Principal Editor of the Book of Concord, 1580
Martin Chemnitz had the distinct advantage of learning under Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon. Lutherans usually overlook Melanchthon, who trained so many future pastors in his long career. Some say Melanchthon was more influential than Luther, when measured by numbers of students.
Melanchthon was such a theological giant that he would have been known as the chief Reformer of any country in Europe except Germany. Many countries courted him. Melanchthon would have added intellectual luster to his royal sponsors.
Chemnitz was not just another disciple of Luther and Melanchthon. He added substantially to our treasury of great Lutheran books, although his work on the Book of Concord alone would be enough. Chemnitz' important strengths were:
1. His knowledge and use of the Patristic Fathers.
2. His polemics against the Calvinists.
Lutherans are generally weak on the Patristic Fathers. Like their Baptist brothers, they think church history skips from the Apostolic Age to the Reformation, with nothing but darkness between. Chemnitz edited the Book of Concord to show that the Lutheran Confessions were in harmony with the historic Christian faith. Lutheran is not a brand name, a sectarian sideshow, but the best expression of genuine Christian teaching.
Chemnitz' The Two Natures of Christ is educational and devotional at the same time. Doctrinal books, like church history, can turn people into atheists or pan-religionists. Norwich's brilliant history of the Byzantine Empire cannot questions anyone getting upset about the Two Natures of Christ. Chemnitz' great book traces the issues, quotes the Patristic Fathers, and reveals a love for the Word of God and faithful confessions of that truth. Chemnitz alone could match Luther in writing a book that could be called a collection of sermons, Scriptural exposition, or a doctrinal textbook.
The quotations below are a sample, starting with Luther, then Melanchton's work, finally Chemnitz' work in The Two Natures of Christ and the Formula of Concord. The Two Natures was published just before the Book of Concord and its Formula, so we can see how the earlier efforts of the Second Martin contributed to these unifying Confessions.
Luther
"The Holy Scripture is God's Word, written and, so to speak, lettered and put into the form of letters, just as Christ, the eternal Word of God, is clothed in humanity. And men regard and treat the written Word of God in this world just as they do Christ. It is a worm and no book compared with other books; for the honor people accord other writings of men by studying, reading, pondering, keeping, and using them they do not accord Scripture. If it is treated well, it lies there in neglect. Others tear it to pieces, scourge and crucify it, and subject it to all manner of torture until they stretch it sufficiently to apply to their heresy, meaning, and whim...It is a good sign, therefore, if a man has the precious gift of loving and liking Scripture, of gladly reading it, of highly esteeming and treasuring it. Such a man God, in turn, will surely honor...."
What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed. Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, I, p. p. 71f. 1541 Psalm 22:6
Melanchthon
"Also they teach that the Word, that is, the Son of God, did assume the human nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, so that there are two natures, the divine and the human, inseparably conjoined in one Person, one Christ, true God and true man, who was born of the Virgin Mary, truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, that He might reconcile the Father unto us, and be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of men."
Augsburg Confession, III. The Son of God. Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 45. Tappert, p. 29f. Heiser, p. 12.
"The Third Article the adversaries approve, in which we confess that there are in Christ two natures, namely, a human nature, assumed by the Word into the unity of His person; and that the same Christ suffered and died to reconcile the Father to us; and that He was raised again to reign, and to justify and sanctify believers, etc., according to the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed."
Apology of the Augsburg Confession, III. #52. Of Christ, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 119. Tappert, p. 107. Heiser, p. 32. Romans 4:25; 2 Corinthians 5:19ff.
Chemnitz
"These arguments of the Monothelites can be found in the proceedings of the Sixth General Council and in the writings of Damascenus. The Church was severely shaken by this controversy, for on the one hand, the Nestorians, under the pretext of the two wills and activities in Christ, tore the person of the one Christ in two, and on the other hand the Eutychians, stressing the one activity, took away the difference of the natures and the essential attributes of Christ."
Martin Chemnitz, The Two Natures of Christ, 1578, trans. J. A. O. Preus, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1971. p. 234.
"This dispute concerning the two wills and the two natural operations in Christ is no idle thing, for in addition to the points which we have mentioned, it also has this use that the Son of God assumed our nature in such a way that first in and through Himself He restored our nature to its pristine beauty which had been despoiled and corrupted in Adam, as Cyril says, In Johannem, Book 11, chapter 25...He restored even the powers which our nature had lost because of sin, and in Himself He first repaired and renewed the powers which had been currpted through sin."
Martin Chemnitz, The Two Natures of Christ, 1578, trans. J. A. O. Preus, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1971. p. 239.
"...it has been unanimously taught by the other teachers of the Augsburg Confession that Christ is our righteousness not according to His divine nature alone, nor according to His human nature alone, but according to both natures; for He has redeemed, justified, and saved us from our sins as God and man, through His complete obedience; that therefore the righteousness of faith is the forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, and our adoption as God's children only on account of the obedience of Christ, which through faith alone, out of pure grace, is imputed for righteousness to all true believers, and on account of it they are absolved from all their unrighteousness."
Formula of Concord, SD, III. #4. Righteousness of Faith. Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 917. Tappert, p. 539f. Heiser, p. 250.
