# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1856_S305
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On the Doctrine of the Election of Grace and Some Related Matters, etc. 305

written against Hunnius' work. First Christian Beckmann, in his "Anatomia universalis triumphans," and then Samuel Strimesius (the zealous unionist, died 1730 as professor at Frankfurt an der Oder) in his "Ingenua in controversias Evangelicorum inquisitio" [An Honest Inquiry into the Controversies of the Evangelicals] of 1708. The latter work has been refuted by Joh. Herm. von Elswich in his "Vindiciae diascepseos Hunnianae adversus Strimesium" [A Vindication of Hunnius's Diaskepsis against Strimesius], Wittenberg, 1712. 4to. Hunnius's work has been reprinted several times. The best edition is that of 1663, in 8vo.

(To be continued.)

On the Doctrine of the Election of Grace and Some Related Matters.
(By Pastor O. Fürbringer.)

A. Introductory Explanation of Romans 9:1–24.

I. Demonstration of the connection of the preceding chapters with the ninth. After the holy apostle has, in chapter 1, verses 1–15, set down the superscription and introduction of the epistle, he lays out in verses 16 and 17 the subject matter he intends to treat, summarized under three heads: the righteousness of faith in Jesus Christ, the salvation and life that follow from it, and all those who believe, Jews and Gentiles alike. (Hence also, from chapter 12 onward, the exhortation flowing from the treatise refers back to this same order, treating faith together with the love that comes from faith, and righteousness toward one's fellow man; further, salvation itself; and finally the union of Jews and Gentiles with one another.) He accordingly first treats of justification, that it does not and cannot come from the works of the law; for the Gentiles are under sin, chapter 1, verses 18–32, as are the Jews, chapter 2, verses 1–10, thus all without distinction, chapter 2, verse 11 through chapter 3, verse 20; rather, it comes solely through faith, verses 21–31, as the examples of Abraham and David show, chapter 4, verses 1–25. He then describes the salvation to be grasped in faith, chapter 5, verses 1–11, in that he sets over against each other the two heads of the human race, Adam and Christ, as the authors, the one of sin and its wages, the other of grace, righteousness, and life, extended over all mankind, chapter 5, verses 12–21;*) — further, how the life thus given already works its way through sin and death here in this world, chapter 6, verse 1 through chapter 8, verse 11, and its glory, chapter 8, verses 12–30; and finally sums up everything in a summary statement, verses 31–39. So he comes, then, at the beginning of chapter 9, to the

*) Note. It should be observed here that the apostle's wisdom in teaching first labors to awaken the consciousness of actual sin and its guilt as a general fact of human nature, chapters 1–3, and from this develops the need for redemption; but in setting forth the latter, only afterward goes back to the more remote origins and the relation of dependence belonging to our condition.