Gerðir kirkjuþings - 1995, Page 120

- 'Luther and his followers go a step farther: They urge that the uncertainty should
not merely be endured. We should avert our eyes from it and take seriously, practi-
cally, and personally the objective efficacy of the absolution pronounced in the sacra-
ment of penance, which comes ’from outside.’ ... Since Jesus said, ’Whatever you loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven’ (Matt. 16:19), the believer ... would declare Christ
to be a liar ... if he did not rely with a rock-Iike assurance on the forgiveness of God
uttered in the absolution ... that this reliance can itself be subjectively uncertain - that
the assurance of forgiveness is not a security of forgiveness (securitasj; but this must
not be tumed into yet another problem, so to speak: the believer should turn his eyes
away from it, and should look only to Christ’s word of forgiveness' (LV:E 54f).
- 'Today Catholics can appreciate the Reformer’s efforts to ground faith in the objec-
tive reality of Christ’s promise, ’whatsoever you loose on earth ....’ and to focus
believers on the specific word of absolution from sins. ... Luther’s original concem to
teach people to look away from their experience, and to rely on Christ alone and his
word of forgiveness [is not to be condemnedj' (PCPCU 24).
- A mutual condemnation regarding the understanding of the assurance of salvation
'can even less provide grounds for mutual objection today - particularly if we start
from the foundation of a biblically renewed concept of faith. For a person can certainly
lose or renounce faith, and self-commitment to God and his word of promise. But if he
believes in this sense, he cannot at the same time believe that God is unreliable in his
word of promise. In this sense it is tme today also that - in Luther’s words - faith is
the assurance of salvation' (LV:E 56).
- With reference to the concept of faith of Vatican II see Dogmatic Constitution on
Divine Revelation, no. 5: '’The obedience of faith’ ... must be given to God who
reveals, an obedience by which man entrusts his whole self freely to God, offering ’the
full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals,’ and freely assenting to the
truth revealed by Him.'
- 'The Lutheran distinction between the certitude (certitudó\ of faith which looks alone
to Christ and earthly seairity (securitas), which is based on the human being, has not
been dealt with clearly enough in the LV. ... Faith never reflects on itself, but depends
completely on God, whose grace is bestowed through word and sacrament, thus from
outside (extra nos)' (VELKD 92,2-9).
To 4.7: The Good Works of the Justified (paras. 39-41)
(LV:E 66ff, VELKD 90ff)
- 'But the Council excludes the possibility of eaming grace - that is, justification - (can.
2; DS 1552) and bases the eaming or merit of eternal life on the gift of grace itself,
through membership in Christ (can. 32: DS 1582). Good works are ’merits’ as a gift.
Although the Reformers attack ’Godless tmst’ in one’s own works, the Council explic-
itly excludes any notion of a claim or any false security (cap. 16: DS 1548f). It is
evident ... that the Council wishes to establish a link with Augustine, who introduced
the concept of merit, in order to express the responsibility of human beings, in spite of
the ’bestowed’ character of good works' (LV:E 66).
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