erated; and they are in no way contrary to the form of sound terms and expressions. 5. Yet by the words, necessity and necessary, when speaking of the regenerated, we should understand, not a constraint, but only the due obedience which true believers render, so far as they are regen. erated, not from compulsion of the law, but from a free spontaneous spirit, since they are no more under the law, but under grace, Rom. 6, 14, 15. 6. Accordingly we also believe, teach, and confess, that when it is said, "The regenerated perform good works out of a free spirit," it should not be understood as if it lay in the will or choice of the regenerated person to do good or to omit it, when he pleases, and nevertheless be able to retain faith, although he persevere in sin designedly. 7. Yet this is to be understood not otherwise than Christ the Lord and his apostles themselves have declared, namely, concerning the freed spirit, that it performs these services, not through fear of punishment, like a servant, but through love of righteousness, like a child, Rom. 8, 15. 8. This voluntariness, however, in the elect children of God, is not perfect, but it is encumbered with great weakness, as St. Paul, Rom. 7, 14, 24, Gal. 5, 17, complains concerning himself. 9. Which weakness the Lord does not, however, impute to his elect, for the sake of Christ the Lord; as it is written, Rom. 8, 1: "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." 10. We believe, teach, and confess, moreover, that works do not preserve or retain faith and salvation in us, but the Spirit of God alone preserves salvation through faith; of whose presence and indwelling good works are testimonies, NEGATIVE, False doctrine of the opponents. 1. We accordingly reject and condemn this manner of expression, when it is taught and written,―that good works are necessary to salvation; again, that no one has ever been saved without good works; again, that it is impossible to be saved without good works. 2. We reject and condemn this bare expression as offensive and disadvantageous to Christian discipline, when it is said, good works are pernicious to salvation, For especially in these latter times, is it no less necessary to encourage the people to Christian discipline and good works, as to admonish them to exercise themselves in good works for the manifestation of their faith and their gratitude to God, than that works should not be intermingled in the article concerning justification; since men can incur condemnation, as well through an indolent confidence in faith, as through the papistical and pharisaical trust in one's own works and merits. 3. We also reject and condemn the doctrine, that faith and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are not lost through wilful sin, but that the saints and the elect retain the Holy Spirit, even if they fall into adultery and other sins, and persevere in them. V. OF THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. The chief question in this controversy. Whether the preaching of the holy Gospel be properly, not only a preaching of grace, which announces the forgiveness of sins to us, but also a preaching of repentance, reproving the sin of unbelief, which is not reproved in the law, but through the Gospel alone. AFFIRMATIVE. Pure doctrine of the word of God. 1. We believe, teach, and confess, that the distinction between the Law and the Gospel which is a peculiar, a glorious light, is to be retained in the church with the greatest fidelity, so that the word of God may be rightly divided, according to the admonition of St. Paul, 2 Tim. 2, 15. 2. We believe, teach, and confess, that the law is properly a divine doctrine, which teaches what is right and pleasing to God, and censures all that is sin and contrary to the will of God. 3. Therefore all that reproves sin, has immediate reference to the preaching of the law. 4. But the Gospel is properly a revelation which teaches what man, who has not kept the law and is condemned by it, should believe; namely, that Christ has atoned for and expiated all sins, and obtained and procured for him, without any of his merit, remission of sins, righteousness which prevails before God, and eternal life. 5. Inasmuch, however, as the word Gospel is not always used in one and the same sense in Holy Writ, from which circumstance too, this controversy originally sprang,—we believe, teach, and confess, when by the word Gospel, the whole doctrine of Christ which he held forth in his ministerial office, as also his apostles did, is understood, (in which sense it is used in Mark 1, 14, 15; Acts 20, 21,) that it is rightly said and written, that the Gospel is a declaration concerning repentance and remission of sins. 6. But when the Law and the Gospel, as also Moses as a teacher of the Law, and Christ as a preacher of the Gospel, are compared together, we believe, teach, and confess, that the Gospel is not a declaration of repentance, reproving sin, but properly nothing else than an instrument of consolation and of joyful news, neither reproving nor terrifying, but consoling the conscience against the terror of the law, pointing to the merits of Christ alone, and by the cheering promises of grace and favor from God, obtained through the merits of Christ, raises us up again. 7. With respect to what belongs to the revelation of sins, since the veil of Moses hangs before the eyes of all persons, as long as they hear the mere preaching of the law, and nothing concerning Christ, and thus do not learn from the law to perceive their sins rightly, but either become presumptuous hypocrites like the Pharisees, or despair like Judas: Christ, Matt. 5, 17, sqq. Rom. 7, 14, takes the law in his hands, and explains it spiritually, and thus the wrath of God, however great it be, is revealed from heaven against all sinners, Rom. 1, 18, by which they are pointed to the law, and then first learn from it to perceive their sins rightly, which perception Moses never could have effected in them. Although, therefore, discourses about the passion and death of Christ, the Son of God, are full of terror and intensity, pointing out the wrath of God, by which the people are first rightly led into the law after the veil of Moses is removed, to let them clearly perceive what great things God requires of them in the law, none of which they are able to observe, and accordingly they must seek all their righteousness in Christ. 8. Yet as long as the suffering and death of Christ, place the wrath of God before our eyes and terrify mankind, so long is this, not a declaration of the Gospel, but an exhibition of the law and of Moses; it is a different operation of Christ's by which he advances to his peculiar office,-to preach the grace of God, to console, and to renovate-this is the appropriate declaration of the Gospel. NEGATIVE. The contrary doctrine, which is rejected. Accordingly we reject and hold as wrong and pernicious, the doctrine, that the Gospel is properly defined a preaching of repentance, reproving, accusing, and condemning sins, and not a preaching of grace alone; by which doctrine, the Gospel is again transformed into a teaching of the law, the merits of Christ and the holy Scripture are obscured, the Christians deprived of the true consolation, and the door opened again to the papistical errors and superstitions. VI. OF THE THIRD USE OF THE LAW. The chief question in this controversy. Inasmuch as the law was given to man for three different purposes-First, that through it external discipline might be preserved against the vile and disobedient; second, that through it men might be led to a knowledge of their sins; third, after they, to whom however the flesh still adheres, are regenerated, that on account of this they might have a certain rule, according to which they should direct and regulate their whole lives: a controversy has arisen between some few theologians concerning the third use of the law; namely, whether it is to be urged among the regenerated Christians too, or not. The one party contended that it should, the other, that it should not. AFFIRMATIVE. The right Christian doctrine concerning this controversy. 1. We believe, teach, and confess, that, although those who sincerely believe in Christ and are truly converted to God, are liberated and acquitted from the curse and constraint of the law, through Christ; yet they are not, for this reason, without law, but they are redeemed by the Son of God, in order that they should exercise themselves in it day and night, Psalm 1, 2; 119, 1. For our first parents did also not live without law before the fall, in whose hearts the law of God was written, when they were created in the image of God, Gen. 2, 16; 3, 3. 2. We believe, teach, and confess, that the preaching of the law is to be urged with diligence, not only among those who have no faith in Christ, and are impenitent, but also among those who sincerely be lieve in Christ, who are truly converted to God, who are regenerated, and who are justified through faith. 3. For even if they are regenerated, and in the operations of their minds, renovated, yet this regeneration and renovation is not perfect in this world, but only commenced. And believers are, with the operations of their minds, in a continual struggle against the flesh, against the corrupted nature and quality, which adhere to us till death, Gal. 5, 17; Rom. 7, 23. And on account of this Adamic nature, which still inheres in the intellect, will, and all the powers of man, it is necessary that the law of God shine before him continually, in order that he may not through human devotion assume self-chosen and selected services to God, Rom. 12, 1; again, in order that the old Adam may not use his own will, but be constrained, not only by admonitions and menaces of the law, but also by chastisements and plagues, against his will, to follow, and yield himself captive to the Spirit. (1 Cor. 9, 27; Rom. 6, 12; Gal. 6, 14; Psalms 119, 1; Heb. 13, 21.) 4. Touching the difference between the works of the law, and the fruits of the Spirit, we believe, teach, and confess, that the works which are done according to the law, are called works of the law, as long as they are forced from man by the dread of punishment and by the threatening of the wrath of God. 5. But the fruits of the Spirit are those works which the Spirit of God, dwelling in believers, performs through the regenerated, and which are done by the believers, so far as they are regenerated, as if they had received no command, heard no threat, and expected no remuneration. In this manner then the children of God live in the law, and conduct themselves according to the law of God; which manner of living St. Paul in his Epistles, calls the law of Christ, and the law of the mind, Rom. 7, 25; 8, 7; Gal. 6, 2. 6. Thus the law remains, both with the penitent and the impenitent, with regenerated and unregenerated men, one only law, namely, the immutable will of God. And the difference, so far as it pertains to the obedience, is in the persons alone, where one who is not yet regenerated, renders to the law, through constraint and unwillingness, that which is required of him, (as also the regenerated do according to the flesh,) but the believer, without constraint, with a free spontaneous spirit, so far as he is regenerated, renders such obedience as no threat of the law could ever force from him |