# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1861_S136
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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

and proves its existence through them. A light cannot do otherwise, it
must shine; what does not shine is no light — cf. Matt. 5:16. So too faith
cannot be active otherwise than through love; where love is lacking, there
is simply no faith. Likewise, where there is faith, there is also diligent use
of the means of grace; for faith must always be with the Lord in that
which is his Father's, Luke 2:49. But that is no reason why either use of
the means of grace or sanctification belongs, in any sense, to the essence
of faith, any more than the shining of a light is the light itself. Both,
rather, are only the consequence, effect, and fruit of faith.

To show that the doctrine of faith presented here is the doctrine of Holy
Scripture, I need only recall, with reference to Heb. 11:1, the name which
faith bears there. Πίστις, both by its derivation and by its usage, means
quite properly "trust, confidence," and accordingly the meaning of the
verb formed from it, πιστεύειν, is simply "to trust or to have
confidence."*) This designation of living, justifying, and saving faith,
according to which it denotes solely and exclusively the inward act of the
heart by which a person, by the power of the Holy Spirit, trusts in Christ
and sets his confidence before God on Christ's merit, clearly and definitely
excludes from faith everything that is not this trust and this confidence
in Christ — that is, each and every work, including the "diligent use of
the means of grace" and "the pious life." These can never belong to faith
as essential components, precisely because they do not fall under the
concept of πίστις and πιστεύειν. If Dr. Kurtz were right, the Holy Spirit
could not have called faith "faith," but would have had to call it "life in
faith" or some equivalent expression. But because faith, in Scripture, is
called faith, it must be and remain true that confidence in Christ alone
saves, to which, as has been said, knowledge and approval are only the
necessary preliminary stages.

As evidence that the doctrine of faith advocated here is the doctrine of
our church, the following passages from Luther may serve. He says in the
Church Postil, on the Epistle for the Third Sunday in Advent, Erl. VII,
p. 98: "Faith is nothing other than a constant, undoubting, unwavering,
certain confidence in divine grace." — The same, in the 31st sermon on
the third and fourth chapters of John, Erl. XLVII, p. 12: "Faith is a
heartfelt trust in God through Christ, that Christ's suffering and death
belong to you and are your own. Otherwise the devil and the pope also
have a faith, but it is only fides historica; but true faith does not doubt,
it surrenders itself with its whole heart to this, that the Son of God was
given unto death for it." — The same, in the detailed exposition of the
Epistle to the Galatians, on chapter 2:4-5, Walch VIII, 1728f.: "Therefore
it is nothing but empty, monstrous, useless babble, what the mad
sophists teach concerning fides for-

*) The Latin fides too, by which the Western Church, following Scripture, has named
faith, as well as fidere, are synonymous with these Greek words.