2. The Efficient Cause of Conversion.
conversionis). There are logically three different answers to the question of who is effective in conversion, and there are in fact three possible answers.
has done, and keeps all my judgments, and does right and good, he shall live and not die. 1 Kings 8:35, etc.
repentance [or conversion] these two parts, contrition and faith. If anyone desires to add a third, namely, fruits worthy of repentance, 1. e., a change of the entire life and character for the better [good works which shall and must follow conversion], we will not make any opposition. It has been said: a. Man works conversion (Pelagianism); b. Man and God work conversion, either so that man begins conversion and God completes it (Semi-Pelagianism), or so that God begins conversion and man completes it (Synergism);!?9) c. God alone works conversion (monergism), man is only subiectum convertendum, that is, man is not active for his conversion, but experiences or suffers the conversion that God alone works in him. This is the teaching of Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions. As far as Scripture is concerned, it teaches quite powerfully that God alone is effective in conversion. It does this, a. by not only denying man every ability to believe the gospel (Jn 6:44: ovdsic Sbvatat EABEiv mpc LE; 1 Cor. 2:14: ov d6vata1 yv@vat), but also by attributing to him a reluctance to believe the gospel as long as he is a natural, unconverted human being (1 Cor. 2:14: woytkds Gv8pa@noc ov éyETAL TA TOV MVEDLLATOS Tov WEov, Lapia yap av to éottv). Scripture teaches the sole efficacy of God, b. by positively stating that becoming a believer in Christ is an effect of divine grace and omnipotence (Phil. 1:29: vpiv éyapioS$n to Etc avtdv miotEvetv; Eph. 1:19-20: MIOTEVOVTEG KOTO THV EVEPYELAV TOV KPATOUG THC loxHOG AVTOV KTA.), furthermore as a birth from God (Joh. 1:12-13: miotebovtEc Eig to Ovona aVTOV, Ot... Ek Deov éEyevvi 'Syoav), as a raising from the dead (Col. 2:12: ownyépSnte dia Tic TiotEws THs Evepysiac Tov BEov Tov EyEipavtos AVTOV ek vekpov) and parallelized with the creation of light at the creation of the world (2 Cor. 4:6: 6 td 6 simmv EK CKOTOUG OMS AGLWaL, Os sAapLWEV EV THIS KAPSIAIS NUMV TPdG PMTLOLOV Tic yv@oEws THs 5OENs Tov Yeov Ev Tpoownw Inoov’ Xpiotov). In such decisive and manifold ways, Scripture testifies to the emergence of faith in the gospel as God's work alone. Everything that has been said against it, and is still being said, is based on considerations that come from an area outside of Scripture. This is to be explained in more detail under the section "Objections to the sole activity of God".
75—77]. When we ask about the teaching of the Lutheran Confessions, it summarizes the scriptural doctrine of monergism in the following words (694:25 [Trigl. 891, F. C., Sol. Decl., II, 25]): In this manner, too, the Holy Scriptures ascribe conversion, faith in Christ, regeneration, renewal, and all that belongs to their efficacious beginning and completion, not to the human powers of the natural free will, neither entirely, nor half, nor in any, even the least or most inconsiderable part, but in solidum, that is, entirely, solely, to the divine working and the Holy Ghost The Lutheran Confessions add the following details: There are not three working causes of conversion (the Holy Spirit, the Word of God and the unopposed human will), but only two (the Holy Spirit and the Word of God). The human will plays only the role of a subiectum convertendum, that is, the one to be converted. The human will does nothing for conversion (nihil confert), but only experiences conversion, tantum patitur, quod Deus in homine agit. (610, 90; 609, 89. [Trigl. 915, F. C., Sol. Decl., II, 90, 89]) And the fact that man does not put his hand to work at his conversion, but behaves only in suffering (pure passive, tanquam subiectum patiens) during this process, comes from his condition after the fall, namely from this, says the Confessions, that the human will cannot send itself to the grace of God, but out of an innate, evil, rebellious nature (pro insita sua rebelli et contumaci natura) 1s hostile to God and his will (hostiliter repugnat), where it is not enlightened and governed by God's Spirit. (592, 18 ff. [Zrigl. 887, F. C., Sol. Decl., I, 18]) This kind of human will, which is hostile to the Gospel, is also explained in the Confessions by the image of a stone or block (lapis, truncus). It says: In conversion, man is a. by no means a stone or block, b. worse than a stone or block. He is not a stone or a block, inasmuch as man is still a reasonable creature after the fall, which has mind and will and experiences God's effect in his mind and will. Man is worse than a stone and a block; for a stone or block does not resist the one who moves it, but man resists the word and will of God until God awakens him from the death of sins, enlightens him and renews him. (692, 59; 694, 24; 693, 19 [Trigl. 905, F. C., Sol. Decl., II, 59; 891, ibid., 24; 889, ibid., 19]) The Confessions therefore warn, also in the doctrine of conversion, against certain ways of speaking that are "not similar to the form of sound doctrine", as if someone wanted to say that God draws those who want to, or that human will is not idle in conversion, but also works something (von est otiosa, sed agit aliquid). To speak of the matter correctly, it must be said that man does not cooperate with the Holy Spirit already at conversion, but only after conversion (526:16-17 [Trigl. 791, F. C., Epit., III, 16-17]): "On the other hand it is rightly said that God, in conversion, by drawing the Holy Spirit, makes unruly, unwilling people out of recalcitrant, unwilling men, and that after such conversion in daily practice man's repentant will does not go idly, but also cooperates in all the works of the Holy Spirit which he does through us. Such is the power of monergism taught and synergism rejected in the Lutheran Confessions. In discussing the causa efficiens conversionis, we must not lose sight of the forma conversionis, that is, that conversion consists in becoming believers in the Gospel. The natural man, with the intention of coming closer to God, can do amazing and admirable works, such as making pilgrimages around the world, giving all his possessions to the poor and letting his body burn. But he simply cannot believe that God would be merciful to him, without all his doing, for Christ's sake alone. This divine thought, which has never tered a human heart (1 Cor. 2:9, is not only completely uncomprehending to the natural man (ov d0vatat yv@vat), but positively hostile to him (u@pia avta éottv, Iovdaioic nev oKavdaAov, "EAANOL 6 popia 1 Cor. 2:14; 1:23). As long as and in so far as man thinks and judges according to his natural way, he thinks of conversion to God as being in the field of works, moral action, moral achievement, self-determination, right behavior against grace, etc. The Apology expresses this state of affairs in the following words: "This opinion of the law" (scil... that one comes to God's grace through works) "is by nature in the spirit of man and cannot be driven out of us in any other way than by divine instruction.!? Therefore, according to his innate opinio legis, man is quite able and willing to reject the Gospel, he is qualified for the facultas aversandi gratiam, but he is totally incapable and unwilling to accept the Gospel, he is not qualified for the facultas se applicandi ad gratiam, which is an Erasmian-Melanchthonian facultas. Every conversion that actually takes place is such that God changes (renews, transforms) the human heart so that it abandons its own actions and trusts in the grace offered by the Gospel. Luther therefore calls God's effect of faith in man "as great a work as if he created heaven and earth anew".!) Recent ones speak of an "upward movement" in the natural human being, a sincere striving for reconciliation with God and for immortality. In this they see a "starting point" for conversion.!*° But they forget that this move and this striving "upwards" is in the direction of the Law, that is, in the opposite direction of the real coming to God. The "upward pull" on the line of the Law was particularly strongly developed in Paul before his conversion. But according to his own authentic account, the train did not bring him closer to God, but made him "exceedingly nonsensical" (nepiocws Eupotvopevoc) to Christ and the Gospel (Acts 26:9 ff.).