The Confession of the Church 5b

The Word of God, Law and Gospel, Church and State are three areas that the Declaration of Barmen addresses. During the Nazi era these three issues were the pressing issues that demanded the attention of the Confessing Church in Germany. In the last posting on Confessions of Faith and the Church, “The Confession of the Church 5a” I wrote that I would explain the way Arthur C. Cochrane sees Barmen going farther in its declarations then the Reformation Confessions. These areas of concern are how he sees Barmen following the directions pointed out by the Reformation Confessions but going further.

The Word of God.
Going to the end of Cochrane’s paragraph on the Word of God, he writes of general revelation, stating it “does not yield a saving knowledge of God’s truth and will; it serves to render man without excuse and denounces him as being de facto ignorant of God.” The Synod of Barmen wished, with this Confession, to emphasize the Word of God above general revelation in such a manner that it cut away the German Church’s use of general revelation as proclamation.

Historically this happened because the German Christians rather than seeing general revelation as negative, that is, a judgment upon humanity, used it as a positive endorsement of German culture and history.

Cochrane begins with the “first thesis of the Declaration:

“The first thesis of the Declaration contains four propositions: the Word of God is Jesus Christ; the Word of God is attested in Holy Scripture; the Word of God is one Word; and the Word of God is the only revelation of God, or, rather, the revelation which the Church could acknowledge as a source of its proclamation.”

Next he states how this thesis goes beyond the Confessions of the Reformation. And in doing so he shows how Barmen pulls together the unity of God’s Word. Cochrane points out that no Reformed Confession “teaches that Jesus Christ is God’s Word,” instead it is Jesus Christ and the Scriptures as God’s Word. None of the Reformation Confessions “teach that God’s Word is testified to in Holy Scripture,” rather they “usually … explain that God committed his word to writing. None of the Confessions “asserts that God’s word is one.”

Cochrane’s important point is “The Reformers dealt with the three forms of God’s Word—revealed, written, and preached—but they did not concern themselves with the problem of their unity. Finally, no Reformed Confession teaches that God’s Word is the only revelation and the only source of Church proclamation.”

Only in Jesus Christ is God’s Word truly revealed, truly written, (this includes both Old and New Testaments), and truly preached. In Jesus Christ one finds the unity of the word of God both written and proclaimed. As Cochrane puts it, “Barmen sharpened an insight implicit in the Reformers. For when one considers their over-all doctrine of solus Christus, sola gratia, and sola scriptura, one will not be able to claim that Barmen was unfaithful to their basic intent.

Law and Gospel

Law and Gospel are two terms which figure greatly in both Lutheran and Reformed teaching. Cochrane points out that Barman unintentionally brought the two views closer. But the important point here is that because of the heresies of the German Christians the law needed to be subsumed under Gospel. It could not be a separate thing. For instance a German Christian, Werner Elert wrote:

“What Holy Scripture, especially the New Testament, describes as ‘law’ can in no sense be called a testimony to Christ. The proposition that apart from Christ no truth is to be acknowledged as God’s revelation is a rejection of the divine authority of the divine law beside that of the gospel.”

And the German Christians had also stated that, “God’s word speaks to us as law and gospel. . . . The Law . . . encounters us in the total reality of our life . . . and binds us to the natural orders to which we are subject, such as family, folk, and race (i.e., blood relationship).” One can see from this that the Church would end up with two proclamations.

Cochrane explains that in the “second thesis, we have to hear this one Word as a twofold word: first as gospel, and then as law, but both together—as ‘God’s assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins’ and with the same seriousness’ as ‘God’s mighty claim upon our whole life.’ These two—assurance and claim, gospel and law—are one Word because Jesus Christ himself is God’s assurance and claim, and because ‘through him befalls us a joyful deliverance from the godless fetters of this world for a free, grateful service to his creatures.’ It is not a matter of forgiveness as such, or of demand as such, but of Jesus Christ himself.”

Church and State

In this section, Cochrane points out that Barmen is different then both Reformation Confessions and the Medieval Church. This is in the third and fifth thesis of Barmen. The Confessing Church had need of explaining the differing vocations of the Church and the State. The State “could not fulfill the Church’s vocation, and … the Church does not ‘trust and obey’ the State as an ordinance of God but ‘the power of the word by which God upholds all things.’”

Notice Cochrane, with Barmen relies on the negative, what neither Church nor State is allowed. So once again the Word, the gospel of Christ is here the focus. The political does enter in here. The State is to maintain peace and justice and the Church by obeying the one Word of God, trusting and obeying the word, speaks out of her vocation and obedience.