The arguments of Bellarmine in favor of the affirmative side.
The arguments of Bellarmine in favor of the affirmative side.
§ 18. Our business will be with Bellarmine. In De justif. (bk. 4, ch. 2) he writes that he is going to prove that the Gospel contains the doctrine of works and various laws and that its promises require the condition of fulfilling the Law. To accomplish this, he adds: “ ‘Gospel’ can be taken in two ways: (1) as the doctrine which Christ and the apostles preached and which is contained in the books of the evangelists and in the other writings of the apostles; (2) as the grace of the new testament, which is also generally called ‘the law written in our hearts,’ ‘the life-giving Spirit,’ and ‘the law of faith.’ Yet the word ‘Gospel’ does not seem to be used anywhere in Scripture except in the first way, that is, as a doctrine.”
We respond. “Gospel” is not only taken to mean the entire doctrine that Christ and the apostles preached in the New Testament but also especially and properly as the joyful message of the free forgiveness of sins and the inheritance of life eternal for the sake of Christ, the Mediator. Not only the very force of the word but also the descriptions and our arguments given earlier prove this clearly [§§ 13–16]. As regards the other meaning of “Gospel” which, according to Bellarmine’s opinion, is the infused habit of grace: we are not at all concerned about this since he himself admits that “Gospel” is nowhere used in this sense in Holy Scripture. Indeed, it is certain that the benefit of Christ offered in the Gospel is not only the remission of sins but also the granting of the Holy Spirit, through whom believers are renewed and “who writes the Law of God in their hearts” (Jer. 31:33), to which the apostle refers as he confirms that the “Spirit is received by hearing with faith” (Gal. 3:2). Yet the same Gospel is not called the internal renewal of man; rather, the effect of the renewal is always distinguished from its principal and instrumental cause, that is, from the Holy Spirit, who regenerates and renews us through the word of the Gospel.