4. Saving Faith Is Fides Actualis.
Because faith, inasmuch as it brings into possession the promise of forgiveness, has as its object the promise of the Gospel, it is always fides actualis, that is, the act of seizing, actus apprehendi, not only in adults but also in children.!!®?) All who conceive of justifying faith as a potency or constitution resting in the heart, as opposed to the act of grasping 1, conceive of faith as separate from its object of justification, the promise of the Gospel, and therefore attribute justification to faith in itself, to faith as a work or constitution. In other words, all those who do not conceive of faith as the act that takes the promise of the Gospel attribute justification to faith not in the category of relationship (in praedicamento relationis) but in the category of quality (in praedicamento qualitatis). The denial of the fides actualis puts us back into the Roman camp. This explains Luther's sometimes vehement polemic against the scholastic definitions of faith as a habitus or a dormant quality. "These are"—he says—"mere word monsters (portenta verborum), which they themselves did not understand, and with these dreams they have darkened the faith." On a positive note, Luther then explains that even in those who have become Christians, faith is a continuous act (continuata actio), whereby the Christian, sleeping and waking, standing and walking, seizes the forgiveness of sins in the Gospel. He calls the Lovanian theologians, who deny this, "asini Lovanienses" [asses of Louvain’] and says of them that they "deny the
me’. A special section on the faith of children follows.
believing, the first act, the idle attitude, the quality. ] substance and essence (substantiam et essentiam) of the Christian faith and life. '2°") The dogmatists, too, very firmly demand that faith, insofar as it justifies it, should always be understood as fides actualis, as the faith act, even in children.!7°?) And because faith is not only an act in the mind but also an act in the will, that is, the promise of the forgiveness of sins is also grasped with the will, both the Lutheran Confessions and the Lutheran theologians say, as already proved by several quotations in the fiducia fidei, faith is a desire for grace or Christ (velle),!° seeking (quaerere),!?° desiring (expetere, desiderare),’ striving or approaching from Christ (in Christum tendere, in Christum ferri), 1206) to
against the rigida qualitas Exeg. opp. VII, 132 sqq. (St. L. 2, 381
desire to receive (velle et accipere) the offered promise of forgiveness of sins and justification. Apol. 125, 106 [Trig/. 183, 106] the velle accipere of faith is explained by apprehendere: velle accipere seu apprehendere ea, quae in promissione de Christo offeruntur. Apol. 139, 183 [Trig]. 205, 183] the fiducia in corde is explained by velle et accipere: faith is fiducia in corde, hoc est, velle et accipere hoc, quod in promissione offeruntur. Where there is not the will of the promise, there is also no grasping of the promise and no trust in the promise, that is, no fides actualis.
seeking of Christ is attributed to the Gentiles: "To seek is to believe", quaerere significat credere. (Exeg. opp. Erl. XX, 130.) Likewise, the Lutheran confession, Apol. 114, 33 [Zrigl. 163, Art. Ill, 33]: "That is to truly recognize Messiah or Christ, seek forgiveness of sins with him. To hold the same of Christ, that is, to recognize and accept Christ, that is to believe in Christ.
desire for His grace. And this is precisely what faith does, which considers grace to be exquisite and therefore hungers and thirsts fervently for it and thus obtains it. Hollaz (Examen, De fide, qu. 12) thus distinguishes between faith and love as the fruit of faith: faith is an act of desire through which we want Christ (actus concupiscentiae, quo Christum volumus). Love is an act of goodwill through which we want Christ good (actus benevolentiae, quo Christo bona volumus). Chemnitz calls even the weakest faith a desire for grace in the words already mentioned (p.
‘in' (etc), connected with the accusative, an act by which the believer strives, as it were, towards Christ actum in Christum tenden- extending the hand towards Christ (extendere), embracing Christ (amplecti, complecti),'?° coming to Christ, approaching Christ, running to Christ (venire, accedere, currere ad Christum),'*°®) hanging on to Christ, connecting with Christ tem) [the act of tending to Christ], whereby the believer approaches Christ beyond himself (extra se in Christ literature).... Faith is called mAnpogopia (Rom. 4:21), because through it the spirit of the believer approaches his object completely, like a ship with full sails enters the port". (Examen, De fide, qu. 16.) — Dannhauer: "as the eagle approaches the food", ut aquila fertur in escam. (Hod. X, 671st)
there like a lazy man with folded arms and speaks: True faith, with outstretched arms, joyfully embraces the Son of God, who gave himself up for him, and says: "My beloved is mine and I am his... This is the faith which alone justifies us without law and works through the mercy offered to us in Christ. (Opp. v. u. IV, 379 sh.) According to Calov (Socin. profligatus, p. 731) the justifying faith includes: ut manum fidei extendamus eademque illam (the grace offered) apprehendamus. Almost all dogmatists except Hollaz quote the words of Brenz and Chemnitz. Brenz says: "Faith has, so to speak, two hands, one which it stretches out upwards, and with which it seizes Christ with all its benefits, and so (hac parte) we are justified; the other which it stretches out downwards, in order to carry out the works of love... and so we prove, though we have not far faith that he is right, but so we are not justified". (Bei Hollaz, Exam. De fide, question 10) According to Chemnitz (Exam. De fide iustif., p. 161), in order to justify (ut iustificet), faith is concerned (versatur) with its object "not by cold thinking, not by a general and superficial agreement" (Dannhauer also says, 1. c., p. 670: not as make their astronomical calculations), "but in such a way that it" (his object, Christ) "recognizes, looks at, desires, seeks (expetate, quaerate), grasps, accepts, embraces (complectatur)".
believe that sins are remitted for Christ’s sake. Luther on Isaiah 2:3: "What is more lovely and lovable than the gospel? It is a certain doctrine on which consciences can rest, and it offers a kind and gracious God, who gave his Son, the eternal God, into death for the life of the world, so that we sinners might have forgiveness of sins.... Because the Gospel promises and offers this to all men, the peoples who are troubled in conscience because of their sins run to it (accurrunt), grasping and joyfully receiving the treasures of divine mercy that the Word shows, and faith in the Word receives. (Exeg. opp. Erl. XXII, 38 sq. [St L. V1:32]) It goes without saying that Luther lets this "heart running", which is carried out through faith, be merely the action of the Holy Spirit in the gospel. (1. c., 41 sq.) (adhaere Christo, se adiungere Christo [‘adhere to Christ, to join oneself to Christ]). 2°) They cite scriptural statements such as: receiving reconciliation (Aap Bdavew, Rom. 5:11), attaining to righteousness (katoAauBdavew, Rom. 9:30), receiving Christ AauBdavet, taporAauBave, Joh. 1:12; Col. 2:6), seeking the Lord (97? Wek RX [HEBREW] Isaiah 55:6), coming to Christ or the Gospel (€A0¢iv mpdc Xptotov, Joh. 6:44, also Isaiah 2:2.3: — oa7 aay 1597 oriag-29 Px GN [HEBREW] Run to Christ (Isaiah 55:5: 1817? 7°2N-[HEBREW]), cling to the HErrn (1 Cor. 6:17: KoAr@ Lévoc TO Kupio ev mvevud eottv [Joined unto the Lord’]), putting on Christ (Gal. 3:27: Xptotov évdbeo9at) etc. All these expressions, including the figurative ones, denote the fides actualis, which seizes Christ or the forgiveness of sins with the heart and accepts it by seizing it or trusts it in the heart. Also the BidCeobOa1 mv Bactieiav, which refers to violence against the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 11:12), the Lutheran theologians, together with Luther and Chemnitz, refer to faith, insofar as faith actually (actualiter) takes hold of the forgiveness of sins.!7!° If it is asked
sanctification. Grace or the forgiveness of sins is not given to us through the Christ in us, but in the Christ for us, who has earned us forgiveness of sins once and for all and offers it in the means of grace. This is why Luther says in regard to the justifying faith: He "tears us apart from ourselves and from our heart" (extra nos ipsos, extra cor nostrum) "far away and leads me out of Christ, whom I do not see, feel or hear, and wants me to cling to the Son of God and believe in Him... We must put our hearts on him and make fasting, praying, etc.... that I may be justified". (VII, 2214 f.) Hollaz mentions the bond that is created by our attachment to the Christ outside of us, the fidei formalis in the difference from the unio mystica which is a consequence of the former. Examen, De fide, qu. 11: Vocatur receptio fidei in sacris literis etiam. xdddnoic seu agglutinatio cum Christo in unum Spiritum, 1 Cor. 6:17, adeoque en unionem quandam, qualis est inter manum apprehentem et thesaurum apprehensum et dicitur unio fidei formalis, distincta ab unione mystica ceu illius effectu.
mountain of the LORD of faith in the Gospel, he added: Christ declares (this) "Matthew 11:12 with more words, when He says: The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and those who do violence take it by force, as if He said: People are not forced to speak by force, but force themselves. Likewise Chemnitz, Harmonia, c. 36, p. m. 554, with vocation from Isaiah 2:2 and Micah 4:1 ff. Dannhauer therefore names with reference to Matt. 41:12 the apprehensio fidualis fidei an actus Biaotikoc, non violentia iniusta, sed sollicito raptu, ut aquila fertur in escam. why Luther and the Lutheran theologians, in describing the fides iustificans, so vigorously dismiss the "dormant quality" and the "dormant state" (habitus) and advocate in so many words the fides actualis, the act of faith, it must be said: We are here again at a point where it is a question of the being or not being of the Christian doctrine of justification, and where the ways of the Lutheran Church on the one hand and the ways of the Roman Catholics, the enthusiasts and the consistent Reformed [Calvinists] on the other hand are sharply divided. All of the above are based on the justification of the Christ in us. Thus they understand faith, insofar as it has something to do with the righteousness of man, as a means of receiving or admitting the effects of divine grace on man or in man. For them, The saving grace is the infused grace (gratia infusa). Luther says (St. L. XIII, 917): "On this doctrine stands the whole Papacy: grace is poured out upon (infused into) man. The Council of Trent has officially fixed this doctrine and cursed the counter doctrine.!?!! In the same way, the enthusiasts taught, like Schwenkfeld, that justification is the reception of Christ into the heart of man and renewal and sanctification.!*!7) Likewise, the consistent Reformed (Calvinists) from the standpoint of denying the gratia universalis. If there is no general grace, and therefore no promise of grace that concerns all human beings, faith is not fides actualis the act of the heart and will that grasps and wants the grace offered in the Word, but a dormant quality in the heart, a kind of depositum in the person who has no relationship with the means of grace. Thus the Dordrecht Decrees teach a state of grace without an act of faith that takes up the promise of the Gospel. According to Dordrecht theology, the elect remain in the state of sonship and justification, even if, like David and Peter, they fall into "grave and terrible" sins and thereby lose the exercitium fidei, that is, the fides actualis, which actually seizes grace.!7!%) On the other hand, the Lutherans held: Faith, in so far
iustitiae Christi vel sola peccatorum remissione, exclusa gratia et caritate, quae in cordibus eorum per Spiritum Sanctum diffundatur atque illis inhaereat, aut etiam gratiam, qua justificamur, esse tantum favorem Dei: anathema sit. [If any one saith, that men are justified, either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, and is inherent in them; or even that the grace, whereby we are justified, is only the favor of God; let him be anathema]
in so far as it justifies and makes us saved, has to do only with the Christ outside us or the Christ for us, in other words: with this grace that is God's gracious disposition (favor Dei) or the forgiveness of sins for Christ's sake, which is and remains in God's heart, but is offered in the Gospel and is grasped by man through faith. The Formula of Concord notes that it is known among the theologians of the Augsburg Confession (extra controversiam positnm est) "that all our righteousness is to be sought outside... ourselves". (M. 622, 55 [Trigl. 935, F. C., Sol. Decl., II, 55]) Because so faith, inasmuch as it justifies, is concerned with an object outside of man, the faith that relates to the object of justification is a "going out of oneself", a "moving out of oneself".!?'4) This explains the fact why the Lutheran teachers from Luther on until Hollaz describe justifying faith on the part of the will as wanting, desiring, seeking grace, reaching out to Christ, striving toward Christ (ferri, tendere in Christum), attaching oneself to Christ, etc. In this way they do not ascribe to man any ability or power to believe, '7!> nor do they make faith a work of law, as the Romans did here and there, but they hold on to the fact that the faith worked by the Holy Spirit through the gospel itself is fides actualis, actus apprehendi sive volendi gratiam in waking and sleeping people, adults and children, in the normal state when the Christian is conscious of his faith, and in the state of the highest temptation when the Christian thinks he has lost faith, act when faith burns like a bright light, and when it is like a faintly glowing wick. "Tolle hunc amplexum", says Dannhauer (Hod., p. 671),,,non erit tibi firma promissio." [Take away this embrace and it will not be a firm promise to you.’] Walther: "Faith is a continuous activity, a perpetual
thyself apart from thyself and all human comfort into his word alone. The "outside" is of course not meant locally. The word comes to the heart and is moved in the heart. Whoever remains in the heart, the word remains the object of faith. Luther (Exeg. opp. VII, 134): Fides est, habere verbum, in corde et non dubitare de verbo. [Faith is having the word in the heart and not doubting the word.]
out of himself and speaks of grace, it is "the marvelous art" that only the Holy Spirit works. access. Only we don't know how it happens, for example, when we're asleep."!7!6) The question has also been raised whether faith should be understood as an active or passive grasping. It must be said that faith is an active grasping in so far as it grasps, namely its object, Christ or the forgiveness offered in the Gospel. Faith can be called passive grasping and has also been called so,'?!) inasmuch as grasping does not take place with human participation, but only through the action of God. In order to remain on the right track in the question of whether faith is active or passive grasping, one must not therefore oppose active and passive grasping, but leave both standing side by side with the distinction indicated.!*!) He who denies the "active grasping," the corde
S. 130. [Ed. — see #9; year of publication probably 1899, not 1890]
for all the terms that denote faith in Christ. Man wants or desires grace actively and passively: actively, in so far as he wants and desires it; passively, in so far as this wanting and desire is brought about by the Holy Spirit alone. The Gentiles come or run to Christ actively and passively: active, inasmuch as they come or run; passive, inasmuch as this coming or running happens without the participation of the Gentiles, solely through the action of the Holy Spirit. They kiss the Son actively and passively: active, in that they kiss; passive, in that this kissing is done by the action of the Holy Spirit. (Luther on Ps. 2:12, StL. V, 178.) This is how Dannhauer also meant the matter. He explains the "so to speak passive act", actus, ut sic dicam, passiveus, more precisely as follows: "Approximately in the same way as the beggar's hand, which is so weak that it cannot even grasp the gift from within itself (ex se), is grasped by another, strengthened and lifted up to the height, so that it approaches the treasure offered (in thesaurum oblatum feratur), grasps it and holds on to it". (Hodosophia XI, 671.) Dannhauer thus speaks of a passive act of grasping, guoad causam efficientem, insofar as this grasping does not originate from man, but is worked by God alone. In the same definition and immediately adjacent to it, Dannhauer describes faith very clearly as "active grasping", namely "1. as an act of the will that approaches the recognized object with inner urge (suopte impetu fertur); 2. as an appropriating act that is set forth in these words: I know that my Redeemer liveth, I am certain that Christ died for me, I seek Him with desire for myself, I grasp Him with compassion for myself, I hold for myself with trust (hunc desiderio quaero ut meum, amplexu capio ut meum, teneo fiducia ut meum); 3. as an act of violence, Matt. 11, 12, not in unjust violence, apprehendere, velle, velle accipere Christum, etc., denies that by which faith connects with its justifying object external to man. It ascribes either faith in itself, as a quality in man, to justification, or even to faith, in so far as it takes up or allows the same effects of grace in man (obicem non ponere, recipere sive admittere operationes Spiritus Sancti). He has entered Roman territory. Whoever denies "passive" grasping, when it is a matter of the causa efficiens of grasping, teaches synergistically.