The importance of the Christian doctrine of the Means of Grace.
Adolf Harnack allows himself the following criticism of Luther: "The Christian, as Luther himself knew best, does not live from the means of grace, he lives through the personal union with God which he experiences in Christ."595) It is clear from these words that Harnack is contrasting the life of a Christian from the means of grace with personal union with God. Harnack thinks that whoever wants to experience personal union with God in Christ, that is, to become inwardly or truly devout, must above all avoid the means of grace in the sense that grace is given through them. This method of experiencing God in Christ was overlooked by Luther, although he actually knew better, and thus led the Reformation in the wrong direction. Thus, says Harnack explicitly, "Luther stepped back into the abandoned narrow circles of the Middle Ages."596) Harnack's criticism coincides exactly with the criticism that Carlstadt, Zwingli and comrades made of Luther. As is well known, the latter also never tired of exposing Luther's aberrations in the doctrine of the means of grace. With his insistence on the external word and the sacraments as means of grace, Luther damaged personal piety and hindered the spirit, because spirit and personal piety do not come through such external things. Zwingli said: "I believe, indeed I know, that all sacraments are so far from conferring grace that they do not even bring it or dispense it (Credo, imo scio omnia sacramenta tam abesse, ut gratiam conferant, ut ne adferant quidem aut dispensent). In this I may seem too bold to you, most powerful emperor. But it remains so. For as grace comes (fit) from the divine Spirit or is given (but I take the word grace according to the Latin manner of speaking for pardon, forbearance, and benefit given in vain), so that gift comes to the spirit alone. But no guide or chariot is necessary to the Spirit, for He himself is the power and the bearer, by whom all things are borne, to whom it is not necessary to be borne; and we have never read this in Holy Scriptures, that things falling into the senses (sensibilia), such as the sacraments are, certainly bring the Spirit with them."597) On the same point of view stand also more recent Reformers with their
595) Dogmengeschichte, Abriß, 1905, p. 431.<w:t>596) op. cit.
597) Fidei Ratio; in Niemeyer, p. 24.
157 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 133-134]
decided assertion that "efficacious grace" works "immediately", and that in the rebirth the outer word is an "attending circumstance", but not the means by which the rebirth comes about. All the newer theologians, including those who call themselves Lutheran, stand on Harnack's and Zwingli's point of view, who want faith in Christ to come about through the "living person of Christ," through "the historical reality of Christ," etc., instead of through the word of Christ alone, and in this way also with the justification of wanting to defend against intellectualism or the externalization of Christianity and to ensure the inner "experience" of God in Christ.
Regarding this criticism of Luther and the Lutheran church, which continued through the centuries, it must be said: Luther knew "best" two things. First, that the Christian lives only through personal union with God as revealed in Christ. Hence Luther's polemic against Rome's doctrine that the means of grace bring ex opere operato into the possession of grace without the personal faith that grasps the promise of grace offered in the means of grace. On the other hand, Luther knew "best" that "every personal union" with God is a dreamed one, based on self-deception, which does not come about by the means of grace, or what is the same: which is not faith in the forgiveness of sins that God offers for Christ's sake in the Word of the Gospel and in the sacraments. How well Luther knew this, we see from the Smalcald Articles, where he says: "In these matters concerning the oral, outward Word, it is to be firmly adhered to that God gives no one His Spirit or grace without through or with the preceding outward Word. So that we may guard against the enthusiasts, that is, spirits who boast that they have the Spirit without and before the Word. … This is all the old devil and old serpent, who also made Adam and Heva enthusiasts, leading from the external Word of God to spirituality and conceit (proprias opiniones)'. … Summa, enthusiasm is in Adam and his children from the beginning to the end of the world, instilled and poisoned in them by the old dragon, and is the origin, strength and power of all heresy, also of the Papacy and Mahomet. Therefore we should and must insist that God does not want to deal with us men except through his outward Word and Sacrament'.
158 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 134-135]
But everything that is praised by the Spirit without such Word and Sacrament' is the devil."598)
These coarse words of Luther and the Lutheran Confessions have offended people in the past and now. But there is nothing exaggerated in them. The factual situation is this: In the kingdom of nature God works everywhere in the world. The universe has its existence in him.599) And as far as especially the men are concerned, God is the causa efficiens of the natural life of all men under all heavenlies. God gives life and breath to everyone everywhere.600) In him all men live, move and are.601) God also gives everywhere and to all men the goods that belong to the natural life. He gives men rain from heaven and fruitful seasons and fills their hearts with food and joy.602) But the forgiveness of sins for Christ's sake, and faith in the forgiveness of sins, regeneration to spiritual life, and all the spiritual goods connected therewith, God gives only through the means of grace which He has ordained, through the Word of the Gospel and the Sacraments. This fact is testified to by Scripture, which says that all members of the Church will believe until the Last Day through the word of the apostles,603) are born again through the word604) and Baptism605) . Hence Christ's command to His Church not to stay at home, but to go into all the world with the sermon of the Gospel,606) preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins among all nations in His name.607) Hence also the description of the peoples who do not have the Word of the Gospel as peoples who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,608) although they have the light of the earthly sun and God does not leave Himself unwitnessed to them by presenting His goods for bodily life.609) So indissolubly is "personal union with God" bound to the means of grace that men who are still outside the Christian church are described as those "who do not believe in the Word",610) and that the apostle Paul ascribes conceit and denies Christian knowledge to anyone who does not abide by the sound words
598) Müller 321, 3 ff. [Trigl. 495, Part III, Art. VIII, 3-10 🔗]<w:t>599) Col. 1:17.<w:t>600) Acts 17:25.
601) Acts 17:28.<w:t xml:space="preserve">602) Acts 14:17. <w:t>603) Joh. 17:20.
604) 1 Pet. 1:23. <w:t>605) Tit. 3:5.<w:t xml:space="preserve"> 606) Mark. 16:15. 16.
607) Luke 24:47.<w:t>608) Luke 1:78. 79; Is. 9:2; 60:2.
609) Acts 14:17.<w:t>610) 1 Pet. 3:1.
159 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 135]
of our Lord Jesus Christ, τετνφωται, μη επιντάμενος.611) This scriptural expression, "puffed up, knowing nothing," resembles in sharpness the expression of the Smalcald Articles, "God will not deal with us men except by his outward word and sacrament.' But everything that is praised by the Spirit without such 'word and sacrament' is the devil."
It has been recalled that the people who do not want to see the faith founded on the external means of grace have a good intention. They want to prevent an "externalization of Christianity", the mere "head knowledge", the "intellectualism", etc. They want to prevent an "externalization of Christianity", a mere "head knowledge", "intellectualism" etc., and on the other hand help a "heart Christianity" and an inner "experience" of the facts of salvation to exist. In this respect, more recent dogmatic historians have, for example, conceded a partial justification to the rapture of Andreas Osiander.612) Let us leave the human "good intention" to itself! In spite of all conceded good intentions, we have to state on the basis of Scripture that we have to deal with ignoramuses (μη Ιηιατάμενοι, 1 Tim. 6:4) and quacks who do not know what they are saying or putting, and with all their might pursue exactly the opposite of what they have set out to achieve, in all those who want to detach God's revelation of grace and the effect of grace from the means of grace. The "fellowship with God", the "inner experience" of Christ, the "warmth in Christianity" always comes only in one way, namely through faith in the Word of God, in the forgiveness of sins, which is present through Christ's satisfactio vicaria, and which God promises through the means of grace. Whoever detaches this "experience" from the word of grace, the λόγος τής χάριτος, gets into his own flesh in every respect. In the place of real knowledge of spiritual things, which is imparted only by abiding in the words of Christ, comes puffing up by one's own wisdom, the τετνφωται. In place of faith in divine grace, which comes merely from the word of grace or is God's effect through the word,613) comes the
611) 1 Tim. 6:3-4. cf. e.g. II, 128.
612) Seeberg, Dogmengesch. II, 360 ff.
613) Rom. 10:17; 1 Cor. 2:4. 5. Luther: "Just as God gives the Word, which is His, not our Word, so He also gives faith in the Word, so that it is both God's work, Word and faith or forgiveness of sins and faith." (XIII, 2440.)
160 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 135-136.]
"autosuggestion", as it has been recently expressed, an "imaginary and self-made 'enthusiasm'".614) The predicates "imagined" and "self-made" correspond exactly to the facts of the case, because it is established from Scripture that the "enthusiasm" or "enlightenment" or "rebirth" which immediately arises cannot be traced back to the Holy Spirit as causa efficiens. Except in reserve cases, which do not concern us men,615) the Holy Spirit does not concern himself with immediate effects in the kingdom of grace. Scripture binds all Christian knowledge of truth to Christ's Word, εάν νμεις μείνητε εν τω λόγω τω εμφ … γνώσεσϑε την άλήϑειαν.616) Through the Word, the Holy Spirit works faith and regeneration.617) Through the sermon of faith the Spirit is received.618) The Word of the Cross (ο λόγος ό τον σταυρόν) is God's power to those who are saved, δύναμις ϑεον.619) Therefore, truly, whatever is thought to be the effect of the Holy Spirit without the Word and apart from the Word is a non-ens, "imaginary" and "self-made." What one has or thinks to have without means of grace is not of the Holy Spirit, but human product, "man-made".620) Here the ways of enthusiasts are binding with the way of Rome. Whether one lets the "Spirit" or "the person of Christ" or "the historical reality of Christ" or something else take the place of the means of grace — every detachment of the divine revelation of grace and the effect of grace from the means of grace drives one into an effect of one's own, whereby an alleged gratia infusa is actually put in the place of the favor Dei propter Christ as the reason for the forgiveness of sins and salvation. Justification by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith, without the works of the law, is abandoned, and thus the foundation of the certainty of grace and salvation is withdrawn. One cannot allow such a deep intrusion into Christian doctrine as is present in the detachment of grace from the divinely ordained
614) Von Öttingen, Luth Dogmatik IIII , p. 333.
615) Luke 1:15.<w:t>616) Joh. 8:31-32.
617) 1 Cor. 2:4-5; 1 Pet. 1:23.<w:t>618) Gal. 3:2, 5.
619) 1 Cor. 1:18.
620) Aptly says J. Gottschick , RE.2 XVII, 335: "Where the pretended 'immediate fellowship' is really independent against the external Word, it is only an intercourse with a phantasy image of God and Christ."
161 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 136-137]
means of grace and yet keep the Christian faith intact.
These are the evil consequences of setting aside the means of grace when the wrong principle is applied consistently. In many cases, however, the wrong principle is not carried out in practice. This is because every false doctrine proves to be useless in a serious case, that is, when the conscience wakes up. We already saw this with the Calvinist thesis of gratia particularis. It sounds quite plausible when it is argued in favor of it in this or a similar way: "It cannot be supposed that God intends what is never accomplished, that He adopts means for an end which is never to be attained"621) and from this allows itself the conclusion that God's grace and Christ's merit cannot extend to all men. But in the case of serious challenge and real need of conscience, the advocates of gratia particularis themselves refer to gratia universalis.622) Also against the satisfactio vicaria a whole series of reasons is given, which are theoretically not bad, as for example: God can forgive sin according to his power as a supreme judge without the vicarious satisfaction, which way is also more worthy for God as well as more advantageous for man in ethical relation. But in the distress of conscience the fighters of satisfactio vicaria like Bushnell, Ritschl, Hugo Grotius returned to this doctrine.623) So it stands also with respect to the means of grace. One can, from the study table or from some other safe place, adduce reasons for the separation of grace and the Spirit from the external word, by which one comes to be called out, both in oneself and in others, for piety and scholarship. But in the times of terrores conscientiae, those who have hitherto made do with a grace directly revealed and wrought realize that they must either despair or grasp the immovable rock of the objective promise of grace in the means of grace. It therefore stands thus: as the denial of gratia universalis and the denial of satisfactio vicaria refute themselves in the seriousness of practice, so the same is to be said with regard to the detachment of grace from the means of grace.
It has been pointed out that in some cases great certainty of grace has been revealed in those who assert immediate enlightenment
621) II, 27 f.<w:t xml:space="preserve">622) II, 54.<w:t xml:space="preserve">623) II, 442 ff. ff.
162 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 137-138]
against the external word. The answer to this is twofold. On the one hand, even a displayed certainty of grace can be based on self-deception. Secondly, it is possible that those who theoretically detach grace from the external word, in consequence, and without being clear about it, actually base their hearts on the promise of grace in the external word of the gospel. There is then the same inconsistency that Mead describes in the case of the synergists thus: "The most ardent champion of the doctrine of free will may be found supplicating the Lord to give him these graces which, according to his theory, he ought to obtain and cultivate for himself." 624)
To summarize: Luther and the Lutheran Church are the mouth of Christianity on earth also with regard to their doctrine of the means of grace. All men who — to speak with Harnack — stand in personal union with God, do not experience this personal union with God without, but through the means of grace.625) Only this way of coming into God's communion of grace is taught in the Scriptures, as we have made clear to ourselves. And only in this way does the central Christian doctrine of the forgiveness of sins by faith without works of the law remain intact, and only in this way is there the certitudo gratiae et salutis, to which, according to the explicit explanation of Scripture, the whole Christian religion is founded. 626)
There is no human writer who would have put the character of the divinely ordered means of grace, their importance for faith and life, and the destructive effect of the separation of grace from the means of grace into the light so powerfully as Luther. This is due to the fact that Luther became the Reformer of the church in the school of the fear of conscience, while Zwingli's reformation and theology grew up more on the ground of humanism and bears a speculative character throughout. The fact that the entire Calvinist theology, from Calvin down to our time, does not teach the God who has revealed and presented Himself in His Word,
624) Irenic Theology. By Charles Marsh Mead. 1905, p. 161.
625) Gottschick, RE.2 XVII, 334: "With it" (the view of an "immediate fellowship" with God) "the need for personal certainty of salvation remains unfulfilled."
626) Rom. 4:16: Διά τοντο εκ πίοτεως, ΐνα κατά χάριν εις το είναι βέβαιαν την επαγγελίαν παντ'ι τφ απέρματι.
163 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 138]
but rather substitutes speculations about the absolute God for the divine Word at the decisive points, confronted us especially with the doctrines of the grace of God, of Christ's person and work, and therefore also with the doctrine of the means of grace. Let us still listen to Luther in some coherent explanations about the means of grace.
Luther takes it as follows: Christ is and works everywhere in the kingdom of nature, but to rule the heart and conscience, that is, to distribute forgiveness of sins and make them certain, that is what he wants to accomplish through his word. Therefore, everyone should learn to judge God's attitude toward him from the Word of God alone. Luther writes:627a) "What is this said: 'I must be in that which is my Father's'? Are not all creatures of his father? Everything is his; but he has given us the creatures for our use, that we should rule with them here in this worldly life, as we know. But one thing he has reserved for himself, which is called holy and God's own, and which we must especially receive from him. This is his holy word, by which he rules the hearts and consciences, and makes them holy and saved. For this reason also the temple was called his sanctuary or holy dwelling place, because in it he made himself present and heard through his word. So Christ is in that which is his Father's, when he speaks to us by his word, and thereby brings us also to the Father. Behold, therefore he rebuketh his parents, that they should err, and seek him in other things, worldly and human, and in business, among acquaintances and friends, and not think that he should be in that which is his Father's. Hereby he wants to indicate that his governance and the whole Christian nature stands in the word and faith alone, not in other outward things (as the outward seeming holiness of Judaism was) nor in temporal worldly nature or governance. … Now this is what I have said, that God will not suffer us to rely on anything else, or to cleave with our hearts to anything that is not Christ in His Word, however holy and full of the Spirit it may be. Faith has no other ground on which it can stand. … We must seek Christ in that which is the Father's, that is, that we keep badly and only the word of the Gospel, which shows
627a) St. L. XI, 452 ff.
164 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 139]
shows us Christ and makes him known to us. And only learn in this and all spiritual trials, if you want to comfort others or yourself, to say with Christ: What is it that you run so now and then, wear yourself out with anxious and sorrowful thoughts, as if God no longer wanted to have mercy on you, and as if there is no Christ to be found, and you do not want to be satisfied before you find him in yourself and feel holy and without sin? Nothing comes of it; it is vain toil and labor. Knowest thou not that Christ will not be, nor be found, but in that which is the Father's? not in that which thou art, or in that which all men are and have. It is not the fault of Christ and his grace; he is and remains undestroyed and can always be found; but it is the fault of thee that thou dost not seek him aright, where he is to be sought, because thou dost follow thy feelings and thinkest to take hold of him with thy thoughts. Here you must come, where not your nor any man's business is, but God's governance, that is, where his Word is; there you will meet him, hear him, and see that there is neither wrath nor displeasure, as you fear and hesitate, but only mercy and heartfelt love toward you. … But it will be hard before it [the heart] comes to this and grasps such things; it must first start and learn that everything is lost and in vain called seeking Christ, and yet in the end there is no counsel, except that you surrender into the Word alone apart from yourself and all human comfort."
Luther takes the view that it has always been God's way to deal with us men through external means and signs and thus to make us partakers of his grace. Thus, in the New Testament, we have God's grace wherever we have the Word of God and the sacraments, no matter where we are on earth. He writes:627b) "God has always done this, that he has given on earth a bodily sign, a person, place and site, where he certainly wanted to be found. For if we are not bound and caught by a bodily, outward sign, each one will seek God where he desires. That is why the holy prophets wrote a lot about the tabernacle, about the dwelling place and the tabernacle where he wanted to be present. God has always done this. He has also built a temple for us Christians, where he wants to dwell,
627 b) St. L. III, 924 f.
165 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 139-140]
namely the oral waiting, baptism and the Lord's Supper, which are bodily things. But our false prophets, the spirits of the rot and the enthusiasts despise it and throw it away, as if it were useless, and say: Yes, I will sit and wait until a flying Spirit and revelation come to me from heaven. But beware of that! We also know that water, bread, and wine do not save us; but how do you like it that in the Lord's Supper there is not mere bread and wine, or even in baptism simple water, but God says that He wants to be in baptism to cleanse and wash us from sins? And in the Lord's Supper under bread and wine the body and blood of Lord Christ is given. Do you want to despise God and his sign here, and consider and hold the water in Baptism as the water flowing in the Elbe, or so that you boil? Or wilt thou esteem the word of the gospel as the word or address of the peasants in a fair or in taverns? For God has said, "When the word of Christ is preached, I am in your mouth, and I enter your heart with the word through your ears. Therefore we have a sure sign and know that when the gospel is preached, God is present and wants to be found there; there I have a bodily sign that I may recognize and find God. He is also present at Baptism and the Lord's Supper, for he has bound himself to be there. But if I go to St. James or to the Grimmetal, go to a monastery and look for God elsewhere, I will lack him. And if now the factious spirits preach: Just as the monastic life, invocation of the saints, mass and pilgrimage is nothing, so is baptism and the Lord's Supper: that does not work by a long shot. For there is a great difference when God orders and establishes something, or when men establish something. Yes, you should believe God's ordinances and endowments, worship them and hold them in great honor. So he also commanded Moses: Bring them into the land, that is, arrange and name a certain place, so that whoever cannot personally worship you there may turn his body here and turn his face there and pray. So I also have God in a certain place, namely here in the Word and Sacraments, so that even though one is in Rome, or wherever else he may be, if he only turns his face to the Word and Sacraments and worships, he finds our Lord God there, and
166 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 140-141]
even if he were to be found in a straw, he should be sought and honored there."
To the charge that he ties grace to certain, external and seemingly minor things — Harnack also repeats this charge627c) — Luther replies:627d) "If God would have you pick up a straw or pluck up a feather with such a command, order, and promise that through it you should have forgiveness of all sin, grace, and eternal life, should you not accept, love, and praise it with all joy and gratitude, and therefore hold the same straw and feather higher in sanctuary and let it be dearer to you than heaven and earth? For however small the straw or feather may be, yet through it you receive such good as neither heaven nor earth, nor even all the angels, can give you. Why then are we such shameful people that we do not hold baptism, water, bread and wine, that is, Christ's body and blood, oral word, the laying on of a man's hands for forgiveness, as highly sacred as we would hold the straw or feather, even though in them, as we hear and know, God wants to work Himself, and should be His water, word, hand, bread and wine, through which He wants to sanctify you and save you in Christ, who has purchased such things for us and given the Holy Spirit from the Father for such a work? Again, if you went to St. James in a state of armor, or if you let yourself be murdered by Carthusians, Barefooters, pastors [Dominicans] through such a strict life, so that you might be saved, and God had not sanctioned or instituted such a thing, what good would it do you? He knows nothing about it, but the devil and you have devised it as special sacraments or priesthoods. And if thou couldst bear heaven and earth, that thou mightest be saved, yet all is lost; and he that lifteth up the straw (where it is commanded) would do more than thou, and if thou couldst bear ten worlds."
Luther states that the practical result can only be despair if we do not learn anew every day to hold to the external word of the gospel against all feeling and sensation. He says:627e) "Against everything that reason enters into or wants to measure and investigate, yes, against everything that all the senses feel and comprehend, we must learn to hold to the word and simply
627 c) op. cit., p. 431.<w:t xml:space="preserve">627 d) St. L. XVI, 2296.
627 e) St. L. VIII, 1102.
167 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 141-142]
judge according to the same. … For if thou wilt judge according to that which thou seest and feelest, and if the Word of God be held up to thee, thine own feeling thou wilt hold up against it, and speak: You say many things to me, but my heart says many things differently, and if you felt what I feel, you would also say differently, etc.: then you do not have the Word of God in your heart, but it is muffled and extinguished by your own thoughts, reason and contemplation. In short, if you do not let the word be more valid than all your feelings, eyes, senses and heart, then you must be lost, and you cannot be helped. … I also feel my sin and law and the devil on my neck, that I lie under it as under a heavy burden. But what shall I do? If I were to conclude according to such feelings and my ability, I and all men would have to despair and perish. But if I want to be helped, I must truly turn around and look at the word and speak according to it: I feel the wrath of God, the devil, death, and hell; but the Word says otherwise, that I have a gracious God through Christ, who is my Lord, above devils and all creatures."
Luther also emphasizes particularly strongly that the written Word of God is also a means of grace. He says to 1 John 5:13: "Lest anyone deceive us, John says against the enthusiasts that he writes this: ‘These things I have written to you.’ The letter is with them a dead thing on paper.’ But John says: ‘I write to you,’ because it is to serve as a means by which one comes to faith and eternal life. For thus says John in the 20th chapter of his Gospel: These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in his name'. Therefore we should know that the testimony of God does not come to us without the oral voice or Scripture. All Scripture, inspired of God, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for chastening in righteousness; that a man of God may be perfect, and fit for all good works. 2 Tim. 3:16-17. Likewise, in the preceding verse of the chapter cited: 'Because thou hast known the Holy Scriptures from thy childhood, the same is able to instruct thee unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.' Again 1 Tim. 4:13: 'Continue in reading, in exhortation, in doctrines!' Why does he command to read the Scriptures if it is a dead thing? Why
168 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 142-143]
do they write and publish books themselves, if the letter is neither valid nor useful? Why do they want to instruct us and others through their writings? If they say that the Spirit is before the writing, and they have the spirit first, then they write: this is nothing. For in such a way the Scriptures are good for nothing but show. Hear what Christ says: I pray not for them only, but also for them which shall believe on me through their word,' John 17:20. By the word is certainly to be understood the oral or written word, not the inward word. Therefore, one must first of all hear or read the Word, which the Holy Spirit uses as a means. When one reads the Word, the Holy Spirit is there, and in this way it is impossible for one to hear or read the Scriptures without benefit." 627f)