The Synergists' Means of Grace Doctrine.
We have seen that the biblical doctrine of the means of grace is dismissed by the Calvinist denial of gratia universalis. The same is done by the synergistic denial of sola gratia, according to which faith in the gospel or conversion to God does not come about solely through God's action of grace, but also depends on the right conduct of man. All, namely, who ascribe to man a participation in conversion or in the origin of faith, by making faith come about through human "self-decision," "self-determination," "self-settlement," "right conduct," "refrain from willful resistance," a "position of neutrality," etc. All these do not understand the means of grace as the means by which God offers the grace acquired from Christ, that is, the forgiveness of sins, and by such presentation causes faith without human participation, but as the means by which man, in order to become a partaker of grace, is stimulated (excitatur) to a performance on his part, namely, to the things just mentioned and similar things: To personal self-setting or self-determination, to right conduct, to the position of neutrality, to the right use of the "freedom left him by grace," to "own decisive choice," to the exercise of "free moral agency," etc. In short, to the synergists in all shades the means of grace are not merely mediators of God's grace available through Christ's satisfactio vicaria, but means of stimulation to a differently named human achievement, through which man can and should first come into possession of divine grace. Therefore we find also among the Synergists, whether they are in the Reformed or Lutheran camp, the explicit explanation that the means of grace are not sufficient for the attainment of grace and salvation. The Arminians, who may be regarded as a type of the Reformed synergists, expressly call the grace offered and effective in the means of grace a "partial power" (vis partialis), which remains without effect without the cooperation of the human will (non posse exire [vim gratiae] in actum sine cooperatione liberae voluntatis humanae ac proinde ut effectum habeat pendere a libera voluntate). [Google]551) In the same sense, the later Melanchthon and his followers were not
551) Apol. Conf. Remonstr., p. 162; in Winer, Kompar. Darst. 3 , p. 81 f.
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content with two causes of conversion, the Word of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit, that is, the means of grace, but they added as a third cause "the consenting and not resisting human will." (humana voluntas assentiens nec repugnans verbo Dei).552) In our time the opinion that the grace offered and efficacious in the means of grace is not sufficient for conversion and salvation has been expressed thus: "According to the revealed order of salvation the actual final result of the means of grace depends not only on the sufficiency and efficacy of the means themselves, but also upon the conduct of man in regard to the necessary condition of passiveness and submissiveness under the Gospel-call." 553) Synergism, then, really degrades the means of grace, whose character is that they offer God's grace in Christ for free, χωρίς έργων νόμου, and thereby bring forth and strengthen faith, into means of stimulation for such human performances as are to determine God to bestow upon individual men the forgiveness of sins. Admittedly, not all, like Luthardt,554) explicitly call faith a human achievement. Nor do all, like Seeberg,555) speak of a "personal self-establishment" or, like Keyser,556) of an actuation of "free moral agency" to bring about man's communion of grace with God. Most popular in the synergistic camp is probably the representation that the granting of divine grace depends on the "different", that is, "right behavior" of man. In order for the means of grace to be successful, only the "necessary condition of passiveness and submissiveness" must be added on the human side. But the meaning of the different ways of speaking is that the grace offered and effective in the means of grace is not sufficient to make man actually partake of the divine grace. "If man's conversion depended in no sense on anything but grace, and likewise … on the means of grace, all would be converted and saved." 557) It stands with the denial of sola gratia as with
552) Loci, ed. Detzer, I, 72 sqq.
553) Luth. standard, February 28, 1891.
554) Dogmatik11 , p. 284.<w:t>555) RE. 3 II, 544.
556) Election and Conversion, p. 67.
557) Kirchenzeitung, April 18, 1891.
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the denial of the universalis gratia. One cannot allow oneself such a gross encroachment on the biblical doctrine as is present in the denial of sola gratia and yet still retain the means of grace ordered by God. With the denial of sola gratia, the scriptural concept of the means of grace also disappears. Therefore, it is only an accommodation to the church usage when the representatives of synergism still address means of grace. With regard to the character of the means of grace, it is to be noted: The means of grace ordered by God are not law, but gospel, pure, unadulterated gospel conditioned by no human achievement or good nature. Therefore, they do not require from man self-determination, self-establishment, a position of neutrality, self-decision for or against grace, right conduct, or any other human achievement, but only faith. Luther says: "Evangelium is Greek and means in German a joyful message, because in it the salutary doctrine of life from divine promise is proclaimed and grace and forgiveness of sin are offered. Therefore, the gospel does not require work, for it is not law, but faith alone, for it is a mere promise and offer of divine grace. He therefore that believeth on it receiveth grace and the Holy Spirit." 558) And this faith, which is merely receiving (medium ληπτικόν, inftrumentat) and "belongs to the Gospel," the Holy Spirit works through the Gospel itself, without human cooperation, "in those who hear the Gospel";559) for faith comes from the sermon.560) — The synergistic notion of the means of grace is also exceedingly dangerous. A "gospel" which supposedly includes human self-setting, right conduct, self-decision for or against grace, as it is not a gospel, so it also does not produce the Christian faith "which builds on pure grace," but nourishes a trust in one's own strength and ability, which effectively closes itself off against the grace presented and effective in the means of grace. As long as a man stands in the delusion that he himself can or must do something to attain grace, he will not attain grace.561) Faith in grace is not something that one carefully considers beforehand, taking into account the pros and cons,
558) St. L. XI, 84.<w:t xml:space="preserve">559) Augsb. Conf., Art. V.
560) Rom. 10:17.<w:t>561) Luther, Opp. v. a. VII, 154.
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and accordingly arranging one's behavior toward grace, but faith in grace is worked by the Holy Spirit "where and when He wills, in those who hear the Gospel",562) and this under prior terrores conscientiae, whereby all thoughts of "personal self-settlement," "free moral agency," "different behavior," and the like are consumed like straw by fire.563) We already recalled in the doctrine of conversion,564) that it is peculiar to synergism to see the conversion of man to God not in faith in the Gospel, that is, in faith in the forgiveness of sins acquired by Christ and offered in the Gospel, but to think in the direction of the "moral deed" or the moral reformation of man, and thus to transfer it to the domain of the Law. This is again evident in the synergistic doctrine of the means of grace, according to which these make moral demands on man, such as "right conduct" and "self-settlement," if man is to become partaker of God's grace. Conversion to God, however, is essentially conversion to the gospel, i.e., it consists in faith in Christ (Acts 11:21), as Luther briefly puts it: "To convert to God is to believe in Christ, that he is the mediator." 565) Conversion to godly action or to the law, which is nexu indivulso bound with conversion to the gospel, is, precisely speaking, a consequence of faith in the gospel, as the Lutheran confession reminds us.566) In the background also of the synergistic doctrine of the means of grace, which is set on human achievement, lies the denial of the perfect reconciliation of the world through Christ's work of redemption. Whoever seriously believes that he must help the grace offered and effective in the means of grace to the final result by right conduct or any human performance, has certainly forgotten the perfect reconciliation of the world through the blood of the Son of God. Luther says: "These words: 'The Son of God … gave Himself for me' are loud thunderbolts and fire from heaven against the righteousness of the law and the doctrine of works. So great wickedness, so great error, darkness and ignorance was in my will and mind, that I could only
562) Augsb. Conf., Art. V. 563) Apol. 90, 20. [Trigl. 125, Apol., IV, 20 🔗]<w:t xml:space="preserve">564) II, 544 ff. 549 f.
565) St. L. XIII, 1101.<w:t>566) Apol. 171, 28. [Trigl. 259, Apol., XII, 28 🔗]
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be delivered by such an unspeakably great ransom.... Therefore it is an intolerable and terrible blasphemy for thee to invent any work whereby thou missest to propitiate God, seeing that he cannot be propitiated otherwise than by this immeasurable and infinite treasure, namely, by the death and blood of his Son." 567)