Second, [that] faith precedes and produces repentance.
Second, [that] faith precedes and produces repentance.
§ 51. (II) “Faith precedes and produces repentance, as the example of the Ninevites teaches. They are said first to have believed, and then to have repented (Jon. 3[:5–6]). The logic is clear: for no one can repent seriously without believing that what God threatens against sinners and what He promises for the penitent is true.”
** Beza uses the same argument: “Faith precedes repentance in order as cause precedes effect.” We respond. It is cause and part in different respects. It is cause in the reborn and justified, who are driven by true faith to put off and mortify the old man daily and to go from faith to faith in daily increases. But it is the part that follows grief in those whom God first calls away from their wickedness and in whom this order is preserved that they may be terrified by the thunder of the Law before the word of the Gospel lifts them up. **
To this argument of Bellarmine we respond. (1) He is confusing historical faith with saving faith. Historical faith precedes contrition, but saving faith follows contrition, for God does not forgive unless we acknowledge our sins; He does not cover our sins unless we first uncover them; He does not console unless we weep. “He does not pour out His mercy except into a contrite and broken vessel,” as Bernard says (Annunt., sermon 3, col. 133). Christ speaks the Gospel, but “to the poor”; He consoles, but only “those who weep” (Isa. 61:1; Matt. 11:5; Luke 4:18).
(2) Bellarmine, who knows no faith other than historical faith, calls this saving faith “Luther’s fiction.” But the contrary will be demonstrated in its own place [On Justification through Faith (Commonplace XIX), §§ 73, 110, 134].
(3) The example of the Ninevites and the explanation adduced from this prove only that historical faith precedes repentance, something we are quite willing to concede. In fact, we even add that saving and justifying faith sometimes comes before repentance, especially if repentance is used to mean the daily mortification of the flesh in the reborn by which they acknowledge and deplore the stains of sin and the daily infirmities still clinging to the flesh, ask that these be forgiven them by faith in Christ, and mortify the actions of the flesh by His Spirit. One may call this “the repentance of the reborn and upright,” which is the fruit of faith, for those who are of Christ have crucified the flesh with its lusts (Gal. 5:24). But the situation is different in the case of those who are not yet reborn and those who have fallen into mortal sins, those who have never yet had that saving faith in Christ or who have lost it through sins against conscience; more will be said about this especially in its own place [On Good Works (Commonplace XX), §§ 134–44; see also On Justification through Faith (Commonplace XIX), §§ 184–94].