Daryl Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Jack Cascione Dusts Off the Iron Maiden and Polish...":
Oh to have been a fly on the wall when Rydecki answered the ultimatum; the parallels to the Diet of Worms are uncanny! People have long noted the WELS' "Lift High the Cash" Tetzels, and now they have their very own Eck.
How fitting that this should all transpire as we approach the anniversary of the Reformation! Rydecki's quotes are priceless because they beg one to read further in order to understand the entire context. I won't mention the Ambrose quote since you've recently tackled it (yet again!), but what follows after the FC SD quote can likewise never bear enough emphasis because it provides a very simple and succinct summary of our Christian faith from atonement to repentance, faith, justification, sanctification, preservation, and everlasting life. Every confirmation student should memorize these eight points:
Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, XI, Election.
1. That the human race is truly redeemed and reconciled with God through Christ, who, by His faultless (innocency) obedience, suffering, and death, has merited for us the righteousness which avails before God, and eternal life.
2. That such merit and benefits of Christ shall be presented, offered, and distributed to us through His Word and Sacraments.
3. That by His Holy Ghost, through the Word, when it is preached, heard, and pondered, He will be efficacious and active in us, convert hearts to true repentance, and preserve them in true faith.
4. That He will justify all those who in true repentance receive Christ by a true faith, and will receive them into grace, the adoption of sons, and the inheritance of eternal life.
5. That He will also sanctify in love those who are thus justified, as St. Paul says. Eph. 1, 4.
6. That He also will protect them in their great weakness against the devil, the world, and the flesh, and rule and lead them in His ways, raise them again (place His hand beneath them), when they stumble, comfort them under the cross and in temptation, and preserve them (for life eternal).
7. That He will also strengthen, increase, and support to the end the good work which He has begun in them, if they adhere to God's Word, pray diligently, abide in God's goodness (grace), and faithfully use the gifts received.
8. That finally He will eternally save and glorify in life eternal those whom He has elected, called, and justified.
Your illustration of Luther's Gal. 3:13 commentary from LW 26 is one of my favorites. His commentary of Gal. 2:15,16 in the Kregel edition is similar: But where Christ and faith be not, there is no remission or covering of sins, but imputation of sins and condemnation.
A very blessed Reformation to one and all!
