The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel by CFW Walther

1. The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel by CFW Walther ~ The Thirty -Second ~ Evening Lecture

2. Review: • In what way is a “venial” sin different from a “mortal” sin? • In what way is it the same? • How might mischaracterizing venial sins lead to a confusion of Law and Gospel?

3. 1. About the time of the American Revolution, “rationalism” became the dominant Protestant trend in Europe. What does Walther say was one “inevitable consequence” of rationalism? (pg 332 bottom) • “…the conviction that it is not a matter of indifference whether a person is a Lutheran or a Reformed or a Catholic vanished completely.”

4. 2. Even with the overwhelming success of rationalism, there was a small remnant of sincere Christians. What did they still believe and confess? (pg 332 bottom) • “…that the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God, that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God, that man is justified before God by faith in Christ alone.” • “These few Christians extended to each other the right hand of brotherly fellowship, like persons saved from a great shipwreck, who, having seen most of their fellow-passengers go down to a watery grave, now embrace each other with tears of joy though they had been perfect strangers before.” (origin of the CLC?)

5. 3. In 1817, Emperor Frederick William III of Prussia forcibly merged the Lutheran and Reformed denominations. What was the effect of this on “multitudes of Lutherans”? (pg 333 middle) • “Multitudes of Lutherans suddenly awoke from their spiritual sleep, remembered that they belonged to the Lutheran Church, and declared that they would never forsake the faith of their fathers.” • “In fact, they chose to see themselves evicted from their homes, imprisoned, and expatriated rather than consent to a union of truth with error!” • May we have courage to do the same, if need be!

6. 4. Unfortunately, after this Lutheran spiritual revival some teachers went too far. What did they begin to teach about the Lutheran Church? (pg 334 top) • “They held that the Lutheran Church is the Church par excellence (κατ᾽ ἑξοχήν), the Church in the most exalted and proper sense, the ecclesia, extra quam nullaestsalus,the Church outside of which there is no salvation.”

7. Thesis XX • In the sixteenth place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when a person’s salvation is made to depend on his association with the visible orthodox Church and when salvation is denied to every person who errs in any article of faith.

8. 5. It is an awful error to equate any earthly denomination with the universal Church of all believers. But what does Walther say is the “mother” of this awful error? (334 middle) • “The mother of the awful error which we are studying is the doctrine that the Church is a visible institute which Christ has established on earth.”

9. 6. Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matt. 16, 18. What was the “rock” that Jesus was referring to? (pg334 bottom) • Christ himself (and the confession of Jesus as the Christ). • “No one is a member of the Church except he who is built upon Christ. Being built upon Christ does not mean connecting oneself mechanically with the Church, but putting one’s confidence in Christ and hoping to obtain righteousness and salvation from Him alone.” • “Whoever fails to do this is not built on this rock, hence is not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ.”

10. 7. Walther uses several scriptural pictures to show that (unlike the Lutheran Church) the holy Christian Church contains no unbelievers, or hypocrites. Which parable have some people cited in objection to this? What is Walther’s answer?(pg335 bottom ) • The parable of the wheat and tares. • “The objection is owing to a wrong interpretation of the parable. Christ has given us the key that unlocks its meaning. He does not say: ‘The field is My kingdom.’ In that case the Church would be a society composed of good and evil members. But He says: ‘The field is the world.’ Matt 13, 38.”

11. 8. In parables like this (wheat and tares, the dragnet, the marriage feast), Jesus does not describe the essence of the Church, but rather what? (pg 336 top) • “Christ does not mean to describe the essence of the Church, but the outward form in which it appears in this world.” • ”In its visible form the Church can never purge itself of hypocrites and ungodly persons, who find their way into it.”

12. 9. We can see people going to church, but what can we not see? (pg336 middle) • “We cannot see whether they belong to the Church.” • “No man, but only God, knows whether thy are. To the eyes of God alone the Church is visible; to the eyes of men it is invisible.”

13. 10. In what way, according to Walther, have Lutherans simply “changed weapons” with the papists? (pg 336 bottom) • “Formerly the papists defended the false doctrine now under review; now Lutherans dare to set up the claim against them that the Lutherans, aye, the Lutherans, are the Church outside of which there is no salvation.”

14. 11. What is the very worst aspect of this error? (pg 337 middle) • “Making a person’s salvation depend on this membership in, and communion with, the visible orthodox Church means to overthrow the doctrine of justification by faith.”

15. 12. We certainly esteem our Lutheran Church highly, but which notion do we hope stays far away from us? (pg 337 middle) • “Though we esteem our Church highly, may this abominable fanatical notion be far from us, that our Lutheran Church is the alone-saving Church [alleinseligmachendeKirche] !”

16. 13. What false inference do some draw from the fact that Scripture speaks of external communities (Rome, Corinth, Philippi, Thessalonica, etc.) as church? (pg 337 bottom) • “All these visible communities are called churches. Hence it is claimed that the Church is visible.”

17. 14. How is the way Scripture speaks of “the church” similar to the way we speak of “a stack of wheat,” or “a glass of wine”? (pg 338 top) • “We speak of a stack of wheat, although it is not all wheat, but a good deal of hay and straw is in the pile.” • “Or we speak of a glass of wine, although water has been mixed with it.” • “The term church is applied to local organizations because the invisible Church is contained in them.”

18. 15. Isaiah 55:11 promises, “My Word shall not return unto Me void.” Why is this a comfort even when it comes to false-teaching churches? (pg 338 middle) • “Wherever the Word of God is proclaimed and confessed or even recited during the service, the Lord is gathering a people for Himself.” • “The Roman Church, for instance, still confesses that Christ is the Son of God and that He died on the cross to redeem the world. That is truth sufficient to bring a man to the knowledge of salvation.”

19. 16. Teaching that the visible Lutheran church is the “alone – saving church” is definitely a false doctrine. But why is it also a mingling of Law and Gospel? (pg 338 bottom) • Because it sets up a demand (church membership) in addition to faith as a requirement for salvation. • “Setting up a demand of some kind as necessary to salvation in addition to faith, the acceptance of the Gospel promises, means to commingle Law and Gospel.”

20. 17. It is certainly true that members of false teaching churches can be saved. But what conclusion should we be careful not to draw from that fact? (pg 339 top) • “From the fact that men may be saved in all the sects and that in all sectarian churches there are children of God, it by no means follows that one can remain in communion with a sect.” • “If I perceive the error of my heretical community and do not forsake it, I shall be lost because, though seeing the error, I would not abandon it. ”

21. 18. Our church does not claim to be the only church in which one may be saved! But what claim can and should we make? (pg 339 middle) • “The Lutheran Church claims to be the only Church that has the pure doctrine, but does not claim to be the alone-saving Church.”

22. 19. Even the Lutheran confessions, for example the introduction to the book of Concord, do not condemn the simple members of heterodox churches. Rather, what and who do they condemn? (pg340 top ) • “Rather has it been our intention and disposition in this manner openly to censure and condemn only the fanatical opinions and their obstinate and blasphemous teachers.” [i.e., the false doctrine itself, and those who teach it.] • “True, the Formula of Concord has condemned the doctrine of the Reformed, but this condemnation does not apply to those who err in the simplicity of their hearts, but only to obstinate false teachers and blasphemers.”

23. 20. How might the way a child was raised affect what church he belongs to, but not affect his eternal salvation? (pg340 bottom) • “There are others who have been reared from a child in a certain error, but are holding fast their Savior.” • “These are not wicked persons, though they may promptly turn away a Lutheran who approaches them.”

24. 21. The St. Bartholomew’s massacre was a notorious incident that took place in France in 1572, in which French Catholics slaughtered as many as 30,000 French Calvinists (known as Huguenots). What rumor soon began to spread in Germany? How did the confessors react? (pg 341 middle) • That the Lutherans would do the same thing to Germany’s Calvinists. • “We are shocked at the persecution and most grievous tyranny which is exercised with such severity against these poor men, and sincerely detest it. For in no way do we consent to the shedding of that innocent blood, which undoubtedly will be required with great severity from the persecutors at the awful Judgment.”

25. 22. What false teaching does the Catholic Church use to dissuade people from leaving its ranks? (pg342 middle) • “If you fall away from the Roman Catholic Church, you fall away from the true Church.”

26. 23. Which false teaching of the Catholic Church was most difficult for Luther, personally, to get over? (pg342 bottom) • “When I had disproved all the arguments against me with Scripture and thus overcome them, I scarcely succeeded, by the grace of Christ, in overcoming, with great anxiety, trouble, and labor, this one final argument, that I must hear the Church.” • “If I had despised the Pope…I should have been afraid to see the earth open and devour me as it did Korah and his mob.”

27. 24. In what sense only was Walther willing to say that “the Lutheran Church is indeed the true visible Church”? (pg343 top) • “…only in this sense, that it has the pure, unadulterated truth.” • Alas, no longer true! (cf. ELCA)