BWC3h: Justification through the Word; Faith Alone

      This continues from Part BWC3g in a series (Table of Contents in Part BWC1) presenting Walther's edition of Baier's Compendium of Positive Theology. — This segment continues Chapter V, Justification. It is practically the pinnacle of Walther's quotes on the "article on which the Church stands or falls".— From pages 258-278: 

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

260: Chemnitz: "There is a twofold instrumental cause: 1. teaching, revealing, offering…this is the voice of the gospel and the use of the sacraments or, as the ancients speak, the vocal and visible Word. 2. Receiving or apprehending, by which we apply to ourselves those good things which are offered in the gospel"

261: Apology of the A. C.: "One cannot deal with God, one cannot apprehend God, except through the Word. Therefore justification takes place through the Word, as Paul says in Romans 1:16: 'The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.'"

 261: Luther: "The Jews also believe that there is one God, but they deny the way to come to God, namely, through the humanity of Christ. The Turk [Muslims] also acknowledges God, but denies the way, the means, the bridge by which one comes to God, that is, the grace of God. They do not want Christ, nor any sacraments"

262: Luther on the Enthusiasts: "God has so ordained that this treasure is given and administered to us through Baptism, the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and the outward Word. For these are the means and instruments by which we come to God's grace. They deny this."

263: Luther: "for the entire papacy rests on this doctrine: that grace is poured into a person through a secret effect, and whoever wishes to receive it must repent, confess, and make satisfaction.…they do not base the forgiveness of sins on the Word and faith, where it ought to be placed, but on our repentance, confession, and satisfaction"

 264: Luther: "You should repent (that is true), but to think that this alone makes the forgiveness of sins certain and confirms the work of the key is to abandon faith and deny Christ."

[Luther's great analogy of the King and a castle:]

265: Luther: "A king gives you a castle: if you do not accept it, the king has not therefore lied or failed, but you have deceived yourself, and it is your fault, for the king certainly gave it."

267: Quenstedt: "The causal reason or the justifying power belongs to faith, not in itself and by its own nature…as if God valued faith so highly that He would attribute to it the dignity and worth of justification"

268: Gerhard: "Faith is not to be compared to the hand that takes hold of the cup in which the salutary drink is contained, but is the spiritual mouth by which we drink from the fountain of salvation"

268: S. Schmid: "For when I say: If you believe, you will be saved, I do not mean the moral condition under which you are to be saved, but the necessity of the instrument by which you are to be saved. We also perceive the same thing in the natural world. If you have wings, you will fly…"

269: Osiander: "Faith does not justify, as does obedience and being under the law…but insofar as it receives"

271: Gerhard: "How is it that in Rom. 5:18 the righteousness of Christ has overflowed upon all men to justification, when not all are justified? Answer: The Apostle is speaking not of the application, but of the acquisition of the benefit."

272: Ad. Osiander: "For it is understood either of the acquisition or of the application; if the former, then certainly all men were actually saved, since Christ died for them, paying the price for all; but since [in the latter,] application involves faith and men are distinguished into believers and unbelievers"

273: Ph. D. Burk: "2 Cor. 5:19: 'God reconciled the world to Himself and did not impute their sins to them.' And a witness of the truth must at all times preach the Gospel in such a way that he makes God's universal offer of grace to all people his chief work." [Walther would have loved Burk.]

275-277: Luther’s great treatise on “Faith Alone”. StL 19:968 ff., 978 ff.; AE 35:182, 188-189, 195 f.

277: Quenstedt: "justification is attributed to faith alone, but not to faith torn away from the other exercises of piety." [Answers Papist arguments against faith alone.]

278: C. Loescher: "but it is not necessary that those works should simultaneously with faith influence the justification"

In the next Part BWC3i…