III. The Righteousness of Faith Before God
Status of the Controversy
The Chief Question In This Controversy
[1] It is unanimously confessed in our churches, in accordance with God’s Word and the meaning of the Augsburg Confession, that we poor sinners are justified before God and saved alone through faith in Christ. Christ alone is our Righteousness, who is true God and man, because in Him the divine and human natures are personally united with each other (Jeremiah 23:6; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21). The question has arisen: “According to which nature is Christ our Righteousness?” From this, two opposing errors have arisen in some churches.
[2] One side has held that Christ, according to His divinity alone, is our Righteousness, if He dwells in us through faith. Contrasted with this divinity, dwelling in us through faith, the sins of all people must be regarded as a drop of water compared to a great ocean. Others, on the contrary, have held that Christ is our Righteousness before God according to His human nature alone.
Affirmative Statements
The Pure Teaching of the Christian Churches against Both Errors Just Mentioned
[3] 1. Against both the errors just mentioned, we unanimously believe, teach, and confess that Christ is our Righteousness [1 Corinthians 1:30] neither according to His divine nature alone nor according to His human nature alone. But it is the entire Christ who is our Righteousness according to both natures. In His obedience alone, which as God and man He offered to the Father even to His death [Philippians 2:8], He merited for us the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. For it is written, “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).
[4] 2. We believe, teach, and confess what our righteousness before God is this: God forgives our sins out of pure grace, without any work, merit, or worthiness of ours preceding, present, or following. He presents and credits to us the righteousness of Christ’s obedience [Romans 5:17–19]. Because of this righteousness, we are received into grace by God and regarded as righteous.
[5] 3. We believe, teach, and confess that faith alone is the means and instrument through which we lay hold of Christ. So in Christ we lay hold of that righteousness that benefits us before God [Romans 1:17], for whose sake this faith is credited to us for righteousness (Romans 4:5).
[6] 4. We believe, teach, and confess that this faith is not a bare knowledge of Christ’s history, but it is God’s gift [Ephesians 2:8]. By this gift we come to the right knowledge of Christ as our Redeemer in the Word of the Gospel. And we trust in Him that for the sake of His obedience alone we have—by grace—the forgiveness of sins and are regarded as holy and righteous before God the Father and are eternally saved.
[7] 5. We believe, teach, and confess that according to the usage of Holy Scripture the word justify means, in this article, “to absolve, that is, to declare free from sins.” Proverbs 17:15 says, “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.” Also Romans 8:33 says, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.”
[8] At times the words regeneration and renewal of life (regeneratio and vivificatio) are used in place of justify, as in the Apology. This is done with the same meaning. But, in other places, the renewal of a person is understood by these terms and is distinguished from justification through faith.
[9] 6. We believe, teach, and confess that many weaknesses and defects cling to the true believers and truly regenerate, even up to the day they are buried [1 John 1:8]. Still, they must not on that account doubt either their righteousness, which has been credited to them through faith, or the salvation of their souls. They must regard it as certain that for Christ’s sake, according to the promise and ‹immovable› Word of the Holy Gospel, they have a gracious God.
[10] 7. We believe, teach, and confess that it is necessary to teach with special diligence the particulae exclusivae for the preservation of the pure doctrine about the righteousness of faith before God. We mean the exclusive particles, that is, the following words of the holy apostle Paul, by which Christ’s merit is entirely separated from our works and the honor is given to Christ alone. For the holy apostle Paul writes, “Of grace,” “without merit,” “without Law,” “without works,” “not of works.” All these words together mean that we are justified and saved through faith alone in Christ [Ephesians 2:8; Romans 1:17; 3:24; 4:3–25; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 11].
[11] 8. We believe, teach, and confess that the contrition that comes before justification, and the good works that follow it, do not belong to the article of justification before God. Yet one is not to imagine a kind of faith that can exist and abide with, and alongside of, a wicked intention to sin and to act against the conscience. But after man has been justified through faith, then a true living faith works by love (Galatians 5:6). Good works always follow justifying faith and are surely found with it—if it is true and living faith [James 2:26]. Faith is never alone, but always has love and hope with it [1 Corinthians 13:13].
Antitheses or Negative
Statements
Contrary Teaching Rejected
[12] We reject and condemn all the following errors:
[13] 1. Christ is our Righteousness according to His divine nature alone.
[14] 2. Christ is our Righteousness according to His human nature alone.
[15] 3. Where the righteousness of faith is spoken of in the sayings of the prophets and apostles, the words justify and to be justified are not to mean “declaring or being declared free from sins,” and “obtaining the forgiveness of sins.” But they actually mean “being made righteous before God, because of love infused by the Holy Spirit, virtues, and the works following them.”
[16] 4. Faith not only looks to Christ’s obedience, but also to His divine nature, since it dwells and works in us, and by this indwelling our sins are covered.
[17] 5. Faith is the sort of trust in Christ’s obedience that can exist and remain in a person even when he has no genuine repentance, in whom also no love follows, but who persists in sins against his conscience.
[18] 6. Not God Himself, but only God’s gifts dwell in believers.
[19] 7. Faith saves on this account: because the renewal by faith is begun in us, which dwells in love for God and one’s neighbor.
[20] 8. Faith has the first place in justification, yet renewal and love also belong to our righteousness before God in a particular way. Although ‹renewal and love› are not the chief cause of our righteousness, nevertheless our righteousness before God is not entire or perfect without such love and renewal.
[21] 9. Believers are justified before God and saved jointly by Christ’s righteousness credited to them and by the new obedience begun in them. Or, believers are justified in part by the credit of Christ’s righteousness, but in part also by the new obedience begun in them.
[22] 10. The promise of grace is made our own through faith in the heart, by the confession made with the mouth, and by other virtues.
[23] 11. Faith does not justify without good works, so that good works are necessarily required for righteousness, and without their presence a person cannot be justified.