Abuses of the doctrine of the Gospel.
Abuses of the doctrine of the Gospel.
§ 128. We certainly admit that at times many people—alas, for shame!—terribly abuse the doctrine of the Gospel concerning the free forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake. In regard to this, our special friend, Johann Arndt, in the preface of his books De vero Christianismo (which are very much worth reading), lodges a most just complaint. Yet this cannot and should not do harm to the truth of the Gospel. When the apostles taught that grace abounded beyond sin (Rom. 5:20), they were forced to hear from Epicureans: “Let us do evil that good may come” (Rom. 3:8). When they taught that “a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law” (Rom. 3:[28]), they were accused by the teachers of good works of “overthrowing the Law by faith” (Rom. 3:31). When they preached the liberty that was brought forth by Christ, there were wicked men who “were seeking from that freedom a veil for evil” (1 Pet. 2:16). So why is it so strange that the same thing is the lot of the doctrine of the Gospel today? What is offered by the right hand is more often received by the left. The abuse of a thing that is good in and of itself is generally very bad. All the worse, then, is the abuse of a thing which is very good. Augustine (De catechiz. rudib., ch. 25) reports that pagans insulted the doctrine of the Gospel because of the life of some Christians. He responds to them as follows (De moribus eccles. cathol., bk. 1, ch. 34): “Now I warn you of this, that you soon cease speaking evil of the catholic church by disparaging the behavior of people whom she herself condemns and whom she is eager today to correct as bad children.”