he mean: ‘I must be about my Father's business’? Do not all creatures belong to the Father? All is His; but the creatures He hath given us for our use, that we should reign with them in this earthly life, as we know how. But there is one thing he has reserved for Himself, which is holy and God's own, and which we must especially receive from Him. That is his Holy Word, by which He rules the hearts and consciences, and sanctifies and saves them. Therefore, the temple is also called His holy place or His holy dwelling, that he showed Himself present in it by his Word and let it be heard. So Christ is in that which is His Father’s when He speaks with us through His Word and by means of it brings us to the Father. For that reason He rebukes His parents for running around and seeking Him in earthly and human things and affairs, among acquaintances and friends, and not thinking that He must be in that which is His Father's. By doing this, He wants to point out that His government and the whole Christian life exists only in the Word and in faith, not in other external things (such as the external, apparent holiness of Judaism), nor in temporal and worldly life or government. ... 

That is now what I have said, that God does not want to tolerate that we should rely on something else or cling with our hearts to something that is not Christ in His Word, however holy and full of spirit it may be. Faith has no other ground on which it can stand. ... We must seek Christ in that which is the Father's, which is that we simply and alone cling to the Word of the Gospel which shows us Christ aright and makes Him known to us. And learn only in this and all spiritual trials, if you want to comfort others or yourself, so with Christ say: What is it that you run so here and there, that you torture yourself with frightened and sorrowful thoughts, as if God did not want grace for you any more, and as if no Christ were to be found, and you will not be satisfied unless you find him by yourself and feel holy and without sin? [page 251] Nothing will come of it; it is vain lost effort and work. Do you not know that Christ will not be present or let Himself be found except in that which is His Father’s and not in what you or all other people are or have? 

It is not the fault of Christ and his grace; He is not and never will be lost, and may always be found; But the fault is in you when you do not seek Him correctly where He is to be sought, because you judge by your feeling and think to seize Him with your thoughts. You must come not where your or anyone’s business and government are, but where God’s is, namely, in His Word; there you will meet Him, hear Him, and see that there is neither anger nor disgrace, as you fear and hesitate, but pure grace and heartfelt love toward you. …  But [the heart] first becomes heavy before it comes to this point and grasps these things. It must first rush off and experience what it means that everything is lost and that Christ is sought in vain. Finally, there is no help left but, apart from yourself and all human consolation, to give yourself to the Word alone.”  (Gospel for the First Sunday after Epiphany. St. L. XI, 452 ff. [Am. Ed.? McCain’s new edition, p. 293 ff.; Lenker v. 11, p. 17 here])

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      Pieper's long quote from a sermon of Martin Luther lead me to discover a more recent English translation of it in a relatively new book by CPH.  I want to highlight that book in a separate blog post here.  —  Then, in the next Part 14…