The Church as a whole.

The Church as a whole.

(De ecclesia universali)

1. the concept of the Christian church.

To the question of what the Christian church is, the answer must be given on the basis of Scripture: The Christian church is all men — and only those men — who believe in Christ. But because in our time the expression "believing in Christ"

1444) Luther in the Large Catechism, M. 505, 45 [Trigl. 763, V, 45 🔗]: "These are words that call and command us, by which those who want to be Christians are commanded to enjoy the sacrament. Therefore, whoever wants to be Christ's disciple, with whom he is speaking here, think and hold himself to this, not out of compulsion, as if urged by men, but for the obedience and favor of the Lord Christ. But if you say, "Stand by it: As often as ye do it, he constraineth no man, but letteth it alone. Answer: It is true; but it does not stand there that one should never do it; yes, because he speaks the words: "But because he speaks the words 'as often as you do it,' it is still implied that you should do it often.”

1445) M. 505-512, 40-87. [Trigl. 761, 40-87 🔗]

459 > The Christian Church. [English ed. ~ 397-398]

is often devalued in a way contrary to Scripture, it must be declared in more detail: The Christian church is all men — and only those men — who believe, through the action of the Holy Spirit, that they have forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ's vicarious satisfaction (satisfactio vicaria). Neither the external association with a church fellowship nor the external use of the means of grace nor the external profession of the Christian faith nor the administration of offices in the church nor the effort for "morality" after the example of Christ nor an immediate rebirth or immersion in God, of which the enthusiasts of all genres speak, etc., but only personal faith in the forgiveness of sins, which is acquired through Christ's satisfactio vicaria and is proclaimed and promised in the Gospel, makes one a member of the Christian Church. Acts 5:14: "There were added," namely, to the Christian church at Jerusalem, "those who believed in the Lord," προσετίϑεντο πιατενοντες τφ Κνρίώ). That alone by which a man comes to Christ and becomes justified before God, enters into God's fellowship of grace, and becomes a child of God—and that is faith in the redemption (άπολντρωοις) which came through Christ, Rom. 3:24—that alone also makes him a member of the Christian church. It is a scriptural axiom: Sola fides in Christ membra ecclesiae constituit. Even more briefly expressed: Christiani sunt ecclesia.

With the personal faith in the forgiveness of sins wrought by the Holy Spirit, the unio mystica, sanctification, "moral action," "the transformation of life into its Godly form," is immediately bound as an effect and consequence. Also, the members of the Church are described according to this nature and according to these works.1446) But faith remains the constitutive element. Luther says of sola fide in justification in its relationship to the coming into being and existence of the Christian church that it is this article alone "which produces, nourishes, builds, sustains, defends the church of God, without which the Church of God cannot stand one hour."1447)

As is well known, there has been much discussion about the relationship between the manifestly wicked and the hypocrites (mali et hypocritae) who are found in the external fellowship of the Church,

1446) Ps. 15; 1 Cor. 6:15-20; 2 Cor. 6:14-18; 1 Petr. 2:5.

1447) Opp. v. a. VII, 512. St. L. XIV, 168.

460 > The Christian Church. [English ed. ~ 398-399]

and the Christian Church. On the basis of Scripture it must be said that they do not belong to the Church, that is, they do not form a part of the Church (non sunt pars ecclesiae), but are only added to the church according to the external fellowship (ecclesiae admixti sunt secundum societatem externam [Google]). That only those men who, through the action of the Holy Spirit, carry faith in Christ in their hearts, are members of the Christian Church, is also expressed by all scriptural statements which express an inner, spiritual fellowship of the members of the Church with God, with Christ, with the Holy Spirit. Such expressions are: God's house (οϊκος ϑεον, 1 Tim. 3:13), God's temple (ναός ϑεον, 1 Cor. 3:6; 2 Cor. 6:16), temple of the Holy Spirit (ναός τον εν νμϊν άγιον πνεύματος, 1 Cor. 6:19), Christ's body and Christ's fullness (οώμα Χρίστον, πλήρωμα Χρίστον Eph. 1:23), children of God (τά τέκνα τον ϑεον, John 11:52). All unbelievers, be they Jews or Greeks, are not God's house, etc., but agencies of the devil, τον πνεύματος τον vvv ένεργονντος εν τόΐς τής άπετϑείας Eph. 2:1-3. Also the definition of the church as the totality of the elect, which Luther approves and praises in Hus,1448) is scriptural, 1 Pet. 2:9: νμεϊς γένος εκλεκτόν.

This is the doctrine of Luther and the Lutheran Church. In order to emphasize that no external fellowship with Christians and no external use of the means of grace, but only personal faith in the gospel brings one into the kingdom of heaven on earth, that is, into the Christian church, Luther says:1449) "Otherwise a man would be in the kingdom of heaven just as if I threw a log or block among the Christians, or as the devil is among them." The Apology in the 7th and 8th articles (De Ecclesia) defines the concept of the Church. It says [Trigl. 229, 10-11 🔗]: "These people are the right church, who now and then in the world from the rising of the sun to the setting truly believe in Christ"; in the Latin text: "who agree with regard to the gospel" (qui de evangelio consentiunt), thus believing that through Christ's merit, without works of their own, they have forgiveness

1448) On Ps. 118. St. L. V, 1234 f. So also Baier (III, 614): Homines illi, quos Deus iuxta aeternum suum decretum fide et gratia sua donavit, collective sumpti dicuntur ecclesia [Google]. Likewise Aug. Hunnius, Volum. th. disput., Witteb. 1598, p. 329; in Baier-Walther III, 614.

1449) St. L. XI, 490.

461 > The Christian Church. [English ed. ~ 399-400]

of sins. The Apology is no less clear about the relationship of the wicked and hypocrites to the Church. It says that the wicked and hypocrites do not belong to the Church; "for it is certain that all the ungodly are in the power of the devil and members of his kingdom, as Paul says to the Ephesians, that the devil reigns powerfully in the children of unbelief" [Trigl. 231, 16 🔗]. One would, says the Apology, abandon the distinction between Christ's kingdom and the devil's kingdom if one wanted the ungodly to be a part of the Christian church. The circumstance that "the ungodly in this life, while the kingdom of Christ is not yet revealed, are among the right Christians and in the church" (admixti ecclesiae, admixed to the church, and that secundum societatem externorum signorum, according to the fellowship of the outward signs), "hold offices [as teachers and other offices] in the Church," so "the ungodly therefore are not in the meantime a part of the kingdom of Christ." (p. 155, 18. [Trigl. 233, 18 🔗]) "And the parables of Christ rhyme with this, since he clearly says Matt. 13, that the good seed are the children of the kingdom, the tares are the children of the devil, the field is the world, not the Church." (155, 19. [Trigl. 233, 19 🔗]) In short, according to Lutheran doctrine, faith in the gospel is the factor that determines membership in the Christian church in every case. No man who believes the gospel is to be denied membership in the Christian church: no man who does not believe the gospel is to be granted membership in the Christian church. Those unjustly banished remain members of the Church.1450) Likewise, members of the Church are erring through weakness, whether they live in orthodox or heterodox fellowships, if they hold in their hearts trust in God's grace in Christ.1451) Even those who believe before receiving baptism are to be counted as members of the Christian Church, because baptism is not of absolute necessity, as was explained in the doctrine of baptism.1452)

1450) Quenstedt (II, 1635): Iniuste excommunicati non desinunt esse membra catholicae ecclesiae, etiamsi e visibili et particulari ecclesia eiiciantur. [Google]

1451) Luther (VI, 1629): The sins of the godly "are in themselves damnable sin, but they do not condemn the godly because they recognize this impurity of their hearts and believe in Christ...."

1452) Gerhard, L. de eccl., § 54: Nos et catechumenos et omnes alios vera fide interna praeditos in ecclesia esse dicimus, si vel maxime baptismum actu nondum susceperunt. [Google]

462 > The Christian Church. [English ed. ~ 400]

Since man is naturally inclined to the opinion that he is already secured for eternity by an external binding with the Christian church, it is obvious how great a practical importance it is to hold fast to the Christian concept of the church as the fellowship of believers or saints and to reject the concept of the church as an "institution" (externa politia). The question of belonging to the Christian church always coincides factually with the question of whether someone recognizes himself before God as a sinner worthy of condemnation and thereby believes that God is gracious to him for the sake of Christ's satisfactio vicaria.1453) The Apology (154, 13 [Trigl. 231, 13 🔗]) also points out the practical importance of the right concept of Church: "It is necessary to know what makes us members of Christ and what makes us living members of the church. For if we were to say that the church is merely an outward police force (politia) like other governance, in which there are evil and good, etc., no one would learn from this nor understand that Christ's kingdom is spiritual, as it is, in which Christ inwardly governs, strengthens, comforts the hearts, distributes the Holy Spirit and various spiritual gifts, but it would be thought to be an outward way, a certain order of certain ceremonies and services. Again, what difference would there be between the people of the law and the church, if the church alone were an outward police? Now Paul thus distinguishes the church from the Jews, saying that the church is a spiritual people, that is, such a people, which is not only distinguished from the heathen in police and civil nature, but is a true people of God, enlightened in heart and born again by the Holy Spirit."

We leave here some more statements of Luther and Lutheran teachers, in which they explain that the church consists only of believers.

Luther (XVIII, 1023): "Christ is the Lord of all things, of the pious and the wicked, of angels and devils, but he is not the head except of only the pious, faithful Christians gathered together in the Spirit. For a head must be united with his body, as I have proved from St. Paul, Eph. 4:15-16, and the members must cleave to the head, have their work and life from it. Therefore Christ may not be a head

1453) Cf. Luther's explanation of the second article.

463 > The Christian Church. [English ed. ~ 401]

of an evil community, though the same is subject to him as to a Lord. Just as his kingdom, Christendom, is not a physical community or kingdom, but everything that is spiritual, physical, infernal and heavenly is subject to him." — The same (V, 1234): "There [at Jerusalem] went in at the gates of the temple many wicked wretches, hypocrites, and sinners; but here at this gate of the Lord go in vain righteous and holy ones to serve God. For no one is or can be in the Christian community or a member of Christianity unless he is truly faithful, that is, righteous and holy, as the article of faith testifies: 'I believe a holy Christian church.' But he who is not faithful, nor holy and righteousness, does not belong to the holy Christian church and cannot enter this gate of the Lord, nor can he pray. He does not know God either, whether he lives among Christians in the flesh or has an office among Christians as a pastor, preacher, bishop, or even partakes of the sacrament outwardly, as 1 John 3:6 says: 'He that abideth in Him sinneth not; but he that sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him.' And again v. 8: 'He that committeth sin is of the devil.' And this is the article condemned in the laudable Council of Constance, together with this verse and the whole Holy Scriptures. For John Hus confessed at that time that there was a holy Christian church; if the pope were not pious and holy, he could not be a member, much less the head, of the holy church, even if he had the office within it; therefore he must be burned and cursed as a heretic. … They oppose this and say: If the Pope, bishops and all of them sin equally much, they are nevertheless not of the devil nor of his synagogue, but are of Christ and of God, members and heads of holy Christendom. Yes, they are members of the church, just as saliva, snot, pus, sweat, dung, urine, stink, galls, pox, glands, and all plagues of the body are members; the same are also in and on the body; yes, like stains and filth, which the body has to bear with great driving, toil, and unwillingness."

Gerhard, L. de eccl., § 151: Dicitur ecclesia catholica primario ac πρώτως respectu electorum ac sanctorum, quatenus ambitu suo complectitur omnes in Christ vere credentes, totum illud mysticum corpus, cuius caput est Christus. Atque haec est genuina et propria huius vocabuli significatio, quomodo etiam accipitur in symbolo apostolico, quando dicimus: Credo unam sanctam

464 > The Christian Church. [English ed. ~ 401-402]

catholicam ecclesiam, ubi vox credendi manifeste ostendit, de invisibili ecclesia sermonem esse, quod ipsum etiam annexum sanctitatis praedicatum demonstrat. [Google]

Baier, Comp. III, 617: Sic probatur, ecclesiam proprie dictam esse praecise coetum vere credentium et sanctorum. Nam (1) ad Eph. 4, 16 describitur ecclesia tanquam corpus spirituale, quod totum dependet a Christo secundum omnes iuncturas et compagines (quibus coagmentatum, in ratione unius corporis constituitur) velut a capite, hoc est, per influxum, qualis membris a capite debetur ad hoc, ut incrementum capiant corpori conveniens, idque per caritatem. Unde recte colligitur, eos omnes et solos esse vera membra ecclesiae proprie dictae, qui vita spirituali vivunt, ex supernaturali gratia et influxu Christi, capitis et spiritus eius, adeoque fide non qualicunque, sed supernaturali et cum caritate coniuncta pollent. Quo pertinet, (2) quod ecclesia 1 Petri 2, 4. 5 describitur ut domus spiritualis ex lapidibus vivis, exstructa super imum angularem lapidem, Christum, ita ut sit templum sanctum Domino, domicilium Dei per Spiritum Sanctum, quod non fit nisi per fidem in Christum, qua homines Christo velut causa salutis actu fiduciae nituntur, cum caritate coniunctam. Eodemque (3) facit, quod ecclesia comparatur oleae, eius autem rami, spirituali sensu dicti, per fidem inserti et per eandem in ea manere dicuntur, Rom. 11, 16 sqq. Et (4) quod ecclesia est coetus filiorum Dei; filii autem fiunt et sunt per fidem in Christum. [Google]