Great Gerhard Forde Quote

"My thesis," Forde wrote, "is that Lutherans to be true to their identity...should become even more radical proponents of the tradition that gave them birth and has brought them thus far...Let us be radicals...radical preachers and practitioners of the gospel by justification by faith without the deeds of the law.  We should pursue it to the radical depths already plumbed by St. Paul, especially in Romans and Galatians, when he saw that justification by faith without the deeds of the law really involves and announces the death of the old being and the calling forth of the new in hope.  We stand at a crossroads.  Either we must become more radical about the gospel, or we would be better off to forget it altogether."  --Lutheran Quarterly Spring of 1987