Book Review: Justification Is for Preaching

Seeing an announcement from Wipf & Stock that Justification is for Preaching[1] edited by Virgil Thompson is available through Christmas at 40% discount (use Code: Joy22), prompted me to revisit this fine collection of essays published in 2012. Although Justification Is for Preaching first appeared over a decade ago, time has not dulled or diluted the freshness of these essays by Gerhard Forde, Oswald Bayer, Steven Paulson, Jim Nestingen, Mark Mattes, Wilfried Hȁrles, Klaus Schwarzwȁller, and Virgil Thompson. If you are a preacher, you might put this book on your post-Christmas reading list. If you are a lay person, you might purchase this book as a gift for your pastor or favorite seminary student.

The essays in this book originally appeared in the journal, Lutheran Quarterly. While they speak on various aspects of the preaching task, they share a unity in their authors’ commitment to the fact that the preaching of Jesus Christ is not simply motivational, informational, or inspirational; it is the delivery of God’s promise into the ears of those who if left to themselves are deaf to the Creator’s voice. Because preaching is God’s Word, it is performative to use the language so often utilized by Bayer. Preaching actually delivers on God’s promise to save sinners by the Word of the Cross.

Here is just a sampling of the treasures to be found in this volume. Oswald Bayer contributes three essays. In “The Word of the Cross,” Bayer notes the “irremovable component of the Word of the Cross is the brute historical fact of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth sub Pontio Pilato” (188). Contrary to Hermann Samuel Reimarus’ assertion that, “Man is not made for religion founded on facts, particularly such as our said to have happened in one corner of earth” (189), Bayer argues, “The universal validity of what once happened in history is guaranteed only by the prophetic Word (refer to 2 Peter 1:19) and its established letter” (190). What happened in history in the death and resurrection of Jesus is now eschatologically delivered in the preaching of the cross. In “Preaching the Word,” Bayer defines the sermon as a speech. God speaks extra nos: “If the only effective way of dealing with past is a justification of the ungodly, and the only effective way of dealing with the future is a resurrection from the dead, and if both can only be a creation out of nothing, then the Word that does this all is not a ‘natural’ – immanent – possibility within human beings and their world but must come from the outside” (197). When God speaks, things happen. In preaching, God is asserting His promises through the mouth of a preacher, so sins are forgiven, hope is given, and the new life sustained in certainty. Bayer’s “Justification as the Basis and Boundary of Theology” demonstrates how Lutheran theology is not monotonous or reductionistic, as though the justification of the ungodly was the only thing to be proclaimed. Rather, this doctrine forms the foundation and provides the setting for all other articles of faith.

What happened in history in the death and resurrection of Jesus is now eschatologically delivered in the preaching of the cross.

Essays by Forde relate the doctrine of justification to the Christian life, absolution, and the Sacraments. Especially helpful is Forde’s discussion of the Sacraments. He asserts that Sacramental preaching is not simply explaining Baptism or the Lord’s Supper. Instead of preaching about the Sacraments, preaching does what the Sacraments do: It pours Christ’s promises into our ears. Preaching is absolution in action, while Baptism and the Lord’s Supper keep the oral Word from evaporating into the air.

Fine studies from the perspective of systematic theology by Mattes, Schwarzwǻller, and Hȁrle address contemporary confusions surrounding justification by faith alone and argue for clarity in proclamation. Steven Paulson contributes two essays, one on “categorical preaching” and the other concerning “Lutheran assertions regarding Scriptures.” Jim Nestingen’s work focuses on the preaching of repentance. The editor, Virgil Thompson, provides an article demonstrating how the insights of Luther, Forde, and Bayer come to bear in the preaching of the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19) as one who was justified by faith alone.

Overall, the essay’s in Justification is for Preaching demonstrate the truth that theology is for proclamation. Preachers would do well to read and meditate on them for their own edification as well as for the sharpening of their capacity to preach Christ crucified with incisiveness and clarity. The book could also serve well as a text for ongoing study at pastoral conferences.

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[1] EDITORS NOTE: We apologize that the article is posted after the sale.