Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1954, Page 24

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24 Proceedings of the Forty-Third Convention,

We are told that the Common Confession has resolved this
doctrinal divergence. Self-evidently we approach it with the ques-
tion: “Will it contain an unequivocal statement on objective
justification? Will it rule out the thought that faith is first neces-
sary before any justification on God’s part has already taken place?”

We read: “By His redemptive work Christ is the propitiation
for the sins of the whole world; hence forgiveness of sin has been
secured and provided for all men. (This is often spoken of as
objective justification.)” The first sentence sets forth the doctrine
of universal redemption. The essential characteristics of objective
justification as set forth in the Brief Statement of the Missouri
Synod, that God “has already declared the whole world to be
righteous in Christ,” are simply not there. “Secured and provided,”
if anything, comes closer to the old position of the American Lu-
theran Church that the means for justification have been provided,
but that the justifying act of God does not actually take place
until faith is present.

The Common Confession continues by quoting 2 Cor.5:19. We
readily agree that this is a fine passage on justification. The mere
quotation of a passage, however, settles nothing, especially since
we have seen leading exegetes of the American Lutheran Church
take some of the sedes doctrinae from Romans and flatly deny
the remotest possibility of a doctrine of objective justification on
the basis of them, “all asseverations and argumentations to the
contrary notwithstanding.”

The Common Confession continues: “Hence no sinner need
be eternally lost on account of his sins. God offers this propitiation
and reconciliation freely to all men through His means of grace.
There is nothing in sinful man or in what he may do to merit
God’s declaring him righteous.” The last sentence may seem to
bring us closer to the point of the matter. But although God’s
act of declaration is referred to, and although man’s merit is ruled
out as a factor in this act of declaration, nothing is really settled.
Nothing is said as to when God’s act of declaration takes place.
Man’s merit may be ruled out, but the American Lutheran Church
never did say that man could do anything to merit his justifica-
tion, They will readily admit that even faith is not a meritorious
act on man’s part. The point under consideration remains the same,
When does God’s justifying act really take place? Not until faith
has been kindled in the heart? Or already in Christ’s death and
resurrection?

The next statement in the Common Confession gives support
to the thought that justification occurs only when faith is already
present: “God justifies the sinner solely on the basis of Christ’s
righteousness, which. He imputes to the sinner through the Gospel
and which the sinner accepts by faith.” In this sentence God’s act
of imputation and the sinner’s acceptance by. faith are linked
together so closely, without even a comma separating them, that
the old position of Ohio is strengthened. The thought is conveyed
that the justification of the sinner is not complete until the missing
factor of personal faith is supplied. This sentence also states that
God imputes Christ’s righteousness “through the Gospel.” It would
certainly be far more in keeping with Scripture, however, to: state
that the Gospel proclaims the imputation that has already taken