# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1861_S134
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

134 What Dr. Heinrich Kurtz of Dorpat Teaches Concerning Faith.

sanctification is the renewal of the whole life." And § 275 says, in full
agreement with Holy Scripture and with the confession of our church: "Justification
consists in this, that the Holy Spirit daily and abundantly forgives all sin
to all believers in Christendom, because God reckons to them Christ's
merit and righteousness, and for that reason acquits them of all guilt and
punishment and declares them righteous and pleasing to Him. Justification
takes place without any doing of our own and without any merit of works,
and not even for the sake of our faith, but solely by grace for Christ's sake
— yet indeed through faith, which lays hold of and appropriates the merit
of Christ that is offered."

While, then, this definition of justification agrees with Scripture and
the confession, the definition of faith cited above is manifestly erroneous
and reprehensible. Dr. Kurtz, with his doctrine of faith, contradicts his
own doctrine of justification, and thereby destroys it after having set it
up. For what does it help if he describes justification correctly, if he
presents Christ in the whole greatness of his merit, and then cuts off the
one way by which we can obtain justification? For if living, justifying,
saving faith is anything other than confidence toward God that for
Christ's sake he forgives sins, through the Gospel, then it is altogether
impossible that even a single human being should obtain the grace of God
in Christ; then Christ has suffered in vain, and all the patriarchs,
prophets, and apostles have perished. And it would go no better for
Dr. Kurtz and me, if his doctrine of faith were correct. God can give us
his grace in Christ only if we are able to receive it. We must therefore
have an organ for obtaining the grace of God, with which we can lay hold
of it without fail, firmly and surely. This can only be faith — faith,
that is, in the right and only sense of the word, to which alone the three
components belong: knowledge, approval, and confidence. Faith,
whether great or small, strong or weak, can never make a false grasp: it
always takes hold of Christ, with his whole merit, surely and certainly. For
of faith the Lord has promised that he will not break the bruised reed nor
quench the smoking flax. "He who believes in me has eternal life." By
contrast, "diligent use of the sacraments" and "conscientious use of the
grace received unto a godly, Christian life" can never, ever be the organ,
or even a part of the organ, by which the poor sinner lays hold of Christ's
merit. For by good works grace is not obtained, but reward; by good
works Christ's merit is not laid hold of, but one's own merit acquired.
Now, moreover, all our good works — even those done in faith, our use of
the means of grace, and the sanctification of our life — are so imperfect
and tainted with sin that the reward thereby earned could only be eternal
damnation, were it not for the sake of