Justification Archives - Page 2 of 7

July 16, 2024July 18, 2024

Holy Absolution: Objective Justification Received by Subjective Faith

Throwback Post

Luther’s significant catechetical sermon of 1519 clearly shows his belief in the divine power and sacramentality of the Word of God. In “The Sacrament of Penance,” Luther begins by radically modifying his pre-Reformation theology of confession and absolution in light of his discovery the gospel as the pure promise of righteousness and salvation for the sake of Christ. The medieval Church had spoken of three parts to penance: confession, absolution, satisfaction.¹ By contrast, Luther now speaks of three elements: absolution, grace, and faith.²

In the beginning of the sermon, Luther boldly states that absolution is a unilateral and unconditional divine action: “It follows, then, in the first place, that he forgiveness of guilt, the heavenly indulgence, is granted to no one on account of the worthiness of his contrition over his sins, nor on account of his works of satisfaction, but only on account of his faith in the promise of God, ‘What you loose . . . shall be loosed.”³ Jesus’ historical promise establishes the validity of the word; receiving the word in faith makes it efficacious. “For as you believe, so it is done for you.”⁴ Here we can observe Luther’s use of the Ockhamist concept of covenantal causality, albeit used in a way that guarantees the promise of grace rather than the meritorious character of congruous merit.

Absolution is a divine efficacious word (Thettel-Wort) and not a mere piece of information (Heissel-Wort).⁵ The word that the priest (or pastor) speaks is a sacramental instrument wherein the wholly present God communicates his grace: “This is why it [confession and absolution] is called a sacrament, a holy sign, because in it one hears the words externally that signify spiritual gifts within, gifts by which the heart is comforted and set at peace.”⁶ The sinful heart is only set at peace by divine grace present in the objective word. It follows that the word itself is the divine instrument that creates faith in the heart. As suggested earlier, the logical implication of this is that validity of the sacrament and its efficacy are all contained in the Word of God itself.⁷

July 13, 2024July 15, 2024

God Reconciles All People Objectively and Universally

Christ’s work reconciles God and humanity. This occurs both objectively and subjectively. Moreover, since each person of the Trinity is involved, reconciliation takes on a threefold movement. This threefold movement can be summarized in the distinctive realities of atonement, justification (both objective and subjective), and election.¹ The New Testament distinguishes each aspect of reconciliation from the others, although theologians have often confused them throughout Church history.

The event of atonement constitutes the first movement of reconciliation, or redemption, as already examined in the last section. The movement of atonement proceeds from the Son to the Father. Having received all things from the Father, the Son is capable of returning himself to the Father in the power of the Spirit….

Universal Objective Justification

The second movement of reconciliation is universal and objective justification.² Universal objective justification is the Father’s response to the Son’s payment for the sin of the whole world. The Father declares the whole world forgiven on the basis of the Son’s objective atoning work. Objective atonement and objective justification are therefore distinct and should not be confused with one another: “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men” (Rom. 5:18, emphasis added). And “. . . in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them [i.e., justification]” (2 Cor. 5:19, emphasis added).

June 19, 2024June 19, 2024

Now, Baptism Saves through Confession and Absolution

The simul of Christian existence necessitates the sacrament of confession and absolution. Additionally, an intimate connection exists between baptism and confession and absolution. In On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, Martin Luther initially stated that there are three sacraments: baptism, confession and absolution, and the Lord’s Supper. By the end of the treatise, he changed his mind and reduced the number of sacraments to only two, namely baptism and the Lord’s Supper. This is not because Luther disregarded the sacramentality of the word of absolution, but rather because he saw absolution as derivative of the gospel-promise present in baptism.¹

The Problem of Post-Baptismal Sin

In the ancient Church, there was a strong and appropriate sense of baptism as the definitive rupture between the old life and the new life, including the final eschatological purification. Nevertheless, early Christians fell into a profound misunderstanding of this rupture due to both legalism and trust in an overly realized eschatology. Many reasoned that since baptism brought a final purification from sins, then the Church could not forgive post-baptismal sin. The teaching that baptism could not be repeated further reinforced this conclusion. After all, how could a Christian who sinned after his baptism regain salvation when the Church could not baptized him anew?

Yet, practically speaking, the pervasive nature of sin made it difficult to sustain the doctrine that Christians lost their salvation by sinning after baptism. One direct consequence of this teaching was that people delayed baptism and, therefore, also their full participation in the life of the Church. Such a doctrine was simply unrealistic about the possibility of remaining sinless in an age in which sin and death persist even for believers.

June 9, 2024June 9, 2024

Power in the Blood: Grace Flowing from the Five Wounds

The Church is the People of God, the mystical Body of Christ, and Temple of the Holy Spirit as constituted by the means of grace. The means of grace create and sustain the Church because they contain the promise of the gospel. This gospel, then, creates and maintains faith. The means of grace create faith because Jesus Christ, who is the living and eternal Word of God, is present in there in the power of the Spirit. Just as in the beginning the Word of God in the power of the Spirit called the original creation into existence (Gen. 1), so too, the same Word of God and Holy Spirit bring about a new creation in the life and person of Jesus (Jn. 1, 2 Cor. 5:17).

Lutherans have historically divided the means of grace into the categories of the Word and the Sacraments. For example, Lutheran theologian Robert Kolb suggests essentially four distinct forms of the Word of God: Christ, Scripture, the proclamation of the Church, and the sacraments.¹ Nevertheless, there are certain difficulties with the two-fold division between Word and Sacrament. First, the risen Jesus is equally present in the power of the Spirit in both the Word and the Sacraments. Therefore, the same word of the gospel spoken through the preaching office is also spoken in the sacraments, although in a different manner [as discussed later].

Secondly, God addresses humans through both visible words and auditory words. As Hermann Sasse observed: “The sacrament is the verbum visibile (visible Word); the Word is the sacramentum audibile, the audible and heard sacrament.”² All creatures are God’s visible words. No visible word lacks an auditory word attached to it by God. At minimum, God has attached the word “very good” to all his creatures. Likewise, God never gives an auditory word apart from a visible word. The auditory word either refers to the visible word or is attached to it as law or promise. Hence, the strict division of proclamation and teaching as bare auditory words, and sacraments as auditory words united with physical objects is not fully possible.

June 7, 2024June 9, 2024

Catholicity and Fellowship in the One True Church

One of the key marks of the Church mentioned in the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds is catholicity: “I believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.”¹ This reflects the New Testament’s emphasis on the Church’s universality, unity, and harmony as delivered by the Holy Spirit. Humans are sinful and remain so even after being converted to the faith. As a result, resistance to the Spirit can disrupt this unity. However, sin can never ultimately shatter the fundamental unity of the catholic Church. Hence, in his high priestly prayer, Jesus famously prays that “they [the Church] may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (Jn. 17:21). Similarly, Paul spends most of 1 Corinthians advising the congregation at Corinth to humbly put aside their differences under the cross and engage in practices that will promote unity, as opposed to division, in the body of Christ.

Modern Christian theologians treat many of these calls for unity in the New Testament as carte blanche orders to impose institutional unity on the Church.² However, these passages must be counterbalanced by calls for members of the Church to separate themselves from the wicked (Matt. 18:17, 1 Cor. 5, 2 Cor. 6:14, 1 Jn. 2:19, Rev. 18:4). We often think of sin primarily in terms of individual actions that violate the commands to love our neighbor in the second table of the Ten Commandments. Yet, we just as frequently violate the commands of the first table of the law. This occurs when Christians spread or embrace false teachings about God and fail to honor and love him above all things. Sins against the first table of the law also constitute “wickedness.” Heresy, therefore, cannot be tolerated in the body of Christ, and separation must occur on an individual or corporate scale when false teaching occurs.

The New Testament admonishes believers not to have fellowship with those in grave moral error. It follows that Christians cannot have fellowship with groups or individuals who error in the fundamental articles of the faith. For example, St. Paul is quite clear that Christians should not participate in pagan worship or have fellowship with those who engage in such worship (1 Cor. 10:18-22). Participation in sacrifice to an idol and the consumption of sacrificed meat in an idolatrous setting is an act of fellowship with those who worship false gods and through them have unwitting fellowship with demons. Paul also compares the false fellowship of pagan worship with real communion with the true God conveyed by the sacrifices of the old covenantal order (1 Cor. 10:18), as well as the Christian Eucharist (1 Cor. 10:14-17).³