Through His vicarious atonement (satisfactio vicaria) Christ has secured for guilty and condemned mankind a perfect reconciliation with God (reconciliatio, καταλλαγή), because He, in man's stead, has fulfilled the demands of the divine Law and made satisfaction for the sins of the world (obedientia activa, obedientia passiva). In Christ Jesus, therefore, God is gracious toward all sinners and absolves them from all guilt (objective justification, iustificatio obiectiva).
This comforting fact God announces to the world through the ordained means of grace (the Word and the Sacraments) and demands at the same time faith in the message of reconciliation, ; ; ; ; ; . It is God's declared will that all men should appropriate to themselves by faith the saving grace which has been secured for them by the divinely appointed Savior, ; . Those who refuse to believe the reconciliation effected by Christ are lost in spite of the fact that also for them salvation has been obtained, ; ; . For this reason we affirm that faith is needed for the acquiring of salvation (necessitas fidei ad salutem consequendam). The rationalistic views that God is gracious toward sinners without Christ's vicarious satisfaction and that man can obtain eternal life by his own works or good conduct (Modernists) are emphatically denied by Scripture, ; . Holy Scripture knows but one way to salvation, namely, by grace, through faith in the redemption of Christ, .
Our dogmaticians are therefore right when they declare that salvation is perfect so far as the acquisition and intention are concerned (ex parte Dei), but not as regards its application by man (ex parte hominis), since this must be accomplished through faith. Salus perfecta est quoad acquisitionem et intentionem, non quoad applicationem, quae fide fieri debet. The meaning of this statementis that salvation indeed has been secured for all men, but that the individual sinner must appropriate it unto himself by faith, . Fides ex parte hominis ad salutem consequendam necessaria est.