The denial of the means of grace in the personal practice of Christians.
In order to remain in the right humility in the decisive rejection of all erroneous conceptions of the means of grace, it must be remembered that even those Christians who teach correctly about the means of grace and also believe correctly as a rule, very often forget the means of grace in their own personal practice. This happens as often as they want to base the certainty of grace or forgiveness of sins on the feeling of grace or gratia infusa instead of on God's promise in the objective means of grace. We are all born enthusiasts. Instead of hearing and believing God's declaration of love in the gospel, that is, in the means of grace ordered by him, or still differently expressed: instead of looking after God's reconciled heart, which, thanks be to God, is present through Christ, and which God reveals and presents to us in the gospel and in the sacraments, we look into our own heart and
155 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 131-132]
we want to measure God's attitude towards us according to the thoughts and moods of our own hearts. But this is a practical denial of the fact that God has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and thus also a practical denial of the means of grace in which God informs us of the fact of our being reconciled. We stand here at a point in the spiritual life where the Christian has the time of his life to learn. Christianity is a very peculiar religion. It is beyond the human horizon and beyond the concept of religion that is innate to us. Innate to us is the opinio legis, the religion of the law. When we see virtue in us, we think God is gracious. When we see sin in ourselves and our conscience condemns us for it, we think that God wants to reject us. But according to the Christian religion, it stands that God is gracious for Christ's sake "without works of the law," that is, regardless of whether we have kept or transgressed God's law. The righteousness that matters before God is located "outside us," as the Formula of Concord says.592) It is the righteousness of Christ, or what is the same: it is the forgiveness of sins that God promises to us for Christ's sake in the means of grace. We therefore lead our spiritual life on the right basis and in harmony with the peculiarity of the Christian religion only when, to speak with Luther, we "go out of ourselves" and base our faith in the grace of God on the means of grace which are apart from us, on the Word of God and its seal, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Admittedly, the gratia infusa, the word used in the right sense for true Christian sanctification and righteousness of life, also has the destiny of being signum et testimonium of divine grace.593) But the gratia infusa always remains deficient. It does not pass the test, neither before one's own conscience nor before the revealed divine law. So it must remain with the practice which Luther describes thus: "There is yet no counsel but that thou yield thyself apart from thyself and all human comfort to his word alone."594) This is to be discussed further under the following section.
592) 622, 55. [Trigl. 935, F. C., Sol. Decl., III, 55 🔗]<w:t>593) Apol. 135, 154. 155. [Trigl. 199, Apol., III, 154f. 🔗]
594) St. L. XI, 455.
156 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 132-133]