Law and Gospel: Philip Melanchthon's Debate with John Agricola of Eisleben over Poenitentia

Law and Gospel: Philip Melanchthon's Debate with John Agricola of Eisleben over Poenitentia. By Timothy J. Wengert. Grand Rapids: Baker; Carlisle: Paternoster, 1997, 232 pp., $19.99 paper.

The relationship between law and grace had been a debated issue among theologians throughout the centuries. During the Reformation, this relationship assumed center stage. Luther's Roman Catholic adversaries accused him of advocating antinomianism because of the doctrine of justification by faith and for his alleged moral inconsistencies. Eventually, both the Lutheran and Reformed camps developed an emphasis upon the "third use of the law" whereby the moral law is binding upon the believer. In the early years of the development of Lutheran theology, the debate over the role of the law for the believer was one of the major controversies leading up to the Formula of Concord.

Timothy Wengert, one of the world's leading contemporary Melanchthon scholars, has published a fascinating blow-by-blow account of the debate over the issue of antinomianism between Melanchthon and John Agricola of Eisleben, an early advocate of reform who had been one of Luther's early supporters at Wittenberg. Agricola had moved to Eisleben as part of the Lutheran education program to be rector of the Latin school. The debate between Melanchthon and Agricola centered on the relationship between poenitentia and the law. Wengert prefers to use the Latin poenitentia rather than its English equivalent of repentance or penance. Poenitentia had been a key term in the Reformation going all the way back to Luther's posting of the Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 where Luther used it in the first four theses.

The debate between Melanchthon and Agricola erupted in 1527. However, as early as 1525, in his In Evangelium Lucae Annotationes, Agricola expressed his aversion to a place for the law in the life of the Christian. God gave the law to Moses to uncover the blindness of sin resulting from the Fall. Poenitentia is entirely God's work in us, he argued, dismissing the typical medieval divisions of it into parts such as contrition, confession, and satisfaction as leading to human works. According to Agricola, one cannot judge true believers by their level of virtue. Poenitentia is totally the work of the gospel and has nothing to do with the law. Agricola removed poenitentia from the domain of the Roman Catholic sacramental system, making it the result of the promise of Christ for salvation.

Wengert highlights the importance of the substantial number of catechisms that Lutheran reformers published between 1525 and 1527 for educating the Lutheran laity. Melanchthon and Agricola's own catechisms provided them with the opportunity to expand on their theology of poenitentia. It also brought the debate to public attention as the audience for catechisms was obviously much wider than that of Biblical commentaries. Melanchthon's 1527 catechism highlighted the importance of the law in leading the believer to faith. Fear is the necessary precursor to faith. The moral law is not just written on tablets of stone, but is also written on the human heart. This is why Christ cited the Decalogue in Matthew 5.

Wengert's chapter on the third use of the law is of particular interest. Melanchthon's third edition of the Scholia on the book of Colossians marked his introduction of the third use of the law. Wengert asserts that this treatise is important in noting an increased importance of good works in contrast to the previous edition published in 1528. In his comments on Col 2:7, Melanchthon added three pages of material in which he asserted that "the righteousness of a good conscience or of good works ought to accompany faith." Although the believer does not obey in a perfect manner, these works are pleasing to God because one performs them in faith. Melanchthon was obviously attempting to bridge the gap between antinomianism and semi-Pelagianism.

The third use of the law was built upon Luther's twofold usage. Luther never saw a need for it for believers; the charge of antinomianism necessitated this discussion. Wengert dismisses the belief that Luther himself advocated three uses of the law, arguing that the third usage is more of a reflection of later Lutheran controversies culminating in the formal definition in the Formula of Concord. However, Melanchthon was clearly moving in the direction of a third use for the law by 1527. Wengert credits the debate with Agricola as well as negotiations with the Roman Catholics for Melanchthon's emphasis on it.

Wengert's detailed analysis of this debate provides valuable insights into the early development of an important aspect of Lutheran theology and builds upon the work of Robert Kolb on the subject. This book is well documented and includes a helpful index and bibliography. For those interested in the transition between the first and second generation of the Reformation, this book should be required reading.

Martin I. Klauber

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Barat College, Lake Forest, IL

Copyright Evangelical Theological Society Jun 2000
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