The Justification of a Sinner Before God

Extract

During the history of the Lutheran Church the doctrine ofjustification has been spoken of commonly and rather loosely as the articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae. This was certainly the conviction of Luther, as many of his statements testify.The purpose of this study is to examine the teaching of JohnAndrew Quenstedt, the most prominent and able representative of the later seventeenth-century Lutheran orthodoxy, on this doctrine and to learn how closely the dogmatics of his time approximates the emphasis and terminology of Luther. Quenstedt is the ‘book-keeper’—one might say the Aquinas—of Lutheran scholasticism, and he quite accurately sums up the theology of the entire century. It might be said by way of introduction that modern Lutheranism owes much to the dogmaticiansof the age of orthodoxy for the manner in which it deals with this doctrine; and for this reason I feel justified inpresenting an article of this nature.¹ I propose merely to summarise Quenstedt's treatment of the doctrine of justification, and to offer comments when I deem them necessary.² I believe that the reader will find that Quenstedt's presentation is quite well balanced and that it gives the impression of being consistently drawn from Scripture. At least it is obvious that this is Quenstedt's persuasion as he develops the doctrine.