The Divine Power of the Holy Scriptures.
Because modern theologians do not want to "identify" Scripture and the Word of God, they not only give Scripture, conceived as God's own and infallible Word, many evil names ("paper pope," "code of laws fallen from heaven," etc.), but they also ascribe evil effects to Scripture, which they group together under such names as "intellectualism," etc. They think that "psychological mediation" or "psychological connection" is lacking if Scripture is allowed to approach men so directly that Scripture is used as the sole source and norm of Christian doctrine. In reality, however, the matter stands thus: Because Scripture alone, among all the other books that exist in the world, is absolutely the Word of God, it alone is also absolutely vis vere divina. What the church proclaims (the "word of the church") also has divine power and effect, but always only insofar and to the extent that the church remains faithful to its mission and proclaims only God's Word.1058) The church has no word of its own. What is not taken from Scripture is not "church word" but, according to Luther's coarse word, "chatter." Other writings can also have divine power and effect, but only insofar and to the extent that they have God's Word excepted in them. Luther's dictum in his Instruction for the Study of Theology will remain true that "no book teaches of eternal life without this alone," namely the Holy Scriptures.1059) What other books teach rightly about eternal life has come into them from the Holy Scriptures.
What is the divine power of the Holy Scriptures? It consists in the fact that the Holy Scriptures work in man such things that are beyond all human power.
Inherent in the Word of the Law, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures (νόμος πνευματικός), is the power to work such a knowledge of sin that a man
1058) Matt. 28:19; Rom. 3:2; 1 Tim. 6:3 ff.; 2 Jn. 9-10.
1059) St. L. XIV, 25 ff.
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recognizes his eternal damnation and despairs of all self-help (contritio, terrores conscientiae). Rom. 3:20: διά νόμον έπίγνωοις άμαρτίας. It is true that as a result of the divine law, as it still stands written in the heart of the natural man after the Fall, there is still a certain knowledge of sin. But this knowledge of sin is well enough for an evil conscience to arise in man, but it is not enough for man to break down completely before God and despair of all self-help. Rather, the natural man resorts from one method of self-help to another, even if it is suicide. This is the reason why Christ is called to preach not only "forgiveness of sins" but also "repentance" in his name among all peoples.
Inherent in the word of the gospel is the power to work faith in the gospel in man, Rom. 10:17: ἡ πίστις ἐξ ἀκοῆς, and thereby to make man certain of the forgiveness of sins, Rom. 5:1: Δικαιωϑέντες ξυστιφηεδ οὖν ἐκ πίστεως, εἰρήνην ἔχομεν πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν κτλ. Human power and human training, even in the highest potency, are not sufficient to work faith in the gospel, as the Scriptures so clearly teach when they say that Christ crucified is an offence to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks, and that the natural man, the ψυχικός άνϑρωπος, ού δέχεται τα τον πνεύματος τον ϑεον [the gospel], μωρία γάρ αντω έστιν καί ον δύναται γνωναί. [““receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them””]1060) The experience of all God's children of the Old and New Testaments also agrees with this. They know that faith does not stand in their election or "self- assertion," "self-determination," "self-decision," etc., but solely in God's power and effect, which is not less than the almighty creative power by which God once caused the natural light to shine forth out of darkness.1061)
The Word of God, which the Scriptures teach, has the power to write the law of God into the heart of man, that is, to transform man inwardly so that he is gladly subject to the law of God and willingly and joyfully walks in God's commandments according to the new man created in him by faith in the Gospel. Human power and education cannot bring this about. Rom. 8:7: τφ νόμω τον ϑεον
1060) 1 Cor. 1:23; 2:14.
1061) Ps. 51:12-14; 2 Cor. 4:6.
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ούχ υποτάσσεται, ονδε γάρ δύναται. [““The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be.””] "Lex praescribit, evangelium inscribit." Jer. 31:31 ff.
The Gospel, which the Scriptures teach, has the power to remove man's fear of death and thus make him victorious over death. Human power cannot do this, as Scripture and experience testify. Scripture explicitly teaches that all men must remain servants throughout life for fear of death, Heb. 2:15: φόβω ϑανάτον διά παντός τον ζην ένοχοι ησαν δονλείας, and have no hope, Eph. 2:12: έλπίδa μη έ'χοντες. On the other hand, the man who believes the gospel, according to 1 Cor. 15:55, says: "Death, where is thy sting?" (κέντρον, death-sting, a sting that kills.) "Surely no death cannot kill us," etc. This is, in the main points, the vis vere divina of the Word of Scripture, because it is God's Word:
That the divine power is not apart from and beside the word, but is effective through the word and therefore proper to the word, is clearly testified by Scripture Rom. 10:17 (έκ), 1 Petr. 1:23 (διά) and is to be held to the Reformed, as is explained in detail in the doctrine of the means of grace. That the efficientia vere divina, which is accomplished through the Word of God, is resistibilis (Matt. 23:37) is set forth more fully in the doctrine of conversion.