28. Now, it might appear as though the two camps have opposite beliefs regarding whether we have free choice or not in our conversion or in the process by which we are made just. In fact, though, the two actually do agree with each other, as we can see if we consider in the right way the statements written in the Council of Trent; see §6 a, b; and compare these with the things written in the Formula of Concord; see §15 m. All the people in the Christian world have been baptized. Christians therefore have free choice, which allows them not only to hear the Word of God but also to agree with it and embrace it with faith. Therefore no one in Christianity is like a log of wood.
Survey of Teachings of the New Church #80
80. In order to provide evidence from the Formula of Concord for what I have just said (for more on the Formula of Concord, see §9 above), I will add the following references. My purpose is to keep you from thinking that I am hurling unfounded accusations.
The works enjoined by the second tablet of the Ten Commandments are civic in nature and form a part of our external worship that we can do on our own. It is foolish to dream, though, that they make us just before God (pages 84, 85, 102).
Good works must be completely excluded from the article on justification through faith (pages 589, 590, 591, 704–708).
Our good works play absolutely no part in our justification (pages 589, 702; appendix, pages 62, 173).
Our good works do not preserve faith or salvation in us (pages 590, 702; appendix, page 174).
Our repentance, too, plays no role in our being justified by faith (pages 165, 320; appendix, page 158).
Repentance consists in merely calling on God, confessing the gospel, giving thanks, obeying our leaders, and doing our jobs (pages 12, 198; appendix, pages 158, 159, 172, 266).
Our living a new life, too, has nothing to do with our process of being made just (pages 585, 685, 688, 689; appendix, page 170).
Our efforts to practice a new kind of obedience play no part in our faith or our being justified (pages 90, 91, 690; appendix, page 167).
Those who are reborn are not under the law; they are liberated from slavish adherence to it. They are in the law but under grace (page 722 and elsewhere).
The sins committed by the reborn are covered up by Christ’s merit (pages 641, 686, 687, 719, 720, not to mention many other similar passages).
It is important to recognize that all Protestants, including both Lutherans and Calvinists, have similar teachings regarding justification by faith alone; see §§17, 18 above.
