Whether contrition pertains to the Gospel.
Whether contrition pertains to the Gospel.
§ 77. (III) “Contrition especially pertains to the Gospel.”
We respond. On the contrary: “The acknowledgment of sin comes through the Law” [Rom. 3:20]. The free remission of sins on account of Christ the Mediator is announced through the Gospel, properly so called.
But how does Bellarmine prove his thesis? (1) The Lord promises to the children of the new testament “a heart of flesh and a new spirit” (Ezek. 11:19).
We respond. In that passage the Holy Spirit is promised as the one who will work true contrition in the hearts of people. There is nothing added there that He will lead people to contrition through the preaching of the Gospel, since the ministry of the Spirit includes also the preaching of the Law.
(2) “Christ and the apostles, the authors of the Gospel, preached contrition.”
We respond. In their ministries, Christ and the apostles preached not only the Gospel but also the Law in order that the hard hearts of people might be crushed by the hammer of the Law and that their contrite hearts might be healed by the consolation of the Gospel. In practice, the doctrines of Law and Gospel are joined more closely than a mathematical point, as Dr. Luther says in his commentary on Galatians 3.10
(3) “The old Law does not have the promise of the Gospel, nor are its works pleasing to God.”
We respond. The phrase “works of the Law” is used in two ways: either for any external work done without grace and the Spirit or for the works of the reborn proceeding from the working of the Holy Spirit, which also are called “works of the Law” because the divine Law is their norm. The former works are not God-pleasing, but the latter are a very pleasing sacrifice. We explained how contrition pleases God earlier [§ 76]. The remaining points adduced here by Bellarmine were dealt with in the commonplace On the Gospel [Commonplace XVII, §§ 52–63].