7. Saving Faith Includes the Certainty of Grace and the Testimony of the Holy Spirit.
the Holy Spirit. In the summarizing presentation it has already been shown that faith is certain of its cause, namely the grace of God, and that it is divinely certain, because the grace of God is the object of faith and the grasping of this object is divine action in the heart of man. The ina can be taught only by those who take away the object of faith, that is, who substitute the Gospel and the Law or the whole of Scripture for it, or who let faith be not divine effect but human self-determination, human self-decision, moral deed, correct human conduct, etc. In fact, besides faith, doubt is still found in the Christian's heart. But doubt springs from the flesh that still clings to the Christian, and is not to be praised and cultivated as a virtue along with the Papists and synergists, but to be punished and fought against as a sin, 1 John 5:10: He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.!**9) Following the certitudo gratiae given with faith, the doctrine of the Gee S Sal has also been treated. We consider it a good teaching to distinguish between a direct or internal and an indirect or external witness of the Holy Spirit. The direct or inner testimony is faith Sancti, quod ipse operation in credentibus, quamquam sub actu tentationis vel maxime putent, se non habere fidem. [Google] (L. Hartmann, Pastorale ev. 1697, p. 1144.) A. a. O., p. 148: Cum sensum fidei niillum deprehendimus, non statim animum abiiciamus, cum et desiderium fidei iam sit ipsa fides, licet infirma, Phil. 2:13. (When we discover no sense of faith, let us not at once throw away our minds, since even the desire for faith is already faith itself, though weak.] (Kromayer, Theol. pos.-pol. II, 336.) Also F. C.. 591, 13, 14 [Zrigl. 885, Sol. Decl., II, 13-14].
itself, not something outside of and beside faith. Because faith is not a natural human product, but the promise of the Gospel that God has worked in the heart, the existence of faith is always accompanied by God's witness for the forgiveness of sins expressed in the Word. It says 1 Joh. 8:10 explicitly: "Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony (namely God's testimony that he has been begotten by his Son) "in himself", eyet thv Laptupiav ev éavto. So also the Apology (108, 113): "Faith' is actually or fides proprie dicta, when my heart and the Holy Spirit in my heart tells me that the promise of God is true and yes; the Scriptures speak of the same faith. The indirect or external testimony is present when the Holy Spirit brings forth perceptible fruits of faith that fall into the senses, such as love for God's word, Jn 8:47: "He who is of God hears God's word"; love for God, Cor. 8:3: "If anyone loves God, he is known of him"; love of neighbor, I John 3,14: "We know that we have come from death to life, because we love our brothers"; overcoming the world, John 5:4. 5: "All that is born of God overcomes the world. This external testimony, present in Christian works, is also a testimony of the Holy Spirit, because unbelievers who do not have the Holy Spirit are not able to do any of these things, as Lufher reminds us (XII, 794). Apology therefore (135, 155) calls the good works of Christians, besides Baptism and the Lord's Supper, "signs and testimonies" (signa et testimonia) of the forgiveness of sins. Of course, when adversity comes, that is, when, as Luther often reminds us, the devil makes even their best works appear to Christians as vain sins because of their inherent fragility, then it is necessary, contrary to all seeing and feeling, to keep the promise of grace that is objective and independent of all works.