CAUSAE PECCATI ACTUALIS EXTRA HOMINEM

Scripture names as the external cause of sin

a. The devil and thus portrays to us the realm of sin in its true colors. Scripture teaches that Satan is active not only in the unbelievers (Eph. 2:2: “The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience”; 1 Cor. 10:20), but also is the cause of the sins of the children of God. He provoked David to take the census of Israel (1 Chron. 21:1), induced Peter to deny the Lord (Luke 22:31), and through Peter sought to keep Christ from going up to Jerusalem (Matt. 16:23: “Get thee behind Me, Satan”). The causal relation of the devil to the actual sins of the children of God is illustrated in his temptation of Christ, though in this case the diabolical causa failed.

It has been asked whether the devil exercises only a moral influence or whether he also produces a physical effect. We dare not exclude the latter utterly (Matt.4:5: “The devil setteth Him on a pinnacle in the Temple”).

b. Other men become the external causes of actual sin. They seduce by word or by acts or by both. They deceive the hearts of the simple by false doctrine (Rom. 16:17-18: “Mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned”; 2 Tim. 2:17: “Their word [the denial of the bodily resurrection] will eat as doth a canker,” and by godless and immoral speech, songs, publications.46 They seduce by wicked acts, e. g., through the example of an ungodly life, through unchaste gestures and pictures, especially nudities.47

God is not, because of His immanence and concurrence, the cause of the sins that are actually committed. This was shown under “Divine Providence.” (On the “hardening of the heart” see in Vol. II, pages 28 to 31.) That the evil in the sense of suffering comes from God, who absolutely controls every occurrence, is the clear teaching of Scripture (Is. 45:7: “I make peace and create evil”). That is to be maintained over against Manichaeism and is very comforting for the children of God. When troubles overtake us, we do not have to deal with Satan, who knows no mercy, but we turn in te contrition and faith to the one true God and Father. Luther: “God is good, just, and merciful, also when He smites us. Whoever will not believe this fact forsakes the unity of faith that there is but one God and invents for himself another god, who is not consistent with himself, but is now good, then evil.” However, Luther adds: “But it is a signal gift of the Holy Ghost to believe that God, when He sends evil, is still reconciled to us and merciful.” (On Ps. 51:10. Opp. ex., Erl. XIX, 106; St. L. V:570.)