BWC3a: Vol. III(A): Grace; "God did not owe it, man could not do it"

      This continues from Part BWC2h in a series (Table of Contents in Part BWC1) presenting Walther's edition of Baier's Compendium of Positive Theology. — This begins the largest volume, by far, of the 3 volumes, exceeding the total of the 2 previous volumes. Because it is so large, I am splitting it up into 2 parts, approximately 400 pages each: IIIA and IIIB. 

      This volume contains the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. The first half IIIA contains the 34-page section on "The Office of Christ" that Synoptic Text Information Services published in 2023 (Amazon). This is in a series of books addressing their overall focus on Atonement in Lutheran Orthodoxy. This excerpt was well chosen for not only its intended purpose of focusing on "Atonement" but also on Christ's "vicarious satisfaction" for the sins of the world. This was a particular focus of Prof. Franz Pieper in his Christian Dogmatics. — However, this excerpt is just that — it truly points to the need for the full volume that includes also the section on the Lutheran doctrine of "Justification". 

The following Table of Contents provides the overview of Part IIIA:

PART THREE. (A)

Chapter I. Of the Grace of God toward fallen men, the first principle of our salvation 3

Chapter II. Of Christ, the principle and foundation of our salvation 18

Section I. Of the Person of Christ 20

Section II. Of the states of humiliation and exaltation 75

Section III. Of the Office of Christ     100

Chapter III. Of Faith in Christ  134

Chapter IV. Of Regeneration and Conversion 177

Chapter V. Of Justification 240

Chapter VI. Of Renewal and Good Works   299

Chapter VII. Of the Word of the Law and the Gospel 337

 We begin now, from pages 3-18, our selection of

Notable Quotes: (Italics follow the original. All quotes not from Baier are from Walther's additions of quotes. Red text indicates my comments.)

[Chapter 1: Of the Grace of God toward fallen men]

3-4: Luther: "a lawyer speaks of man as the possessor and lord of his own things; a physician speaks of man as healthy and sick; but the theologian, however, discusses man as a sinner"

5: Huelselmann: "it pleased Philip Melanchthon…to leave the word ‘grace’ in its ambiguity.…Our symbolic book freed the word 'grace' and 'freely' from the equivocation regarding an infused habit [by the Papists]

5: Luther to Melanchthon: "You write that Eck was forced by you to confess that we are justified by faith: I wish you had forced him not to lie."

6: "Hence it is commonly called universal grace, a designation taken from its object, which is the entire human race"

8: Luther: The Son of God "takes my sin upon His back; yes, not only my sin, but also the sin of the whole world".

8: Quenstedt: "On 1 Tim. 2:4: 'God wills all men to be saved,' etc. the Calvinists except, that by all men the apostle does not mean every single man, but any men, i.e. men of every kind"

9: Quenstedt: "hypothetical Calvinists, who indeed admit a certain universal benevolence of God toward all men, but only on the condition of faith, if they believe"

11: Gerhard: An example of God's efficacious universal grace: "of a father, who is equally favorable to all his children and wants all to become heirs of his goods, but excludes from the inheritance those who are stubbornly disobedient and depraved."

13: Gerhard: "Thomas [Aquinas], P. III. q. 46. art. 2 argues: 'That God can remit sins to man without satisfaction, since He has no superior.' … [But] God is so merciful that He is also at the same time just.… no other remedy remained than for the Son of God Himself to assume human nature and in it and through it to make satisfaction; God did not owe it, man could not do it."

15: "It is also of divine grace, which regards our salvation, to move God to will and confer what is His own, so that we may all enjoy the foreign satisfaction of another, the mediator." [I.e. the "vicarious satisfaction".]

16: Chemnitz: "that God is not to be regarded as the actual cause of such rejection or damnation, as the opposing doctrine does…but we wish to adhere to the saying of the prophet Hosea, chapter 13[:9], where God speaks: 'O Israel, you bring disaster upon yourself; your salvation is in me alone.'"

In the next Part BWC3b…