Part 32 (2/2)

Now let us turn to the second part, to the outward man Here we shall answer all those who, misled by the word ”faith” and by all that has been said, now say: ”If faith does all things and is alone sufficient unto righteousness, why then are good works commanded? We will take our ease and do no works, and be content with faith” I answer, Not so, ye wicked men, not so That would indeed be proper, if holly inward and perfectly spiritual men; but such we shall be only at the last day, the day of the resurrection of the dead As long as we live in the flesh we only begin and ress in that which shall be perfected in the future life For this reason the Apostle, in Romans viii, calls all that we attain in this he ”the first fruits” of the spirit [Roreater portion, even the fulness of the spirit, in the future This is the place for that which was said above, that a Christian man is the servant of all and made subject to all For in so far as he is free he does no works, but in so far as he is a servant he does all manner of works How this is possible, we shall see

[Sidenote: Needs to do Works]

Although, as I have said, a man is abundantly justified by faith inwardly, in his spirit, and so has all that he ought to have, except in so far as this faith and riches row from day to day even unto the future he: yet he remains in this overn his own body and have dealings with in; here a man cannot take his ease; here he s, watchings, labors and other reasonable discipline, and to make it subject to the spirit so that it will obey and conforainst faith and hinder the inward man, as it is the body's nature to do if it be not held in check For the inward man, who by faith is created in the likeness of God, is both joyful and happy because of Christ in Whom so many benefits are conferred upon him, and therefore it is his one occupation to serve God joyfully and for naught, in love that is not constrained

While he is doing this, lo, he meets a contrary will in his own flesh, which strives to serve the world and to seek its own advantage This the spirit of faith cannot tolerate, and with joyful zeal it attempts to put the body under and to hold it in check, as Paul says in Roht in the law of God after the inward ainst the law ofme into captivity to the law of sin” [Rom 7:22 f]; and, in another place, ”I keep underit into subjection: lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway,” [1 Cor 9:27] and in Galatians, ”They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its lusts” [Gal 5:24]

[Sidenote: Works do not Justify]

In doing these works, however, we must not think that a man is justified before God by thehteousness before God, cannot endure; but we must think that these works reduce the body to subjection and purity it of its evil lusts, and our whole purpose is to be directed only toward the driving out of lusts For since by faith the soul is cleansed and s, and especially its own body, shall be as pure as itself, so that all thingsGod Hence a man cannot be idle, because the need of his body drives hiood works to reduce it to subjection Nevertheless the works themselves do not justify him before God, but he does the works out of spontaneous love in obedience to God, and considers nothing except the approval of God, Whos most scrupulously obey

In this way every one will easily be able to learn for himself the liations: for he will fast, watch and labor as much as he finds sufficient to repress the lasciviousness and lust of his body But they who presu of the lusts, but only the works themselves, and think that if only they have done as reat works as are possible, they have done well, and have becohteousness; at times they even addle their brains and destroy, or at least render useless, their natural strength with their works This is the height of folly, and utter ignorance of Christian life and faith, that a man should seek to be justified and saved by works and without faith

[Sidenote: An analogy]

In order that e have said ies We should think of the works of a Christian man who is justified and saved by faith because of the pure and free mercy of God, just as ould think of the works which Adam and Eve did in Paradise, and all their children would have done if they had not sinned We read in Genesis ii, ”God put the arden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” [Gen 2:15] Now Adaht and without sin, so that he had no need of being justified and arden, but, that he ave hiarden

These would truly have been the freest of works, done only to please God and not to obtain righteousness, which Adam already had in full ht of us all

Such also are the works of a believer Through his faith he has been restored to Paradise and created anew, has no need of works that he hteous; but that he may not be idle and may provide for and keep his body, he must do such works freely only to please God; only, since we are not wholly re-created, and our faith and love are not yet perfect, these are to be increased, not by external works, however, but within theain: A bishop, when he consecrates a Church, confir to his office, is not made a bishop by these works; nay, if he had not first been made a bishop, none of these works would be valid, they would be foolish, childish and a mere farce So the Christian, who is consecrated by his faith, does good works, but the works do not make him more holy or more Christian; for that is the work of faith alone, and if a man were not first a believer and a Christian, all his works would a at all and would be truly wicked and das, therefore, are true: ”Good works do not ood works; evil works do not make a wicked man, but a wicked man does evil works”; so that it is always necessary that the ”substance” or person itself be good before there can be any good works, and that good works follow and proceed froood person, as Christ also says, ”A corrupt tree does not bring forth good fruit, a good tree does not bring forth evil fruit” [Matt 7:18] It is clear that the fruits do not bear the tree, nor does the tree grow on the fruits, but, on the contrary, the trees bear the fruits and the fruits grow on the trees As it is necessary, therefore, that the trees must exist before their fruits, and the fruits do not ood or corrupt, but rather as the trees are so are the fruits they bear; so the person of a ood or a wicked work, and his works do not ood or wicked, but he hiood or wicked

[Sidenote: Illustrations]

Illustrations of the saood or a bad house does not ood or a bad builder eneral, the work never makes the workman like itself, but the workman makes the work like himself So it is also with the works of man: as the ood, if it was done in faith; wicked, if it was done in unbelief But the converse is not true, that the work makes the man either a believer or an unbeliever

For as works do not hteous But as faith ood works Since, then, works justify no one, and a ood work, it is very evident that it is faith alone which, because of the pure h Christ and in His Word, worthily and sufficiently justifies and saves the person, and a Christian man has no need of any work or of any law in order to be saved, since through faith he is free from every law and does all that he does out of pure liberty and freely, seeking neither benefit nor salvation, since he already abounds in all things and is saved through the grace of God because of his faith, and now seeks only to please God

[Sidenote: Works Neither Save nor daood work helps an unbeliever, so as to justify or save him And, on the other hand, no evil work makes him wicked or damns him, but the unbelief which makes the person and the tree evil, does the evil and daood or evil, this is effected not by the works, but by faith or unbelief, as the Wise Man says, ”This is the beginning of sin, that a man falls away from God,” [Sirach 10:14 f] which happens when he does not believe And Paul, Hebrews xi, says, He that cometh to God must believe” [Heb 11:6] And Christ says the saood; or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt,” [Matt 12:33] as if He would say, ”Let hiood tree” So let hi of works, but with believing, which ood except faith, nor evil except unbelief

It is indeed true that in the sight ofood or evil is pointed out and known as such; as Christ says, in Matthew vii, ”By their fruits ye shall know them” [Matt 7:20] But all this remains on the surface, and very many have been deceived by this outward appearance and have presuood works by which we o their way, always being deceived and deceiving, advancing, indeed, but into a worse state, blind leaders of the blind [2 Ti thehteousness [Matt 15:14] Of such Paul says, in II Ti its power, always learning and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth” [2 Tio astray with those blind men, must look beyond works, and laws and doctrines about works; nay, turning his eyes from works, he must look upon the person, and ask how that is justified For the person is justified and saved not by works nor by laws, but by the Word of God, that is, by the prolory hteousness which we have done, but according to His race, e believed [1 Cor 1:21]

[Sidenote: The Doctrine of Good Works]

Froood works are to be rejected or not, and by what standard all the teachings of ht after as a hteousness, are burdened with this perverse leviathan[15] and are done under the false ih them you are justified, they are made necessary and freedom and faith are destroyed; and this addition to theood, but truly darace of God, since to justify and to save by faith belongs to the grace of God alone What the works have no power to do, they yet, by a Godless presuh this folly of ours, pretend to do, and thus violently force therace We do not, therefore, reject good works; on the contrary, we cherish and teach them as much as possible We do not condemn them for their own sake, but because of this Godless addition to theht through theood outwardly, when in truth they are not good; they deceivewolves in sheep's clothing [Matt 7:15]

But this leviathan and perverse notion concerning works is insuperable where sincere faith is wanting Those work-saints cannot get rid of it unless faith, its destroyer, come and rule in their hearts Nature of itself cannot drive it out, nor even recognize it, but rather regards it as a mark of the most holy will And if the influence of custom be added and confiristers have caused it to do, it becomes an incurable evil, and leads astray and destroys countless h it is good to preach and write about penitence, confession and satisfaction, if we stop with that and do not go on to teach about faith, our teaching is unquestionably deceitful and devilish

[Sidenote: What we are to Preach]

Christ, like His forerunner John, not only said, ”Repent ye,” [Matt

3:2] but added the word of faith, saying, ”The kingdom of heaven is at hand” [Matt 4:17] And we are not to preach only one of these words of God, but both; we are to bring forth out of our treasure things new and old [Matt 13:52], the voice of the laell as the word of grace Weforth the voice of the law that e of their sins, and so be converted to repentance and a better life But we must not stop with that For that would be only to wound and not to bind up, to smite and not to heal, to kill and not to ain, to humble and not to exalt Therefore, we iveness, by which faith is taught and strengthened Without this word of grace the works of the law, contrition, penitence and all the rest are perforht in vain

There rerace, but they do not so explain God's law and proht learn frorace For repentance proceeds frorace from the pro, and hearing by the word of Christ” [Rom 10:17]; so that a man is consoled and exalted by faith in the divine proe of himself by the threats and the fear of the divine law So we read in Psalht, but joy co” [Ps 30:6]

[Sidenote: Works of Love]