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| How does one mine UOJ from Gerhard? Evil - blindness - Pietistic agenda - ignorance. |
Gerhard on the significance of Christ’s resurrection | Faith Alone Justifies:
Gerhard on the significance of Christ’s resurrection
Here are a few excerpts from Johann Gerhard’s commentary on Romans in preparation for Easter:
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Romans 4:24-25 …but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
The purpose for which Moses told the history of Abraham is chiefly this, that through it he might set forth for us the manner of justification, which is one and the same in the Old and New Testaments.
One asks, why is Christ’s resurrection from the dead declared specifically to be the object of justifying faith?
We reply:
(1) Because by raising His Son, our bondsman, who was put to death for our sins, God made manifest by that very act that full satisfaction has been made to Him by His death.
(2) Consideration is given at the same time to the power of God which He exerted in the raising of Christ (Eph. 1:20). This is how that statement is applied to the example of Abraham, whose faith is commended in 4:20 for the fact that he gave praise to God.
(3) The summary of the entire Gospel is contained in this article of the resurrection of Christ, and this single article encompasses all the rest (1 Cor. 15:1 ff.). For it is understood from the fact that Christ rose from the dead that He truly died. And since He truly died, He was therefore also truly conceived and born, and truly suffered for our sins.
But if someone further inquires: In what sense and respect, then, is our justification, which consists in the remission of sins, attributed to the resurrection of Christ?
We reply: It should be taken in this way:
(1) With respect to the manifestation, demonstration and confirmation, because the resurrection of Christ is the clear testimony that full satisfaction has been made for our sins and that perfect righteousness has been procured. Jerome on this passage: Christ rose in order that He might confirm righteousness to believers. Chrysostom, hom. 9 ad Rom.: In the resurrection it is demonstrated that Christ died, not for His own sins, but for our sins. For how could He rise again if He were a sinner? But if He was not a sinner, then He was crucified for the sake of others.
(2) With respect to the application. If Christ had remained in death, He would not be the conqueror of death, nor could He apply to us the righteousness that was obtained at such a high price (Rom. 5:10, 8:34). But since He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God, He thus also offers to the world, through the Word of the Gospel, the benefits obtained by His suffering and death, applies them to believers, and in this way justifies them. With respect to this application, Cardinal Toletus (in his commentary on this passage, and Suarez tom. 2, in part 3, Thom. disp. 44, p.478) acknowledges that our justification is attributed to the resurrection of Christ, writing thus: Christ, by His suffering, sufficiently destroyed sin. Nevertheless, in order that we might be justified and that sin might be effectively remitted to us, it was necessary for the suffering of Christ to be applied to us through a living faith. Christ arose, therefore, for the sake of our righteousness, that is, so that our faith might be confirmed, and in this way we might be effectively justified. The Apostle notably says thatChrist died for our sins and was raised, not for the sake of δικαιοσύνην [righteousness], which is contrasted with sins in general, but διὰ τὴν δικαίωσιν ἡμῶν, for the sake of our justification, which consists in absolution from sins.
(3) With respect to the actual placement under Christ’s protection from sin. Just as the heavenly Father, by delivering Christ into death for the sake of our sins, condemned sin in His flesh through sin (Rom. 8:3)—that is, condemned it because it had sinned against Christ by causing death for Him, even though He was innocent, and so He withdrew from sin its legal right against believers so that it cannot condemn them any longer; or He alsocondemned it, that is, punished our sins in Christ, which were imposed on Him and imputed to Him as to a bondsman—so also, by raising Him from the dead, by that very deed He absolved Him from our sins that were imputed to Him, and consequently has also absolved us in Him, so that, in this way, the resurrection of Christ may be both the cause and the pledge and the complement of our justification. The following passages pertain to this: 1 Cor. 15:17, 2 Cor. 5:21, Eph. 2:5, Col. 2:12-13, Phil. 3:8-10, 1 Pet. 1:3.
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| Do you want justification by faith from Luther, Chemnitz, and Gerhard? Or UOJ from Huber, Rambach, and Walther? |
Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Pastor Paul Rydecki - Gerhard on the significance ...":
The "through faith" in Ephesians 2:8-9 is not important to the Lutheran universal objective justification enthusiasts.
I remember Ichabod posting an article of a Kentucky or Tennessee WELS "Faith Lutheran" church sign that quoted Ephesians 2:8-9 and left out the important aspect of faith.
I was at my grandson's school yesterday and the school / church WELS sign out by the public roadway read something like this:
"Christ's Cross - His Resurrection - Our Victory."
Once again, the insidious universal objective justification message comes through. Non-Christians traffic everyday past Bethel Lutheran Hampton Township (outside of Bay City, MI) and see that (false hope) message. It's an incomplete message which offers cheap grace to the unregenerate. What a reckless and damaging way to advertise and evangelize!
Nathan M. Bickel
www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org
