Reformation Sermon by C.F.W. Walther

Reformation Sermon
By Dr. C.F.W. Walther
Reprinted from Christian News, October 24, 1983

A Reformation Sermon, October 21, 1876. Translated by Rev. Arnold T. Jonas, Pilgrim Lutheran Church (Deaf), Los Angeles, Calif. (Retired)

“Lord Jesus, hot was the battle which once our fathers had to wage, but glorious was the victory which You granted unto them. Therefore, we thank and praise you today with joyful mouth and tongue. For that for which our fathers strove, Your true, and precious, and saving Word that is still ours-their children-today: a precious heritage.

“Still the holy war is never fully brought to an end. What we have today, the enemy attempts again and again to wrest from us again. Therefore, You, again and again, call forth to us: “Contend for the faith, which was once delivered to the saints.” “Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” Oh, so help us, then, that the remembrance of our fathers, who battled so steadfastly and faithfully, and are since in death, will influence us today, so that also in our day we battle as did they, so that we also may triumph as they, and one be crowned with Thee, to celebrate with them also—from eternity to eternity. Amen.”

TEXT: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Jude, v. 3

Christ vs. Satan

The History of the Reformation, which remembrance we celebrate today, is the history of the continuous war for about 30 years, from the year 1517 on, as Luther openly nailed his ninety-five theses against the papal tyranny, until the year 1546, when Luther died. This was not much a physical as it was a spiritual battle.

On the one side stood Luther, a weaponless monk, no weapons in his hand other than the Bible, and seconded only by a few, and mostly sagging, friends; on the other side stood the well-armed Pope, the physical and spiritual sword, as he called them, that is, the political and churchly powers, in his hand, and seconded by an uncountable band of church prelates, cardinals, bishops, archbishops, priests, monks, and nuns, as well as by the greatest earthly power in all Christendom of that age, the Emperor.

On the one side stood Error; on the other side, the Truth. On the one side, man’s word; on the other, God’s Word; and what was the chief fact, on the one side stood the invisible Jesus Christ, the King of Truth, and Prince of Salvation with all His holy angels; on the other side, Satan, the prince of darkness and damnation, with all of his hellish hosts.

I Will Not Recant

Today, just 359 years ago, on October 31, 1517, it was that Luther made manifest the battle to the pope with his ninety-five theses, that he would oppose him, girded with the sword of the Spirit, as David once with his slingshot opposed Goliath; and stepped out of his monk’s cloister, in the Name of the Lord, the Living God, upon the plain and gave the signal to contact the enemy to all who wished to stand on the side of the Lord, and His true church, in the most holy war that ever had been upon the face of the earth.

So then followed one skirmish after another, orally as well as penned. In the year 1518, Luther withstood at first a secret duel in Augsburg with the cardinal Cajetan, which dealt only with the little world “revoco”, that means, “I recant”, but all the persuasive oratory of the sly Italian was fruitless. Luther took back nothing and so left the battleground the victor.

In the year 1519 followed an open battle between Luther and the papal sophist, Dr Eck, at the Leipzig Disputation in which the authority of the pope and councils was dealt with; but at the final conclusion of the same, all who were of the truth – even papists – conceded the battle prize to Luther. Two years after, in the year 1521, Luther was at last cited to appear in Worms personally before the Emperor and the empire to be questioned, and that then sentence be spoken.

All the friends of Luther trembled, only he did not; he moreover made clear: “And if there are as many devils in Worms as there are house gables, still I will enter therein; and if my enemies should build a fire from Wittenberg to Worms, that reached up to the heavens, so will I tread not the mouth of the behemoth, between his teeth, to acknowledge Jesus Christ – and let him do as he pleases.”

So began then a hot encounter—but see! As Daniel emerged from the lion’s den, and as the three men came out of the furnace unsinged, so Luther went out of Worms again unbeaten, for his final, closing remark was (and still remains): “I will not recant; here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.” A second hot Reformation blow was struck by the giving over of our Confession to the council of emperors at Augsburg in the year 1530.

God’s Word or Reason

The history of the Reformation is, my hearers, not only the history of a battle from without, but also a spiritual leaders battle; namely, that afterwards the Swiss preacher Zwingli, who at the beginning was one with Luther, and with him battled for God’s Word against the papal, man’s, doctrine, Zwingli fell away again, and proclaimed that it was against reason to believe that Christ’s body and blood were in the Sacrament. With horror, Luther saw through this, that Zwingli wanted to set human reason in the pope’s place.

So it came as an inevitable result of many unsuccessful war letters between Luther and Zwingli that in the year 1520 the Colloquy of Marburg was held, which ended in the two opposing camps. Whether the true and almighty words of the Son of God: “This is My body; this is My blood,” should stand; whether it should be God’s Word, or reason – or whether reason must alter God’s Word. That was the second causus belli, the second great battle question, which should be clearly defined at Marburg. And, may God be praised, Luther did not falter here, either. As in Worms, when he freed God’s Word from the authority of the pope, so he, at Marburg, freed God’s Word from the authority of human reason.

And so Luther carried the battle forward, until he at last was called into the land of eternal peace, there to be crowned, and, with all true warriors, to celebrate the Festival of Triumph of Eternal Life.

What, now, my brethren? Has the battle of the Reformation at last brought peace to the church? Oh, no! Triumph comes to the church only above; here, the battle must be carried on till the echo of the last trumpet. God’s Word gives witness to this on all its pages, and also Jude, with many others, writes the same in our text.


“FIGHT THE BATTLE OF FATIH”
I. THE PURE DOCTRINE OF OUR CHURCH IS NOT OUR POSSESSION, BUT IS AN UNEARNED GOOD, TO USE FOR HONEST MANAGEMENT.
II. WHILE THE DESPISING OF THE LEAST OF THESE IS SOMETHING MORE HORRIFYING THAN ALL FIGHTING, AND THE LACK OF PEACE.
III. IT IS A BATTLE COMMANDED BY GOD, AND, THEREFORE, IS TRULY BLESSED, IN TIME AND IN ETERNITY.

I.
The first reason why man thinks “It is about time for the battle for the true doctrine in our church to come finally to an end,” is because this eternal bickering and quarreling, as one calls it, is against Love. Man quotes Jesus, Who says in plain words: “Thereby shall ye be known that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another.” So also John writes: “He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.” Yes, Paul says, convincingly” “Though I talk with the tongues of men and angels, but have no charity, so am I soundless brass, and a tinkling cymbal. Now abides these three: faith, hope, and charity, and the greatest of these is charity.” When the Galatians were bickering and quarreling among themselves, the same Apostle criticized them sharply, and wrote to them: “If ye bite and devour one another, so see to it that ye are not destroyed, one of the other.”

As true as this may be, my beloved, that brotherly love is an indispensable proof or token of true Christianity, that without love all other virtues are empty symbols, and all of the highest gifts are worthless, and that bickering and quarreling can lead only to damnation, it by no means follows that now for us the time has come at last, once and for all, to give up the battle for the purity of doctrine of our church. For the holy Apostle, as we have already heard, writes the following in our text: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write not you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints.”

Concerning the true faith, the Apostle also states that it has “once been delivered to the saints”. The true faith, or, what is the same thing, pure doctrine, is not given to the saints, but only entrusted to them, that means, not given to them as a gift, but merely turned over to them; not made as one of their possessions, over which they may be free lords, and which they can handle according to their own moods and fancy, but is entrusted to them as something strange, namely a Goods of God and His Possession, and that they are only servants and householders of it, faithfully to protect and handle it.

True Love

Now, answer yourself: does love demand of a manager that he take some of the goods entrusted to him and sell it, or that he dismiss, or remit, some of the debt to those indebted to his lord? Or that he quietly allow that the treasures of his lord, which he has been committed to watch and to guard, be taken away? Was it love, for example, as that manager, in order to make friends with the debtors of his lord who owed him a hundred tons of oil, said: “Take your bill, sit down, and write quickly ‘50’”? Was that not much rather unfaithfulness, yes, even open deceit and robbery?

Therefore, does not Jesus Himself, even for this reason, call him the “unjust steward.” Furthermore, was that true love when the general, to avoid further warfare and fighting, allows only a small opening to be made in the wall of the fortress given over to him for protection against the enemy? Would not such a general be dragged to judgment, and punished as a traitor?

Or, is it love to pilfer from another that which is his, in order to give it to the poor? And lastly, would that have been true love, had Luther silenced the recognized and known truth, when on its account fighting would arise from it? So, judge for yourself, would that also be love when we Lutherans now give up the battle at last, and under the “pretext” that it is only for the true administration of the entrusted pure doctrine for the sake of making them friends of mankind? Or that we value them as charitable and peace-loving people, and so let them proceed?

No, it would not be brotherly love or neighborly love, to say nothing of Godly love ,but self-love; not true management over that which is from God, and entrusted to us only for administration, but vile, outrageous betrayal of another’s goods. Yes, nothing else before God but theft and robbery: robbers shall not inherit eternal life.


True, pure love should be ready for the sake of peace, in such things in which we have the power, to relent, but no in things over which not we, but another, has power to advise. And well should our love be ready, to sacrifice to our neighbor everything that we possess, even our life, where necessary; however, not another’s, but only our own, goods. Therefore, Luther cried out once in the year 1522 against his opponents: “My love is ready to die for you: “My love is ready to die for you; but the faith or the Word you should worship. To our love, ascribe all the fault that you want, but our faith, in all things, you must honor.”


Love Christ’s Word
Oh, my faithful Lutherans, partners in faith, confession, and warfare, so let us not err in these matters, when a person accuses those of lack of love who continue to refuse to give up the battle for the pure doctrine. Consider, this teaching is, as our text states, the faith “which was once delivered to the saints”.

They are not our possessions, over which we have power and freedom of disposition, or retailing them; they are, much rather, God’s possessions, which we have merely to administer. And not only us, but all Christendom; yes, the whole world: to preserve them keep them, and hand them over – undamaged – to posterity. First on that day will God say to us Lutherans in respect to the purity of doctrine of His Word, which was entrusted to us: “Give a reckoning of thy stewardship.”

True, it is a bitter shame to let yourself be considered as a heartless and loveless person; yes, believe it, my beloved, this disgrace will often break the hearts of the contenders fur the purity of God’s Word. However, this disgrace all the contenders have carried time and time again. Therefore, our godly, devout fathers of our church have said in the Confessional Writings of our church: “It is a sad and difficult thing when one separates so many countries and peoples, and would teach a singular doctrine. But here stands God’s command that each person shall watch, guard himself, and not be in unanimity with those who teach a wrong doctrine.’

So let us, then, exhibit our love richly, so that this world sees that in us Lutherans that love nevertheless lives in all earthly or temporal things. In divine matters, however, in the pure doctrine of God’s Word, which was “once delivered to the saints”, let Christ’s declaration be our maxim and guiding star: “He that loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and he that loves son or daughter more that Me is not worthy of Me.”

A United Peace Movement

II

Also, my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, the battle concerning the pure doctrine in our church cannot be given up in the second place because the loss of this jewel or treasure would be something more horrible than all the fighting and lack of peace among men.

It is true, my beloved, that the battles and quarreling which are carried on again and again throughout all Christendom, not only between the different church bodies, but also among members of one and the same church, is so great a pity (misery) that it cannot be declared with enough words, and cannot be sufficiently deplored; yes it cannot be bewailed enough with bloody tears.

Is it not a pity that these quarrel with one another who all want to be children of one and the same Heavenly father, servants of one and the same Savior, temples of one and the same Holy Spirit? Is it not a pity that those who are united, joined as one man, should be battling against the countless and mighty enemies of Christendom, unleash their swords against themselves? How must Satan rejoice and shout when he sees this disunity among Christians! How many unbelievers take offense, and therefore have no desire to be a Christian, by which they argue: how can that be the only saving religion, whose confessors (professors), so to say, rend each other to pieces?

And how many weak Christians are thereby misled and fall away to the world again? What about that? Many ask: “Is it not high time that we Lutherans give up once and for all this battle for the purity of doctrine in our church? That we, as Isaiah prophesied, turn our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks? That we conclude a peace treaty with all Christians, and stretch forth the reconciling hand of brotherly love, and join with them in one great united peace movement?”

Certainly, my hearers, could we Lutherans purchase with blood a holy, universal peace treaty, so should no Lutheran, much less any Lutheran pastor, value his blood so highly, but for this cause much rather spill his blood, with exceeding great joy. And yet, my brethren, we cannot give up the battle for the pure doctrine in our church.

We are taught this on all the pages of God’s Word, and we are also taught this out of our text when it states: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation (unser aller Heil), it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.” See there, because the apostle wanted to write to them of the “common salvation”, he therefore held it necessary to admonish them first of all that they should “contend for the faith”. According to this apostle’s definition we are dealing with nothing less than our “common salvation”.


We Cannot give Up the Battle

How, then? May we, can we, now at last give up this battle for the pure Bible doctrine in our church? Nevermore? Yes, if the battle concerns gold and goods, honor before men, good days; briefly, when we battle for earthly, temporal things. Woe is us when we do not ask whether the peace in the world and in the church will be upset, whether the unbeliever and the weak Christian will be offended, whether God’s work will be hindered thereby or not.

But it is another matter when we “contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints”. There, we battle not for earthly, temporal goods but for eternal values; here, we battle not for human but for God’s honor; here, we battle, not for this life, but for eternal life; here, we battle, in the words of our text, for the “common salvation”.

For this cause, all the prophets and apostles, yes, Christ Himself, have already—again and again—battled for the pure faith. Christ testifies explicitly in Matthew 10: “Do not think I am come to send peace on the earth. I am not come to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father; daughter against her mother; and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” The dissension which thereby insures that one contends for the pure faith is, therefore, not an unholy dissension, but a blessed dissension, which Christ Himself does not cause to cease, nor does He forbid it, but rather He is come to send it, and to raise it up, in this world.

If no one should falsify God’s word, then certainly no battle would be necessary; yea, it would be an evil, a horrible sin. However, Flesh, World, and Satan continue to go out, again and again to falsify God’s Word, or the pure doctrine. And never has it been falsified as just now in our time, so that even now millions, by the poison of false teaching, die the eternal death.

Dare we, can we, be silent thereto, just so that the temporal peace is not disturbed? Is it more horrible that the temporal peace is taken from man, or is it not much more horrible that the Word of God, which alone is able to save our souls, is pilfered from us? Is this not of more value than the whole world? Does not Christ Himself therefore say; “What shall it profit man, if he shall gain the whole world…” (also, the peace of the entire world) “ . . and lose his own soul?”


Consider the Results

Consider the results, if in the years of the fourth century the doctrine of Christ’s divinity, as it was attacked by Arius, had not been battled by Athanasius, or any one else. Consider the result as in the fifth century, if the doctrine of the conversion of man solely by grace, as it was attacked by Pelagius, had not been battled for by Augustine, or any one else. Consider that result in the 16th century if the whole doctrine of Christ, as was falsified by the papacy, neither Luther nor anyone else had battled against it.

Consider the result if, in the last century, as Rationalism penetrated the Christian church, none had battled against it. Surely, there would have been much less quarreling and disunity in the world, but where would the pure Word of God be now? Where, the Lutheran Church? Where would the correct doctrine of the way to salvation be? All of these would long ago have disappeared forever from the face of the earth, and therewith the salvation and blessedness of uncounted numbers of people would have been lost.

Oh, my faithful, let us mourn and lament, then, over that time and again erring spirits attack the pure doctrine, and thereby are to be blamed for the battle and strife in the church. However, over this let us not lament, but much rather praise and thank God that He awakens men who will battle against the erring spirits for, and I repeat it, “our common salvation” is at stake.


The Battle Must Continue
III
So also, my hearers, the greatest and most uncontestable ground why the battle for the pure doctrine of our church dare not and cannot be surrendered in this; while this battle is one commanded by God, and therefore highly blessed, both in time and in eternity. Allow me, then, to speak to you, in the third place, and grant me your attention for these few moments more.

There are truly in this day, many well-meaning Christians who say: since not all battling for the doctrine is to be cast out—and, true, we must occasionally battle with all our might for the same (it was, for example, perfectly right that Luther for a quarter of a century heroically battled for the true doctrine, as a lion unto the death, against the falsifications of the papacy; for his battle ended in such a result, the like of which the history of the church has never before exhibited or known)—but now it is clearly the time, once and for all, to make an end to the battle for the truth in our church; and instead of fighting one another, we should much rather build together; in place of the word, grab hold of the trowel. For what has been the outcome of all this strife in our time? Nothing but greater divisions and confusions.

These preachers of peace, no matter how good their intentions, still are encompassed by a very great error.


The Battle Is Blessed

First of all, is it not true that, in our time, during these more than thirty years of battling for the pure doctrine of our church, we have had only greater divisions and confusions as a result? But much more – to the glory of God alone is it declared—that, as a direct result of these battles, the church of the Reformation has stood up in its shining, golden purity of doctrine; more than a thousand congregations have again shared with us in the old pure confession of our church, and from our America has gone out the sound of the old pure gospel into all lands, and has everywhere gained new professors of the truth and gathered them under the old and good banner of our pious fathers.

And, secondly, thousands upon thousands who were at the point of giving up entirely the old eternal faith have, in the smallest part, come to a standstill on the road of error, a greater part have moved to a return to the way of the truth they neglected. Even the present battle has been richly and gloriously blessed by God above all hope, prayers, and understanding.

Even though this were not so; and even if it would appear more so, as if at last in our day all battle for the pure doctrine of our church were absolutely unsuccessful and useless, even so still we would not dare to, nor could we, give up at any time this battle. And why? Because the great God in clear words has commanded it. For who is it, who among others, in our text through the apostle Jude summons all the saints; that is, all believing Christians, so earnestly that they “contend for the faith once delivered to the saints?” It is the great God Himself. For, holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. What more do we need to add? Yes, what man, or what angel, will hazard it, that when God says “contend”, to say “contend not!”

And so when we contend at the command of the great God, dare we then at any time fear that our battle will be useless? Nevermore! What God does, or orders to be done, that cannot be anything else but blessed in time and in eternity. Even so, the wise man, Sirach, also wrote: “Uphold the truth unto the death; so will God, the Lord, fight for you.” (Sirach 4:33).

God Command Us to Contend

Oh, so let us then not listen to those who, although they praise and glorify a former Reformation battle but would have nothing to do with a similar battle in our day. God’s command; “Contend for the faith!” applies to all, even for our day. Let our hearts be kindled by the same fiery zeal with which Luther and his faithful assistants battled. Let us not cowardly and without a fight surrender what they, by hot war, and with word, writing, blood, and tears have conquered and won, but faithfully guard and courageously defend it against all attacks, even unto death. Let us not consider any clearly revealed truth as unimportant, or allow its falsification; for here this applies: “A little leaven leaveneth the whole loaf.” Let us not be bothered if any man, for the sake of our battle, should cast out our names as those most evil. Also Luther and his assistants had to experience this, and now they bring blessings to always more millions, even after they have rested already so long in their graves. Let us prove ourselves even, not as degenerate, but as honorable, true children of the Reformation, so will it also be, that long after we lie – dust by dust—our children and our children’s children shall also bless us.

It is established, my beloved, that our names will remain for the sake of our battles for the pure doctrine of our church, disgraced before men until the judgment day; but then so will it be when we endure faithfully in the battle, as sure as God is faithful and true, and for the sake of Jesus, the judgment day will be the day of our crowning, and entire eternity shall be our victory and peace festival. Oh, what joy, what glory that will be, when also we, we poor, here despised, rejected, and hated people shall have been taken up into the uncounted multitudes of the holy army of God, from Adam on unto the last of the faithful contenders, who triumph before God’s throne.

So, I call to all of you in closing:
Up, Oh, Christian man; up, to battle; up, up to the conquering! In this world, in this time, there is no rest to be found. Who will not fight, wears not the crown, nor has any part of eternal life. Amen.