Vol 74 Issue 13

This is the question that is unavoidably raised by the recent book, On Being a Theologian of the Cross: Reflections on Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation, 1518 (Eerdmans, 1997). In the book, Lutheran theologian Gerhard O. Forde gives a brief commentary on the 28 theological theses that Luther presented and defended at the Heidelberg Disputation in 1518. Forde’s commentary is, with the exception of the criticism of the “third use of the law” (pp. 108, 109), faithful to the theology of Luther, indeed, remarkably so. In addition to the commentary, the work is valuable simply in that it makes available Luther’s 28...

Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” I Timothy 1:18 A faithful saying. Just as we teach our small children in their catechism lessons that “Jesus came to save His people from their sins,” so the early church of the new dispensation had certain favorite expressions, such as, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.” The apostle Paul puts a divine seal on this statement as a faithful, fully...