In 1563 a collateral controversy concerning the obedience of Christ was
raised by Parsimonius (George Karg). He was born 1512; studied under
Luther in Wittenberg; 1547 he became pastor in Schwabach, and 1556
superintendent in Ansbach; 1563 he was deposed because of erroneous
theses published in that year; he was opposed by Hesshusius and Ketzmann
in Ansbach; 1570, having discussed his difference with the theologians
in Wittenberg, Karg retracted and was restored to his office; he died
1576. In his theses on justification Parsimonius deviated from the
Lutheran doctrine by teaching that Christ redeemed us by His passive
obedience only, and by denying that His active obedience had any
vicarious merit, since as man He Himself owed such obedience to the Law
of God,--a view afterwards defended also by such Reformed divines as
John Piscator, John Camero, and perhaps Ursinus. (Schaff 1, 274.)
Over against this error the _Formula of Concord_ explains and declares:
"Therefore the righteousness which is imputed to faith or to the
believer out of pure grace is the obedience suffering, and resurrection
of Christ, since He has made satisfaction for us to the Law, and paid
for our sins. For since Christ is not man alone, but God and man in one
undivided person, He was as little subject to the Law (because He is the
Lord of the Law) as He had to suffer and die as far as His person is
concerned. For this reason, then, His obedience, not only in suffering
and dying, but also in this, that He in our stead was voluntarily made
under the Law and fulfilled it by this obedience, is imputed to us for
righteousness, so that, on account of this complete obedience which He
rendered His heavenly Father for us, by doing and suffering, in living
and dying, God forgives our sins, regards us as godly and righteous, and
eternally saves us." (919, 16.)--
In their zealous opposition to the doctrine of Osiander according to
which the indwelling essential holiness of the divine nature of Christ
is our righteousness before God, also the Hamburg ministers went a step
too far in the opposite direction. They denied, or at any rate seemed to
deny, the indwelling of the Holy Trinity as such in believers. In their
_Response (Responsio)_ of 1552 they declared: "God is said to dwell
where He is present by His grace and benevolence, where He gives the
Word of His grace, and reveals His promises concerning His mercy and the
remission of sins, where He works by His Spirit, etc." (Frank 2, 107.)
Again: "That His indwelling pertains to His efficacy and operation
appears from many passages which describe without a figure the efficacy
and operation of Christ and of the Holy Spirit dwelling in believers."
"The dwelling of the Holy Spirit in believers signifies that they are
led by the Spirit of God." "But it cannot be proved by the Scripture
that the fulness of God dwells bodily in us as it dwells in Christ
Jesus. The inhabitation of God in us is a matter of grace, not of
nature; of gift, not of property." (107.)
In 1551 Melanchthon had written: "It must be admitted that God dwells in
our hearts, not only in such a manner that He there is efficacious,
though not present with His own essence, but that He is both present and
efficacious. A personal union, however, does not take place in us, but
God is present in us in a separable manner as in a separable domicile."
(_C. R._ 7, 781.) This was the view of the Lutheran theologians
generally. Article III of the _Formula of Concord_, too, is emphatic in
disavowing a personal union of the deity and humanity in believers, as
well as in asserting that God Himself, not merely His gifts, dwell in
Christians. (935, 54; 937, 65.) In addition to the aberrations
enumerated, Article III rejects also some of the Roman and the
Romanizing errors concerning justification in the Leipzig Interim, and
some views entertained by Majorists which are extensively and _ex
professo_ dealt with in Article IV. (CONC. TRIGL. 917, 5.)