This continues from Part 17 (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"). — This segment concludes Pieper's treatment of the Lutheran Doctrine of the Means of Grace and draws heavily on Luther. It is powerful teaching for all of Christianity.
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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.
The Foundation of the Christian Faith.
We place here a few words in which Luther summarizes and proves that the Christian faith has the means of grace as its necessary foundation. After Luther had shown that Christ, as the Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world, is our righteousness before God, he continued: (St. L. XI, 1735 ff. [Not in old series Am. Ed.; Lenker 14, p. 223-225, § 28-32])
“How and by what means we may appropriate such righteousness, so that we may bring home the treasure acquired by Christ. Here also we need to give heed that we take the right way, and not make the mistake, which certain heretics have made in times past, and many erroneous minds still set forth, who think that God ought to do something special with them. These imagine that God will deal separately with each one by some special internal light and mysterious revelation, and give him the Holy Ghost, as though there was no need of the written Word or the external sermon. Consequently we are to know that God has ordained that no one shall come to the knowledge of Christ, nor obtain the forgiveness acquired by him, nor receive the Holy Ghost, without the use of external and public means; but God has embraced this treasure in the oral word or public ministry, and will not perform his work in a corner or mysteriously in the heart, but will have it heralded and distributed openly among the people, even as Christ commands, Mark 16:15: ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,’ etc.. He does this in order that we may know how and where to seek and expect his grace, so that in all Christendom there may be the same custom and order, and not every man follow his own mind and act according to his own notions, and so deceive himself and others, which would certainly happen. As we cannot look into the heart of any man, each one might boast of having the Holy Ghost and set forth his own thoughts as divine revelation which God had inspired and taught him in a special manner; as a result, no one would know whom or what to believe. Therefore this part also, namely the external word or preaching, belongs to Christianity as a channel or means through which we attain unto the forgiveness of sins, or the righteousness of Christ, with which Christ reveals and offers us his [page 262] grace or lays it into our bosom, and without which no one would ever come to a knowledge of this treasure. For whence should any man know, or in what man's heart would it ever come, that Christ, the Son of God, came from heaven for our sake, died for us, and rose from the dead, acquired the forgiveness of sins and eternal life, and offers the same to us, without publicly having it announced and preached? And although he acquired this treasure for us through his suffering and death, no one could obtain or receive it, if Christ did not have it offered, presented, and applied. And all that he had done and suffered would be to no purpose, but would be like some great and precious treasure buried in the earth, which no one could find or make use of. Therefore I have always taught that the oral word must precede every thing else, must be comprehended with the ears, if the Holy Ghost is to enter the heart, who through the Word enlightens it and works faith. Consequently faith does not come except through the hearing and oral preaching of the Gospel, in which it has its beginning, growth and strength. For this reason the Word must not be despised, but held in honor. We must familiarize and acquaint ourselves with it, and constantly practice it, so that it never ceases to bear fruit; for it can never be understood and learned too well. Let every man beware of the shameless fellows who have no more respect for the Word than if it were unnecessary for faith; or of those who think they know it all, become tired of it, eventually fall from it, and retain nothing of faith or of Christ. Behold, here you have all that belongs to this article of the righteousness of Christ. It consists in the forgiveness of sins, offered to us through Christ, and received by faith in and through the Word, purely and simply without any works on our part. Yet I do not mean that Christians should not and must not do good works, but that they are not to be mingled and entwined in the doctrine of faith, and decorated with the shameless delusion that they avail before God as righteousness, whereby both the doctrine of works and of faith are besmirched and destroyed.”
We heard under the previous section, in the subdivision [April, p. 100 ff (Part 7)] where we were dealing with the relationship of synergism to the foundation of faith, that Luther was talking about a “sorrowful, secret trick” that makes us last of the first. This tiresome, secret treachery occurs when we do not simply coordinate ourselves with publicans and sinners, but attribute to ourselves, in comparison with them, a privilege before God, a lesser guilt or a “different behaviour”, and thus slip away from the foundation of the Christian faith, the sola gratia.
We [page 263] also heard that Luther held this up as a warning to himself with the words: “Therefore it is also necessary that this Gospel [on Sunday Septuagesimä] should be preached at our times to those who now know the Gospel, to me and my kind, who imagine they can teach and govern the whole world, and therefore imagine they are the nearest to God and have devoured the Holy Spirit, feathers and bones.” So we can also speak of a “sorrowful, secret trick” that easily creeps into our personal practice with regard to the means of grace. We do not lack the right knowledge. Also we in our times can teach all the world the divine truth that the Holy Spirit comes to us only through the means of grace. But despite this knowledge, we practice enthusiastically, that is, we act as if the Holy Spirit does not need a vehicle when we are not diligent with God's Word and the means of grace. We lament and moan because of our low confidence in God's grace and because of the low status of our spiritual life in general. What is the deficiency?
A self-examination shows that we are careless in our handling of the means of grace, that is, we actually expect the Holy Spirit to enlighten us immediately, to preserve us in faith and to fill us with spiritual joy. And this actual abandonment of the divine order can always only result in spiritual trouble. As in relation to this point also Luther confesses of himself, and at the same time refers to the only means by which the inner spiritual drought is lifted again and again:
“If I am without the Word, if I do not think of it, if I do not deal with it, there is no Christ at home, yes, there is no desire or spirit; but as soon as I take a psalm or a passage of the Scriptures before me, it shines and burns in my heart that I may gain other courage and meaning. I also know that every one of us should experience it daily by ourselves.” F. P.
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The LC-MS makes a great show of its "sacramental theology" yet teaches that “The gospel has a power … independent of the Scriptures”. Now compare that statement to the last quote from Luther above and judge for yourself who you must believe. The LC-MS is losing not only the Word, it is thereby also losing the Gospel. How is it that Pieper is so much more powerful than today's LC-MS in his teaching and defense of the "Means of Grace"? As he said elsewhere (Justification-General):Pieper (and Walther and Luther) had the right Lutheran Doctrine of Justification, so we can be certain that his basis for teaching the "Means of Grace" is solid, Scriptural. — In the next Part 19, Pieper moves on to the last, but not the least, of his "Fundament", the foundations of the Christian faith – the Inspiration of Holy Scripture.All praise of Christ, of grace, and of the means of grace,without the right doctrine of justification,is nothing.
Added 2019-12-19: But first, I begin a 3-part series, "Walther & Scripture", to defend Pieper's work on this doctrine, in Part 1.
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