By Dr. Samuel Nafzger

Scripture Alone

Luther's insight that salvation comes by grace alone through faithalone cannot be divorced from "on the basis of Scripture alone." For it was directly as a result of his commitment to Scripture that Luther came to rediscover justification by grace alone through faith alone.

Together with his contemporaries, Luther held that the Bible is the Word of God and that it does not mislead or deceive us. But unlike his opponents in the Roman Catholic Church, Luther rejected the notion that an infallible magisterium of the church is necessary for the right interpretation of the Bible. Scripture alone, said Luther, is infallible. The institutional church and its councils, as well as its teachers, including the Pope, can and do err. But Scripture, says Luther, "will not lie to you" (Large Catechism V, 76).

While maintaining a deep appreciation for the church catholic, Missouri Synod Lutherans believe that Scripture alone -- not Scripture and tradition, Scripture and the church, Scripture and human reason, or Scripture and experience -- stands as the final standard of what the Gospel is.

But we also believe that confidence in the reliability of the Bible is not possible apart from faith in Jesus Christ. Christians believe what the Scriptures teach because they first believe in Jesus Christ. Christ is the object of faith, not the Bible. We believe that the inversion of this order compromises "scripture alone" and results in rationalistic fundamentalism, as if an accepted demonstration of the Bible's truthfulness and reliability -- perhaps a piece of Noah's ark, for example -- could provide a foundation for faith in the Gospel. The Bible remains a dark book apart from faith in Christ, for He is its true content. But when sinners are brought to faith in Him, Christ points them back to the writings of the prophets and apostles as the sole authoritative source for all the church believes, teaches and confesses.

The key to understanding Scripture properly, we believe, is the careful distinction between the Law and the Gospel. The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel is C. F. W. Walther's best known book. The Law tells what God demands of sinners if they are to be saved. The Gospel reveals what God has already done for our salvation. The chief purpose of the Law is to show us our sin and our need for a Savior. The Gospel offers the free gift of God's salvation in Christ. The whole Bible can be divided into these two chief teachings. It is in the proper distinction between Law and Gospel that the purity of the Gospel is preserved and the three solas of "grace alone," "faith alone" and "Scripture alone" are united.

Intra-Lutheran differences find their source primarily in connection with the nature and implications of this third sola. While all Lutheran churches profess allegiance to "Scripture alone," we do not all agree on what this means in practice. The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod believes that "Scripture alone" is compromised when the inerrancy of the Bible is denied, and this in turn endangers both "by grace alone" and "through faith alone". The ELCA, for example, while affirming "Scripture alone," makes use of historical criticism in the study of the Bible and holds that the Scriptures are not necessarily without error in matters of history and science. This view of the Bible has direct implications for other points of difference with the LCMS, such as the ordination of women to the pastoral office and the understanding of the basis of church fellowship.

The Doctrine of the Church and Ecumenical Involvement

The Church, Its Mission and Its Polity

In addition to the three "solas," we Lutherans believe that there is "one holy Christian church" on earth (Augsburg Confession VII, 1), which is made up of all believers in Jesus Christ wherever they are to be found. This one church, which is not to be identified with any institution or denomination, is to be found wherever the Gospel is preached and the Sacraments administered. All Christians are members of this one church, and they are all members of the royal priesthood of all believers. At the same time, Lutherans believe that God has instituted the office of pastor for the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments on behalf of and with accountability to the church. Distinctions among those holding this office (between pastors and bishops, for example) are of human, not divine, origin. The historic episcopate, therefore, while permissible and perhaps even helpful, is not divinely mandated.

The primary mission of the church, according to our Lutheran belief, is the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments. The government, on the other hand, has the divinely given mandate to provide for the temporal peace and tranquility of its citizens. So we Lutherans advocate a certain institutional separation but functional interaction between church and state.

Pastors, teachers, deaconesses, directors of Christian education, directors of Christian outreach and congregations who have signed the constitution of the Synod make up the official membership of the LCMS. The polity of the LCMS might best be described as a modified congregational structure. We speak of congregational autonomy. Congregations call their pastors, but as members of the Synod they agree to call only pastors certified for ministry on the pastoral roster of the Synod.

In order to carry out the mission of the church, the Synod has divided itself into 35 districts, all but two of which are geographical. The two non-geographical districts are the English District, which takes its name from the late 19th century beginning of a transition from the German language to English, and the Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church, which joined the LCMS as a district in 1971. District congregations are in turn organized into some 600 circuits throughout the Synod, with each circuit including 8-20 congregations.

Meetings of the members of the Synod take place in a three-year cycle. During the first year, convocations of circuit congregations are held. These meetings are largely inspirational and informative. Conventions of districts, to which each congregation sends one voting lay and one voting pastoral delegate, are held in the second year of the cycle. Each district elects its own officers including a district president, vice presidents, and a board of directors. National assemblies, called synodical conventions, take place every third year. One lay person and one pastor serving a congregation are selected from their midst by each electoral circuit to serve as voting representatives to these national assemblies. The synodical convention is the highest governing body in the Synod. It elects the synodical President to repeatable 3 year terms, 5 vice presidents, the members of the Board of Directors and the members of various boards and commissions.

Involvement in Ecumenism

Despite all of the external divisions in contemporary Christendom, we Lutherans believe that there is, properly speaking, only one church in heaven and on earth. St. Paul describes this unity of the church most beautifully in his letter to the Ephesians: "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called -- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" (Eph. 4:4-6). We join Christians of all ages, therefore, in confessing in the words of the Nicene Creed (381 A.D.) that we "believe in one, holy, Christian, and apostolic church." This one church is, as the Augsburg Confession puts it, "the assembly of all believers among whom the Gospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments are administered according to the Gospel" (VII, 1). This "true spiritual unity" of the church, as Melanchthon calls it in his commentary on this passage (Apology of the Augsburg Confession VII and VIII, 3), transcends space and time. It binds together all believers in Christ, wherever they may be, in a relationship "which will be and remains forever" (Augsburg Confession VIII, 1).

Although this spiritual unity of the church is a present reality, external unity in the church most certainly is not. Already in the New Te stament, Jesus warned his disciples about those who would "deceive many" with their false teachings (Matt. 24:5). St. Paul in his letters warns his readers to be on guard against "false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ" (2 Cor. 11:13). He also warned against divisions and a party spirit (1 Cor. 1:11-12), admonishing the Corinthians "that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no division among you, and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought" (1 Cor. 1:10). Seeking to be faithful to what the Scriptures teach about both the unity of the church and unity in the church, the Lutheran Confessions hold that the way to achieve external unity in the church is to confess the truth and to expose error. The authors of the Formula of Concord write: "The primary requirement for basic and permanent concord within the church is a summary formula and pattern, unanimously approved, in which the summarized doctrine commonly confessed by the churches of the pure Christian religion is drawn together out of the Word of God" (FC SD Rule and Norm, 1).

It is this understanding of the spiritual unity of the church and of external unity in the church to which the LCMS seeks to be faithful as it relates to other Lutherans and to other Christian churches. On the one hand, we believe that divisions in Christendom are the result of sin and are contrary to God's will. The first objective of the Synod therefore sets forth the goal of working "through its official structure toward fellowship with other Christian church bodies" and of providing a united defense against schism and sectarianism (LCMS Constitution, Article III, 1). The Missouri Synod has taken part in all of the Lutheran bilateral dialogues held in the United States to this date, beginning with the Lutheran/Roman Catholic Dialogue in 1965, and including official discussions with the Orthodox, with Reformed Churches, the Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists, and conservative Evangelicals.

By the same token, LCMS Lutherans believe that the way to external unity in the church is by confronting differences in doctrine and resolving these differences, not by ignoring them or by agreeing to disagree. We believe that the Scriptures teach that external unity in the church is a matter of right confession of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We therefore hold that church fellowship or merger between church bodies in doctrinal disagreement with each other is contrary to God's will. For this reason, the LCMS representatives to the third round of discussions between Lutherans Episcopalians in the USA, as well as to the discussions between Lutherans and Reformed church bodies, did not join in with ELCA representatives in recommending full altar and pulpit fellowship with these churches. We believe that genuine unity in the confession of the Christian faith exists only where there is agreement in the confession of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all its articles.

Conclusion

Simply stated, The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod believes, teaches and confesses that in Christ alone is there salvation -- by grace alone, through faith alone, on the basis of Scripture alone. To share this message with the world is the mission of the church and the reason for its existence.

Dr. Samuel Nafzger is the Executive Director of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod. From "An Introduction to the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod" by Dr. Samuel Nafzger, copyright 1994 Concordia Publishing House. Used with permission. All rights reserved.