Bible study, Evergreen Lutheran High School Board of directors, Pastor Nathan Seiltz – 10/26/08
A. Objective justification is universal. Scripture teaches that God has reconciled the world to himself. This includes all people, believers and unbelievers. All, believers and unbelievers, have deserved death and damnation. Jesus came as the substitute for all. He obeyed the law for all. He died in the place of everyone. When Jesus rose, he rose as the substitute for every sinner. By his resurrection God declared sinners, all of them, forgiven. [GJ - Justification does mean the declaration of forgiveness, but where is this declaration of forgiveness for the whole world found in the Scriptures? It is found in the Brief Statement of the LCMS, but there too it is a claim without a foundation. Yet this claim is the basis for all UOJ opinions.] This is the good news Scripture reveals. This is the good news we proclaim to contrite sinners: “God has reconciled you to himself. Your sins are already forgiven. Calvary and the empty tomb are the proof of it.”
B. It is suggested, if not argued, that such an interpretation of Scripture and the teaching of objective justification we defend is something relatively new in Lutheranism. [GJ - Everything in this so-called Biblical study is found in the Pietistic, non-Lutheran lectures of George Christian Knapp, 1866, a very popular dogmatics book in English and German. Date? 1866. UOJ is from the mid-19th century and erupted from Pietism.] It is true that the terms objective and subjective justification are relatively recent. They are not found in the Confessions. It is also true that most of the time when the Scriptures speak of justification they do so in connection with believing. [GJ - The Scriptures and the Book of Concord agree in treating justification the same way - justification by faith.] They speak of subjective justification. Yet the fact remains that terms objective justification and subjective justification do convey thoughts which the Scriptures teach, as all orthodox theologians have confessed. [GJ - This is gourmet baloney. No one taught OJ or UOJ before the 19th century. Robert Preus, who actually read the orthodox theologians, refuted the pastor's claim years ago, in Justification and Rome.]
C. When objective justification is denied, faith becomes a condition of salvation instead of the means through which we receive salvation. When speaking of salvation, we don’t want to turn a person’s attention inward to his faith, but outward to the grace of God. Preaching about faith will not produce faith, but proclaiming God’s love and mercy and forgiveness will produce believing hearts.
[GJ - This is a Straw Man fallacy. UOJ is Enthusiasm and should be denied. Justification by faith is a message about the Gospel. Preaching against faith will exterminate faith, which can be proven in the apostasy of Church and Change, the last belch of the UOJ generation. Emphasizing the efficacy of the Word, which is taught in the Scriptures and the confessions, increases trust in God's Word.]
D. To justify in the Bible always has the meaning “to declare righteous.” Never do the terms denote a qualitative change in man, a physical or medicinal thing. The change which is meant is not a change in one’s person, but a change in one’s status before God. In the matter of salvation it is God’s pronouncing a sinner righteous—an act which takes place apart from man. God declares sinners righteous not because of anything he foresaw in man, but for the sake of Christ, the sinner’s substitute. [GJ - He appears to be arguing against "in view of faith" but that is not the issue. He concedes the meaning of justify, so where are the words of Universal Forgiveness?]
E. A quick look at the terms ought to be sufficient to remind ourselves of the Lutheran doctrine of objective or universal justification–that God at the resurrection of Christ declared sinners justified, universally, excluding none, and objectively, whether they believe it or not.
[GJ - Where exactly is this declaration of universal forgiveness recorded?]
F. Romans 5:18, 19: “Just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” [GJ - He has refuted himself. Many are justified. No verse says or implied that everyone is forgiven, without faith, without the Word, without the Means of Grace. To say that people have grace--forgiveness--without the work of the Spirit is pure Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm-->Pietism-->UOJ-->Church and Change. By the way, Enthusiasm is roundly condemned in the Book of Concord.]
Historically, this reference in Romans is ranked as the principal sedes doctrinae for objective justification. Verse 18 informs us that because of Adam’s sin a verdict of condemnation was pronounced on all men; because of the one act of righteousness by Christ a verdict of acquittal was pronounced on all men. There can be no question that verse 18 teaches universal and therefore objective justification.
[GJ - Yes, historically, in the sects of a few Midwest Lutherans, from C. F. W. Walther and his disciples.]
G. 2 Corinthians 5:19: “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
The passage does not contain the word righteousness, but it ranks as strong support for the doctrine of objective justification because of the manner in which it speaks of the synonymous term reconciliation. In Christ God has reconciled the world to himself. A change has taken place. The change was not in man. Man remained unchanged, by nature sinful, hostile to God.
Orthodox theologians for the most part have spoken of the change as a change in man’s status before God. Previously God viewed the world apart from Christ—and it stood condemned. Now God views the world in the light of Christ’s work of redemption and has declared the world righteous, forgiven.
[GJ - Oh yes, all the people in Hell have been given the status of guilt-free saints. And the Hottentots are justified without faith too. All this can be found in the fanatical UOJ books, 19th century and later. Their favorite UOJ theologian, E. Preuss, turned Roman Catholic.]
H. There are many other passages of Scripture that support the doctrine of objective justification:
“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29).
“He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2).
[GJ - The Atonement is universal. The message of reconciliation is the Gospel Promise which produces faith. Man's faith receives the Promise, which is forgiveness of sin.]
Any reference that announces that Christ has paid for sin, offered himself as a sacrifice, paid the ransom, shed his blood, finally teaches objective justification. Men’s sins are paid for whether they believe it or not.
[GJ - It is true that Christ has paid for the sins of the world. This payment or redemption is true, but the effect does not take place apart from the Means of Grace.]
I. To illustrate the history of universal and therefore objective justification in Lutheran doctrine we go back to Luther. Anyone who has read Luther’s “Treatise Concerning the Keys” of 1530 can hardly deny that Luther believed in objective justification. The following paragraph sums up Luther’s thoughts quite well:
Even he who does not believe that he is free and his sins forgiven shall also learn, in due time, how assuredly his sins were forgiven, even though he did not believe it. St. Paul says in Ro 3(3): “Their faithlessness nullifies the faithfulness of God.” We are not talking here either about people’s belief or disbelief regarding the efficacy of the keys. We realize that few believe. We are speaking of what the keys accomplish and give. He who does not accept what the keys give receives, of course, nothing. But this is not the keys’ fault. Many do not believe the gospel, but this does not mean that the gospel is not true or effective. A king gives you a castle. If you do not accept it, then it is not the king’s fault, nor is he guilty of a lie. But you have deceived yourself and the fault is yours. The king certainly gave it. LW 40 363-369
[GJ - This shows the Atonement is universal. Luther is very clear about the Means of Grace and his condemnation of Enthusiasm.]
J. The Confessions also speak frequently of universal and therefore objective justification:
1) But the Gospel is properly such a doctrine as teaches what man who has not observed the Law, and therefore is condemned by it, it to believe, namely, that Christ has expiated and made satisfaction for all sins, and has obtained and acquired for him, without any merit of his, forgiveness of sins, righteousness that avails before God, and eternal life. Formula of Concord V, 4; Trig., p 801.
[GJ - This is another attempt to turn the Atonement into universal forgiveness without faith. Sorry. No go.]
2) (God in His purpose and counsel ordained:) That the human race is truly redeemed and reconciled with God through Christ, who, by His faultless obedience, suffering, and death, has merited for us the righteousness which avails before God, and eternal life. Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration XI, 15, Trig., p 1069
K. While the election controversy was in its second stage in the first years of the 20th Century, a somewhat related controversy over objective justification erupted. This development prompted August Pieper to write for the third volume of the Quartalschrift his unforgettable article. The conclusion reads:
One cannot oppose any doctrine of God’s Word with impunity; this increases sin and guilt, damages consciences and blinds the heart. One error begets another, as in the election controversy the insistence on intuitu fidei soon brought with itself the synergistic doctrine of conversion. But whoever molests the doctrine of justification stabs the gospel in the heart and is on the way of losing entirely Christian doctrine and personal faith and of falling into the arms of heathenism, even if he ever so much emphasizes justification by faith.
[GJ - Augie got one thing right - failing seminary, failing college, failing synod: apostasy reigns at The Love Shack. UOJ has almost destroyed the sect, but the Gospel cannot be stabbed in the heart. The Gospel needs no protection from man.]
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GJ - As I wrote to one WELS District President, "Why is WELS rife with Enthusiasm, Church and Change, Rock-N-Roll?" The answer is - UOJ.
Here is one source of UOJ, from 1866, a famous book printed in English and German, just in time to influence the Synodical Conference:
Leonard Woods (1807-78) was the fourth president of Bowdoin College.
Life and career
Born in Newbury, Massachusetts, Woods attended Phillips Andover Academy before graduating from Union College in 1827. After having graduated from Andover Theological Seminary, he made a translation of George Christian Knapp's Christian Theology, which became long used as a textbook in American theological seminaries.
Knapp is the man who agrees with WELS. Not Luther. Not Calov. Not J. Gerhard. Certainly not the Book of Concord. Not Chemnitz. Not Melanchthon.
Hoenecke came from Halle, the center of German Pietism.
Let's hear from Melanchthon and Luther, quoted in the Book of Concord:
J-528
"Faith is that my whole heart takes to itself this treasure. It is not my doing, not my presenting or giving, not my work or preparation, but that a heart comforts itself, and is perfectly confident with respect to this, namely, that God makes a present and gift to us, and not we to Him, that He sheds upon us every treasure of grace in Christ." Apology of the Augsburg Confession, IV. #48. Of Justification. Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 135. Heiser, p. 36.
J-545
"These treasures are offered us by the Holy Ghost in the promise of the holy Gospel; and faith alone is the only means by which we lay hold upon, accept, and apply, and appropriate them to ourselves. This faith is a gift of God, by which we truly learn to know Christ, our Redeemer, in the Word of the Gospel, and trust in Him, that for the sake of His obedience alone we have the forgiveness of sins by grace, are regarded as godly and righteous by God the Father, and are eternally saved." Formula of Concord, Thorough Declaration, III. #10. Of the Righteousness of Faith before God. Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 919. Tappert, p. 541. Heiser, p. 250.
