616. Tell me, if you can, whether any blinder stupidity about regeneration could possibly exist than the one exhibited by people who have convinced themselves of the modern-day faith. That belief holds that although we are like a log or a stone, that faith is poured into us. Once it is poured in, then our justification follows, which means that our sins are forgiven and we are regenerated (not to mention many other gifts we are given). Any work on our part must be strictly excluded from this process to prevent us from doing any violence to the merit of Christ. In order to establish this dogma with even greater solidity, they take away any notion that we have free choice in spiritual matters and replace it with the idea that we are completely powerless in those respects. Since God alone then does his part of the work, and no power has been granted to us to do our part in cooperating and therefore forming a partnership with God, how are we different in regard to regeneration from someone who is shackled hand and foot? We are like so-called galley slaves, who are chained inside ships. What happens to them if they take the chains off their hands and feet? Like them, [under this teaching] we too are punished and condemned to death if we exercise our free choice and do anything good for our neighbor or make any effort to believe in God for the sake of our salvation.

[2] Where does that leave people who are convinced of these views and yet feel a devout desire to go to heaven? What can they do but wait like a ghost in limbo, trying to guess whether that faith and all its benefits have already been poured into them, or if not, whether they are being poured in now? "Has God the Father shown mercy? Has his Son interceded for me? Is the Holy Spirit tied up elsewhere or is it working on me yet?" After a while without any information to go on, they would stop posing these questions and just comfort themselves with these thoughts: "Perhaps that grace is present in the morality I am still practicing now just as much as I was before. Maybe morality is actually sacred in my case, although the same quality is admittedly profane in people who have not acquired this faith. To preserve the holiness present in my morality I will be careful from now on not to work on faith or goodwill at all on my own. " And so on.

Everyone who thinks about regeneration but does not believe in free choice in spiritual matters is a ghost like this, or, if you prefer, a pillar of salt [Genesis 19:26].