42. Brief Analysis

When our former faith (a faith in three gods) disappears, then we acknowledge and accept this faith (a faith in one God) as a faith that is truly able to save us. The reason for this is that the face of faith in one God was not previously visible to us. Preachers claim that the modern-day faith is the only faith that can save us, because it is a faith in one God and because it is a faith in the Savior. Yet that faith is two-faced. One face is internal; the other is external. The internal face of that faith takes the form of picturing that there are three gods. (Who has a different picture or thought than this? All should examine themselves and see.) The external face of that faith, however, takes the form of confessing one God. (Who confesses or speaks of anything other than this? All should examine themselves and see.)

These two faces disagree with each other so completely that the external face is not acknowledged by the internal face and the internal face is not recognized by the external face. This disagreement and this disappearance of the one from the sight of the other has generated mental confusion on the part of the church regarding the means of being saved.

Something very different occurs, however, when the internal face and the external face are in agreement, recognize each other, and see each other as being of the same mind. As should be intrinsically obvious, this takes place when we not only see with our mind’s eye but also acknowledge with our mouth that there is one God and that the divine trinity exists within him.

Once we accept this faith, any notion that the Father was at one time alienated from the human race and was later reconciled to it is completely abolished. Instead there comes forth an entirely new view of the assignment of credit or blame, the forgiving of sins, and the process of being regenerated and therefore being saved. In the work itself, all this will become very clear in a rational light made brighter by divine truths from Sacred Scripture.

The reason why the proposition says that this faith is united to good works is that it is not even possible to have faith in the one God if that faith is not united to good works.

109. The notion that Christ’s righteousness or merit is assigned to us permeates the entire theological system in today’s Protestant Christian world. It is because of this assigning that our faith (which Protestant Christianity takes to be the sole means of being saved) can be referred to as our righteousness before God; see §11 d. The assigning that happens as a result of our faith clothes us with the gifts of righteousness, much as a newly crowned monarch is adorned with royal insignia.

In reality, however, this assigning accomplishes nothing if all it involves is that we are called righteous. It does no work within us; it only flows into our ears, unless this assigning of righteousness includes an actual transfer of righteousness to us through some process of its being shared with us and incorporated into us. This conclusion follows from the list of things that are claimed to be the effects of this assigning: our sins are forgiven, and we are regenerated, renewed, sanctified, and therefore saved. This claim is clearer still from the fact that Christ is said to dwell in us and the Holy Spirit is said to work in us as a result of that faith; and therefore we are not only considered to be righteous but actually are righteous. It is not just the gifts of God that reside in the reborn, but because of their faith, Christ too and in fact the entire holy Trinity dwells in them as his temple; see §15 l. Both we as people and the works we do should be called, and should be, completely righteous; see §14 e.

From these points it undoubtedly follows that “the assigning of Christ’s righteousness” must mean an actual transfer of righteousness to us through some process of its being incorporated into us, through which we become a partaker in it.

Now, because this concept of assigning is the root, the start, and the foundation of faith and of all the work faith does for our salvation, and because it is therefore the sanctuary and shrine at the center of all Christian church buildings today, it is important to add as an appendix [to this work] an examination of this notion of assigning, presented point by point as follows.

1. After we die we are all assigned either blame for the evil or else credit for the goodness to which we have devoted ourselves.

2. It is impossible to incorporate one person’s goodness into another person.

3. Given that this is impossible, it is an imaginary faith to believe that Christ’s righteousness or merit is assigned to or transferred into us.