Propter Christum, I, 1: Church and Scripture

The first issue is finally out!  Click on the link below to read volume I issue 1 of Propter Christum for Advent 2011.  There is one problem the editor would like to point out.  Due to difficulty in the formatting, the first paragraph of the second article (Walther and Krauth) did not come out very well.  Other than that, the rest of the issue looks fine.  The editor did not catch this until after we published the issue.  The editor apologizes for this.  However, we still trust that our readers will enjoy this issue, and we hope readers will contribute with letters to the editor or comments on our blog. 

We are sending a small number of copies to each of the four seminaries in the U. S. and in Canada.  We also hope to send a few issues to some colleges.  If you would like more copies sent to you, please contact the editor at propterchristum@gmail.com.  Otherwise, you can read our issue online by clicking on the link below. 

Happy Advent!  The Lord has come, He comes, and He will come again!  Come Lord Jesus!  Come Quickly! 


Click the link to read first issue:
Propter Christum I, 1: Church and Scripture

Prayer

God will in fact listen to the prayers of His own. He does not tell us to pray merely for moral support to remind ourselves that God is there and in control while God just does what He wants anyway. No, God actually listens to your prayers, sanctifies them, and answers them. And His answer is always yes.

First, God listens. He has commanded us to pray, and He promises to hear us. So He listens. He listens to the pleas of mercy for your body and your soul. Sometimes it feels like your body is getting worse and worse. You see loved ones die, and you wonder if God really heard their prayers. But God did hear the prayers of His saints which have gone before us. And He does hear the prayers of the saints today.

God sanctifies our prayers. Paul writes in Romans 8:26 that the Spirit intercedes for us when we pray. The Holy Spirit sanctifies us through His Word and Sacraments, and He thus sanctifies our prayers. So you might pray that Susie Smith will go out with you. The Spirit might sanctifies that prayer that God would provide for you a good wife, not necessarily Susie Smith. Or maybe the Spirit sanctifies that prayer that God would simply provide for your bodily needs. And then the Holy Spirit teaches us by His Word what we are to pray for by pointing us, for example, to the prayer which our Lord Jesus taught us. Finally, the Holy Spirit strengthens you through the forgiveness of sins in Baptism, Absolution, and the Lord's Supper. This forgiveness is not only the ultimate answer to prayers, but by this, He reminds you who your Heavenly Father is, that He is a God who forgives. And if He has forgiven you, you may know that He wants to hear your prayers.

God answers prayers. St. John describes Jesus in chapter 17 praying to the Father. He asks that the Father would glorify Him, and for your sake, God glorified Him by first of all having Him lifted up on the cross. He was lifted up, and in this way, God loved the world by giving His only Son into death for the sins of all. He gives to all believers the power to be called children of God. So if God answered the prayer of His only Son, and you are united with His Son in Baptism, God therefore certainly answers your prayers. What a thing for Jesus to pray for! He prayed that the entire plan of Salvation would be fulfilled in Him! Hanging on a cross and pierced for our transgressions, we see that God has given to Jesus what He has desired and asked for. He desired death so that you may live! That is His glory, and that is God's answer to you! So pray! Because God answers.

Finally, God always says yes to His believers. When your prayers don't seem like God answered them, you might hear explanations from others that God answered, but He simply said no or not yet. But God says yes! Jesus is His yes to us! In Jesus, we find healing from all sickness, the raising of the dead, the feeding of our bodies and our souls, and even the calming of storms. All of these miracles of Jesus prove His absolute authority over the remnants of sin. So whenever you are assailed by bodily sickness, financial burden, or family problems, ask yourself this question: Am I forgiven of my sins? And to find that answer, look to the Word of God! The answer is yes! Yes you were forgiven, and you hear it whenever you go to Church! The cause of all family problems, diseases, and every heartache is sin, and it was placed on Christ. He gives you His righteousness in exchanged, and from this flows every good thing, and everything will be added unto you.

Reformation Sermon from 2009: Objective and Subjective Justification

Sermon on Justification

Pirates Talking Theology: Objective Justification

This idea is shamelessly taken from Rev. Hans Fiene.  At least it is not taken from the Pentecostals, though!  This is what it would be like if pirates actually listened to Pirate Christian Radio.

Reconciliation: God is not a liar

A man sins against another man.  Then, the man apologizes and the other forgives him.  Thus the two are reconciled.  This is reconciliation.

God's reconciliation of the world to Himself is different in that it is hidden.  The world did nothing in this reconciliation.  The world did not say, "I'm sorry."  Rather, God completely accomplished the reconciliation.  But it still stands that reconciliation means that there is peace between God and sinners.  By God not imputing their, i.e. the whole world of sinners', sins against He forgave their sins.  God forgave everyone on account of Christ's death and resurrection.

The story of the two men is an example of a reconciliation which is fulfilled and before our eyes.  We can see their reconciliation, but we cannot see the reconciliation of the world to God.  It is hidden in God's Word.  And so it is only through God's Word that our hearts are softened and we receive faith which receives and clings to this objective act of God.

Just like we cannot see that the bread and the wine in the Lord's Supper are Christ's body and blood, we likewise cannot see that the entire world has been reconciled to God, having their sins completely atoned for and propitiated for by Christ Himself.

The subjective reconciliation occurs when the Holy Ghost calls us by this gospel.  I think the problem some people have with Objective Justification is one or more of three things.  First, they cannot see the objective act of God reconciling the world to Himself.  Second, they react against the heresy, no, the blasphemy of universalism.  Third, they want to maintain that it is only by God's Word that a man is brought to repentance and forgiveness.  For one, God's reconciliation of the world to Himself is a mystery.  It is revealed in His Word but hidden from the carnal eye.  Secondly, Objective Justification, and thus Universal Atonement or Reconciliation is not a heresy and does not imply that all will be glorified and that all receive subjectively this promise.  Finally, God's saving act of atonement in His Son cannot be separated from His Word.  It is only in His Word that we know that He reconciled the world to Himself.  It is only from His Word that faith is created in the heart which clings to the promise.  Therefore, His Word Itself is objective.  Confessing Objective Justification is simply confessing the Word of God and that It is objective.  It is only by the objective external Word that man comes to repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins already given to him.  When the words are spoken that God has already not imputed our sins against us, i.e. has forgiven our sins, they have a collative power.  First, they communicate to us the information that God has done this (objective).  Then, they create faith in our hearts which trust this promise (subjective).

Praise be to God that He has already declared to us the forgiveness which we obtain by faith in Christ our Lord!

Propter Christum: Why Is Objective Justification so Important for Lutheran Theology?

Propter Christum: Why Is Objective Justification so Important for Lutheran Theology?

Why Is Objective Justification so Important for Lutheran Theology?

This is important because it is Biblical.  God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor 5:19).  Through one Man's obedience, justification came to all men (Romans 5:18). 

What we know about the Bible is that it is all centered around Christ, who He is, and what He did.  So practically, all teachings of Scripture tumble down if the Bible's message about Christ's reconciliation of the world to God and His justification for all people is not true.  For one, how can a pastor forgive sins in Christ's stead and pronounce with certainty the grace of God upon a sinner if he cannot see the sinner's faith?  If the pastor says to a sinner who inwardly does not have faith "I forgive you your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," does the pastor as a result lie or say something untrue?  Of course not!  If that were the case, then God would be a liar.  Sure, the sinner does not personally receive by faith the forgiveness and will be ripe for destruction if he continues in his unbelief, but that does not make God a liar!  Rather, it makes the unbeliever the liar! 

Here is what the Old Norwegian Lutheran Synod president Herman Amberg Preus (1874) had to say on this topic when a seminary professor was denying this teaching of Objective Justification:

According to his new gospel the professor must preach that through his suffering and death Christ has only accomplished so much that God has now become willing to let his wrath cease and to be reconciled and to loose, confer grace, forgive, justify and open access to salvation, but that in actuality he can only do and does all this if man on his part fulfills the condition placed on him by God, namely that he is supposed to believe. And the thing which is thus supposed to be believed does not become this that God already has done this and is reconciled but that God will do it and will be reconciled when he sees the obedience and the good quality in man, that he believes.

Question of the Week

In light of Jesus' high-priestly prayer, was Jesus glorified on the cross (see John 17:24ff) if the "hour" which He speaks of in John 17:1b includes His passion as well as His ascension? 

Christology and Justification in Galatians

Victorinus, Augustine, and Luther

               

                In Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, he rebukes those congregations for being “so quickly transferred to another gospel from Him who called them to the grace of Christ.”  The villains are the Judaizers who have convinced the Gentiles that they basically need to be Jews in practice before they can be Christians.  The Epistle attacks what we would understand as legalism, i.e. insisting that works of the law are necessary for a man to be justified.  From this, the Christian Church finds the central article of her faith, that men are not justified by works.  To Christians who have always been taught that good works contribute nothing to salvation, they find it confusing that one would subscribe to Paul’s teachings and at the same time claim that good works do contribute to the justification of man. 

            In the Council of Trent, Canon 9 on Justification states:

If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema.^[1]

            The first Canon states that if anyone teaches that man is justified by works apart from grace, he must be anathema.  At first glance, this seems like it contradicts Canon 9; however, this only demonstrates all the more the subtlety of the papists’ teaching on justification.  Whereas Lutheran theologians have emphasized sola fide and sola gratia, the papists have emphasized “not without grace.”  They are right.  No one is justified without grace; however, saying “not without grace” does not necessarily mean “grace alone.”  In fact, saying “grace alone” does not even have the same meaning for the papists. 

 In the “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification,”^[2] an ecumenical statement from 1997 drafted jointly by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Lutheran World Federation, the papists are able to say that man is justified “by grace alone;” however, their understanding of “grace alone” must be understood in light of their teaching of cooperative grace (gratia adiuvans seu cooperans).  God is the first cause (causa prima) in justification.^[3]  God is not the only cause; rather he is the first cause whereby He stimulates, helps, and cooperates.  Thus, man has a role in his justification.  The papists cling to their synergistic interpretation of grace in order that they might retain sola gratia.  But how do they interpret Galatians?  More specifically, how did they end up with this interpretation? 

            I do not intend on indefinitely answering this question; however, by an examination of three commentaries on Galatians, I hope to shed light on the papists’ interpretation of grace.  The three commentaries are by Marius Victorinus (b. 280), St. Augustine (354-430), and Martin Luther[4] (1483-1546).  Most importantly, this examination of commentaries will identify and clear up certain extra-textual presuppositions in order to identify and understand Paul’s teaching on the article of Justification.

           

            Part I: Christology

            Mario Victorinus, a Roman professor of rhetoric in the fourth century,^[5] was converted to Christianity between 354 and 359.  During the time of Victorinus’ career as a theologian, two major issues were pressing the Church.  In 325, the Council of Nicea condemned Arius and his heresy which denied the Divinity of Christ.  In 381, around the likely date of Victorinus’ death,^[6] the first Council of Constantinople condemned the Macedonian heresy which denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit.  Also, Julian the Apostate, Roman emperor from 355-63, was attempting to reestablish the old pagan religions of Rome against Christianity.  Although he seems to address both of these errors (anti-Trinitarian and Paganism) in his Pauline commentaries,^[7] Victorinus’ defense of Trinitarian theology, specifically Christology, unites most intimately with the doctrine of Justification.

            In Galatians 1:2 Paul explains that he is an “Apostle not by men neither through a man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father.”  Here, Paul juxtaposes men and Christ.  Victorinus catches this significance, and by it, he asserts that Jesus is God.^[8]  Augustine also makes this connection in his commentary, emphasizing that rather than by a mortal, Paul was an Apostle through Christ, “now wholly God.”^[9]  Luther does not make the connection in the same way.  He more so emphasizes the difference between a mediate and immediate call from God into the ministry, also mentioning that there would have also been false apostles who were sent by God neither mediately through the Apostles nor immediately.^[10]  He does, however, make this observation in the third verse.  Paul greets with grace from both God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  From this, Luther draws the Christological connection.  Luther uses this as a segue into the doctrine of Justification.  He points out that it is given to Christ to condemn sin, destroy death, and conquer the devil.  He continues:

No angel is able to give that.  But since by Christ, this is given, it is necessary that He is by nature God.^[11]

                Luther’s Christology leads directly into Justification.  Only Christ can give victory over sin. 

           

           

Part II: Justification

            Augustine presents some difficult language when considering the doctrine of Justification; this is specifically in regards to Galatians 2:16.  It reads: “But knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law save through faith in Jesus Christ.”  In Jerome’s Bible translation, he appropriately translates ἐὰν μὴ as nisi.  They both mean ‘except’ ‘unless,’ or ‘save.’  In his commentary, Augustine understands the verse to mean that no man is justified by works of the law unless it is through faith in Jesus Christ.  From this, Augustine determines that there is a distinction between opera legis and spiritalia opera legis.  This distinction is not damaging unless one draws the type of conclusion drawn by Augustine.  For him, grace and faith are qualifiers rather than the means by which man is justified, contrasted with works of the law.  He writes:

…but through grace itself [in] faith, they know that they are able to fulfill the spiritual works of the law. (emphases added)^[12]

            In other words, one cannot fulfill the works of the law and be justified by them unless those works are qualified by adding grace and faith, thus making them spiritual. 

            This idea of being able to fulfill the spiritual works of the law carries on within Augustine’s commentary.  Galatians 2:19 reads: “For I through the law have died to the law, in order that I might live to God; I have been crucified with Christ (Christo confixus sum cruci).”  Commenting on this passage, Augustine views the law as a tutor which is no longer needed when one is given grace and faith.  He compares it to infants who need nursing and one who needs a ship to travel home.  Once the infant is older, he no longer needs his mother’s nursing.  Once one is home, the ship is no longer needed.[13]  This analogy fits with the premise that the law is a tutor, and that the tutor is no longer necessary for one who has faith and grace.  We could understand Augustine as simply saying that the law instructs, and once God has given you faith by grace, the law cannot harm you.  At the same time, however, in light of Augustine’s claim that through grace one could fulfill the spiritual works of the law, Jesus almost seems like another lawgiver of works, but ones with spiritual functions. 

            Victorinus identifies the two laws mentioned in 2:16 as the law of Christ and the law of Moses.  Luther does this as well.^[14]  Like Augustine, Victorinus speaks of the spiritual and the carnal when distinguishing between the two laws; however, whereas Augustine speaks of a fulfillment in the spiritual works of the law (spiritalia opera legis), Victorinus simply speaks of the spiritually understood law (spiritaliter intelligent).^[15]  Augustine still speaks of the spiritual understanding; however, he does not speak of it as a result of being saved, as Victorinus does.  Rather, Augustine speaks of one dying through the spiritual understood law^[16], lest he should carnally live under the law. 

            Victorinus says that when one has died to the law, i e. has been converted, the law is now (nunc) spiritually understood.  It is not until one lives to God when one now rightly understands the law of God.  He writes:

But after (postea quam) the Savior, the true and spiritual Light, has appeared, the law begins to be understood spiritually.^[17] 

            First there is salvation and the true Light; then there is a better understanding of the law.  One is not saved through this new understanding; rather one acquires it after Christ has given Light.  Both Victorinus and Luther understand this passage as a law and gospel distinction.  This is not so in Augustine.  For him, it seems, the spiritual understanding of the law is the means for rather than a result of Justification. 

            After one has been justified by the law of Christ, i.e. the gospel, one now has a spiritual understanding of the law.  This simply means that the Christian who has been given faith in Christ better understands what it is that pleases God.  Only a Christian, whose sins have been forgiven on account of Christ, has a spiritual relationship with God.  Therefore, only a Christian can rightly understand the law of God.^[18]

           

                                    Modern Issues and Conclusion

            It is evident from Augustine’s understanding of grace that the papists would have room for their synergistic interpretation.  When grace becomes that qualifying element which merely allows us to do spiritual works, it makes sense that the papists would hold to a progressive justification through the gift of supernatural grace. 

            Today, we find “new”[19] issues.  N. T. Wright, a British theologian and former Bishop of Durham, advocates for his so called New Perspective on Paul.  In this new perspective, Wright claims that when Paul argues against the “works of the law” he only refers to the ceremonial laws of the Jews.  A. Andrew Das (2010) makes the point that “works of the law” should not be limited to ethnic observations.^[20]  It is certainly true that in his Epistle to the Galatians, Paul addresses specifically what the Jews were imposing on the Gentiles.  This, however, does not demonstrate that the “works of the law” are not simply referring to the general law of God. 

            Victorinus, although mentioning the specific ordinances which the Jews imposed on the Gentiles such as circumcision, Sabbaths, etc., nevertheless makes no distinction between the moral law and the ceremonial law.  Luther even relates the Galatians’ controversy to his own contemporary struggle with the papists and their errors.  He likewise explains that the law does not only include the ceremonial law, but the whole law, and he shows that the papists in fact make the same error as the “false apostles” in Galatia.[21]  Luther writes concerning 1:4:

Who gave Himself for our sins.

… [Paul] does not say: “Who received from you your words;” he did not say: “Who accepted sacrifices of the Mosaic Law, worshiping, Masses, vows, pilgrimages etc.;”…^[22]

           

            The works of the law, just as both Victorinus and Augustine affirm, are carnally understood and observed apart from faith.  Here, Luther makes a list of what the Papacy called good works.  Whether the works are deeds which help your neighbor or simply ceremonial rites, to go back to works-righteousness is simply foolish and ungrateful.  Victorinus comments on this very issue from 2:21:

That since He has made me an heir through Christ, and Christ has given Himself up for me; therefore, forgiven, I have all the hope which is in Christ. Returning to the hope of the law -- that believing that I am justified by the works of the law -- this is to be ungrateful of Him who gave so much to me, that He has died for me, and has freed me from sin through the sin in His punishment.^[23]

           

            The issue of Justification comes down to the grace of God in Christ.  Christ gives us His righteousness through faith in Him; this is prompted by God’s grace, i.e. His favorable disposition toward mankind through His Son.  God’s grace either prompts Him to merely help us build up enough righteousness, or it prompts Him to actually accomplish the work for us.  If someone does not acknowledge the latter or strays from it, Victorinus calls him ungrateful.  This is living to God, that one believes what God has already accomplished for him in Christ Jesus.

            As we have seen, Augustine confused the definition of grace, and this allowed the papists to take advantage and infiltrate their cooperative grace, thus imposing the role of man in the teaching of Justification.  Although Augustine was truly a doctor of the Church, it is still important that all Lutheran theologians identify his short-comings.  By identifying his errors, we admit that Augustine was fallible, and we can avoid looking at him as too high of an authority.  This also allows us to identify pure doctrine in his works and in the works of others by critically examining all theological writings, judging them by the rule and norm of our faith: the Holy Scriptures.  This is the only way a Lutheran is able to truly subscribe to the Lutheran Confessions and determine that they certainly are the normed norm (norma normata) of all Christian doctrine and the true exposition of God’s pure Word. 

---

^[1] "Council of Trent the Sixth Session." Hanover Historical Text Project. J. Waterworth, London, Dolman;    1848, 1995. Web. 10 May 2011.                                                                                                                     <http://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct06.html>.

^[2] "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification." The Lutheran World Federation.  Lutheran World       Federation and the Catholic Church, 1997. Web. 10 May 2011. <http://www.lutheranworld.org/LWF_Documents/EN/JDDJ_99-jd97e.pdf>.

^[3] gratia adiuvans seu cooperans: helping or cooperating grace;“… as a helping or co-operating grace (gratia adiuvans seu cooperans), it produces the act conjointly with the will.  According to this explanation, not only does Divine grace make a supernatural act possible, but the act itself, though free, is wholly dependent on grace, because it is grace which makes the salutary act possible and which stimulates and assists in producing it.

”Hebermann, George, Edward Aloysius Pace, and C. B. Pallen. The Catholic Encyclopedia. X. Albany,        NY: Encyclopedia Press, Inc, 1913. 438. Print.

[4] My Latin translations from Luther’s 1535 Comentary on Galatians

 D. Martin Luthers Werfe. Weimarer Ausgabe, 40, Hermann Böhlaus Machfolger, 1911.

^[5] Cooper, Stephen Andrew. "The Life and Times of Marius Victorinus". Marius Victorinus' Commentary      on Galatians : introduction, translation, and notes.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. 16.                        Print.

^[6] Ibid,  Cooper: “Nothing is known about the date of his decease, except that he died some time before Augustine’s encounter with Simplician in 386.”

^[7] Ibid, 35

^[8] Victorinus, Marius. "In Epistolam Pauli ad Galatas." Documenta Catholica Omnia. Vatican, n.d. Web.       10 May 2011. http://documentacatholicaomnia.eu/02m/0362          0372,_Victorinus_Afrus,_In_Epistola_Pauli_ad_Galatas,_MLT.pdf.

 …sed per Iesum Christum, scilicet Deum.  …but through Jesus Christ, namely God. 

^[9] Augustinus, St. "EPISTOLAE AD GALATAS EXPOSITIONIS." Augustinus Hipponensis. Nuova BiBlioteca Agostiniana, 2011. Web. 10 May 2011.            http://augustinus.it/latino/esposizione_galati/esposizione_galati.htm.

…novissimus est apostolus Paulus per Christum iam totum Deum… The newest is the apostle Paul through Christ now wholly God. 

^[10] Luther, Martin. Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians. Translated by Theodore Greabner. Grand    Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1949. 70. Print.

^[11] WA, 82;  Ista nullus Angelus donare potest.  Cum autem Christo haec tribuantur, necesses est Eum esse natura Deum.    

^[12] Augustinus, prg 15;…sed per ipsam gratiam fidei spiritalia opera legis eos implere posse cognoscerent.

[13] Ibid, prg 17

^[14] Luther (Zondervan Edition), 70

Luther explains 2:19 as Paul pitting the law of grace against the law of Moses; the law of Moses can no longer condemn, because it has been condemned by the law of grace and liberty.  He demonstrates that the Scripture often use this illustration. 

WA, 267;  “...the law is opposed by the law, sin by sin, death by death, bondage by bondage, the devil by the devil, fire by fire...”  Luther demonstrates that God uses that which is evil to defeat evil.

^[15] Victorinus,  1165,  spiritaliter intelligitur vs. carnaliter intelligentEgo enim per legem quae nunc spiritaliter intelligent, legi mortuus sum;  For I have died to the law through the law which now is spiritually understood. 

^[16] Augustinus, pargraph 17, sive per legem spiritaliter intellectam legi mortuus est  Or should I say through the spiritually understood law, one has died to the law. 

^[17]Victorinus, 1165,  at postea quam Salvator verum et spiritale lumen apparuit, intelligi lex coepit spiritaliter;

^[18] Chemnitz affirmed, as did Luther and Melanchthon, that in granting the forgiveness of sins, eternal life in Christ, and peace with God, the gospel alone gives a clear understanding of the law.  For a clear account of this, see this article written by J. A. O. Preus II:

Preus, J. A. O. “Chemnitz on Law and Gospel,” Concordia Journal, Vol. 15, No. 4, October 1989.

[19] See Dr. Thomas Winger’s review, “What is so new about the New Perspective?” in the same LOGIA issue as Das’ article. 

^[20] “While Dunn and Wright have rightly recognized the intensely ethnic dimension to the apostle’s reasoning, they have wrongly denied Paul’s critique of works in general (Rom 4:4-5; 7:14-25).  The debate here should not be framed as an either/or matter…  If God saves in Christ and not through the law of Moses, then the Gentiles may be included in God’s salvation without becoming law-observant.  The inclusion of the Gentiles is the consequence of Paul’s Christological reasoning and not the reverse.”

Das, A. Andrew. “Modern Pauline Studies for the Uninitiated,” LOGIA, Vol. 14, No. 2, 12-13, Eastertide        2010

[21] Luther (Zondervan Edition), 70

^[22] WA, 82

^[23] Victorinus, 1166… ut cum ipse me haeredem fecerit per Christum, et Christus se tardier pro me, ego dimissa Omni spe quam habeo in Christo, redeam ad spem legis ut credam ex operibus legis me justificari.  Hoc est ingratum esse ei qui mihi tantum praestitit, ut pro me se objiceret, et me a peccatis liberaret per peccata in se punita.

Note also that what is commonly called “cheap grace” is that which is being ungrateful for God’s grace, often attributed to not trying hard enough to keep the law.  Victorinus says the opposite.  He is ungrateful who tries to be justified by the works of the law. 

Issue Delayed

Most of the articles for the first issue have been submitted; however, the student editor has had an incredibly busy semester (Yes, we have semesters and not quarters.).  The first issue will come out at the start of the fall semester 2011.  In the mean time, I found something that I hope will help the technologically challenged.  If you do not have Bible-works, you do not have a special font for Greek characters on your computer, and you don't want to have to take forever using the symbols to write the Greek characters in your exegetical papers, I have something for you!  I found an online Greek New Testament.  So all you have to do when doing a word or grammar study is copy and paste the Greek words (which have the accent markings and everything) from the online Greek NT to your word document. 

Here is the link:
http://wesley.nnu.edu/gnt/

Have a great summer, and we hope to get going on this journal. 

In Christ,

Andrew Preus

Preview of First Issue: Augsburg Five and the Ministry: Functional or (and?) Incarnational? By Andrew Preus

The debate over the office of the ministry is not small enough to thoroughly present in one paper.  It is necessary, however, that we revert back to the sources of the office both in the Lutheran Confessions and also in Scripture.  I have decided to study the historical and theological background of Article Five of the Augsburg Confession (AC V).  The Latin translation of the confession reads:

So that we may obtain this faith, the ministry of teaching the gospel and administering the sacraments was instituted.  For through the Word and the sacraments as through instruments the Holy Spirit is given, who effects faith where and when it pleases God in those who hear the gospel, that is to say, in those who hear that God, not on account of our own merits but on account of Christ, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace on account of Christ. Galations 3 [:14b]: “So that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”                              

They condemn the Anabaptists and others who think that the Holy Spirit comes to human beings without the external Word through their own preparations and works.[1]   

The first words “So that we may obtain this faith” give my motivation to study and write about AC V.  The Evangelical Lutheran Church has been attacked from both the Roman and Reformed schools for her teaching concerning the office of the ministry, but what are most agonizing are the inner struggles of the Lutheran Church.  Dichotomies are coined in order to simplify the debate on the definition of the ministry, one namely the view of either functionalism or incarnationalism.   

The functionalist view of the ministry is sometimes attributed to those who teach that Christ gave the functions of the ministry to the Church and that she may in her freedom distribute these functions for the sake of good order.  The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), for example, say that Women may participate in the offices and activities of the public ministry so long as they do not have authority over men.  Notice that they do not say that Christ instituted the office of the ministry.  Instead they say that He has “established the public ministry of the Word.”[2]  The Church is the one who institutes the various offices of ministry.         

The incarnational view of the ministry emphasizes that Christ’s officer stands as Christ by virtue of his call and ordination to the office.  This view marks Christ’s presence as the crucial characteristic of the ministry; however, it might also make way for a sacerdotal view of the office.  Sacerdotalism is the teaching that the officer, when ordained, is given a sacred characteristic which allows him to administer Christ’s mysteries. 

Now, it is true that the office is functional in so far as it has the functions of preaching, teaching, and administering the sacraments as laid out in Article 14 of the Augsburg Confession (AC XIV).  Likewise, it is true that the officers of the ministry do stand in Christ’s stead when they deliver His mysteries to the Church.  Therefore, laying out what the Evangelical Lutheran Church taught about the office of the ministry when Melanchthon wrote the Augsburg Confession is my goal in this study.  Also what she has taught since then will illuminate the discussion for today. 

               I mentioned that my motivation in studying this article comes from the first words which give the reason for the 
ministry: “So that we may obtain this faith.”  “This faith” is the justifying faith which was confessed in the fourth article of the Augsburg Confession (AC IV).  The teaching that we Christians are accounted as righteous before God for Christ’s sake must always remain the center of all theological discussions.  Throughout my study, I will look at the text of AC V in the Latin and German translations, and accompanied with both historical contexts and Scripture, I will clarify what the teaching of the office of the ministry means to Evangelically Confessional Lutherans today...  

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[1] Kolb, Robert, Timothy Wengert, John Hick, Church Association, Emil Schürer, Adolf Harnack, and Charles Arand.       The Book of Concord. Minneapolis: Fortress Pr, 2000. 41. Print.   (Latin Text)

[2] "Statements of Beliefs." WELS. Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, 2010. Web. 1 May 2010.    <http://wels.org/what-we-believe/statements-beliefs/this-we-believe/church-and-ministry?page=0,1>.

First Issue Coming Soon!

Our first issue is coming soon.  One selected essay from each issue will be posted on this blog, and if you would like the PDF of the issue, please email us at propterchristum@gmail.com.  If you would like a hard copy, please email us for that as well.  We hope many will read and discuss!

In Christ,

Andrew Preus
Student Editor