The reconciliation which Christ effected through His vicarious suffering and death is fittingly called objective reconciliation. This was accomplished over nineteen centuries ago when our divine Substitute died on Calvary, 2 Cor. 5, 18.19; Rom. 5,10. For then the demands of divine justice were fully satisfied, God’s wrath was turned into grace, and universal pardon was proclaimed to all sinners, John 19, 30; Rom. 5, 16.18.19. Reconciliation (justification) was thus secured without any work or merit on the part of sinful man, just as creation was accomplished without man’s cooperation. Objective reconciliation is therefore not brought about through man’s faith, but rather, just because it exists, man can now be justified by faith.
The objective reconciliation which Christ effected through His death was publicly proclaimed and offered to the world by God through Christ’s glorious resurrection; for this is the actual absolution, or justification, of the whole world, Rom. 4, 25. The objective reconciliation, or justification, of the whole world is moreover announced to all sinners in the Gospel, for which reason the Gospel is called the Word of Reconciliation (λόχος τής καταλλαγής), 2 Cor. 5, 19. Luther: “The Gospel is a proclamation of Christ, true God and man, who by His death and resurrection has atoned for the sins of all men and conquered death and the devil.” (St. L., XIV, 88.)
The objective reconciliation of Christ, or the absolution or justification of the whole sinful world, is appropriated by the individual believer through faith in the Gospel promises of forgiveness and thus becomes subjective reconciliation, 2 Cor. 5, 20. That is to say, the individual sinner obtains for himself through faith the forgiveness which Christ has secured for all men by His suffering and death. Saving, or justifying, faith may therefore be defined as a penitent sinner’s personal trust in the reconciliation effected for the entire world. Saving faith does not justify inasmuch as in itself it reconciles God, but inasmuch as it seizes and obtains the reconciliation which already exists and is freely offered in the Gospel to all sinners. The Apology says: “Faith properly so called is that which assents to the promise (Art. IV II, 113.) And the Formula of Concord: “Faith does not justify because it is so good a work, so illustrious a virtue, but because it apprehends and embraces the merits of Christ in the promise of the Gospel.” (Thor. Decl., III, 13.)
The distinction between objective and subjective reconciliation (justification) must be diligently observed; for all who reject the objective reconciliation of Christ cannot teach justification by grace through faith without the deeds of the Law. As soon as the Scriptural truth that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them,” 2 Cor. 5, 19, is denied, the doctrine of salvation by work-righteousness must follow (Arminianism, Semi-Pelagianism, Modernism), since in that case the sinner must himself reconcile God by his good works. From beginning to end the entire comfort of sinners longing for salvation rests upon the objective reconciliation which Christ has made on Calvary. Their own subjective reconciliation, or justification, is but the blessed fruit of that amazing deed of love.