Bente3: Repentance & Good Works; conclusion, full download (Part 3)

      This concludes from Part 2 (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a 3-part series presenting Prof. Fredrich Bente's second most important writing, Law and Gospel: Repentance and Good Works.  concludes our 

Notable Quotes:

62: "For even if good works do not belong to the essence of justification and faith, they are nevertheless their purpose and goal, just as good fruits are the purpose and goal of the tree."

63: "the propositions that good works are necessary for the salvation of believers, so that it is impossible to be saved without good works, are rightly rejected."

64: "Before a person can do any truly good work, they must first have the certainty that they are a blessed child of God, an heir to eternal life."

73: "If someone has no good works, it is solely because he does not truly believe that God has forgiven him for Christ's sake."

74: "It is said of the Russians that they know no gratitude because, from long and gloomy experience, they no longer believe that the kindness and offers of friendship shown to them are really sincere and without selfish motives." [Still true today of the Russian people?]

75: "However, they [Lutherans] do not deny that good works should and must be done, namely 'for God's sake and to God's praise.'"

78: "As if God lured us into his kingdom with the call, 'Freely and by grace alone!' but then made us understand that His grace is conditional on the good works we do."

85: "the statement 'good works are done voluntarily' does not mean that it is up to the discretion of Christians whether they want to do good works or not."

92: "however, this remains our consolation, that we and our works are not under the law, but under grace."

99: Ap. IV, 24: "one should not exalt good works and such conduct so highly that it brings shame upon Christ"

102: Ap. III, 61 "we are pleasing to God not because of the law, not because of works, but because of Christ."

104: Ap. III, 148: "cursed are the Pharisees, our adversaries [the Papists], who interpret the law in such a way that they give the glory of Christ to works"

Now I present the (first?) full English translation:

Download unhighlighted version here; PDF version here; German text here.

The reader is encouraged to also compare Walther's book, Der Concordienformel, Kern und Stern, or Formula of Concord, Core and Star.