LAW AND GOSPEL IN THE WRITINGS OF C.F.W. WALTHER

05.04.2005
Daniel Preus
(Ressurser)

I was pleased when I received the schedule for this meeting of the North European Luther Academy to discover that I had been asked to make my presentation immediately after the paper by Dr. Jensen, which treated the subject of Law and Gospel in the writings of Martin Luther. It means that you who are the listeners will not be required to start thinking about something new. To a great degree we will simply be continuing a study of the same subject. Because C.F.W. Walther, one of the founding fathers of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, was not a particularly original theologian, nor did he wish to be. And he made it clear frequently in his speeches and in his writings that the theologian he most admired and trusted was Martin Luther. There is no other theologian or source, other than the Bible, which he quotes nearly as often as Luther. So significant is his dependence on Luther and so prevalent is his use of Luther's writings, that he has frequently been called 'The American Luther.' He was referred to often as a repristination theologian and particularly a Luther repristinator, especially by those who disagreed with his theology. My predecessor at Concordia Historical Institute used to call him Luther's archivist.

Walther himself was not ashamed to be seen as one who was dependent on Luther. He had no desire to be original or to make a name for himself as a theologian. It was his foremost wish to establish a truly Lutheran church on the American continent and for Walther this meant a church firmly based on the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions. Such a church, in his view, ought to see Luther as her premier theologian. Walther believed… "that to build his doctrine on the organic foundation of Scripture and to employ the terminology and frame of thought of Lutheran fathers was a mark of a good dogmatician. In this sense he indicated that to him the only good dogmatician is a repristination theologian, who leans on his forebears as he summarizes and presents the faith."1) And the forefather most to be studied and honored was Luther. However, he was also very well acquainted with the orthodox Lutheran fathers and frequently quoted John Gerhard, Martin Chemnitz, Hunnius and others, especially in his lectures on Law and Gospel.

My presentation today will be divided into two parts, the first dealing with Walther's historical background. I think this will be very helpful for those who are unacquainted with the history of Lutheranism in America and particularly that of the Missouri Synod. The second part of my paper will cover his teaching on Law and Gospel.

C.F.W. Walther is arguably the most important theologian the Lutheran Church in America has ever had. Other names come to mind when one mentions American Lutheranism - Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, Charles Porterfield Krauth, S.S. Schmucker ( if one can consider him Lutheran), Francis Pieper - but it is doubtful that any of these had the influence on his church body that C.F.W. Walther did in the Missouri Synod. His writings were prolific. Although he never wrote a systematic theology, he covered a broad expanse of Christian doctrine simply through those writings authored to address the theological issues facing the early Missouri Synod. Thus, he wrote extensively on church and ministry, predestination, justification, Scripture and many other topics. Over one thousand of his sermons are extant and it is estimated that he wrote about 800 letters a year over the course of his ministry in America, which spanned forty years. Those writings for which he is most well known and which have most influenced the theology and life of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod are those, which cover the topics of church and ministry and Law and Gospel. Today we will consider his focus on Law and Gospel. Before we go to our main topic, however, permit me to provide you with a few details about Walther's life so that you may have a context within which to appreciate this outstanding theologian and the circumstances under which he wrote.

Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther was born October 25, 1811 in Langenchursdorf, Saxony, the eighth of twelve children. His father, grandfather and great grandfather had all been pastors. Little influenced by the Erweckungsbewegung begun by Klaus Harms, Walther entered the Gymnasium in Schneeberg at the age of ten and was immersed in a rationalistic environment. Though his father had been a believer and raised Ferdinand as a conservative Lutheran, Walther confessed later in life, that during his years at the Gymnasium he had not been a Christian. In 1878 he wrote, "My dear God-fearing father had taught me from earliest childhood that the Bible is God's Word. But I had to leave my father's house very early, in my eighth year, to live in unbelieving circles. I did not lose the historical faith. Like an angel of God it accompanied me through life. But during those more than eight years of Gymnasium life I was unconverted."2)

Thus, when Walther finished his studies at the Gymnasium, it is little surprise that he had no desire to study theology. His true love was music. At that time he wrote in his diary, "I feel that I was born for nothing but music."3) His father, however, disapproved and pressured his son to attend the University of Leipzig to prepare for the office of the ministry. At the time Walther did not even own his own Bible, testimony to the effect of rationalism, as well as little money. On December 9, 1829, he wrote in his diary regarding his ignorance of God's Word, "Today I read in the Bible, namely in the Book of Acts, in order, first of all, to become more at home in it - for I know very little about the apostles, and I can hardly repeat their twelve names - and then to edify myself with the examples of the effects and evidences of an immovable faith."4) Elsewhere he says,

After graduating from college, I entered the university. I was no outspoken unbeliever, for my parents were believers. But I had left my parents' home already when I was eight years old, and all my associates were unbelievers; so were all my professors, with the exception of one, in whom there seemed to be a faint trace of faith. When I entered the university, I did not know the Ten Commandments by heart and could not recite the list of the books in the Bible. My knowledge of the Bible was pitiful, and I had not an inkling of faith.5)

If the rationalistic influence at the Gymnasium in Schneeberg was significant, it was even worse at Leipzig. The attacks on those who believed the Bible was God's Word were frequent and forceful. In a desire to find a firm foundation, Walther looked for spiritual guidance elsewhere. His brother Otto Walther introduced him to a group of Bible students who considered themselves spiritually awakened true believers. Unfortunately, this group of Bible students eventually came under the influence of a severe pietist, so that the comfort Walther had been receiving was soon lost. This man introduced Walther to the writings of Fresenius and the more he read in Fresenius' book On Confession and Communion, the worse his spiritual condition became. According to Walther,

The farther I got in reading the book, the more uncertain I became whether I was a Christian. An inner voice kept saying to me: "The evidence that you have the requirements of a Christian is insufficient…." At that time, when opening any religious book treating of the order of grace and salvation, I would read only the chapter on repentance. When I would come to the chapters on the Gospel and Faith, I would close the book saying: "That is not for me." An increasing darkness settled on my soul as I tasted less and less of the sweetness of the Gospel. God knows I did not mean to work a delusion on myself; I wanted to be saved. In those days I regarded those as the best books, which spoke a stern language to sinners and left them nothing of the grace of God.6)

A couple events in the life of Walther served to direct him away from the influence of Pietism toward orthodox Lutheranism and the first of these had a dramatic impact on his later understanding and teaching regarding the distinction between Law and Gospel. Due to a period of prolonged illness during the winter of 1831 to 1832, Walther left the university of Leipzig for a time and returned to his home. Here he dedicated himself during the time of his illness to the study of the writings of Martin Luther. It was in reading Luther that Walther heard the clear voice of the Gospel as Luther's teaching on justification made a strong impression on him. Luther's clear distinction between the Law and the Gospel served to lift Walther out of his spiritual depression.

At the same time Walther had begun to correspond with a pastor named Martin Stephan who served the Bohemian congregation of St. Stephen in Dresden. This man rejected the rationalistic approach to Scripture so common in Saxony at the time, embraced the spirit of the Erweckungsbewegung and proclaimed the Gospel clearly to the members of his congregation. At that time there was no question as to Stephan's orthodoxy and commitment to Lutheran doctrine. He himself stated, "What I have preached I myself believe with my whole heart. I am firmly convinced that only the Bible can be a fountain of pure Christian doctrine. Out of this our pious forefathers have drawn and preserved the pure doctrine in the Confessional Writings of our Evangelical Lutheran Church for us."7) Stephan also brought comfort to Walther in his struggles with pietist theology. He became an extremely strong influence upon Walther and a number of other pastors and laymen who eventually followed him to America, claiming that persecution on the part of Saxon authorities made the conscientious practice of their faith impossible. Over 700 immigrants followed Stephan to St. Louis, Missouri and became one of the groups that formed the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in 1847.

I wish it were possible for me to do justice to all the events that influenced the later formation of the Missouri Synod and its theology. But that will have to wait for another opportunity. I will give simply those details that provide understanding of the person of Walther and his theological development.

It was not long after they arrived in St. Louis that severe problems threatened to destroy the Lutheran community that followed Pastor Martin Stephan to America. Some dissatisfaction with Martin Stephan had already arisen due to his authoritative and sometimes dictatorial leadership. Not only had he directed his followers to invest him with the office of bishop while on the ship traveling to America. He had also required them to swear an oath of fidelity to him as their leader in both spiritual and temporal affairs. The immigrants had all pooled their money into a common treasury for the purposes of traveling to America, purchasing property for their spiritual community and erecting buildings, etc. When they arrived, many had difficulty providing for their own physical needs, while Stephan provided himself with many luxuries and a well stocked wine cellar. Dissatisfaction changed quickly to open rebellion, however, when one Sunday after hearing a particularly powerful sermon, two women confessed to Pastor Loeber that they had committed adultery with Bishop Stephan. C. F. W. Walther was commissioned by the other pastors to visit with Stephan and apply the appropriate measures. His discussions did not result in any confession from Stephan, but, due to the testimony of the women and much evidence of Stephan's autocratic approach, he was charged with false doctrine, defrocked as their bishop, rowed across the Mississippi River to Illinois and instructed never to return to Missouri.

Without their bishop, the Saxons were thrown into theological turmoil and began to question their motives in leaving Germany as well as their status as church. It's hard to imagine today how great their disillusionment must have been. The immigration had been harrowing enough, involving the sale of their homes, departure from friends and loved ones in Saxony and the criticism and ridicule, which resulted from their decision to leave. Then the voyage which took 43 to 62 days depending on the ship - accompanied by sickness, a number of deaths and even the loss of one of the five ships, the Amalia, which was never heard from again. In New Orleans before the trip by river up to St. Louis some of the members of the Gesselschaft, the Society, defected from the company. Then following their arrival, mismanagement of funds by Stephan became apparent as well as extravagant expenditures by him, housing difficulties in St. Louis, the search for affordable housing in the land which they did purchase, all these difficulties served to demoralize and discourage. And then, to discover the infidelity of their bishop!

These poor people were so confused they were asking themselves whether they could be a church at all since they no longer had a bishop. And did they have the right to call their own pastors? In a book entitled Zion on the Mississippi, the author through a series of questions, provides good insight into what must have been the mental state of the Saxons at this time.

Everyone had been so completely unnerved by the tempest that literally no one knew where he stood. Had the pastors the right to serve congregations? Had they been justified in leaving their congregations in Germany? Or ought they return? Had the entire emigration been justifiable? Had the idolization of Stephan deprived them of the claim to being Christians? Were they a church or a "mob?" Were they the Lutheran Church or a Stephanistic association? Had they the right, if they were congregations, to call pastors and teachers? Had they the right to depose those now in office? If they had this right, were they obliged to do so? What of the tarnished record of these men? More fundamentally, What was a church? What was the office of the ministry?… These and a thousand other questions agitated the minds of the people, who were beset by economic difficulties, remorse of conscience and shame before the public.8)

At this very difficult time God used C.F.W. Walther to reestablish order and bring hope and peace once again into the minds of these people. As before in Germany when he had been sick, Walther immersed himself in the writings of Martin Luther and the other Lutheran orthodox fathers. Following extended study, in a debate with one of the laymen who held that the Saxons were not a church and did not have the right to call or depose pastors, Walther presented a series of theses on Church and ministry, which not only convinced the people they were indeed a church with the right of calling pastors, but also became the position of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod which would be founded about eight years later.

Although Walther, in this debate did not give a great deal of attention to the topic of Law and Gospel, I believe it is important to share this background information with you so that you may understand the context out of which Walther's entire theology developed, including his understanding of Law and Gospel. I emphasize again his dependence particularly on Luther, his trust of Luther as a theologian and teacher of the church and his own desire to be truly Lutheran in his teachings and in his own convictions.

Finally, I need to provide a brief explanation of the American context as introduction to Walther's teaching on Law and Gospel. When the Saxons arrived in Missouri, the United States was experiencing a very stormy and uncertain religious climate. The Revolutionary War, sometimes called the War for Independence, had not only won independence for the 13 colonies, but had also created a spirit of independence in the hearts and minds of the people. This spirit exhibited itself not only in the civil sphere, but also in the religious sphere. Ties to the old established religions were cut off as new sects and cults were formed.

I may have mentioned to you last year that these were the years when the Mormons, the Christian Scientists, the Adventists and the Jehovah's Witnesses, claiming new visions or insights into Scripture founded their respective cults. The religious movements of the day, "…challenged common people to take religious destiny into their own hands, to think for themselves, to oppose centralized authority and the elevation of the clergy as a separate order of men."9) "These movements also allowed common people to trust their own religious impulses. They were encouraged to express their faith with fervent emotion and bold testimony."10)

These were Walther's times and to understand a theologian, at least to understand why he dealt with the subjects he did, it is helpful to know the times in which he lived. Walther's work on Law and Gospel certainly reflects the time during which he lived, his own life experience, the events he had witnessed and the issues of his day. His focus on Law and Gospel, therefore, gives abundant evidence of his exposure to liberalism, rationalism, pietism, individualism, legalism, and sectarianism. He had seen personally that all of these posed a threat to the proper distinction between Law and Gospel. Thus, in his major work on The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel Walther gives attention to all these threats to the pure doctrine concerning Gesetz und Evangelium.

As I mentioned earlier, Walther was a prolific writer. What may be his best work, however, is not the result of an effort on his part to produce a book containing a systematic presentation of his doctrine on Law and Gospel. Rather, it is the reproduction of student notes taken by a stenographer from Walther's lectures on Law and Gospel while he was a professor at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. In fact, the book was not even published until ten years after Walther had died. Walther's teaching on the subject of Law and Gospel was presented in a series of 39 lectures given on Friday evenings, beginning September 12, 1884 and ending November 6, 1885. The lectures were given on the basis of thorough notes, which Walther had prepared ahead of time and there is little doubt that the stenographer was completely faithful and accurate in reproducing Walther's presentation on this topic.

Walther's 39 lectures are based on 25 theses concerning Law and Gospel. These I have reproduced for you and you should have them in hand. Although all of the theses are considered important and scriptural, not each thesis receives the same attention. In the English version of the book which takes up 413 pages, for example, Thesis XIII, covers only 8 pages, while Thesis IX , considered the central thesis, covers almost 84 pages and reflects Walther's extensive experience with Pietism and his complete understanding of its dangers. In my description of Walther's position on Law and Gospel, I would like to focus primarily on his evening lectures with occasional references to his sermons and other writings.

There are many ways one could describe the organization of Walther's lectures. Let me provide first a chronological description of the arrangement of his lectures; then I would like to provide a more analytical description. Walther's intention in the first eight lectures seems to be simply to explain the basic differences between Law and Gospel, to clarify the distinction between the two as much as possible and to lay the foundation for an understanding of the following lectures. In his ninth to thirteenth lectures he considers the various ways in which the proper distinction between Law and Gospel can be distorted or confused. The core of the entire lecture series is clearly the 14th through 19th lectures in which Walther clearly reflects his own experience with pietism, its legalistic approach and the importance of objective means of grace and objective justification. It is ironic that Walther relies so heavily on his experience with pietism to discount the value of experience in establishing a person's justification before God. But he bears out his own position stated in Thesis III: "Rightly distinguishing the Law and the Gospel is the most difficult and the highest art of Christians in general and of theologians in particular. It is taught only by the Holy Spirit in the school of experience."11) The final twenty lectures, relying heavily on Luther, elaborate on previous points and provide support for that which has gone before. Lectures 29 to 32 are very practical in nature and appear directed toward those who will be the future preachers of the church.12) Thus you have a brief overview of the chronological structure of Walther's Law and Gospel.

But in my opinion a more profitable way to summarize Walther's treatment of Law and Gospel during his evening lectures is to note his consistent emphasis throughout his lectures on three aspects of justification. In the first place, one finds Walther's emphasis on Christ's perfect redemption of all men. Secondly, he focuses on the means of grace (the Word and the sacraments). Thirdly he gives attention to faith as that which receives the promises offered.13) Permit me to look in some detail at each of these three aspects of Walther's treatment of Law and Gospel. I would like to treat these topics together, however, rather than separately since the salvation which Christ has achieved for all the world through His incarnation, life, suffering, death and resurrection can only be mediated to us through the Gospel and the Sacraments which in turn create faith in order that the benefits of what Christ has achieved for all may be received by individual sinners.

Of course, in speaking of the distinction between Law and Gospel, one cannot speak only of justification. One must speak also of sin, one must speak of punishment and judgment. But the purpose of the law is to prepare people for the Gospel. The Holy Spirit must do his opus alienum, ut faciat opus proprium, that is, the Holy Spirit must do his alien work in order that he may do his proper work. Thus, law and Gospel must both be preached but Walther notes in his final thesis, "…the word of God is not rightly divided when the person teaching it does not allow the Gospel to have a general predominance in his teaching."14) Therefore, in my presentation today, the Gospel will have a definite predominance.

Christ has perfectly redeemed all people. Walther believed in objective justification. His 14th thesis reads: "In the tenth place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when faith is required as a condition of justification and salvation, as if a person were righteous in the sight of God and saved, not only by faith, but also on account of his faith, for the sake of his faith, and in view of his faith."15) In explanation of this thesis, Walther writes,

What God's Word really means when it says that man is justified and saved by faith alone is nothing else than this: Man is not saved by his own acts, but solely by the doing and dying of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the whole world. Over against this teaching modern theologians assert that in the salvation of man two kinds of activity must be noted: in the first place, there is something that God must do. His part is the most difficult, for He must accomplish the task of redeeming men. But in the second place something is required that man must do. For it will not do to admit persons to heaven, after they have been redeemed, without further parley (talk). Man must do something really great - he has to believe. This teaching overthrows the Gospel completely.16)

For Walther faith is never a condition of salvation; grace is not offered with the condition that a sinner accept it. Grace is unconditional and simply receives that which is freely offered. In connection with the predestinarian controversy that raged among the Lutherans in America for a number of years in the late nineteenth century, Walther, and the Missouri Synod with him, rejected the intuitu fidei formula which held that God justified men in view of that faith which He foresaw that they would have.

According to Walther, the German theologians of his day who insisted that men are justified intuitu fidei, claiming that they have only taken this concept from the orthodox theologians, have completely misunderstood the use of that term by those theologians. Walther states, "If John Gerhard and Egidius Hunnius were to rise from the dead and see that our adversaries in the present controversy on predestination appeal to them as their authorities, they would be amazed; for it can be plainly shown that they have rejected and abominated the doctrine of the adversaries."17)

Walther quotes Osiander: "Faith does not justify in so far as it is obedience in compliance with a command, - for thus viewed, it is an action, a work, and something required by Law, - but only in so far as it receives and is attached to justification after the manner of a passive instrument."18) Also John Gerhard: "It is one thing to be justified on account of faith and another to be justified by faith. In the former view, faith is the meritorious, in the latter, the instrumental cause. {There must be an organ by which I come into the possession and enjoyment of what some one offers me.} We are not justified on account of faith as a merit, but by faith which lays hold of the merit of Christ."19) Justification, therefore, is per fidem, non propter fidem.

Thus Walther condemns certain statements of Melanchthon that would attribute the cause of a person's election to something, which God foresees in that person. Quoting Melanchthons's Loci Communes of 1552, Walther says,

Melanchthon writes, "You say you are unable to obey the voice of the Gospel, to listen to the Son of God, and to accept Him as your Mediator?" This question Melanchthon answers: "Of course you can!" An awful answer, this! When a parishioner comes to you complaining of his inability to believe, you must tell him that you are not surprised at this statement; for no man can; he would be a marvel if he could. And you must instruct him to do nothing but listen to the Word of God, and God will give him faith.20)

In other words, it is the Word of the Gospel that mediates Christ's benefits to the sinner in order that faith may be created. Some of Walther's best advice to preachers comes, in my opinion, in the context of his understanding of faith not as a work which man does, but as a work that the Holy Spirit does in response to the preaching of the Gospel. Walther states in thesis XIII, "In the ninth place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when one makes an appeal to believe in a manner as if a person could make himself believe or at least help toward that end, instead of preaching faith into a person's heart by laying the Gospel promises before him."21) In explanation of this thesis, he says,

A preacher must be able to preach a sermon on faith without ever using the term faith. It is not important that he din (shout) the word faith into the ears of his audience, but it is necessary for him to frame his address so as to arouse in every poor sinner the desire to lay the burden of his sins at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and say to Him: "Thou art mine, and I am Thine."

Here is where Luther reveals his true greatness. He rarely appeals to his hearers to believe, but he preaches concerning the work of Christ, salvation by grace, and the riches of God's mercy in Jesus Christ in such a manner that the hearers get the impression that all they have to do is to take what is being offered them and find a resting-place in the lap of divine grace.22)

In the words just cited, Walther reveals once again the necessity of the means of grace. Luther preached the Gospel; that is the message about Jesus Christ, who He is and what He has done. A good Lutheran preacher will follow the example of Luther and preach the Gospel. He will not command faith; rather he will use those means by which God has promised to create faith. Only the means of grace can create faith and only the means of grace can bestow that which faith receives.

However, that which only the means of grace can bestow and that which only faith can receive is not something, which is conditioned in any way by the faith which receives it. Rather it is something, which has been achieved by Christ objectively, apart from any participation on the part of man, and in no way dependent upon man's faith. In the discussion of his ninth thesis, Walther's insistence on the objective nature of justification comes through forcefully. The ninth thesis reads,

In the fifth place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when sinners who have been struck down and terrified by the Law are directed, not to the Word and the Sacraments, but to their own prayers and wrestlings with God in order that they may win their way into a state of grace; in other words, when they are told to keep on praying and struggling until they feel that God has received them into grace.23)

In his discussion of this thesis Walther attacks the pietists and the sects who deprive Christ of His glory and thus call his complete redemption into question by insisting on some kind of proper attitude and preparations for receiving God's salvation, and so on. Against the pietists, Walther insists, "Grace is not something for which I must look in my heart. It is in the heart of God. Grace cannot be found in me, but is outside of me."24) Again Walther says,

The sects picture reconciliation as consisting in this, that the Savior made God willing to save men, provided men would be willing on their part to be reconciled. But that is the reverse of the Gospel. God is reconciled. Accordingly, the apostle calls on us: "Be ye reconciled to God." That means: Since God has been reconciled to you by Jesus Christ, grasp the hand which the Father in heaven holds out to you. Moreover, the apostle declares: "If one died for the sins of all men, that is tantamount to all men's dying and making satisfaction for their sins. Therefore nothing at all is required on the part of man to reconcile God; He already is reconciled. Righteousness lies ready; it must not first be achieved by man. If man were to attempt to do so, that would be an awful crime, a battle against grace and against the reconciliation and perfect redemption accomplished by the Son of God.25)

Franz Pieper, later president of Concordia Seminary St. Louis and also of the Missouri Synod, in describing Walther's understanding of the article of justification quotes a portion of Walther's report to the Western District in 1875.

While all religions, except the Christian, teach that man himself must do that by which he is delivered and saved, the Christian religion teaches not only that all men should be eternally saved but also that they already have been saved. According to the Christian faith, man is already redeemed, He is already delivered and freed from his sin and all its evil consequences. He is already reconciled unto God. The Christian religion proclaims: You need not redeem yourself nor secure reconciliation between God and yourself, for all this Christ has already accomplished for you. Nor has He left anything for you to do but believe this, i.e., to accept it!" Here indeed is the point of distinction between Christianity and all other religions.26)

In Walther's Easter sermons this focus on objective justification is especially prominent. In a sermon on Mark 16:1-8 Walther preaches on the theme, "Christ's Resurrection - Your absolution." In this sermon he declares,

Jesus, when He was raised from the dead, was absolved for all sin, but since it was not for Himself but for all people that Christ died, who was it really that was set free, who was it really that was absolved when Jesus rose from the dead? It was all people! Just as all Israel triumphed when David defeated Goliath, so all humanity triumphed when Jesus defeated sin, death and Hell. And so we hear Paul saying in his second epistle to the Corinthians, "We are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died." And again in his epistle to the Romans, "Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men." Just as Christ's condemnation was the condemnation of all mankind, Christ's death the death of all mankind, Christ's payment the payment for all mankind, even so Christ's life is now the life of all mankind, His acquittal the acquittal of all mankind, His justification the justification of all mankind, His absolution the absolution of all mankind.27)

Walther never softened the message of the law. His sixth thesis insists that "the Word of God is not rightly divided when the Law is not preached in its full sternness,"28) but it was his insistence on the truth of objective justification that enabled Walther to preach the Gospel in its full sweetness. It is this message of Christ's complete redemption of all the world that causes Walther to apply the Gospel message in such a powerful and comforting way to his hearers in this same Easter sermon of 1846.

Now that Christ has been raised from the dead, no one needs to think to himself, "If I approach God with my sins, what will God do? Will He really forgive them?" No, whoever you are, whatever you have done, God has already forgiven your sins, forgiven them already 1900 years ago when in Christ, through His resurrection, He absolved all for whom Christ died on the cross. Have you cheated or stolen? It is a damnable sin - but you have been forgiven. Have you committed adultery? It is an offense against God - but you have been forgiven. Have you been drunk time and time again? It is a shameful thing - but you have been forgiven. Have you intentionally ruined the reputation of another person? That is a terrible sin - but you have been forgiven…. Christ rose for you. His resurrection is your absolution. You have been forgiven.29)

But after this beautiful proclamation Walther goes on to say immediately, "One thing needs still to happen in order that you may possess this forgiveness which has been given to you - that one thing is faith. For every person who wants to be saved and go to heaven must believe that this absolution pronounced at Christ's resurrection 1900 years ago was also pronounced upon him. In order to be saved, it is necessary to believe that the forgiveness God offers is yours."30)

Walther believed in universal, objective justification, but Walther was no universalist. There is no salvation apart from faith in Christ. That which Christ has purchased through His substitutionary suffering, death and resurrection must be conveyed to the sinner in such a way that it becomes his own (subjective justification). In other words, the sinner must believe that all that Christ has accomplished for him is truly his. And so God has provided His means of grace to bring the benefits of Christ's life, work and death to the sinner and to create that faith. These are the Gospel and the Sacraments. Only the Gospel and the Sacraments mediate Christ's benefits. "Accordingly," Walther writes, "preachers who do not clearly and plainly proclaim the Gospel… are not faithful in the discharge of their ministry and inflict great injury on men's souls. Instead of advancing Christians in the knowledge of the pure doctrine, they allow them to grope in the dark, nurse false imaginations in them, and speed them on in their false and dangerous path."31)

Why does Walther say this? Because only the Gospel brings Christ's benefits. Therefore in his 27th evening lecture he says, "According to Luther's description of the Gospel as the last will and testament of Christ, the Gospel is not a doctrine teaching us how we make ourselves worthy in the sight of God, but what we are to receive from God."32) The Gospel conveys, remits, gives Christ's benefits and all that he has achieved for us. The great sin of a heretic, then, in not preaching the Gospel is not so much that he corrupts God's Word, which he surely does, but that he deprives sinners of that salvation which only the Gospel can bring.

Walther has no use for the sects, therefore, which insist upon inner spiritual struggles before one can have certainty of faith. "For the confounding of law and Gospel that is common among the sects," says Walther, "consists in nothing else than this, that they instruct alarmed sinners by prayer and inward wrestling to fight their way into a state of grace until they feel grace indwelling in them, instead of pointing them to the Word and the Sacraments."33) Only the Word and the Sacraments convey grace.

And because of this belief that only the Word and Sacraments convey grace, Walther warned forcefully against depending on one's feelings as a sign that one had received grace. In a report delivered in 1872 to the Synodical Conference,34) Walther stated,

We by no means deny that the Spirit of grace makes Himself felt in the hearts of sinners… But it is a colossal mistake if the feeling which the enthusiasts arouse by their praying and wrestling is regarded as grace. At best - for often this feeling is effected by other causes, and not by God's Spirit - that which the enthusiasts call grace is a gracious effect produced by the Holy Ghost. But that grace by which we are justified and saved is something outside us and not anything in us. Therefore when a penitent sinner comes to a Lutheran pastor with the question: "Where may I, a lost and condemned sinner, find grace?" the Lutheran pastor will answer him: "Comfort yourself with God's grace, as it is stored up for you in the Gospel and the holy Sacraments. Believe what God tells you there, and be of good cheer because of the grace which is granted to you in the divine Word. Receive absolution, and go to the Lord's Table, for it is there that God offers, imparts, grants, and seals to you His grace and the forgiveness of all your sins."35)

Dependence on feelings was one of Walther's favorite targets because it created such uncertainty and deprived sinners of comfort, pointing them finally to something in themselves. In an essay delivered in 1859 he asserts.

The enthusiasts declare that they distinguish themselves from the papists in that they are sure of their state of grace.36) Nevertheless, the enthusiasts revert to the papistic principle of justification because their assurance of salvation rests not upon the eternally abiding Word, but upon their own vacillating feeling; hence they are bound either to become hypocrites or often to lament that they have lost Christ. It is for this reason also that they put forth such efforts to arouse their feelings by all manner of means and that now this one and then another boasts of his conversion, while in a short time they are obliged, because of their lack of comfort, to return to the mourners' bench.37)

Much of the confusion regarding the distinction between Law and Gospel is the result of a misunderstanding regarding the nature of faith. Faith is not a cause of forgiveness, faith does not effect salvation, faith does not bring about any of the blessings which it receives. Faith is pure receptivity. Faith simply receives that which is offered.

This point is important when Walther speaks of the Reformed view of the Lord's Supper. Once again he emphasizes the objective nature of Jesus' redemption as expressed in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. It is not faith which produces the benefits received in the Lord's Supper; faith simply receives that which has been procured by Christ and is offered in the Sacrament.

By the words, "for you" He invited the disciples to ponder the fact that they were now receiving and eating that body by the bitter death of which on the cross the entire world would be redeemed. He meant to remind them that they ought to break forth with joy and gladness because the ransom that was to be paid for the sins of the whole world was, so to speak, put in their mouths. Offering the disciples the cup which He had blessed, Christ said: "This is the cup, the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you." Why did He add the words "shed for you"? He meant to say: "When receiving the blood of redemption in this Holy Supper, you receive at the same time what has been acquired on the cross by means of this sacrifice."38)

Thus, also in his view of the Lord's Supper, the part which faith plays is simply that of receiving. Faith has no merit of its own; its merit lies in that which it receives. Faith takes no credit; faith only receives credit.

Thus, faith is a powerful thing for faith has Christ and everything He offers - forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. And only the one with faith has these things. The one with faith has God Himself as Father and an eternal kingdom as an inheritance. Yet faith, of which such glorious things can be said, contains no merit of its own except that which it receives from Him in whom faith trusts.

And so everything comes from God through Christ and in the matter of salvation only God is glorified and men can be comforted because salvation is only by grace. Lex semper accusat. The Law must be preached. If it is not, no one will ever embrace the Gospel. And the law must not be softened in its proclamation to impenitent sinners. It must be preached to them in its full severity. No preacher has the right to withhold the law from his messages for in so doing, he will undermine his own purpose to preach the Gospel most effectively because only sinners aware of their condition and hopelessness in and of themselves in the face of a righteous God will desire grace. There fore the law must be preached. But the Law always accuses; it never comforts; it cannot save. Only the Gospel can actually deliver forgiveness, life and salvation. Therefore it is a terrible thing for a preacher to mix or confuse Law and Gospel and, as Walther says in his fourth thesis, echoing the Formula of Concord, "The true knowledge of the distinction between the Law and the Gospel is not only a glorious light, affording the correct understanding of the entire Holy Scriptures, but without this knowledge Scripture is and remains a sealed book."39)

In this day of what approaches ecumenical mania a sober reading of Walther's Law and Gospel will provide a beneficial inoculation against the feverish rush toward new and wrong declarations of fellowship or mutual understanding. Where true unity exists, the church rejoices in her declaration of fellowship or consensus or convergence. But when the doctrine is not purely taught and believed by the participants, when the Law is called Gospel and the Gospel is so conditioned that it turns into Law, such declarations not only lack integrity, but also serve to destroy the very church they claim to unite. One wonders what would have happened had the Lutheran participants in the Lutheran/Roman Catholic dialogues insisted that a proper distinction between Law and Gospel be an essential part of the discussions and any subsequent agreements. It is hard for me to imagine that a declaration of consensus would ever have been reached. For this distinction, which was at the heart of the Reformation, is one which Rome to this very day does not understand.

True Lutherans will always treasure "the true knowledge of the distinction between the Law and the Gospel" and will place this distinction at the center of all their theology, their discussions and their spiritual life. I can recommend no book more profitable for achieving this end than Walther's Law and Gospel. For it excels not only in pointing out the dangerous errors of Rome and Geneva, of liberalism, rationalism and enthusiasm. It not only demonstrates clearly the many ways in which both the Law and the Gospel can be perverted and rendered unable to perform their proper work. It also lays out the true comfort of the Gospel for every reader as it shows over and over again how our gracious Father, who has justified all the world through the suffering, death and resurrection of His Son, delivers his gifts of life and creates true faith in the hearts of sinners by means of His precious Gospel. Every Christian will benefit greatly from the reading of this book by Missouri's finest theologian.

By Rev. Daniel Preus

North European Luther Academy Conference, August 25, 2000

Soli Deo Gloria

ENDNOTES

 

  1. Arthur Drevlow, Ed., C.F.W. Walther: The American Luther, (Mankato, MN: Walther Press, 1987), 151.
  2. Lewis W. Spitz, The Life of C.F.W. Walther, (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1961), 10.
  3. Ibid.
  4. Ibid., 13.
  5. C.F.W. Walther, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, (St. Louis, Mo.: Concordia Publishing House, 1928), 141. All subsequent references to this work will be abbreviated Law and Gospel.
  6. Law and Gospel, 142.
  7. Spitz, 20.
  8. Walter O. Forster, Zion on the Mississippi (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953), 516-517.
  9. Nathan Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1989), 58.
  10. Ibid.
  11. Law and Gospel, 42.
  12. Robert Kolb & Thomas Manteufel, eds., Soli Deo Gloria: Essays on C.F.W. Walther, (St. Louis: Concordia Seminary Press, 2000) 61-81. I express appreciation to Richard Kraemer whose article in this Festschrift in memory of August R. Suelflow provides an excellent analysis of the chronological structure of Walther's Law and Gospel.
  13. This description of Walther's emphasis on justification is provided by Franz Pieper, noted Missouri theologian, professor at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis and president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Franz Pieper, Dr. C. F. W. Walther as Theologian, Concordia Theological Monthly, Vols. 55 & 56 (December, 1955 & January, 1956).
  14. Law and Gospel, 403.
  15. Ibid., 268.
  16. Ibid., 269.
  17. Ibid., 271.
  18. Ibid., 272, italics in the original.
  19. Ibid., 273, italics in the original.
  20. Ibid., 264.
  21. Ibid., 260.
  22. Ibid., 260.
  23. Ibid., 129.
  24. Ibid., 145.
  25. Ibid., 136, italics in the original.
  26. Franz Pieper, Dr. C. F. W. Walther as Theologian. Concordia Theological Monthly, Vol. XXVI (December, 1955), 921.
  27. Preached, Easter Day, 1846, translation by Daniel Preus. Mark 16:1-8 was apparently one of Walther's favorite pericopes. He preached on this text no less than 16 times.
  28. Law and Gospel, 79.
  29. Sermon on Mark 16:1-8, Easter, 1846.
  30. Ibid.
  31. Law and Gospel, 276.
  32. Ibid., 291.
  33. Ibid., 153.
  34. The Synodical Conference was a federation of American Lutheran synods organized in 1872 by confessionally minded Lutheran church bodies for the purposes of promoting unity in doctrine, external expression of such unity, mutual encouragement in faith and confession, providing a common front against false doctrine and working together for common goals. The conference was dissolved in 1967 due to disagreements among some of the member synods.
  35. Synodical Conference Report, 1872, 23.
  36. This quotation from Walther contains a footnote at this point which reads, "The Papists, as is well known, regard it as a criminal presumption for the ordinary Christian to claim to be sure of his state of grace.
  37. C.F.W. Walther, The Lutheran Doctrine of Justification, an essay delivered at Addison, Ill., 1859.
  38. Law and Gospel, 152.
  39. Ibid., 60.