#24 Art. IV “Justification” of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession.Thus the holy Patriarchs were justified in the sight of God, not by the law, but by the promises of God and by faith. It must indeed be surprising to everyone, that our opponents teach so little (or nothing at all) of faith when they see in almost every syllable of the Bible, that faith is praised and extolled as the most noble, holy, and acceptable, the greatest and best service of God. Thus in Psalm 50:15, he says:“Call upon me in the day of trouble; and I will deliver thee.” In this way, then, would God be known to us; thus he would be honored, that we may receive and accept from him grace, salvation, and every blessing, as gifts of grace, and not as a reward for our merit. This is a most precious knowledge, a powerful consolation in every affliction, bodily and spiritual, in life or in death, as the pious well know.
But our opponents deprive the poor conscience of this noble, precious, and sweet consolation, when they treat faith so coldly and contemptuously, and instead of it plead their own miserable beggarly works and merits before the supreme God. (Henkel Translation, p. 168).
