Osiander's theory of justification according to which the righteousness
of faith is the eternal, essential holiness of the divine nature of
Christ inhering and dwelling in man, consistently compelled him to
maintain that justification is not an act by which God declares a man
just, but an act by which He actually makes him inherently just and
righteous; that it is not an imputation of a righteousness existing
outside of man, but an actual infusion of a righteousness dwelling in
man; that it is not a mere acquittal from sin and guilt, but
regeneration, renewal, sanctification and internal, physical cleansing
from sin that it is not a forensic or judicial act outside of man or a
declaration concerning man's standing before God and his relation to
Him but a sort of medicinal process within man, that the righteousness
of faith is not the alien (strange, foreign) righteousness, _aliena
iustitia_ (a term employed also by Luther), consisting in the obedience
of Christ, but a quality, condition, or change effected in believers by
the essential righteousness of the divine nature dwelling in them
through faith in Christ; that faith does not justify on account of the
thing outside of man in which it trusts and upon which it relies, but
by reason of the thing which it introduces and produces in man; that,
accordingly, justification is never instantaneous and complete, but
gradual and progressive.
Osiander plainly teaches that the righteousness of faith (our
righteousness before God) is not the obedience rendered by Christ to the
divine Law, but the indwelling righteousness of God (_iustitia Dei
inhabitans_),--essentially the same original righteousness or image that
inhered in Adam and Eve before the Fall. It consists, not indeed in good
works or in "doing and suffering," but in a quality (_Art_) which
renders him who receives it just, and moves him to do and to suffer what
is right. It is the holiness (_Frommigkeit_) which consists in the
renewal of man, in the gifts of grace, in the new spiritual life, in the
regenerated nature of man. By His suffering and death, said Osiander,
Christ made satisfaction and acquired forgiveness for us, but He did not
thereby effect our justification. His obedience as such does not
constitute our righteousness before God, but merely serves to restore
it. It was necessary that God might be able to dwell in us, and so
become our life and righteousness. Faith justifies, not inasmuch as it
apprehends the merits of Christ, but inasmuch as it unites us with the
divine nature, the infinite essential righteousness of God, in which our
sins are diluted, as it were, and lost, as an impure drop disappears
when poured into an ocean of liquid purity.
According to the teaching of Osiander therefore, also the assurance that
we are justified and accepted by God does not rest exclusively on the
merits of Christ and the pardon offered in the Gospel, but must be based
on the righteous quality inhering in us. Our assurance is conditioned
not alone upon what Christ has done outside of us and for us but rather
upon what He is in us and produces in us. The satisfaction rendered by
Christ many centuries ago is neither the only ground on which God
regards us as just, nor a sufficient basis of our certainty that we are
accepted by God. Not the Christ for us, but rather the Christ in us, is
the basis both of our justification and assurance. Accordingly in order
to satisfy an alarmed sinner, it is not sufficient to proclaim the
Gospel-promise of divine absolution. In addition, an investigation is
required whether the righteousness and holiness of God is also really
found dwelling in him. While Luther had urged alarmed consciences to
trust in the merits of Christ alone for their justification and
salvation, Osiander led them to rely on the new life of divine wisdom,
holiness, and righteousness dwelling in their own hearts. From the very
beginning of the controversy, Moerlin, Melanchthon, and the Lutherans
generally were solicitous to point out that Osiander's doctrine robs
Christians of this glorious and only solid comfort that it is not a
subjective quality in their own hearts, but solely and only the
objective and absolutely perfect obedience rendered by Christ many
hundred years ago, which God regards when He justifies the wicked, and
upon which man must rely for the assurance of his acceptance and
salvation.
Consistently developed, therefore, the innovation of Osiander was bound
to vitiate in every particular the doctrine of justification restored
once more by Luther. In fact, his theory was but a revamping of just
such teaching as had driven the Lutherans out of the Church of Rome.
True, Osiander denied that by our own works we merit justification; that
our righteousness consists in our good works; that our good works are
imputed to us as righteousness. But the fact that he held a subjective
condition to be our righteousness before God gives to his doctrine an
essentially Roman stamp, no matter how widely it may differ from it in
other respects. Moehler, the renowned Catholic apologist, declared that
properly interpreted and illucidated, Osiander's doctrine was "identical
with the Roman Catholic doctrine." (Frank 2, 5. 91.) As stated before,
his teaching was Romanism in its finer and more veiled form of
mysticism.