1. God's Will to Save All Men Is Not an Absolute Will.
an absolute (voluntas absoluta) but an ordered (voluntas ordinata) will, because it is based on the merit of Christ (satisfactio vicaria), and includes the means of giving (media dot) on the part of God, the Gospel and the sacraments, and the means of receiving (medium AnxtiKov) on the part of man, faith. God wants to make all people saved, but for the sake of Christ and by the means of grace and faith. This will of God could be called absolute only in so far as it is completely independent of human dignity; for God wants the salvation of the whole of humanity and of individual persons yapiti, completely detached from the works of men, y@pic épymv vopov. As far as human dignity is concerned, there is no difference among men, mévtEc¢ yap TLAaptov Kai DoTEpodvtat Tis 566ENs Tod Oeod, Rom. 3:23. synonymously with voluntas ordinate—and this has happened from time to time also by Luther and other orthodox teachers © —,, it is factually correct.
Council at Nuremberg, 1539): "That even imagined absolution is conditionalis, it is, as otherwise also a common sermon and every absolution, both common and private, has the condition of faith; for without faith it does not give birth, and is therefore not a false key. For faith does not build 37 a Terminology in relation to God's will of grace. [English ed. ~ 35] Factually wrong is what the term "conditional will" means when it is used to express some human achievement in the appropriation of salvation. Thus old and new synergists like to speak of a "conditional will of grace" of God, because they do not ascribe the emergence of faith or conversion to the sole efficacy of God, but to human beings for conversion through "self-decision", good "behavior", omission of wanton reluctance etc. Let people participate. The ambiguity of the expression "conditional will of grace" and the use of it to conceal human merit and doctrine of works has also drawn the attention of ancient theologians. Conditional clauses can denote both an actual condition, i.e. the demand of a performance, e.g: "If you work, you get reward", but also indicate the mere way in which something comes about, e.g: "If you eat, you are filled." Seen from the conditional statements of Scripture, the situation is as follows: In the description of God's will of the law by the sentence: "If you keep the law, you will be saved", the "if" expresses an actual condition or achievement; but in the description of God's will of grace by the phrase: "If you believe the Gospel, you will be saved", "if" always refers only to the way or path of acquiring grace, never to an achievement on the part of man, because Scripture opposes faith in the acquisition of grace and happiness to every human achievement, Rom. 3:28: miotet... yapic Epyov vouov; Gal. 2:16: &k miotews Xpiotod Kai odk && Epyov vouov, on our worthiness, but is only so much that one accepts the absolution and says yes to it. (Walch XXI, 424 f. [StL 21b, 1850])
loquendo. Quia non propter ejus dignitatem vel meritum aut quatenus est opus, promittitur aut offertur justificatio. Est enim fides quoque (as work or intrinsic quality) imperfecta; sed est modus quidam, oblatum beneficium et donatum per et propter Christum accipiens. [Google Translate] Comparing faith with a hand, Heerbrand adds: Manus non conditio dicitur, sed medium et instrumentum, quo eleemosyna accipitur. [The hand is not called a condition, but the means and instrument by which alms are received] (Comp., 379 sq.) Also later theologians find it very impatient to reject the "moral" concept of faith when faith is called a condition of the appropriation of the Gospel. So Sebastian Schmidt: Equidem conditio vocata pridem etiam est fides justificans a nostratibus theologis. The intelligent condition is non moralis, physical, ut sic loquar, instrumenti necessarii. Quando namque dico: Si credideris, salvaberis, non con-