The older Melanchthon took Luther’s doctrine of the sacramentality of the word and reinterpreted it along the lines of the typical sacramentalist trajectory of the Augustinian Dilemma. The Word of God is genuinely sacramental for Melanchthon in that it contains the coming of the Holy Spirit who works faith. Nevertheless, in Melanchthon’s teaching it is at minimum a very strongly implied that the Holy Spirit’s work is dependent on the human will’s consent to cooperate. Hence, in Melanchthon’s later work, grace can be construed as ultimately a possibility that is actualized by human decision. Such a human decision can be called in question regarding its sincerity, thereby returning the sinner to the authenticity of his works (in this case, not external works, but rather a psychological event of conversion). Therefore, the logical implication of the older Melanchthon’s theology of justification is that Luther’s unreflective faith is denied in favor an extremely reflective faith. As we will see, the psychologizing of faith and the implicit call for self-examination as the sincerity of one’s conversion would become a standard feature in many strands of the later Protestant tradition.
From the draft manuscript for Jack D. Kilcrease, Justification by Word (Lexham Press, forthcoming).