Eckhardt's Homiletisches Reallexikon, 1907–1917

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Grace. Treatises. De gratia dei. Baier 3, 1-8. Resistible Grace. L. W. 33, 117—125. 160—167. The Biblical Concept of Grace. L. W. 31, 7-13. 65-73. 97-102. Outline. Grace and the gift of grace, § 1. God is gracious, § 2. Grace is free, universal, certain, resistible, § 3. Gratia infusa, amplior, praeveniens, operans, cooperans, § 4. Grace. 1. The word grace has a twofold meaning in Scripture: a. Gifts of grace. Under this is included everything that God, out of grace, 1. gives to man. Acts 15:40: commended to the grace (the protection) of God; 2. works in man. 1 Pet. 4:10: stewards of the manifold grace [of God]. Gratia infusa, see § 4a. b. God's gracious disposition, his free favor. The good will of God, that God accepts us for Christ's sake. Benignus Dei favor. Eph. 1:7. 2:7-8. Rom. 3:24. 1 Pet. 5:10. Note. This distinction is especially important in the doctrine of justification. There grace does not mean gratia infusa, but God's gracious disposition, grace through the blood of the Lamb. Hymn 234, 5. 2. God is gracious. Exod. 34:6. Ps. 103:8-9: merciful and gracious. 117:2. Mic. 7:18-20. The Hebrew "chesed" (charis in Greek) denotes the highest degree of God's goodness. Ps. 36:3. 1 Chron. 17, 34. Mit. 1903, 31. L. W. 31, 10. 11. Note a. Grace is also called mercy and is at bottom nothing other than love. Titus 3:5. Eph. 2:4. Note b. Grace is the good will of a high lord toward a lowly one, of a holy one toward a guilty one. Between equals, or between a judge and the innocent, there can be no talk of grace. Note c. God can be gracious to us only for Christ's sake. Note d. Our whole salvation flows from grace. Because God is gracious to us, we are helped. -- Without grace, heaven remains closed to us. Ma. 11, 367. 19, 94. 95. Note e. What good does all the happiness in the world, all the favor and friendship of men, do us, without the grace of God? Note f. God's grace is imparted to us through the means of grace. Note g. To unbelievers God's grace is hidden. Note h. God's gracious disposition shows itself in 1. the sending of his Son. The saving grace of God has appeared, 2. justification (sola gratia), 3. conversion, Eph. 2:1-6, 4. salvation, 5. the redemption of believers at the end of the world. Note i. What grace (gift of grace) has befallen us! 1 Cor. 1:4-7: enriched in all doctrine. Ma. 8, 309. 310, raised in a Christian congregation! Ma. 14, 313. The grace that has befallen us should move us to gratitude. Il. 95, 61. Antithesis a. The Socinians understand by grace God's goodness without regard to Christ. -- Against this, 2 Tim. 1:9: grace, which is given us in Christ. b. To the Rationalists, grace is God's indifference toward sin, as a weak father (Eli) lets much go by that he ought to punish.

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3. The grace of God is a. a free grace. It is grounded on no worthiness of man, Can. 97, 35, and excludes all works and merit. Rom. 11:6: If it is of grace, it is no more of works. Theol. 2, 275. Jo. 1903, 49. Way 12. L. W. 31, 101. 99. Kueg. 3, 141. Note a. Therefore "chesed" is also translated mercy. 2 Sam. 7:15. Ps. 13:6. Note b. God owes no one grace. We cannot accuse God if he did not wish to save men. Note c. Whoever mixes in merit, making grace dependent on some accomplishment of man (decision, conduct, etc.), overturns grace. Rom. 11:6: otherwise grace would no more be grace. Note d. Enthusiasts hold that a man must first make himself worthy of grace. The mourner's bench. -- Pelagians and Scholastics falsified the concept of "grace." L. W. 31, [illegible]. b. a universal grace. John 3:16-17: loved the world. Rom. 11:32: might have mercy upon all. 1 Tim. 2:4: all men to be helped. 2 Pet. 3:9: not willing that any should perish. John 1:29: bears the sin of the world. 2 Cor. 5:19: reconciling the world unto himself. Our Confessions: W. 74, 31-33. Luther. W. 59, 47. Titus 2:11: The grace of God has appeared to all men. Ma. 8, 365. 366. Walth. Acts 17:30: all men everywhere. Epi. 33. Note a. Universal is 1. redemption. Christ's merit is for all. Isa. 53:6: the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. 1 John 2:2: the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. Rom. 5:18: justification has come upon all. 1 Tim. 2:6: a ransom for all; 2. the call. The gracious call is universal, and no one is excluded from it. In the preaching of the Gospel, Christ's merit is offered to all men. Matt. 11:28: Come unto me, all. 28:19: teach all nations. Mark 16:15: Preach the gospel to every creature. L. W. 19, 133. Three times has the Gospel been preached in the whole world. Walth. Ev. 53. Luth. 43, 88. Note c. All men are to be saved. L. W. 17, 167. 168. God wills not the death of any sinner, although many die eternally. Walth. L. L. 198. It is not his fault that so many are lost. Ma. 24, 189. God's heart beats with good will toward Judas and Saul just as much as toward Peter and John. Neb. 83, 27. With him there is no respect of persons. 2 Chron. 19:7. Walth. Ev. 52. As the whole world enjoys the light of the sun, so Christ is the source of all grace, from which all men can draw. Baier 3, 7. Grace is there for the ungodly. Rom. 5:6: died for us while we were yet ungodly. Ezek. 33:11. Ma. 19, 94. To all sinners he will give the Spirit. Acts 10:12-18. 11, [18], his tears, Luke 19:41. Luth. 43, 70. Ma. 29, 9. Baier 3, 7, but also his wrath upon the despisers of his invitation. Ma. 19, 182. Note d. This doctrine gives God all the glory. Note e. Without this doctrine there could be no talk of certainty of salvation. Whoever denies it shuts the door against himself. Note f. Of course, God gives faith where and when he wills. He will not let himself be prescribed a time and place. Konk. 39, Art. 5. Objection 1. In the Old Testament God let the heathen nations go on in blindness. Objection 2. To many nations of our century God's Word has never penetrated. -- That many no longer have his Word is not his fault. God does not preach his Word where he foreknows they will not accept it. Acts 22:18. If God knows that in a nation there are people who will let themselves be saved, it is an easy thing for him to find a way. The wise men from the East. -- For us, indeed, a mystery lies here, which will only be resolved in lumine gloriae. Objection 3. Therefore they could not believe. John 12:39. So he has mercy on whom he will. Rom. 9:18. See Hardening. Objection 4. Few are elect. -- See Election by Grace, § 10, a., and § 21, h. Objection 5. If such works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, etc., Matt. 11:21. -- This saying shows only that God gives a differing measure of grace. But even the lesser measure of grace is sufficient to work faith. Objection 6. What God wills, that he also does. If God willed to save all men, he would also do it. -- God's will is not absolute, but conditional: by way of faith. A father wills the salvation of all his children, yet some will not obey. Hymn 210, 2: for whom his heart ever breaks, etc. Antithesis. a. Calvinists. Grace extends only to the elect. John 3:16: "the world" means the elect. Baier 3, 8. 9. W. 74, 41. 55. 1 Tim. 2:4: "all men" means that God has closed the way of salvation to no rank and no people (shoemakers, tailors, Frenchmen, Germans). All men = all kinds of men. L. W. 19, 131. By this they take from men the comfort and certainty of salvation. Süd. 9, 78. b. The Reformed. Guenth. 136. W. 71, 36. c. Presbyterians. L. W. 51, 300. W. 71, 37. Note. Our reason cannot reconcile gratia universalis and sola gratia. Therefore the Calvinists affirm the former, the Synergists the latter; c. a certain grace. The Gospel of the grace of God is not like the promise of a man. God plays no game with us. Note. The sure mercies of David (Isa. 55:3. Ps. 13:34) are the benefits of grace that God had promised to give in Christ; d. a resistible grace. Acts 7:51: ye do always resist. John 5:40: ye will not come to me. John 5:13: ye receive me not. Luke 7:30: rejected the counsel of God against themselves. Matt. 23:37: ye would not. Acts 13:46: seeing ye put it from you. Prov. 1:24-25: ye have refused. Isa. 65:2. Note a. When God approaches us through means (the Word, Baptism), his power can be resisted, but not when he works immediately, e.g., in the resurrection of the dead. An incomprehensible wonder, since in the Word of God the same creative power of God confronts us. 2 Cor. 4:6. Analogy: A man can destroy a plant that God causes to grow. L. W. 33, 121. 122. Or. 1904, 46. 47. Note b. The primi motus are inevitabiles, but not irresistibiles. Note c. Therefore Scripture warns us that we should not 1. despise the grace of God. This happens when one will not come when he calls, Ma. 11, 381, when our field and business, etc., are dearer to us than the grace of God, Ma. 16, 292, when one outwardly holds to the church but without a wedding garment, Ma. 14, 293. A terrible sin: Ma. 18, 187. 6, 187. The utmost that human wickedness is capable of. Ma. 16, 289. Contempt draws severe punishment after it: Bind him hand and foot, etc. Ma. 16, 294. 295. 11, 381. 6, 189. The number of despisers is great. Ma. 18, 186. This comes from the fact that so many do not recognize the greatness of their sins. To the healthy, the impenitent, grace is of no use. Can. 1901, 8; 2. receive it in vain. 2 Cor. 6:1. Many do not accept the grace offered them at all; many soon lose it again. Ma. 2, 267. 268. The sad case of falling from grace. Ma. 7, 35. 5, 31. See Apostasy. -- When will God's grace remain with us? When we humbly hold fast the Word and grace. Luth. 53, 70. Antithesis. The Reformed. Grace is irresistible. -- A man who has once stood in grace cannot be lost. Süd. 91, 78. W. 1904, 82. 80. 1. Some distinctions. a. Gratia infusa is not a disposition in God, but a quality in the soul of man, the effects of grace in man. Papists teach justification through gratia infusa. b. Gratia amplior. God does not work in all men in the same way, Baier 3, 16, but lets one receive a richer measure of grace than another -- the Jews more than other peoples, Rom. 3:2, Chorazin and Bethsaida more than Tyre and Sidon, Matt. 11:21, those raised in the orthodox church, brought up by godly parents, more than those raised in the papacy. Paul! W. 79, 38. God pursues one for a long time and knocks at another's door only a few times. W. 79, 59. Note a. But one must not think that all who are saved experienced a richer measure of grace than the damned. Matt. 8:11: Many shall come from the east, etc. Compare Judas and the thief on the cross. Note b. Even the lesser measure of grace is sufficient to work faith. c. Gratia praeveniens, the prevenient grace, which must precede when God converts a person in the ordinary way.

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Homiletics. On grace in general. Ezek. 33:10-11. On the grace of God toward sinners. a. What the grace of God is, b. to whom it applies. -- Ma. 19, 94. Ps. 119:41. -- a. That we need the grace of God in Christ. b. That God also surely lets this grace befall us. -- Ma. 10, 367. 1 Pet. 1:13. -- Set your hope wholly on grace. a. How necessary, b. how certain this grace is. -- Grosse, Aur. 23. 2 Cor. 8, 19. -- The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. a. Wherein it consists. b. what it effects. -- Way. 34. Rom. 11, 6. -- Grace and works exclude each other. a. Grace excludes works. b. works exclude grace. -- Way. 12. John 1, 17. -- Grace contrasted with the law, as to a. their intrinsic difference, b. the mode in which they are applied. c. their source. -- Way. 4. Exod. 34, 6. Our salvation by grace. a. What grace is. b. How by grace we are saved. -- Way 7. Eph. 15, 11. -- Salvation through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. a. That there is no grace without Christ. b. That through His grace we obtain salvation. -- Way 20. 1 Cor. 15, 10. -- Conversion and the grace of God. a. That we owe our conversion to the grace of God. b. That we receive the grace of God in vain, if we are not converted. -- Way 25. Titus 2, 11-14. -- The glorious grace of God. a. bringing salvation to all men, b. sanctifying all who receive this grace in faith. -- Way 39. Sexagesimae. Epistle. -- Paul glorifying the grace of God in his a. labors, b. revelations, c. temptations. -- Kueg. 2, 160.

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18. Sunday after Trinity. Epistle. -- All true members of an orthodox congregation should praise the grace of God! Grace a. has brought them into such a congregation, b. bestows on them in such a congregation infinite riches, c. will transfer them from such a congregation into the triumphant one. -- Ma. 14, 313. The universality of grace. Whit Monday, Gospel. -- God's earnest gracious will to save all men. a. Why we should not doubt this in the least. b. How it comes about that nevertheless not all men are saved. -- Ma. 7, 148. 119. 10th Sunday after Trinity. Gospel. -- How earnestly the Lord wills the salvation even of those who thrust his grace from themselves. Christ proves this a. with tears, b. with words, c. with deeds. -- Ma. 7, 215.

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20. Sunday after Trinity. Gospel. -- How earnestly God wills that all men be saved. This is seen a. from the complete preparation of salvation for all men, b. from the urgent invitation to men to enjoy the salvation prepared, c. from the wrath of God upon the despisers of the salvation offered them. -- Ma. 7, 305. Matt. 23:34-39. The gracious will of God is thoroughly earnest and altogether without exception. a. That this is beyond contradiction, b. that whoever is lost is lost through his own fault, whoever is saved is saved by grace alone. -- Ma. 7, 8. Receiving grace in vain. Invocavit. Epistle. -- Do not receive the grace of God in vain! a. Take it up with joy. b. Let it work powerfully in you. -- Ma. 5, 76. Persons who receive the grace of God in vain. a. Who they are. b. How sad their condition is. -- Ma. 32, 81. How the passion of Christ makes so powerful the admonition not to receive grace in vain. Let us consider a. what alone makes the receiving of grace possible, b. to what end the vain receiving of grace serves, c. by what we prove that we have not received grace in vain. -- Quart. 3, 54. How does it come about that many receive grace in vain? a. They do not come to receive grace, but to fulfill their Christian duty. b. They do not accept the grace offered. c. They soon lose it again. -- Ma. 2, 266. Who receives grace in vain? a. Whoever does not recognize the time of grace, b. has no use for the office of grace, c. does not conduct himself as a Christian through the powers of grace, d. does not overcome all things through the comfort of grace. -- Hön. Ent. 172. Precisely in this season of Passiontide you are urgently admonished: Do not receive grace in vain. If you receive grace in vain, then a. the Son of God has accomplished the day of salvation for you in vain, b. the Servant of God has labored for you in vain, c. the Most High has humbled himself for you in vain. -- Hön. Ent. 173. How do Christians prove that they have not received the grace of God in vain? By this, that they a. give no one offense, b. prove themselves in all things servants of God. -- Ma. 14, 56. How do we show that we have not received the grace of God in vain? By being faithful, diligent ministers of God, b. by walking circumspectly before God and man, c. by patiently bearing afflictions and disgrace of the gospel. -- Mag. 5, 27. The apostle's urgent admonition not to receive God's grace in vain. a. What the apostle means by this admonition. b. How urgent he makes it. -- Loch. Epi. 257. The contempt of grace. 2nd Sunday after Trinity. Gospel. -- The grave sin of despising divine grace, a. in what they despise, b. in their flimsy excuses, c. in its dreadful consequences. -- Ma. 6, 187. On the despisers of the grace of God. a. How great is their number! b. How dreadful their sin! -- Ma. 18, 186. God's wrath upon the obstinate despisers of grace. a. The wrath is just, for they have frustrated all God's labor of love. b. Out of wrath God withdraws his grace from them and excludes them from salvation. -- Ma. 21, 171. The despisers of grace. a. Who they are. b. How sinful and foolish their conduct is. -- Ma. 25, 182. What should keep us from despising the grace of God? a. The hideousness of this sin, b. the ruin that follows it. -- Ruh. 526. 20th Sunday after Trinity. Gospel. -- How heavily it weighs to despise the grace of God. a. The gravity of the guilt and responsibility, b. the gravity of the punishment. -- Ma. 16, 290. The sin of despising the grace of God a. a great sin, b. a sin that plunges one into ruin, c. so universal a sin. -- Ma. 14, 307. On two kinds of despisers of grace. a. The open, b. the hidden. Matt. 23:34-39. -- The contempt of his grace that provokes God to wrath. a. Wherein it consists, b. how terribly it angers God. -- Ma. 1, 381.