For this lecture, Dr. Walther began the evening by discussing the most difficult and arduous task of the pastor, which is, proclaiming the pure doctrine of the Gospel of Christ and at the same time exposing, refuting, and rejecting teachings that are contrary to the Gospel. The minister who does this will experience the truth of an old saying. That saying (traslated in english) is; telling the truth makes enemies. Walther later cites Jesus, “Ye are the light of the world,” but also: “Ye are the salt of the earth”. Then Walther explains, “That is, you are not only to proclaim the truth, but you are also to salt the world with its sins and errors; you are to sprinkle sharp salt on the world to stay its corruption.” A good point Walther makes following that is, “Wherever a Church is seen to be, not ecclesia militans, but ecclesia quiescens, a Church at ease, that — you may rely on it! — is a false Church.”
Then Walther enters Thesis XIV (14), which is; 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. The Walther explains what the papists mean by ‘faith’, “Nor are the papists averse to saying that faith makes a person righteous in the sight of God and saves him. In an emergency they will even say that faith alone makes a person righteous and saves him. But by faith they understand fides formata, faith that is joined with love. Accordingly, they manage to say many excellent things about faith; but by faith they always mean something different from what Scripture teaches concerning faith.” Then Walther covers, “What God’s Word really means when it says that man is justified and saved by faith is nothing else than this is: 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.” Later, Walther covers the only two causes of salvation that we believe, teach and confess, which are; the mercy of God and the merit of Christ. Walther explains what Gerhard meant when he wrote, “It is one thing to be justified on account of faith and another to be justified by faith” is, “It is not my own merit that saves me, but the merit of Christ.”
Then Walther makes a series of good points, regarding faith, which are; “When the Lord says, “Believe,” He does not utter a demand, but issues an urgent invitation to man to take, to apprehend, to appropriate what He is giving, without asking anything in return for it.” “Faith is merely a passive instrument, like a hand into which some one places a dollar. The person receives the dollar provided he does not withdraw his hand; beyond that he does not have to do anything. The donor is doing the essential part by putting the gift into the hand, not the other party, by holding out the hand. Let a beggar approach a miser and see what his holding out of the hand to him will help him; the miser may set his dogs upon him if he annoys him too much.” “When I hold out my hand, I make a motion. This point must not be pressed in the case of man’s faith. For it is God who prompts the holding out of the hand after He has prepared a sinner for the Gospel by means of the Law.” “Remember this well: In a certain sense it might be said that faith is man’s work, because it is not God that believes, but man. However, this is liable to be misunderstood, and therefore we should not speak thus. Faith is not an achievement of ours, but is wrought in us by God without our contributing anything towards that end.” Also, most of the second to the last paragraph was a good point.
Then Walther brought the evening to a close by citing Calov, in his Biblia Illustrata, “Without entertaining the least doubt, I can say with perfect assurance: I am redeemed; I am reconciled; salvation has been acquired for me.”
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