feudal commendation can be heard here. Luther rounds out his
discussion by saying that God is justified in three ways, all of which
express a commendation. First, the smallest commendation of right-
eousness appears in the punishment of sins. Second, righteousness
can also appear through its contrast to wickedness. Third, God’s
righteousness appears through faith that believes God’s words. This
is the‘true commendation’(vera commendatio) that also leads to the
justification of sinners.^166 Interestingly, faith takes the role of sub-
jective acknowledgement.
In the summary of his interpretation of Romans 3:5, Luther uses
the terms expressing recognition several times. Our sin does not
justify or commend God, but
our acknowledgement (agnitio) and confession of sin...This acknow-
ledgement (agnitio) makes the righteousness of God desirable (appeti-
bilem) and confession makes it commendable (commendabilem). For
when I acknowledge (agnosco) that I cannot be righteous before God...
then I begin to ask for my righteousness from him. And thus the
acknowledgement of sin (agnitio peccati) convinced me that God is
justified in me...And the confession of this then commends (commen-
dat) and glorifies Him, because He alone is just and our justifier.^167We see how Luther takes over the traditional terminology of
commendatioandagnitio. While the feudal dimensions of this ter-
minology have not completely lost their metaphorical power to
describe the mutual relationship between God and people, Luther
employs the terms in a new way.Agnitioandcommendatiodepict the
basic individual orientation of the human being. Although no direct
dependence on Cicero can be established, these terms resemble
Cicero’sprima commendatioand the basic idea of self-attachment
oroikeiosis. For Luther, a person must recognize the religious truth as
afirst-person truth,‘with respect to us’. Since a person needs to
recognize his or her own wickedness in order to become truthful,
the capacity to recognize is closely related to humility. Luther’s phrase
agnitio et confessiocaptures both the inner insight (agnitio) and
declaring this insight (confessio).
Although the idea of recognizing and confessing sins is traditional,
Luther’s use ofagnitioandcommendatioshapes this idea in an
original way. Thefirst-person involvement leads to an affirmation
(^166) WA 56, 220, 2–15. (^167) WA 56, 221, 25–34.
92 Recognition and Religion