AG3b: 1875: The Necessity of Regeneration and Sanctification

      This continues from Part AG3a (Table of Contents in Part AG1a) in a series presenting Walther's essays to the Western District that supported his theme "That Only Through the Doctrine of the Lutheran Church is All Glory Given to God Alone". — Walther now moves on to a topic that typically follows the Doctrine of Justification: Regeneration and Sanctification. How are these subjects to also "Give All Glory to God"? — From pp. 40-53:

Notable Quotes:

40: "we also teach that where this faith is, man also becomes a new creature, which is produced by regeneration"

40-41: "Jesuits maintain that we teach: 'Live as you will, only believe; works are not necessary, neither are rebirth and regeneration'…these rascals know well that they are lying"

41: "it is impossible that, when one has come to living faith, his heart should not become joyful and merry in God"

41: "One can speak with the mouth: I believe, but such mouth-faith brings no one to heaven, but certainly to hell. No, he who believes in this love with all his heart…receives divine powers for a new life."

42: Luther's grand "Faith is not…faith is" passage: "Faith is not the human delusion and dream that some take for faith.…Oh, faith is a living, active, powerful thing, so that it is impossible that it should not work good without ceasing."

43: Luther: "Therefore, without compulsion, man becomes willing and eager to do good to everyone…Ask God to work faith in you, otherwise you will probably remain without faith forever"

43: "With the enthusiasts [Methodists, etc.]…[Christians] find not only good [teaching on regeneration], but also poison, from which they can die eternal death."

43: Roman Church teaches "that only the nature of sin is taken away from original sin, according to them no new creation takes place in Baptism."

43: For enthusiasts, "regeneration is not the production of faith, but they feel something"

44: "Methodists very often accuse us of the error of saying that Baptism is regeneration.…Rather, we teach that it works regeneration"

44: "Baptism should therefore not be made into a new work. What saves us is Christ alone."

45: "the terrible thing about the Methodists, that they accuse us of teaching nothing about the new birth"

45: Methodists: "the Lutherans want to enter the kingdom of heaven without regeneration, without repentance and without conversion; …poor Christians must get the idea: Oh, I will beware of the Lutherans!"

46: "It is also necessary that man should be shown how he is made holy and renewed in the image of God.…God forgives us sin so that we can come out of sin."

47: " The Lutheran Church…also demands sanctification from every Christian."

47: "if the Antinomians had not stood up, Luther would probably never have given such powerful testimony to the necessity of sanctification."

49: "The Antinomians admitted that Christ was the Savior from sin, but that they had to be converted from sin, they wanted to know nothing about"

50: "Insofar as a person recognizes God, he is holy. Here we recognize him only in part"

50: "How terrible it is that the Roman Church has a doctrine of justification which is nothing other than a doctrine of sanctification."

51: "our [Lutheran] doctrine of justification is a mystery to them [Romanists], which they cannot comprehend. That is why they are frightened when we say that we are justified by faith alone."

51: "The thief on the cross is a good example of this. For as soon as he believed, he also began to punish the other evildoer."

Walther's hard sayings, preaching of the Law: (Cp. to Prof. Henry Eggold here)

51: "I must not abandon the doctrine just because someone is offended by it.

51: "I am not at the will of the robber, but try to slip away from him, draw my pistol and say to him: "Come now! I do not value my life so highly, but I am in a state of self-defense, and must not do every street thief's bidding."

51: "Anyone who does not stand against sin as against a robber…is not a Christian."

52: "There is thunder and lightning in the pulpit, that has to happen, otherwise you are not a faithful preacher."

52: "Nor should we refrain from preaching the law in old congregations…" [Cp. to Prof. Henry Eggold here]

52: "We preachers must certainly remember that we Christians are made up of two people, the old and the new" [The basics of distinguishing Law and Gospel in preaching.]

In the next Part AG3c, we conclude the 1875 essay and provide a download link to the full essay.

L01: Walther (and Luther) on the Law; everyone bound by "natural law"

      It has been universally acknowledged that the lectures of C. F. W. Walther that were assembled into the book The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel (or Law & Gospel) were an American masterpiece on the subject. Even Dr. Robert Kolb acknowledged this (p. 54) while at the same time being critical. So when I ran across a brief essay without an author's name in the 1861 Western District convention report (text DE, EN) on the subject of "the Law", I wondered that it was Walther who authored this piece. Why? Because the old Missouri Synod recognized that it was highly favored to have such a spiritual leader as Walther. (I am identifying the author as Walther until someone can provide evidence to the contrary.) And he was the obvious choice to handle this subject. What better teacher can there be to teach "the Law" than one who, since the days of Martin Luther, best distinguished it from the Gospel? (One can certainly rule out Artificial Intelligence to do the job!) — 

      Because of its importance, I have uploaded the original German text of this Western District essay to the Internet Archive here. After researching this short essay, it was discovered that a much expanded version was published later that same year (1861) in Lehre und Wehre, in 2 parts (November and December). The expanded portion was filled entirely with quotations from Luther's writings. There are 26 references to Luther.

      Upon reading this essay, one is immediately introduced to the subject of "natural Law". This was also the subject of a book of essays compiled and published by CPH in 2011 with the title Natural Law: A Lutheran Reappraisal (Internet Archive copy). These were authored by an eclectic group that amazingly included ELCA and NALC (Marianne?) writers, ones who cannot teach a "Lutheran Reappraisal" because of their deviation from Lutheran doctrine in critical areas (e.g. Forde). There may be informative essays by some authors, such as Prof. Roland Ziegler on “Natural Law in the Lutheran Confessions” (p. 65 ff.), and Dr. Korey Maas, who stated (p. 226):

"A culture hostile to Christianity was, and is, incredibly unlikely to assent to any truth claim predicated on peculiarly Christian presuppositions".

But one can better avoid spiritual confusion when one rather learns first from the father of the Missouri Synod, and the Reformer, Martin Luther. — We begin our learning in the next Part L02. (The full text file will be available at the end of this series.) 

- - - - - - - - - - - -  TABLE OF CONTENTS  - - - - - - - - - - - - -

L01—This introduction: Walther and Luther on the Law

L02—Part I: 1., 2. What part of the Law now binds everyone? Natural law.

   L02a Excursus: Luther on Slavery: "revolting"; "inequality"?

L03—Part I: 3., 4. Reformed vs. New Testament on the Law (Why Reformed don't use Luther's Catechism)

L04—Part I: 5., 6. Core of Ten Commandments & Christian freedom: "because they want to"

L05—Part II: 1.  The Golden Rule: misconception #1

L06—Part II: 2.  The Golden Rule: misconception #2; Communism?

L07—Part II: 3. Love is the master of all commandments

L08—Part III: 1. Law, the unchangeable will of God, indelibly written in the heart of every man

L09—Part III: 2., 3. Law shows our sin, even for true Christians

   L09a Excursus: False charges by LCMS: Walther a Pietist? (Eggold–Piepkorn–Pelikan); Wohlrabe,  McCain defend Walther

L10—Part IV: 1. Preaching of repentance from the law precedes that of Justification; Eggold's 2nd criticism 

L11—Part IV: 2., 3. Proper distinction of Law from Gospel (Complete English translation)