LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1977, Page 92

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92 ESSAY AND BIBLE STUDY

He gave His only-begotten Son that whoever believes in
Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
It is only through faith that we appropriate God’s
forgiveness in Christ Jesus. If we could perform good
works sufficient to merit forgiveness, we would not need
forgiveness. But the Law exposes how far short we all
fall. “If Thou, O Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, Lord,
who could stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee,
That thou mayest be feared” (Ps. 130:3-4).

The realization that full forgiveness has already been
won for all sins for all time keeps us from developing any
false notions about faith itself being a good work which
menits forgiveness. Nothing could be farther from the
truth. When the jailor at Philippi cried out in desperation
to Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?” the
response: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be
saved,” did not mean that there was one work which he
had to perform in order to be saved, namely, the good
work of believing. If this were the case, then salvation
would not be a free gift. But the Scriptures say: “For by
grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves; it is the gift of God; not as a result of works,
that no one should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). Insofar as it
justifies, faith is not a good work (Ap IV, 56; FC SD III,
13). It is merely the receiving hand by which we
appropriate the forgiveness which God offers us freely
and without condition. Moreover, even our act of
believing is a result of God’s power working in us.

It is only after we have said all of the above that we
are ready to talk about good works. But after we have
said the above, it does become necessary to talk about
good works. Although we dare never let good works
enter into the picture so long as we talk about how we are
made right with God, it is inevitable that good works
follow after faith. If the key word of the first half of 1
Peter 1 is “hope” as a result of the proclamation of the
Gospel, the key word of the second part of the chapter is
“obedience” in response to the Gospel.

The relationship between faith and good works is
signified by the first word in 1 Peter 1:13—“therefore.”
Because God has begotten you again to a living hope by
the resurrection of Christ from the dead, because you
have an incorruptible inheritance, a salvation ready to
be revealed in the last time, therefore, says St. Peter,
become what you are! This is the whole story of
Christian ethics. Good trees produce good fruits. We
receive God’s forgiveness only through faith in the
merits of Christ apart from all our works. But when the
final judgment comes, faith will not be found without
love and good works. On that day, says Christ, the Judge
will say: “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did
not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to
Me. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but
the righteous into eternal life” (Matt. 25:45-46).

I slept. I dreamed. I seemed to climb a hard
ascending track.
And just behind me labored one whose face was black.
I pitied him, but hour by hour he gained upon my
path.
He stood beside me, stood upright, and then I
turned in wrath.
“Go back,” I cried, “What right have you to
stand beside me here?”

I paused, struck dumb with fear, for lo! the
black man was not there—

But Christ stood in his place! and oh! the
pain, the pain, the pain that looked from
that dear face.

The proper distinction between Law and Gospel in
the area of faith and good works is emphasized in Dr.
Francis Pieper’s striking advice: “Learn to preach the
Gospel, and you have learned the art of making your
people zealous of good works” (Christian Dogmatics,
Vol. I, p. 79). St. John put it best: “Beloved, if God so
loved us, we ought also to love one another” (1 John
4:11).

Ill

On Monday we attempted to set forth clearly and
succinctly the two chief doctrines of the Holy
Scriptures—the Law and the Gospel. Yesterday we
pointed out that the Lutheran Confessions state that
“all Scripture should be divided into these two chief
doctrines” (Ap, IV, 5, emphasis added). We proceeded to
show that, although apparently an easy task to perform
in the abstract, in practice it is impossible to make this
distinction apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. The
devil is especially effective in causing us to confuse Law
and Gospel with respect to the relationship between
faith and works. To those stricken by the knowledge of
their sin, the old evil foe proposes good works as the
solution to their predicament.

The notion that God’s good favor can be gained
through good works takes many forms. One of the most
subtle is the suggestion that the promises of the Gospel
are dependent upon at least one good work, namely, the
good work of faith. That is why it was necessary for us to
show that the faith by which we appropriate the Gospel
promises is not itself a good work which merits
forgiveness.

In order to illustrate this important point, we turn
once again to Bo Giertz’s The Hammer of God. A young
pastor by the name of Fridfeldt, a member of a pietistic
movement in 19th-century Sweden, had just arrived to
serve as an assistant to the veteran rector of Odesjo.
Somewhat troubled and apprehensive because the old
pastor had taken a glass of brandy after dinner, the
young pastor felt constrained to make a confession of his
faith and to inform his superior exactly where he stood.
Said Fridfeldt:

“T just want you to know from the beginning, sir, that I
am a believer...” His voice was a bit harsh.

He saw a gleam in the old man’s eyes which he could not
quite interpret. Was approval indicated, or did he have
something up his sleeve?

The rector put the lamp back on the table, puffed at his
pipe, and looked at the young man a moment before he
spoke.

“So you are a believer, I’m glad to hear that. What do
you believe in?”

Fridfeldt stared dumfounded at his superior. Was he
jesting with him?

“But, sir, 1 am simply saying that I am a believer.”

“Yes, [hear that, my boy. But whatisit that you believe
in?”

Fridfeldt was almost speechless.

“But don’t you know, sir, what it means to be a
believer?”

“That is a word which can stand for things that differ
greatly, my boy. I ask only what it is that you believe in.”