5. Repentance.
Formula of Concord (634, 7 [Trigl. 953, F. C., Sol. Decl., V, 7]) recalls, has an narrower and a wider meaning in Scripture. It denotes a. contrition (contritio), that is, the knowledge of sins brought about by the law (terrores conscientias). So in those passages where repentance is distinguished from the forgiveness of sins, such as Luke 24:47: Christ lets preach petavoiv sic MEOW ALAPTLOV sic Tavta TH Evy [Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations.]; b. repentance and faith or the entire conversion of man. So Luke 15:7: Xapé gota ev TH Ovpave
Bibliotheca Theol. Il, 745 sqq. Buddeus defended what was right against Krackewitz.
Retained by Meyer, deleted by Tischendorf.
Christians are called the "called": Rom. 1:6; 1 Cor. 1:2: «Antot &yto1. — Quenstedt (II, 662 sq.) and others also speak of a vocatio indirecta, which is present in the natural knowledge of God (Acts 17:27) and the rumor of true religion (Matt. 12:42), and the vocatio directa, which occurs solely through the message of the Gospel. Only in the latter sense is the call actually and according to the usus loquendi of Scripture used. Before the Gospel is known, all people walk in darkness despite their natural knowledge of God, Isaiah 9:1; Matt. 4:14 ff. eni evil duaptwdg pwetavoowTt [Likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.]. The uetavowv here is a person who is saved, an object of joy in heaven, where there is repentance and faith. Also Luke 13:3. 5: "If you do not repent (wetavorte), you will all perish. In the meaning of b. repentance is a synonym of conversion. '°° The Augsburg Confession describes repentance in the 12th article like this: Constat poenitentia proprie his duabus partibus: Altera est contritio seu terrores incussi conscientiae agnito peccato; altera est fides, quae concipitur ex evangelio seu absolutione et credit propter Christum remitti peccata [Now, repentance consists properly of these two parts: One is contrition, that is, terrors smiting the conscience through the knowledge of sin; the other is faith, which is born of the Gospel, or of absolution, and believes that, for Christ’s sake, sins are forgiven.] [Trigl. 49, XII]. The good works are, to be precise, 4 a consequence or fruit of penance: Deinde sequi debent opera, quae sunt fructus poenitentiae. The contritio cordis also comes under the aspect of human performance in Roman doctrine. The contritio cordis, insofar as it is worked by God through the Law (contritio passiva), is excluded from Roman penance. The Roman doctrine of penance is one of the cords by which souls are bound to the doctrine of works and thus to the ecclesiastical life of the Papacy and are kept away from Christ.!4°°)
conversionis, quae contritio dicitur, saepe tamen pro tota conversione accipitur. (Although repentance is sometimes taken more strictly as part of the conversion, which is called contrition, it is often taken as the whole conversion.’]
There the documents from the Council of Trent are also mentioned. Chemnitz expresses its horror at the Roman doctrine of repentance.
Terror animo incussus a lege, quem Lutherani contritionem.. appellant, non recte inter partes poenitentiae numeratur. Haec propositio conformis est Concilio Tridentino, sess. Likewise Bellarmin J. c. excludes faith in the Gospel from repentance. Walther: "For the Papists the contritio is not something that God does through the law, but what man himself does. For them repentance is so much more as expiation, satisfaction.
necessarily follows from the Roman doctrine of penance, p. 168, 4 ff. [Trigl. 255, Apol., XII [V], 4—10]: Prodeat nobis aliquis ex adversariis, qui dicat, quando fiat remissio peccatorum. Bone Deus, quantae tenebrae sunt! Let someone from our adversaries come forward to tell us when the remission of sins will take place. Good God, what darkness!’] Justification through faith. De iustificatione. 1. Justification is done without works of the law, through faith. At the very moment when a person becomes a believer in Christ or in the Gospel,!*™ that is, in the forgiveness of sins acquired by Christ and offered in the Gospel, he is justified before God through this faith.. The connection between objective and subjective justification will be discussed later. Of the subjective justification that occurs through faith, Rom 3:28: AoyiCope8a. yap dtkarodobat miotEt &vO8panov. But Scripture is not content to say thetically that we are justified "through faith". Since this divine method of justification is quite contrary to human opinion—for all men, according to their natural concepts of religion, seek and expect justification from the works—,') Scripture is eager to insist that justification be carried out in the complete exclusion of the works of the Law. Rom. 3:28: AoyiCope8a yap sucatodo8a1 tiotEt GvOpamov yapic Epyov vonov. Gal. 2:16: od dukatodtat GvOpamocs é& Epyov vopnwov. Human works in any form are excluded from justification. Excluded are 1. all outwardly good works that men have outside and before faith, such as the works of the Pharisees; '*°° 2. all spiritually good works that flow from
justification is made, cf. p. 507 s. and the following explanation under "Terminology".
273: Homines naturaliter ita iudicant Deum per opera placandum esse. Nec videt ratio aliam iustitiam quam iustitiam legis civiliter intellectae. Luther, XIII, 2405: "Thus we have taught in the papacy itself: He who wants to be free from sin must do this and that.
not in any causal nexus with justification. Also Paul reports that he was GPLELLTTOG, but, he adds: t& zavta ECnpimOnv Kai Hyodpot oKvBaAa sivat [T count all things but loss... and do count them but dung’], Phil. 3:6, 8. faith flows like the works of the believing Abraham. '*° Scripture also gives reasons why God has chosen this strange way of justification, namely, to completely detach justification from the law and the works of the law. God chose this method of justification: 1. so that man's forgiveness of sins and salvation might be certain; '4°*) 2. so that the object of human glory might not be man himself, but God's wholly undeserved grace in Christ. 14°) It is helpful if we remain aware that in the doctrine of Scripture we are confronted with a wonderful method of justification through faith '4!°- The miraculous easily takes a back seat to us, because we have mostly heard of justification by faith from our youth. But Luther is right when he says: " It is a great thing that I should lay hold on my heart and believe that all my sin is forgiven me, and that through such faith I
justification: Formula of Concord 617, 33 ff. [Trigl. 927, Sol. Decl., I, 33 ff.] Chemnitz: "When Paul excludes the works of the law from justification, does he mean only the Levitical ceremonies or the works done without spirit and faith? Paul speaks of the whole law and especially of the works of the Ten Commandments, Rom. 3:7; Gal. 3, and also understands the works of the believers, as is clear Rom. 4; 1 Cor. 4" (Enchir., p. 91.) Luther, XIX, 1445: "So it is clear that those who teach that Paul is only talking about the ceremonial law, are simply abolishing Christ with the whole Gospel. And makes us our own justifiers by the moral law or the ten commandments, without Christ."
émayyeAiav tavti TH onéppatt (Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed]. Philippi: "It was the divine intention to secure the promise by putting it only on grace.... Where the heritage of salvation is somehow made dependent on the works, even if they are the works of the born again, doubt must of course take the place of certainty in the imperfection of these works.
man should boast’]; Eph. 1:6-7: gic Emavov S6En¢ Tic yapitoc adtOd Nc Eyapitmoev hac év 1 Hyannpévo év © Exouev Ti axoAbTpHOL 510 TOD aipLatocs adtODd TI MEOW TOV Tapant@patov [To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace’’]
dtkatoovvnv, Rom. 3:28. 30. 22; Gal. 2:16: Phil. 3:9; Rom. 4:5, also the ezi ™ mioteél, on the basis of faith, Phil. 3:9, is contrary to works. am righteous before God.. This may be a miraculous justice to me and a far different justice, for justice is the justice of all jurists, learned men and wise men in this world. (St. L. XIII, 2495) But the precondition for this "miraculous justice" by faith is the "miraculous" fact that God, through Christ's vicarious satisfaction, reconciles all people to himself, that is, has forgiven them the sins in his heart and promises this forgiveness or justice in the Word of the Gospel. This must always be pointed out in the further explanation of the biblical Doctrine of Justification. In the Scripture passage Rom 3:28: miotet ducatovodat dvOpanov yopic Epyov vopov [a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law’] already contains all the details by which the faithful church has in the course of time delimited the Christian doctrine of justification from the multifarious error. For if justification takes place "by faith, without works of the law", it is not based on "grace poured in" (gratia infusa), but on "God's gracious favor in Christ" (gratuitus Dei favor propter Christum), it is not to be sought in man, but outside man, namely, in the objective word of the Gospel (media gratiae instrumenta iustificationis sunt), it is actus non medicinalis, sed [not a medical act, but a judicial one, that is, the justification of something that is in itself unjust, it has no degrees (non admittitit gradus), it is done sola fide, and so faith, too, can in justification only be instrumental, not as a moral achievement, ethical principle, etc. Nor is it an object of presumption (certitudo coniecturalis of the Romans), but is certain for the poor sinner, because it is done through faith in the Gospel, completely detached from the law and its works. All these details are, as already mentioned, already contained in Rom. 3:28: miotet ywpic Epyw@v vouov [believe without the works of the law’] If we go into a number of further details in more or less detail in the following, this is in contrast to the manifold errors that are constantly approaching us from outside with reference to the central article of the Christian religion. Nor must we ever forget that we ourselves, in so far as we still have the flesh about us, are also afflicted with opinio legis, that is, with the inclination to believe the justification s& épymv vopov [from works of the law].!4!) The 4th article of the Augsburg Confession can be considered a simple description of justification, but one that encompasses all moments: Further, it is taught that we may not obtain forgiveness of sins and '*!) righteousness before God by our own merits, works, and satisfactions, but that we receive forgiveness of sins and are justified before God by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith, if we believe that Christ suffered for us, and that for His sake sin is forgiven us, and righteousness and eternal life are given us. For this faith God will count for righteousness before him, as St. Paul says in Romans 3 and 4."