To adhere faithfully to Luther's doctrine of conversion and salvation by
grace alone was also the determination of the loyal Lutherans in their
opposition to the Synergists. Planck correctly remarks that the doctrine
which Flacius and the Anti-Synergists defended was the very doctrine
which "Luther advocated in his conflict with Erasmus." (_Prot.
Lehrbegriff_ 4, 667.) This was substantially conceded even by the
opponents. When, for example, at the colloquy in Worms, 1557, the
Romanists demanded that Flacius's doctrine of free will be condemned by
the Lutherans, Melanchthon declared that herein one ought not to submit
to the Papists, who slyly, under the name of Illyricus [Flacius],
demanded the condemnation of Luther, whose opinion in the doctrine of
free will he [Melanchthon] was neither able nor willing to condemn.
(Gieseler 3, 2, 232.) In their _Confession,_ published in March, 1569,
the theologians of Ducal Saxony (Wigand, Coelestin, Irenaeus, Kirchner,
etc.) declared: "We also add that we embrace the doctrine and opinion of
Dr. Luther, the Elias of these latter days of the world, as it is most
luminously and skilfully set forth in the book _De Servo Arbitrio,_
against Erasmus, in the _Commentary on Genesis,_ and in other books; and
we hold that this teaching of Luther agrees with the eternal Word of
God." (Schluesselburg, _Catalogus_ 5, 133.)
Luther's _sola-gratia_-doctrine was embodied also in the _Formula of
Concord,_ and this with a special endorsement of his book _De Servo
Arbitrio._ For here we read: "Even so Dr. Luther wrote of this matter
[the doctrine that our free will has no power whatever to qualify itself
for righteousness, etc.] also in his book _De Servo Arbitrio; i.e._, Of
the Captive Will of Man, in opposition to Erasmus, and elucidated and
supported this position well and thoroughly [_egregie et solide_]; and
afterward he repeated and explained it in his glorious exposition of the
book of Genesis, especially of chapter 26. There likewise his meaning
and understanding of some other peculiar disputations introduced
incidentally by Erasmus, as of absolute necessity, etc., have been
secured by him in the best and most careful way against all
misunderstanding and perversion; to which we also hereby appeal and
refer others." (897, 44; 981, 28.) In the passage of his _Commentary on
Genesis_ referred to by the _Formula,_ Luther does not, as has been
claimed, retract or modify his former statements concerning the
inability of the human will and the monergism of grace, but emphasizes
that, in reading _De Servo Arbitrio,_ one must heed and not overlook his
frequent admonitions to concern oneself with God as He has revealed
Himself in the Gospel, and not speculate concerning God in His
transcendence, absoluteness, and majesty, as the One in whom we live and
move and have our being, and without whom nothing can either exist or
occur, and whose wonderful ways are past finding out. (CONC. TRIGL.,
898.) And the fact that the Lutheran theologians, living at the time and
immediately after the framing of the _Formula of Concord,_ objected
neither to the book _De Servo Arbitrio_ itself nor to its public
endorsement by the _Formula of Concord,_ is an additional proof of the
fact that they were in complete agreement with Luther's teaching of
conversion and salvation by grace alone. (Frank 1, 120.)
This _sola-gratia_-doctrine, the vital truth of Christianity,
rediscovered and proclaimed once more by Luther, was, as stated, the
target at which Erasmus directed his shafts. In his _Diatribe_ he
defined the power of free will to be the faculty of applying oneself to
grace (_facultas applicandi se ad gratiam_), and declared that those are
the best theologians who, while ascribing as much as possible to the
grace of God, do not eliminate this human factor. He wrote: Free will is
"the ability of the human will according to which man is able either to
turn himself to what leads to eternal salvation or to turn away from
it." (St.L. 18, 1612.) Again: "Those, therefore, who are farthest apart
from the views of Pelagius ascribe to grace the most, but to free will
almost nothing; yet they do not abolish it entirely. They say that man
cannot will anything good without special grace, cannot begin anything
good, cannot continue in it, cannot complete anything without the chief
thing, the constant help of divine grace. This opinion seems to be
pretty probable because it leaves to man a striving and an effort, and
yet does not admit that he is to ascribe even the least to his own
powers." (1619.) One must avoid extremes, and seek the middle of the
road, said Erasmus. Pelagius had fallen into Scylla, and Luther into
Charybdis. "I am pleased with the opinion of those who ascribe to free
will something, but to grace by far the most." (1666.) Essentially,
this was the error held, nursed, and defended also by the Synergists,
though frequently in more guarded and ambiguous phrases. But their
theory of conversion also involved, as Schaff and Schmauk put it, "the
idea of a partnership between God and man, and a corresponding division
of work and merit." (_Conf. Principle,_ 600.)
However, these attempts to revamp the Semi-Pelagian teaching resulted in
a controversy which more and longer than any other endangered and
disquieted the Lutheran Church, before as well as after the adoption of
the _Formula of Concord._ Whether the unregenerate man, when the Word of
God is preached, and the grace of God is offered him, is able to prepare
himself for grace, accept it, and assent thereto, was, according to the
_Formula of Concord,_ "the question upon which, _for quite a number of
years now,_ there has been a controversy among some theologians in the
churches of the Augsburg Confession." (881, 2.) And of all the
controversies after Luther's death the synergistic controversy was most
momentous and consequential. For the doctrine of grace with which it
dealt is the vital breath of every Christian. Without it neither faith
nor the Christian religion can live and remain. "If we believe," says
Luther in _De Servo Arbitrio,_ "that Christ has redeemed men by His
blood, then we must confess that the entire man was lost; otherwise we
make Christ superfluous or the Redeemer of but the meanest part of us,
which is blasphemous and sacrilegious." Reading the book of Erasmus, in
which he bent every effort toward exploding the doctrine of grace,
Luther felt the hand of his opponent clutching his throat. In the
closing paragraph of _De Servo Arbitrio_ Luther wrote: "I highly laud
and extol you for this thing also, that of all others you alone have
gone to the heart of the subject.... You alone have discerned the core
of the matter and have aimed at the throat, for which I thank you
heartily.--_Unus tu et solus cardinem rerum vidisti, et ipsum iugulum
petisti, pro quo ex animo tibi gratias ago, in hac enim causa libentius
versor, quantum favet tempus et otium._" (E. v. a. 7, 367. 137; St. L.
18, 1967; Pieper, _Dogm._ 2, 543.) And so the Synergists, who renewed
the doctrine of Erasmus, also flew at the throat of Christianity.
Genuine Lutheranism would have been strangled if synergism had emerged
victorious from this great controversy of grace versus free will.