3. Saving Faith Is Fides Specialis.
Because saving faith has the gospel of the forgiveness of sins as its object, it is always fides specialis, individual faith or personal faith, that is, a person is a believer when he does not merely believe that there is forgiveness of sins for other people, but believes that God is merciful to him for Christ's sake, or when he accepts the promise of the gospel that is extended to all people (1 Tim. 2:6; Jn 1:29; 3:16, etc.) also refers to his own person, as Paul (Gal 2:20): "I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me", etc. and Job (19:25): "I know that my Savior liveth. As long as this relationship of grace to one's own person is not yet allowed, there is still personal unbelief (Gniotia). Just as in God's heart for Christ's sake there is complete forgiveness of sins for every human individual (uw) Aoy1iCopEvos abtoic TH NOPAATOLATA dTHV, 2 Cor. 5:19), and God in the Word of the gospel offers the forgiveness of sins to every human individual before whose ears or eyes the gospel comes, so God's will of grace in a human being only comes to its end when the individual human being, through faith, appropriates the divine forgiveness of sins. All those who do not relate the divine forgiveness to their person despise God's counsel against themselves like the Pharisees (Luke 7:30) and actually make God a liar, as 1 Joh. 5:9-11 is testified. Luther therefore recalls (X, 1107, 1112) that we can understand and use the second article of the Apostles Creed in a Christian way only if we add the words "for us" to the individual pieces: "Although these words, which faith must adhere to, ‘born for us, suffered’, etc., are not explicitly stated, they must be taken from others and passed through all these parts. The Apology says (94, 45 [Trigl. 133, Art. IV [II], 45]): "This special faith (fides specialis), whereby everyone believes for his own person (unusquisque) that his sins are forgiven for Christ's sake, and God is reconciled and gracious for Christ's sake, obtains forgiveness of sins and justifies us.!!°?)
enthusiastic misuse of this expression: Dicitur fides specialis non quod specialem aliquam promissionem pro obiecto habeat, quae credenti peculia- It might first of all be noticed why Apology so emphatically and often '! emphasizes that justifying faith is fides specialis. It was necessary to do this vis-a-vis Rome. Rome had been forced by circumstances to speak again of faith in justification. But Rome must not allow the fides specialis to get by, whereby the frightened sinner relates the forgiveness of sins through faith to his person and is thus certain of the. Thus, Roman polemics turned against the fides specialis, claiming that a special revelation such as that of Paul, Peter and other privileged persons belonged to the fides specialis or to the personal certainty of grace.!!°> If ordinary Christians wanted to claim for themselves a personal assurance of God's grace, they were imagining it. In contrast, the Apology repeatedly points out that the fides specialis, by which the Christian appropriates and is sure of the grace of God acquired by Christ and offered in the Gospel, is given to all Christians in faith; and that this is the teaching of Scripture and of the whole Christian Church.!!°® - It should be pointed out that all deniers of the gratia universalis also make the fides specialis impossible, as far as their teaching is concerned. If the Gospel of all men, except one, were true and the name of this one wretch were not mentioned in Scripture, no man could believe on the basis of the Gospel that God was merciful to him. Therefore, the representatives of the gratia particularis must disavow their teaching in practice when they have to give pastoral care to frightened sinners.!!97) Also, all deniers riter sit facta, sed ob applicationem, per quam sub promissione universali de gratia Dei et merito Christi ad se in individuo descendit. [Google] (Examination, De fide, qu. 2.)
Art. IV [Il], 48; 264, Art. XII [V], 59; 267, ibid., 60; 273, ibid., 74; 313, Art. X Ill [VIM], 21; 54, A. C., Art. XX, 23]
historical knowledge of Christ) requirimus, ut credat sibi quisque remitti peccata. De liac fide speciali litigamus... Huic fidei tribuimus, quod iustificet et regeneret, dum ex terroribus [conscientiae] liberat, et pacem, gaudium et novam vitam in corde parit... Nec aliud sentit ecclesia. Christi, etiamsi adversarii nostri reclamant. [Google]
of the sola gratia make fides specialis impossible, because they add human action to the Gospel, and any legal requirement, great or small, prevents the relationship of the grace of God from being established in one's own person. As Luther says, he could not be certain of God's grace if it were only conditioned by an Our Father, because then the question would arise whether the Our Father also had the necessary quality. 11°)