1. The State of Grace or the State of Peace.
The state of grace as a consequence of justification encompasses both the certainty of present grace (Rom. 5:1 ff: Aucawm@évtec obv ék Tistews siprvyv EXOLEV TPdc TOV Oedv — Ti Tpocay@ytV ECYNKALEV TH TiOTEL sic Ti Yap TabTHV év T EoTIKapEv) as well as the certainty of future salvation (kai kavyopsia ex’ edmioi Hs 566EN¢ tov Béov). This certainty (certitudo et gratiae praesentis et salutis aeternae) is not destroyed by the tribulations, but rather increased (kai kavyopEeba Ev taic OAiyeoty, v. 3), because faith holds fast to the objective reconciliation, namely to the love of God, which was manifested in the fact that Christ died for us while we were still sinners (v. 8), and we were already reconciled to God while we were still objects of divine wrath (eySpo1 dvtéEc, v. 10). When it says v. 5: "The love of God has been poured out (éxKéyvta1) into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us", the Roman Catholics want to relate this to our love for God; but according to the context (v. 8: ovviotnot 6é TH Eavtod ayamnv sic NLA O OEdc) it refers to the love of God for us, which is ee and recognized in faith and thus fills our hearts.!) ace ea (Luther) that good Papists and bad Protestants teach is the natural result of the fact that they base the attainment
sod, Gal. 3:26; oiksiot tod God, Eph. 2:19; Bacireiov iepatevpa, Bactreiav Kai ispsic, 1 Petr. 2:9; Rev. 5:10; according to knowledge and science they are said to be: EthovtiocOnte Ev adTH Ev Tavti AOy@ kai aon yv@ost [In everything ye are enriched by Him, in all utterance and in all knowledge, 1 Cor. 1:5; Nsic 68 vodv Xptotod éxyopev [‘we have the mind of Christ], 1 Cor. 2:16; 6 dé avevpatiKdc avakpivel TA TAVTA AdTOG dé DT ODSEVOG avaKpivetat [We have the mind of Christ’’], 1 Cor. 2:16; according to holiness they find them KAntoi dyto1 Rom. 1:7; e8voc tylov, Petr. 2:9; after the privilege comes to their heart petd nappyoiac ta Spdv@ tys yapttoc, Hebr. 4:16; they have twenty-four hours of the day audience with God without any human mediators, and 6 edv aitopev, AouBdvopEv map’ avtov Joh. 3:22; according to the power, their faith is the victory, 1) vujoaca tov Kdopov, Joh. 5:4; in all tribulations brepviKOpev 41a Tod HyamHoavtos Hudc, Rom. 8:37. In short: méovtTa vudv éotw [All things are yours], 1 Cor. 3:21. And so that this description of the personal possessions of Christians is not mistaken for a hyperbole, it is repeated in the following verses after a detailed statement.
of grace and blessedness on human power and worthiness, that is, they relegate it to the realm of the law. Thus the Council of Trent canonizes the monstrum incertitudinis by explicitly making justification dependent on human strength and dignity. '!?© The Lutheran confession, on the other hand, teaches the certainty of grace and salvation on the grounds that we have a gracious God not by our strength and dignity, but "for Christ's sake".!!7 This doctrine of doubt is rightly called a monstrum, because it renders the purpose of the divine method of justification and the whole of Christianity void, Rom. 4:16: Ava todto ék ristemc iva Kata yapw Eic TO ivan PeBaiav Tv éxayyediov mavti TO onéppatt. '78) As far as
infirmitatem et indispositionem respicit, de sua gratia formidare et timere potest, cum nullus scire valeat certitudine fidei, cui non potest subesse falsum, se gratiam Dei esse consecutum. [Even so each one (pious person), when he regards himself and his own weakness and indisposition, may have fear and apprehension touching his own grace; seeing that no one can know with certainty of faith, beyond the possibility of error, that he has obtained the grace of God’’]
confess also that notwithstanding the fact that many weaknesses and defects cling to the true believers and truly regenerate, even to the grave, still they must not on that account doubt either their righteousness which has been imputed to them by faith, or the salvation of their souls, but must regard it as certain that for Christ’s sake, according to the promise and (immovable) Word of the holy Gospel, they have a gracious God.
monstrum incertitudinis Superat omnia monstra... Agamus igitur Deo gratias, quod liberati sumus ab hoc monstro incertitudinis ac iam certo statuere possumus, Spiritum Sanctum clamare et inenarrabilem geihitum edere in cordibus nostris, hocque fundamentum est nostrum: Evangelium iubet intueri nos, non benefacta et perfectionem nostram, sed ipsum Deum promittentem, ipsum Christum mediatorem.... Hoc papa nescit, ideo impie nugatur cum suis furiis neminem scire, ne iustos quidem et sapientes, utrum digni sint amore etc. Imo si iusti et sapientes sunt, certo sciunt se diligi a Deo, vel iusti et sapientes non sunt [Google Translate] (Irmischer II, 177 sq. St. L. IX, 508 f.) Luther (Wider Hans Wurst; St. L. XVI, 1340 f.): "The Papist theology teaches that one must doubt grace.... Where else the Papists would have won in all the plays, find them lost in this main part, since they teach that one must doubt God's grace where we are not worthy enough beforehand through our own satisfaction or merit and intercession of the saints.... But because they teach this play, that they stand on their works and doubts as they cannot help it, it is certain that they must be the Church of the Devil. For they find and can be no more than these two: one who by the grace of God forsakes himself, and the other who builds on our merit and work. The first is the way of the early Church and of all patriarchs, prophets and apostles, as the Scriptures testify; the other is the way of the Pope and his Church. the certainty of salvation is concerned, it cannot be separated from faith in Christ. Whoever believes in the Son, éyet Catv aiaviov, Joh. 3:36; Eig kpiotw obk Epyetat GAAG LETABEBYKEV Ex TOD Bavatonv sis TH Cory, Joh. 5:24 Luther: "Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and happiness. Because Christians easily forget this to their great detriment, especially in the tribulation, the apostle Rom 6:1-11 polemicizes with great earnestness against the separation of salvation from the present state of faith and grace: Christ died for us, since we were still sinners, so we will be saved through him much more (10AA@ ovv paAAov) from' the wrath (the wrath cat! &oxnv, the wrath of the Last Judgment is meant), now that we have been justified by his blood. More recent theologians see a factual contradiction between the certainty of salvation ascribed to faith on the one hand and the warnings of loss of salvation and the admonitions of spiritual warfare on the other (1 Cor 9:24 ff.), for which "a balance cannot be found with Paul".!!°°) The "compensation" lies in the distinction between the Law and the Gospel, respectively in the distinction between the old and the new man in the Christian. The exhortations to fight and warnings against apostasy addressed to Christians are not directed against the certainty that the Christian has after the new man by faith in the divine promise of grace (1 Cor. 1:8; Rom. 8:38-
old man. — With the state of grace, which includes the certainty of grace and salvation, coincides as a result of faith - although not conceptually - the state of being children of God (adoptio, vio8eoia, Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5) and the inheritance of God, Gal. 3:26: Ilavtec yap vioi Oeod éote 510 Tig MiotEws EV Xptotd Inood and Gal. 4:7: 1 dE vioc, Kat KANpOVdpLOs Geo’ 51a Xpiotov [If a son, then an heir of God through Christ’’]. The " sonship with God" of which the old and new Unitarians speak, namely the sonship with God on the basis of the "morality" inspired by Christ without faith in the vicarious satisfaction of Christ, is a human imagination. Those who establish the filiation with their own morality base it on the law and are eo ipso servants of the law. Gal. 4:30: "Cast out the bondwoman
and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of die free-woman Without the image Gal. 5:4: "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." Apology (121, 75 [Zrigl. 175, Art. III, 75]): Fides filios Dei facit. [Faith makes children of God]