The Formula of Concord - Solid Declaration

III. The Righteousness of Faith Before God

[The Status of the Controversy]

[1] The third controversy that has arisen among some theologians of the Augsburg Confession is about the righteousness of Christ or of faith, which God credits by grace, through faith, to poor sinners for righteousness.

[2] One side has contended that the righ teousness of faith, which the apostle calls God’s righteousness, is God’s essential righ teousness. They say this is Christ Himself as God’s true, natural, and essential Son, who dwells in the elect by faith and moves them to do right. And so He is their righteousness. Compared with this great ocean of righ teousness, the sins of all people are like a drop of water.

[3] Against this, others have held and taught that Christ is our righteousness according to His human nature alone.

[4] In opposition to both these groups it has been unanimously taught by the other teachers of the Augsburg Confession that Christ is our righteousness not according to His divine nature alone, nor according to His human nature alone, but according to both natures. For He has redeemed, justified, and saved us from our sins as God and man, through His complete obedience. Therefore, the righteousness of faith is the forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, and our adoption as God’s children only on account of Christ’s obedience. Christ’s obedience alone—out of pure grace—is credited for righteousness through faith alone to all true believers. They are absolved from all their unrighteousness by this obedience.

[5] Besides this controversy, other disputes have been caused and stirred up because of the Interim. Other disputes about the article of justification will be explained in antitheses, that is, listing the errors that are contrary to the pure teaching in this article. [Latin: praecipuus locus; German: höchsten vornehmslen Artickel]

[Justification by Faith]

[6] This article about justification by faith (as the Apology says) is the chief article [see Ap IV 2–3] in all Christian doctrine. Without this teaching no poor conscience can have any firm consolation or truly know the riches of Christ’s grace. Dr. Luther also has written about this:

[7] Paul says especially about this article, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump” [1 Corinthians 5:6]. Therefore, in this article he zealously and earnestly urges the use of exclusive terms [particulas exclusivas], that is, words that exclude people’s works from justification (i.e., “apart from works of the law,” “apart from works,” “by grace” [Romans 3:28; 4:6; Ephesians 2:8–9]). These show how highly necessary it is that in this article, along with the pure doctrine, the antithesis (i.e., all contrary doctrine) be stated separately, exposed, and rejected by this method.

[8] We want to explain this controversy in a Christian way by means of God’s Word, and settle it by His grace. Therefore, this is our doctrine, faith, and confession:

[9] We unanimously believe, teach, and confess the following about the righteousness of faith before God, in accordance with the comprehensive summary of our faith and confession presented above. A poor sinful person is justified before God, that is, absolved and declared free and exempt from all his sins and from the sentence of well-deserved condemnation, and is adopted into sonship and inheritance of eternal life, without any merit or worth of his own. This happens without any preceding, present, or subsequent works, out of pure grace, because of the sole merit, complete obedience, bitter suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Christ alone. His obedience is credited to us for righteousness.

[10] These treasures are brought to us by the Holy Spirit in the promise of the Holy Gospel. Faith alone is the only means through which we lay hold on, accept, apply, and take them for ourselves. [11] This faith is God’s gift [Ephesians 2:8–9], by which we truly learn to know Christ, our Redeemer, in the Word of the Gospel and trust in Him. We trust that for the sake of His obedience alone we have the forgiveness of sins by grace, are regarded as godly and righteous by God the Father, and are eternally saved. [12] Therefore, it is considered and understood to be the same thing when Paul says (a) we are “justified by faith” (Romans 3:28) or (b) “faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:5) and when he says (c) “by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19) or (d) “so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men” (Romans 5:18). [13] Faith justifies not because it is such a good work or because it is so beautiful a virtue. It justifies because it lays hold of and accepts Christ’s merit in the promise of the Holy Gospel. For this merit must be applied and become ours through faith, if we are to be justified by it. [14] Therefore, the righteousness that is credited to faith or to the believer out of pure grace is Christ’s obedience, suffering, and resurrection, since He has made satisfaction for us to the Law and paid for ‹expiated› our sins. [15] Christ is not man alone, but God and man in one undivided person. Therefore, He was hardly subject to the Law (because He is the Lord of the Law), just as He didn’t have to suffer and die for His own sake. For this reason, then, His obedience (not only in His suffering and dying, but also because He was voluntarily made under the Law in our place and fulfilled the Law by this obedience) is credited to us for righteousness. So, because of this complete obedience, which He rendered to His heavenly Father for us by doing and suffering and in living and dying, God forgives our sins. He regards us as godly and righteous, and He eternally saves us. [16] This righteousness is brought to us by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel and in the Sacraments. It is applied, taken, and received through faith. Therefore, believers have reconciliation with God, forgiveness of sins, God’s grace, sonship, and are heirs of eternal life.

[17] The word justify here means to declare righteous and free from sins and to absolve a person from eternal punishment for the sake of Christ’s righteousness, which is credited by God to faith (Philippians 3:9). This use and understanding of this word is common in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament.

[The Term Regeneration]

[18] The word regeneration is sometimes used for the word justification. Therefore, it is necessary that this word be properly explained, in order that the renewal that follows justification by faith may not be confused with the actual justification by faith, but that they may be properly distinguished from each other.

[19] In the first place, the word regeneration(regeneratio) is used to mean both the forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake alone and, at the same time, the succeeding renewal that the Holy Spirit works in those who are justified by faith. Then again, it is sometimes used to mean only the forgiveness of sins and that we are adopted as God’s sons. It is in this latter sense that the word is used much of the time in the Apology, where it is written that justification before God is regeneration. St. Paul, too, has used these words as distinct from each other:

[20] The words “making alive” have sometimes been used in a similar sense. For when a person is justified through faith (which the Holy Spirit alone does), this is truly a regeneration. In this he becomes a child of God instead of a child of wrath [Ephesians 2:3]. So he is transferred from death to life, as it is written, “When we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ” [Ephesians 2:5]. Likewise, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17 [see also Habakkuk 2:4]). This is how the word is usually used in the Apology.

[21] Again, it is often used for sanctification and renewal, which follows the righteousness of faith. Dr. Luther has used it this way in his book about the Church and the Councils, and elsewhere [e.g., LW 41:114].

[22] We teach that through the Holy Spirit’s work we are born anew and justified. But the sense is not that after regeneration no unrighteousness clings anymore to the justified and regenerate in their being and life. It means that Christ covers all their sins (which in this life still dwell in nature) with His complete obedience. But despite this they are declared and regarded godly and righteous by faith and for the sake of Christ’s obedience (which Christ rendered to the Father for us from His birth to His most humiliating death on the cross [Philippians 2:8]). Still, because of their corrupt nature, they are and will remain sinners to the grave. Nor, on the other hand, is this the meaning: without repentance, conversion, and renewal we can or should yield to sins and remain and continue in them.

[23] True contrition must come first. Out of pure grace, for the sake of the only Mediator, Christ [1 Timothy 2:5], without any works and merit, people are righteous before God in the way stated above (i.e., they are received into grace). The Holy Spirit is also given to them. He renews and sanctifies them and works in them love for God and for their neighbor. But the beginning of renewal is imperfect in this life. Sin still dwells in the flesh, even in the regenerate. Therefore, the righteousness of faith before God comes from the free crediting of Christ’s righteousness, without the addition of our works. So our sins are forgiven us and covered and are not charged against us (Romans 4:6–8).

[24] If the article of justification is to remain pure, the greatest attention must be given with special diligence. Otherwise, what comes before faith, and what follows after it, will be mixed together or inserted into the article of justification as necessary and belonging to it. For it is not one and the same thing to talk about conversion and to talk about justification.

[25] Not everything that belongs to conversion also belongs to the article of justification. Only God’s grace, Christ’s merit, and faith belong and are necessary to the article of justification. Faith receives these blessings in the promise of the Gospel, by which Christ’s righteousness is credited to us. From this we receive and have forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, sonship, and are made heirs of eternal life.

[26] True, saving faith is not in people who lack contrition and sorrow and who have a wicked plan to remain and continue in sins. But true contrition comes first, and genuine faith is in or with true repentance.

[27] Love is a fruit that surely and necessarily also follows true faith. The fact that a person does not love is a sure sign that he is not justified. He is still in death or has lost the righteousness of faith again, as John says (1 John 3:14). But Paul says [in Romans 3:28], “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” He shows that neither the contrition that comes first, nor the works that follow, belong in the article or action of justification by faith. Good works do not come before justification, but follow it. A person must first be justified before he can do good works.

[28] In the same way, renewal and sanctification also do not belong in the article or matter of justification before God, even though it is a benefit of the Mediator, Christ, and a work of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification follows justification since, on account of our corrupt flesh, sanctification is not entirely perfect and complete in this life. Dr. Luther writes well about this in his beautiful and large commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, in which he says the following:

That’s what Luther says.

[30] Troubled hearts should have a firm, sure consolation. Also, due honor should be given to Christ’s merit and God’s grace. Therefore, the Scriptures teach that the righteousness of faith before God stands only in the gracious reconciliation or the forgiveness of sins, which is presented to us out of pure grace, only for the sake of the merit of the Mediator, Christ. This is received through faith alone in the Gospel promise. In the same way also, in justification before God, faith relies neither on contrition nor on love or other virtues. Faith relies on Christ alone and on His complete obedience by which He has fulfilled the Law for us. This obedience is credited to believers for righteousness.

[31] Furthermore, neither contrition nor love nor any other virtue, but faith alone is the only means and instrument by which, and through which, we can receive and accept God’s grace, Christ’s merit, and the forgiveness of sins, which are brought to us in the Gospel promise.

[32] It is also correct to say that believers who have been justified through faith in Christ first have the righteousness of faith credited to them in this life. Then, they also have the initial righteousness of the new obedience or of good works. But these two types of righteousness must not be mixed with each other or both be injected into the article of justification by faith before God. For this initial righteousness or renewal in us is incomplete and impure in this life because of the flesh. A person cannot stand with and ‹on the ground of this righteousness› before God’s court. Before God’s court only the righteousness of Christ’s obedience, suffering, and death—which is credited to faith—can stand. So only for the sake of this obedience is the person pleasing and acceptable to God and received into adoption and made an heir of eternal life. (This is true even after his renewal, when he has already many good works and lives the best life.)

[33] Here belongs also what St. Paul writes in Romans 4:3. Abraham was justified before God through faith alone, for the sake of the Mediator, without the cooperation of his works. This was true not only when Abraham was first converted from idolatry and had no good works, but also afterward, when he had been renewed by the Holy Spirit and adorned with many excellent good works (Genesis 15:6; Hebrews 11:8). Paul asks the following question in Romans 4:1–3: At that time, on what did Abraham’s righteousness before God rest for everlasting life, by which he had a gracious God and was pleasing and acceptable to Him?

[34] He answers:

[35] Therefore, even though people who are converted and believe ‹in Christ› have the beginning of renewal, sanctification, love, virtue, and good works, these cannot and should not be drawn into, or mixed with, the article of justification before God. This is so the honor due to Christ may remain with Christ the Redeemer and tempted consciences may have a sure consolation, since our new obedience is incomplete and impure.

[The Exclusive Terms]

[36] This is what the apostle Paul means when he urges so diligently and zealously the exclusive terms in this article of faith (i.e., the words by which works are excluded from the article of justification: by grace, without merit, without works, not of works.) These exclusives are all summed up in this expression: Through faith alone in Christ we are justified before God and saved[Romans 3:28]. For thereby works are excluded. This does not mean that a true faith can exist without contrition, or that good works should, must, and dare not follow true faith as sure and undoubtable fruit. It does not mean that believers dare not or must not do anything good. But good works are excluded from the article of justification before God because they must not be drawn into, woven into, or mixed with the act of justifying poor sinners before God. They are not necessary. They do not belong to this act. The true sense of the exclusive terms in the article of justification comes from the following, which should also be taught in this article with all diligence and seriousness:

[37] 1. Through these terms all our own works, merit, worthiness, glory, and confidence in all our works are entirely excluded from the article of justification. So our works shall not stand or be regarded as the cause or the merit of justification—not entirely, not half, not in the least part—upon which God could or ought to look. We cannot rely on our works in this article and action.

[38] 2. This remains the office and property of faith alone. It alone, and nothing else, is the means or instrument with and through which God’s grace and Christ’s merit in the Gospel promise are received, apprehended, accepted, applied to us, and appropriated. Love and all other virtues or works are excluded from this office and property of such application or appropriation.

[39] 3. Neither renewal, sanctification, virtues, nor good works are at all a form, part, or cause of justification, that is, our righteousness before God. They are not to stand or be set up as a part or cause of our righteousness. They are not to be mixed into the article of justification under any pretext, title, or name whatever, as though they are necessary and belong to justification. The righteousness of faith stands alone in the forgiveness of sins out of pure grace, for the sake of Christ’s merit alone. These blessings are brought to us in the Gospel promise and are received, accepted, applied, and appropriated through faith alone.

[40] In the same way the order between faith and good works must remain and be maintained, just as the order between justification and renewal (or sanctification) must be maintained.

[41] Good works do not come before faith, neither does sanctification come before justification. First, in conversion faith is kindled in us by the Holy Spirit from the hearing of the Gospel. Faith lays hold of God’s grace in Christ, by which the person is justified. Then, when the person is justified, he is also renewed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. From this renewal and sanctification the fruit of good works then follow. This should not be understood as though justification and renewal were separated from one another in such a way that a genuine faith sometimes could exist and continue for a time together with evil intention. Only the order ‹of causes and effects, of antecedents and consequents› is indicated, how one comes first or follows the other. What Luther has correctly said remains true:

Yet it is never, ever, alone. This has been set forth above.

[42] Many disputes are usefully explained well by this true distinction. The Apology shows this in reference to James 2:20, 24. For when we speak of faith and how it justifies, we refer to the doctrine of St. Paul: that faith alone, without works, justifies [Romans 3:28]. This is because faith alone applies and makes Christ’s merit our own, as has been said. But if the question is about where and how a Christian can see and distinguish, either in himself or in others, a true living faith from a false and dead faith, that is a different matter. Many useless, secure Christians dream up a delusion for themselves in place of faith, even though they have no true faith. The Apology gives this answer: “James calls that a dead faith where good works and fruit of the Spirit of every kind do not follow.” And to this effect the Latin edition of the Apology says, “St. James teaches correctly when he denies that we are justified by a faith that lacks works, which is dead faith.”

[43] James speaks, as the Apology says, about the works of those who have already been justified through Christ, reconciled with God, and received forgiveness of sins through Christ. If the question is about how faith has this result and what belongs to faith so that it justifies and saves, it is false and incorrect to say that faith cannot justify without works. Or, faith justifies or makes righteous if it has love with it, for the sake of which love justification is ascribed to faith. Or, the presence of works with faith is necessary if a person is to be justified by faith before God. Or, the presence of good works in the article of justification, or for justification, is needful, so that good works are a cause without which a person cannot be justified, and that they are not really excluded from the article of justification by the exclusive terms: without works, and such (i.e., when St. Paul says, absque operibus). For faith makes righteous only because, as a means and instrument, it lays hold of, and accepts, God’s grace and Christ’s merit in the Gospel promise.

[Negative Statements]

[44] Let this be enough, according to the plan of this document, as a summary explanation of the doctrine of justification by faith. For this is described at length in the above-mentioned writings. From these, the antitheses (i.e., the false contrary doctrines) also are clear. In other words, in addition to the errors listed above, the following and similar errors must be rebuked, exposed, and rejected, since they conflict with the explanation now published, as when it is taught:

[45] 1. Our love or good works are a merit or cause of justification before God, either entirely or at least in part.

[46] 2. Or by good works a person must make himself worthy and fit so that Christ’s merit may be given to him.

[47] 3. Our real righteousness before God is the love or renewal the Holy Spirit works in us and which is in us.

[48] 4. Or two things or parts belong to the righteousness of faith before God: (a) the gracious forgiveness of sins, and then, (b) renewal or sanctification.

[49] 5. Faith justifies only initially, either in part or primarily, and that our newness or love justifies even before God, either completely or secondarily.

[50] 6. Believers are justified before God, or are righteous before God, both by credit and by beginning to act righteous at the same time, or partly by the credit of Christ’s righteousness and partly by the beginning of new obedience.

[51] 7. The application of the promise of grace happens both by faith of the heart and confession of the mouth, and also by other virtues. This means that faith makes righteous for this reason alone, that righteousness is begun in us by faith, or (in this way) that faith takes the first step in justification. Nevertheless, renewal and love also belong to our righteousness before God. However, love belongs in such a way that it is not the chief cause of our righteousness. But our righteousness before God is not entire and complete without such love and renewal. Likewise, believers are justified and righteous before God at the same time by the righteousness given by Christ and the initial, new obedience, or in part by the crediting of Christ’s righteousness and in part by beginning new obedience. Likewise, the promise of grace is gained for us by faith in the heart and confession made with the mouth, and by other virtues.

[52] This is incorrect—a person must be saved in some other way or through something other than justification before God. So we are indeed justified before God through faith alone, without works. But it is impossible to be saved without works or obtain salvation without works.

[53] This is false because it is directly opposed to the declaration of Paul, “[Blessed is] the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works” (Romans 4:6). Paul’s reason is that we receive both salvation and righteousness in one and the same way. In fact, when we are justified through faith, we receive adoption at the same time and are made heirs of eternal life and salvation. For this reason Paul uses and emphasizes the exclusive terms, that is, those words by which works and our own merits are entirely excluded. He uses “by grace,” “apart from works,” as forcibly in the article about salvation as in the article about righteousness.

[Our Righteousness]

[54] The dispute about God’s essential righteousness dwelling in us must also be correctly explained. In the elect (who are justified by Christ and reconciled with God), God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (who is the eternal and essential righteousness) dwells by faith. (For all Christians are temples of God [1 Corinthians 3:16–17] the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who also moves them to do right.) Yet this indwelling of God is not the righteousness of faith St. Paul describes and that he calls God’s righteousness for the sake of which we are declared righteous before God. But it comes after the righteousness of faith, which is nothing else than the forgiveness of sins and the gracious adoption of the poor sinner for the sake of Christ’s obedience and merit alone.

[55] In our churches it is acknowledged among the theologians of the Augsburg Confession that all our righteousness is to be sought outside the merits, works, virtues, and worthiness of ourselves and of all people. Our righteousness rests alone on Christ the Lord. Therefore, how Christ is called our Righteousness in this matter of justification must be carefully considered. I mean, that our righteousness rests not on one or the other nature in Christ, but on Christ’s entire person, who as God and man is our Righteousness in His only, entire, and complete obedience.

[56] Even if Christ had been conceived and born without sin by the Holy Spirit and had fulfilled all righteousness in His human nature alone, and yet had not been true and eternal God, this obedience and suffering of His human nature could not be credited to us for righteousness. Also, if God’s Son had not become man, the divine nature alone could not be our righteousness. Therefore, we believe, teach, and confess that the entire obedience of Christ’s entire person (which He has offered to the Father for us, even to His most humiliating death on the cross) is credited to us for righteousness. For the human nature alone, without the divine, could not by obedience or suffering make satisfaction to eternal, almighty God for the sins of all the world. However, the divinity alone, without the humanity, could not mediate between God and us.

[57] As mentioned above, the obedience not only of one nature, but of the entire person, is a complete satisfaction and atonement for the human race. By this obedience God’s eternal, unchangeable righteousness, revealed in the Law, has been satisfied. So our righteousness benefits us before God and is revealed in the Gospel. Faith relies on this before God, which God credits to faith, as it is written in Romans 5:19:

[58] Neither Christ’s divine nor human nature by itself is credited to us for righteousness, but only the obedience of the person who is at the same time God and man. And faith thus values Christ’s person because it was made under the Law [Galatians 4:4] for us and bore our sins, and, in His going to the Father, He offered to His heavenly Father for us poor sinners His entire, complete obedience. This extends from His holy birth even unto death. In this way, He has covered all our disobedience, which dwells in our nature, and its thoughts, words, and works. So disobedience is not charged against us for condemnation. It is pardoned and forgiven out of pure grace alone, for Christ’s sake.

[Other Negative Statements]

[59] We unanimously reject and condemn (besides the above-mentioned) the following and all similar errors, as contrary to God’s Word, the doctrine of the prophets and apostles, and our Christian faith:

[60] 1. When it is taught that Christ is our righteousness before God according to His divine nature alone.

[61] 2. Christ is our righteousness according to His human nature alone.

[62] 3. In the passages from the prophets and apostles, when the righteousness of faith is spoken of, the words justify and to be justified do not mean to declare free from sins and to receive the forgiveness of sins. But they mean actual and real righteousness because of love infused by the Holy Spirit, virtues, and the works following from it.

[63] 4. Faith looks not only to Christ’s obedience, but also to His divine nature as it dwells and works in us. By this indwelling our sins are covered before God.

[64] 5. Faith is the kind of trust in Christ’s obedience that can be and remain in a person even though he has no genuine repentance, even though no love follows, but he continues in sins against his conscience.

[65] 6. God does not dwell in believers, only God’s gifts dwell in them.

[66] These and similar errors, one and all, we unanimously reject as contrary to God’s clear Word. By God’s grace we abide firmly and constantly in the doctrine of the righteousness of faith before God, as it is embodied, expounded, and proved from God’s Word in the Augsburg Confession, and the Apology issued after it.

[67] Concerning what is needed further for the proper explanation of this profound and chief article of justification before God—upon which depends the salvation of our souls—we direct readers to another document. For the sake of brevity we refer everyone to Dr. Luther’s beautiful and glorious commentary on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians [1535]. [LW 26–27]