Few Lutherans to-day adhere to Luther's dogma that "good works are to be excluded not only when the discussion concerns justification, but also when our eternal salvation is the question." Most of them would assert that we have no right to inter- pret the numerous Scriptural expressions concerning God's judgment as showing that he regards good fruits only as indications of faith, upon which alone everything depends, but that he appreciates them and the good conscience from which they proceed according to the value which the good in itself has for him. Man, possessing perfection only in a measure, may, and should, find favor in a measure with God. In view of the ideal of perfection, his state will bring him no joy, but only shame and pain and anxiety. It is not "perfection" at all from the point of view of the law. It has value only in the Father's loving eyes, upon which the mortal has no claim. Does this do justice to the certainty of salvation? It is a common Lutheran misunderstanding of the Lutheran certainty of salvation to assume that the Christian is as sure of his salvation as he is, say, of his mortality. The Christian is heir to salvation, but not necessarily possessor of it. His faith is the key to a priceless treasure, but in order to possess that treasure he must guard and perfect the key. .He does not, it is true, according to Luther, attain to blessedness because of his perfected faith, but because of the Savior who is the judge that pronounces happiness. The perfected faith, however, is the means of ascending to the Savior. Luther himself in his wrestling with his own soul had no such certainty of salvation. He placed so much emphasis upon faith because in his view everything depends upon Christ, "which fact must be believed and can not be attained or grasped in any other way by any work, law, or merit." But the Christian believer, for whom the rule of grace obtains, can and should bring fruits which, though not according to the dispensation of the law, pass for a certain "per fection" according to the dispensation of grace. That the anxiety concerning the persistent imperfection of this "perfection" threatens the certainty of future blessedness does not make this view a kind of sub-Lutheran Christianity. According to Luther, this very imperfection of the receptive power of faith is the never-failing point of concern. The shattered certainty of Salvation becomes whole again through the faith that " God is greater than the heart and knows all things."
The specifically Lutheran dogma which condemns the principles that good works are necessary to blessedness and that it is impassible to attain blessedness without good works, does not do sufficient justice to the entire religion of the New Testament. This is a combination of the religion of salvation or atonement with a religion of morality, which makes the Roman Catholic decline into a combination of religion of salvation with a religion of legality comprehensible. According to the Council of Trent, the Savior, by means of the power that constantly streams from him into the justified, brings it about that nothing of reward is lacking to those who have fully accomplished the Divine law and have deserved eternal life. In opposition to the view of certain theologians that at the judgment the merit of Christ will have to be added anew, it is maintained that the justified can, with his good works which are God's gifts of grace as well as his own good deserts, make oneself secure before the tribunal of God without any other im putation of justice (G. Thomasius, Die chrisaiche Dogmengeschichte, eel. Bonwetsch and Seeberg, ii. 698, Leipsic, 1889). These views of a complete ful filment of the law and of a claim to a just reward are unchristian. See Consilia Evangelica; Ethics; Law and Gospel; and Major, Georg.
Bibliography: The subject is often treated in works on systematic theology, for a list of which see Dogma, Dogmatics; also in those upon ethics (q.v.). Consult also the literature on the articles to which reference is made in the text. For the Jewish doctrine consult: F. Weber, Jüdische Theologie, eel. F. Delitseah and G. Schnedermann, Leipsic, 1897; P. Vols, Jüdische Eschatologie roan Daniel Us Akiba, Tübingen, 1903; W. Bousset, Die Religion doe Judentume im neutestamentlichen Zeitolter, Berlin, 1908; O. Holtsmann, Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte, § 33, Tübingen, 1906. For the doctrine in the New Testament consult the works in and under Biblical Theology. On the doctrine in the Church and in ethics special treatment is in: B. Thieme, Die sittliehs Triebkraft des Glaubens, Lelpsic, 1895 (on Luther); C. E. Luthard, %ompendium der theologischcn Ethik, § 42. Leipsic, 1898; Bensow, in Beiträge zur Fbrderung chridlicher Theologie, a. 2 (1908); F. Loafs, Doymengeschichte, Halle, 1908; J. Gotteehiek, Ethik, i § 14 sqq., Tübingen, 1907. For the Roman Catholic side consult: F. A. GSpfert, Moraltheologie, vol. i., Pader born, 1905; KL, rii. 132"1.
| Calvin College. Last modified on 08/11/06. Contact the CCEL. |  |