For this lecture, Dr. Walther began the evening by stating, “Among the various functions and official acts of a servant of the Church the most important of all, my friends, is preaching.” Since there is no substitute for preaching, a minister who preaches insufficiently will also likely do a poor job at whatever else he attempts. Walther then explains, “All baptizing, pronouncing absolution and administering of Communion is useless if these matters have not been previously made the subjects of preaching to the people; for they are not the works of men, but of God Himself, who has connected with them a promise to be apprehended by faith. Accordingly, all these acts do not profit, but are rather harmful, in the absence of faith. If these operations of God are to be of any use, it is absolutely necessary that a thorough instruction concerning them be first given from the Word of God by preaching.” Walther makes the good point, “A mere pious talk without aim and logical order is not real preaching.” Also, “Administering Baptism properly is easy; anybody can do it. Likewise, pronouncing absolution correctly is quite easy; even a boy can do it. Administering Holy Communion is also very easy; any intelligent Christian can do it. But to preach properly is difficult.” He adds, “The worth of a true minister of the Church lies exclusively in his ability to preach properly.” as well as, “Preaching is the central element of every divine service.” Then upon inquiring, “What is to be effected by preaching?” Walther then explained the answer, “to arouse secure souls from their sleep in sin ... to lead those who have been aroused to faith ... to give believers assurance of their state of grace and salvation ...
to lead those who have become assured of this to sanctification of their lives ... to confirm the sanctified and to keep them in their holy and blessed state unto the end.” Walther then states, “When a person does not understand how to do this and always mingles either doctrine into the other, his preaching is utterly futile, in vain. More than this, a preacher of this kind does harm and leads the souls of men astray; he leads them to a false faith, a false hope, a false contrition, makes them mere hypocrites, and frequently hurls them into despair.”
Next, Walther enters Thesis XII, which is; In the eighth place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when the preacher represents contrition alongside of faith as a cause of the forgiveness of sins. Walther explains, “At His first public exercise of the preaching function our Lord cried: “Repent and believe the Gospel.” He names repentance first. Whenever this term is placed in opposition to faith, it signifies nothing else than contrition.” Then Walther asked, “Why is repentance required as well as faith?” Then answered, “Our Lord gives the reason in these words: “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. … I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Matt. 9, 12–13. With these words the Lord testifies that the reason why contrition is absolutely necessary is that without it no one is fit to be made a believer. He is surfeited and spurns the invitation to the heavenly marriage feast. As far back as Solomon we find this proverb: “The full soul loatheth an honeycomb.” Prov. 27, 7. Where there is no spiritual hunger and thirst, the Lord Jesus is not received. As long as a person has not been reduced to the state of a poor, lost, and condemned sinner, he has no serious interest in the Savior of sinners.”
Walther then explains, “contrition is not a cause of the forgiveness of sins. Contrition is not necessary on account of the forgiveness of sin, but on account of faith, which apprehends the forgiveness of sin.” Following that, Walther explains the two reasons why it is a mingling of Law and Gospel when someone says that the doctrine of contrition is a cause of the forgiveness of sins. The first being, “Contrition is an effect solely of the Law.” The second being, “Contrition is not even a good work.” Walther adds, “For the contrition which precedes faith is nothing but suffering on the part of man. It consists of anguish, pain, torment, a feeling of being crushed; all of which God has wrought in man with the hammer of the Law. It is not an anguish which a person has produced in himself, for he would gladly be rid of it, but cannot, because God has come down on him with the Law, and he sees no way of escape from the ordeal.”
Walther then explains how preachers preaching false comfort, and how they should instead say, “Listen! When you have come to the point where you are hungering and thirsting for the grace of God, you have the contrition which you need. God does not require contrition as a means by which you are to atone for your sins, but only to the end that you may be roused from your security and ask, ‘What must I do to be saved?’”
Walther covers repentance, and Luther’s experience with it, “The term repentance was to him the very Gospel, because he knew that the moment he had been brought by God to the point where he acknowledged himself to be a poor and lost sinner, he was a proper subject for the attention of Jesus and could go to Him with the assurance that He would receive him as he was, with all his sins and anguish and misery.”
Then Walther explained, “A person must not inquire whether his contrition is sufficient for admitting him to Jesus. His very question about his fitness shows that he may come to Jesus. If one has the desire to come to Jesus, he has true contrition even if he does not feel it. It is the same as when a person begins to believe. I know from my personal experience that a person can have contrition without being aware of it.” Following that he told the people attending of his own experience with it.
Later, he makes a few more good points, “When a person has been made to hunger and thirst for mercy, contrition has done its full work in him.” “A person cannot possibly come to Jesus too soon.” “A person whom God has granted grace to see him self crushed and broken, without any comfort anywhere, and looking about him anxiously for consolation, such a one is truly contrite.” “If such a person were to die after I had told him that he cannot yet come to Jesus, God would demand the soul of that sinner from me.”
Then Walther explains daily repentance and repentance, “Daily repentance is described in Ps. 51. David calls it a sacrifice which he brings before God and with which God is pleased. ... The great majority of sincere Christians who have the pure doctrine have a keener experience of repentance after faith than of repentance prior to faith. For, having good preachers, they have been led to Christ in no roundabout way. While they are with Christ, their former self-righteousness may make its appearance again, spite of the fact that it has been shattered for them many a time. God must smite these poor Christians again and again to keep them humble. ... Contrition of this kind is not a mere effect of the Law, produced by the Law alone, but it is at the same time an operation of the Gospel. By the Gospel the love of God enters a person’s heart, and when contrition proceeds from love of God, it is indeed a truly sweet sorrow, acceptable to God. God is pleased with it; for we cannot accord Him greater honor than by casting ourselves in the dust before Him and confessing: “Thou art righteous, Oh Lord, but I am a poor sinner. Have mercy upon me for the sake of Jesus Christ.”
Walther then draws the lecture to a close by telling of Luther, “The decrees of the Council of Trent prove that Luther has correctly depicted the Papacy. When he wrote these words, he undoubtedly remembered his own life among the papists. When engaged in his penitential exercises, he certainly did not feel like laughing. He took it so seriously, and he was filled with dread to such an extent that he sometimes swooned away in sheer terror during these penances. You know that at one time he locked himself into his cell for several days in order to do penance. When his convent brethren forced the door open, they found him unconscious, so great had been the anguish of his soul. They roused him with music. That is one reason why Luther esteemed music so highly: he had felt the powerful effect which music has on the minds of men.”
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