The attributes, or adjuncts, of justifying grace are as follows:
Justifying grace is not absolute grace, or grace bestowed upon the sinner by a fiat of the divine sovereign will, but grace mediated through Christ, or grace in or for the sake of Christ. In other words, according to Scripture, God is gracious to sinful and condemned mankind only in view of the fact that the incarnate Son of God through His vicarious atonement (satisfactio vicaria) has ransomed all sinners from the curse and condemnation of the Law. Rom. 3, 24: “Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” The price which Christ paid for the redemption of guilty mankind was that He of His own free will placed Himself both under the obligation (Gal. 4, 4. 5, obedientia activa) and the curse and punishment (Gal. 3, 13, obedientia passiva) of the divine Law which man had violated.
Divine grace therefore does not exclude divine justice (iustitia Dei vindicativa), but rather presupposes or implies the satisfaction of its demands through Christ’s vicarious death, Rom. 8, 3. 4. For this reason the Gospel, which offers divine grace to all men, Titus 2,11, is not a message of grace apart from Christ’s death (Modernists, rationalists, Harnack: “The Son of God does not belong into the Gospel”), but “the Word of Reconciliation,” λόγος τῆς καταλλαγῆς, 2 Cor. 5, 19, that is, the unique message that God “hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ,” or that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.”
Scripture thus leaves no room for grace without the payment of the penalty of man’s sin. God neither forgives sin by ignoring His justice, nor does He accept the worthless ransom-price (good works), which men offer Him to satisfy the eternal claims of His justice. Divine grace for sinners could be secured only through the unspeakable sacrifice of Christ’s vicarious obedience, Heb. 7, 26. 27; Eph. 2, 13—16; Col. 1, 20—22. Hence the axiom: “Divine grace and human merit exclude each other; but divine grace includes the divine merits of Christ.”
Luther very aptly writes on this subject: “I have often said before that faith in God alone is not sufficient, for also the costs must be paid. The Turks and the Jews also believe in God, but without the means and the costs. And what is the cost? That the Gospel shows. . . . Christ here teaches that we are not lost, but have eternal life, that is, that God so loved us that He was willing to pay the cost, the putting of His only, beloved Child into our misery, into hell and death, which He made Him drink to the dregs.” St. L., XI, 1085 ff. Again: “Though grace is given to us for nothing, so that it does not cost us anything, yet it cost some one else on our behalf very much; for it has been secured through an uncountable, infinite treasure, namely, through God’s Son Himself.” (Ibid.)
Such questions as, “Could not God be gracious to men because of His sovereign power as supreme Judge, without Christ’s atonement?” or, “Is it not a thought unworthy of God that His grace toward sinners had first to be purchased by the perfect obedience of His Son?” are both useless and foolish; for the fact that God is gracious to sinners only for Christ’s sake is emphatically stated in His Word and must be believed by all men if they desire to obtain divine grace and eternal life, 2 Cor. 5, 18—20. All who teach that God is gracious to sinners without the death of Christ (Unitarians, Modernists, Ritschl, Harnack, etc.) reject the Christian faith, champion pagan doctrine, and are outside the pale of the Christian Church; for the Christian Church is the communion of believers who trust in the gracious remission of their sins through the blood of Christ, Gal. 3, 26; Eph. 1, 7. So Chemnitz writes: Extra Christum nulla gratia et misericordia Dei erga peccatores nec debet nec potest recte cogitari. (Harm. Ev., c. 28, p. 152.) Hence those who deny Christ’s vicarious atonement likewise deny the grace of God.
However, divine grace is denied also by those who claim that Christ’s atonement was in itself not adequate as a ransom, but was declared and accepted as such for the acquittal of the sinner by God’s own mere volition (the theory of acceptilation; Scotists, Arminians). This theory, in the final analysis, ascribes the forgiveness of sins to God’s sovereign will and thus reduces the value of Christ’s vicarious suffering and death. But Scripture bases divine grace not merely in part, but wholly on Christ’s atoning work, so that there is no grace for sinners but that which is in Christ Jesus, Rom. 3, 24; Acts 4,12. According to Scripture the expression “the Gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20, 24) and “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2, 2) are synonymous, so that he who preaches the one must preach also the other.
The Augsburg Confession emphasizes this truth when it says: “Also they teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, who by His death has made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in His sight, Rom. 3 and 4.” (Art. IV. Cp. also Luther, St. L., XII, 261 ff.)
The unmerited favor and love of God in Christ Jesus extends not merely to some (the elect), but to all men without exception. Gratia Dei salvifica erga homines lapsos non particularis, sed universalis est. This paramount truth Scripture teaches in all passages in which it declares a) that Christ is the Savior of the whole world, of all men, John 3, 16; 1, 29; 1 John 2, 2; 1 Tim. 2, 4; Titus 2, 11; b) that God earnestly desires that each individual person be saved, 2 Pet. 3, 9; Ezek. 33,11; 18,23.32; c) that salvation has been secured even for those who reject the grace of God and are thus lost on account of their unbelief, Matt. 23, 37; Acts 7,51; 1 Cor. 8,11; 2 Pet. 2,1. The universality of divine grace is denied by all who limit the purpose and efficacy of divine grace to the elect (particularism, gratia particularis).
These errorists may be divided into three groups: a) Supralapsarians: God decreed to create some to damnation; b) Infralapsarians: God decreed to leave some in the state of damnation into which they had fallen through their own fault (praeteritio) ; c) Amyraldists: God indeed offers grace to all, but bestows faith only upon the elect.
Every form of particularism is anti-Scriptural, being based upon the fallacy that, since not all men are actually saved, God does not desire the salvation of all. Misled by their error, all particularists claim that the term world (John 3,16; 1, 29) signifies “the elect,” and they substitute for God’s universal counsel of grace (1 Tim. 2, 4) a voluntas signi, in opposition to which stands His voluntas beneplaciti. That is to say, God indeed wishes to save all men according to that will which He has revealed in Scripture (voluntas signi; the revealed will); but by His secret will (voluntas beneplaciti, the will of His purpose), which is not revealed in Scripture, He wishes to save only the elect.
According to Calvinistic doctrine, God, in the final analysis, is the cause why some are not saved, while Scripture expressly teaches that those who are not saved perish through their unbelief, or rejection of divine grace, Luke 7, 30; Acts 13, 46; 7, 51; Matt. 23, 37. Charles Hodge writes: “It cannot be supposed that God intends what is never accomplished; that He purposes what He does not intend to effect. ... If all men are not saved, God never purposed their salvation and never devised, and put into operation, means designed to accomplish that end. We must assume that the result is the interpretation of the purposes of God." (Systematic Theol., II, 323.)
In order to support the doctrine of particularism, the Synod of Dort (1618—19) declared that God can never be resisted whenever He earnestly offers His grace to men (irresistible grace). But also this doctrine is anti-Scriptural; for Scripture affirms that the operation of the Holy Spirit through the Gospel can be resisted. Acts 7, 51; Matt. 23, 37, though the operation is itself one of divine power, Eph. 1,19. 20. As in the realm of grace God can be resisted when He works through means, so also in the realm of nature; for life, which is originated and sustained alone by divine omnipotence, Acts 17, 28, can nevertheless be destroyed by feeble man. God indeed cannot be resisted when He deals with man in His sovereign majesty (Luther: in nuda maiestate, Matt. 25, 31 ff.); but when He approaches man through means, resistance on his part is always possible.
If the objection is raised that God becomes the cause of a sinner’s damnation at least in cases where He hardens his heart (cf. the divine judgment of obduration), we reply that according to Scripture God very earnestly offers His grace even to those who harden their hearts, Rom. 10, 21; Ex. 5, I ff. The divine judgment of obduration is never absolute or arbitrary; God hardens only those who first have hardened themselves by resisting His Word And will, Rom. 11, 7. 20.
In spite of the fact that divine grace can be resisted (gratia resistibilis), we must not regard it as a "fruitless wish” or an “indifferent complacency by which God does not desire to effect or obtain the things which please Him” (otiosa complacentia, nuda velleitas), but as both serious and efficacious. That is to say, God seriously purposes, by sufficient and efficacious means, to effect the salvation of all men, Rom. 2, 4; 1, 16.
This truth is proved from a) the divine command to preach the Gospel to every creature, Mark 16,15.16, and make disciples of all nations, Matt. 28, 19. 20, which certainly must not be construed as mockery on the part of God; b) His divine promise to grant His Holy Spirit to all who hear His Word in order that He may work in them saving faith, Zech. 12,10; Acts 2, 17.18; Ezek. 11, 19. 20; 36, 26. 27; Acts 2, 38; 7, 51; c) His comforting assurance that He will not only begin, but also perform, finish, the good work in all believers, Phil. 1, 6; and d) His most serious endeavor to work faith in those who resist the Holy Spirit, Matt. 23, 37; Acts 7, 51, so that, if the wicked perish, they do so solely through their unbelief, 2 Cor. 4, 3. 4.
In opposition to Scripture the efficaciousness of divine grace is denied a) by all particularists (Calvinists), who limit God’s efficacious desire to effect salvation in men to the elect; b) by all synergists, who teach that God works in man only the ability to believe, not faith itself, since the latter, they say, depends on man’s own decision or good conduct or his omission of malicious opposition. However, according to Scripture, God bestows not only the power to believe, but also faith itself, Phil. 1,29. In opposition to Pelagianism and synergism, Scripture teaches that all who believe in Christ believe solely by virtue of divine grace and not through their own power or effort (sola gratia), while over against Calvinism it affirms that those who remain in unbelief do so not because divine grace is inefficacious in their case, but because they maliciously resist the Holy Spirit.
It is true, when we maintain universal and serious grace (gratia universalis, gratia seria et efficax), on the one hand, and the sola gratia, on the other, the question arises: “Why, then, are some saved and others not (cur alii, alii non ?), though all men by nature are in the same guilt and corruption (in eadem culpa) ?” The particularists (Calvinists) answer the question by denying the gratia universalis; the synergists, by denying the sola gratia. Both solutions are alike unscriptural, since Holy Writ most emphatically teaches both, gratia universalis and sola gratia. The true Lutheran Church does not attempt any solution of the question at all, but regards it as an unsolvable mystery, which human reason should not try to explore. The two truths regarding man’s salvation which Holy Scripture clearly reveals are: a) Those who are saved are saved by grace alone, without any merit on their part; b) those who are lost are lost through their own fault. Beyond these two revealed facts no Christian theologian dare go. Cp. Formula of Concord, XI, 54—59.
Also with respect to the heathen we must maintain the gratia universalis because Holy Scripture includes all men in the gracious counsel of salvation. To deny the clear Scripture-teaching of universal grace because many heathen have never received the Gospel of salvation is an offense against the very divine grace which has enriched the world with the saving truth, Mark 16, 15.16; Matt. 28, 19. On the basis of Scripture we therefore believe that God’s gracious will extends to the heathen also, though Actually thousands of them perish without the Gospel. Nor are we to assume that the heathen are saved without the divinely appointed means of grace, Eph. 2, 12, since Holy Scripture teaches that the means of grace (the Word and the Sacraments) are appointed for the salvation of all sinners, Mark 16,15.16; Matt. 28, 19. 20. The opinion that the heathen may be converted after death is anti-Scriptural, Heb. 9, 27. The passage 1 Pet. 3,18 ff. does not treat of salvation possible after death, but of the condemnation of those who during their life on earth refused to accept the saving Word of God.