But if we are made just before God, solely through the grace and mercy promised in Christ, it follows, that we do not become just through our works. For what necessity would there be then for the glorious, divine promises, and how could Paul so highly praise grace and exalt it?

The Gospel therefore recommends, preaches, and applauds the righteousness which proceeds from faith in Christ and is not of the law. The law does not teach it; it is far superior to the righteousness of the law. For the law requires our works, and demands that we should be upright internally, at heart, and perfectly righteous.

But the divine promises offer to us, who are overcome by sin and death, help, grace, and reconciliation for Christ’s sake, which no man can obtain through works, but alone through faith in Christ. This faith offers or presents to the Lord God no works, no merit of its own, but builds upon pure grace only, and knows of no other consolation or trust, than the mercy promised in Christ. Now this faith alone, when each one believes individually that Christ is given for him, obtains remission of sins for Christ’s sake, and justifies us in the sight of God. (Henkel Translation, p. 165).

Let this suffice concerning the righteousness of reason, or of the self-righteousness, as taught by our opponents. When we shall come presently to speak of the piety and righteousness which are acceptable to God and proceed from faith, the subject will of itself lead to the quotation of more passages from the Scriptures, which will equally serve to overthrow the above-named errors of our adversaries.

Since no man is able, then, by his own strength to keep the law of God, and all under sin are doomed to eternal wrath and death, we cannot, through the law, be released from sin or become just in the sight of God; but remission of sins and righteousness are promised through Christ, who was given for us to atone for the sins of the world, and is the only Mediator and Redeemer. Now this promise is not: through Christ ye shall have grace, salvation, &c., if ye merit it; but through grace alone he offers the remission of sins, as Paul says, Rom. 11:6:“If the remission of sins be of works, then it is no more grace.” And in another place, Rom. 3:21:“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifest;” that is, remission of sins is offered gratuitously, or without price.

Therefore it is not through our merit, that we are reconciled to God; for if depended upon our merit, and if reconciliation to God and remission of sin came of the law, then were all lost, and slightly indeed should we be united and reconciled to God. For we do not keep the law, nor have we power to keep it; consequently we should never obtain the promised grace and reconciliation.

For thus Paul concludes, Rom. 4:14:“For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect.” Now, were the promise founded upon our merit and the law, it would follow, since we cannot keep the law, that the promise would be vain. (Henkel Translation, p. 164-165).

Finally, it is extremely foolish and improper, on the part of our adversaries, to contend that even those, who deserve eternal wrath, obtain forgiveness of sin through love, or actum elicitum dilectionis, self-selected works of love; whereas it is clearly impossible to love God until the heart has taken hold of the remission of sins through faith.

For the heart, filled with anxiety, and truly feeling the wrath of God, can never love him, until he gives it relief and comfort, and assures it of his grace. For while he terrifies and assails us, as if he would cast us off in eternal wrath, into everlasting death, our poor, feeble nature must lose all courage and hope, and tremble before the great anger, which terrifies, and punishes so fearfully; and it cannot feel a spark of love, until God himself comforts and relieves it.

The idle and inexperienced may indeed devise for themselves a dream of love; hence they contend so frivolously, that one who is guilty even of mortal sin, can yet love God above all things; for they have never fully realized what a burden sin is, or how great a torment it is to feel the wrath of God.

But pious hearts that have experienced this, in real strife against Satan, and in real distress of conscience, know well that such words and thoughts are nothing but fancies and dreams. Paul, Rom. 4:15, says: “The law worketh wrath.” He does not say that men obtain remission of their sins through the law; for the law always accuses the conscience and terrifies.

The law, therefore, justifies no one in the sight of God; for an alarmed conscience flees from God and his judgments. Hence those are in error, who would merit the remission of their sins by their works, or the law. (Henkel Translation, p. 163-164).

Our adversaries consider only the commandments of the second table of Moses which treats of external honesty, a virtue which human reason more readily comprehends; and they imagine, that by these external good works they keep God’s law. But they do not consider the first table which requires us to love God with our whole heart, firmly to believe that God is wroth on account of sin, sincerely to fear God, and to be fully assured that God is near us and hears our prayer, &c.

Now we are all so constituted from Adam, previous to our being born again through the Holy Ghost, that our hearts, in their security, despise God’s wrath, judgment, and threats, and hate and oppose his judgments and penalties. Now if all the children of Adam are born so deeply in sin, that we naturally despise God, and doubt his Word, his promises, and his threats; then indeed must the best of our good works, performed previous to our being born anew through the Holy Ghost, be sinful and condemned in God’s sight, although to the world they may appear lovely; for they proceed out of a bad, ungodly, and impure heart; as Paul says, Rom 14:23; “Whatsoever is not of faith, is sin.” For all such self-righteous men perform works without faith, despise God in their hearts, and believe as little as Epicurus, that God takes care of them. Their contempt of God within, must necessarily make their works impure and sinful, although they may appear beautiful before men; for God searches the heart. (Henkel Translation, p. 163).

Now if it be necessary to be born again of the Holy Ghost, our good works or our own merit will not justify us before God; nor can we keep or fulfil the law. Again, Rom. 3:53: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” that is, they are wanting in the wisdom and righteousness which avail in the sight of God, and through which they rightly know, honor, and praise him. Again, Rom. 8:7–8: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”

These passages of Scripture are so exceedingly clear and plain, that they require no very keen intellect to understand them; we need only to read them and properly examine the plain words. As Augustine says on this subject: “If human reason and being carnal minded constitute enmity against God, then, without the Holy Ghost, no man can love God with his whole heart. Again, if to be carnal minded is enmity against God, then indeed are even the best works of the children of Adam impure and sinful; for if the flesh cannot be obedient to the law of God, then in truth does a man commit sin, even when performing noble, lovely, and excellent works, which the world highly esteems.” (Henkel Translation, p. 162-163).

It is likewise false and untrue, that a man can become righteous and pious before God by his own works and by external piety.

It is unfounded and false, that human reason is able of itself to love God above all things, to keep his commandments, to fear him, to be assured that he hears our prayers, to thank and obey him in afflictions, and in other things enjoined in his law, such as, not to covet the goods of others, &c. For all this, human reason is not able to accomplish, although it can in some degree produce an honorable life externally, and perform good works.

To say that those are without sin, who keep God’s commandments externally only, without the Spirit and grace in their hearts, is also untrue and deceptive, and a blasphemy against Christ.

This conclusion is attested, not only by the holy Scriptures, but also by the ancient Fathers. Augustine treats of this subject largely, in contending against the Pelagians, that grace is not given on account of our own merits. And in his book on Nature and Grace, (de Natura et Gratia,) he says: “If our natural strength is sufficient, by freewill, both to teach us how to live, and how to live aright, then Christ died in vain.”

Why should I not here exclaim with Paul, Gal. 5:4, Rom. 10:3–4? yea, I may justly exclaim with him: “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law: ye are fallen from grace.” “For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” For as Christ is the end of the law, so also is Christ the saviour of corrupted nature. Again, John 8:36: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

Therefore we cannot become free from our sins, or merit their remission, through reason or good works. Again, it is written, John 3:5: “Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (Henkel Translation, p. 162).

Thus our adversaries teach nothing but the external piety of external good works, which Paul calls the piety of the law; and thus, like the Jews, they see the veiled face of Moses, only strengthening security and hardness of heart in some hypocrites; they lead men upon a sandy foundation, upon their own works, by which means Christ and the Gospel are despised, and give many miserable consciences cause for despair; for they do good works relying upon false conceits, and, never experiencing the great power of faith, they at last sink into despair.

We, however, hold and assert of external piety, that God requires and demands such an external correct life; and that on account of God’s commandment, we must perform the good works prescribed in the Ten Commandments. For the law is our schoolmaster, Gal. 3:24, and is given for the unrighteous. It is the will of the Lord, our God, that gross sins should be restrained by external discipline; and for this purpose, he has given laws, established governments, provided men of learning and wisdom, who are fitted to govern. Human reason can, to some extent, by its own powers, produce an honorable external deportment like this; although it is often hindered in doing so, by innate weakness and the arts of the devil.

Now, although I am willing to allow to this external life and such good works, all the praise that is properly due them;—for in this life and in worldly matters, there is nothing better than honesty and virtue, as Aristotle says: “Neither the morning nor the evening star is more lovely and beautiful than honesty and righteousness,” God himself rewarding such virtues with temporal gifts;—yet, we should not extol good works and such a deportment so as to bring contumely on Christ. The opinion that we must merit the remission of our sins by our works, is certainly a fiction and an error. (Henkel Translation, p. 161-162).

Again, in his work concerning Councils and the Church,* Dr. Luther says: “We Christians must know that if God is not also in the scales, and does not add his weight, we shall be found wanting. By this I mean, that if it could not be said that God died for us, but if this was only a man, we are lost; but if the death of God, and the fact that God died for us lie in the scale, it will descend, and we shall rise like a light weight; he can indeed also rise up again, or vacate this scale; but he could not be placed in this scale, unless he had become man like unto us; so that we may use the expressions: ‘God died,’ ‘the passion of God,’ ‘the blood of God,’ ‘the death of God.’ For God in his nature cannot die; but now, since God and man are united in one person, we may rightly say: ‘the death of God,’ namely, when the man dies, who is one with God, or one person with God.” Thus far Luther. From these words it is evident that it is an erroneous assertion, when it is said or written, that the aforenamed expressions, “God suffered,” “God died,” are only verbal predications, or mere words without any reality. For our simple Christian faith teaches that the Son of God, who became man, suffered and died for us, and redeemed us with his blood.

Secondly, with respect to the execution of the office of Christ, the person acts and operates, not in, with, through, or according to one nature alone, but in, with, according to, and through both natures; or, as the Council of Chalcedon says, one nature worketh in communication with the other, that which is appropriate to each one. Thus Christ is our Mediator, our Redeemer, our King, our High-Priest, our Head, our Shepherd, &c., not according to one nature alone, whether it be the divine or the human, but according to both natures, as this doctrine has been elsewhere more fully treated. (Page 693).

In devising a distinction however between merito congrui* and merito condigni,† they are playing with and contending about words only, in order that they may not appear openly as Pelagians. For if God must of necessity confer his grace as a reward for congruity, then it is not really congruity, but an actual duty, it is justice or condignity. They themselves do not know, however, what they say; for they invent and dream, that when the “habitus” of the love of God (of which mention is made above) is present, a man merit the grace of God de congruo; and yet they admit that no one can be certain of the presence of this habitus.

Pray, how then, or when, do they know, to what extent they earn the Lord’s grace; whether by congruity or by condignity, in part or in whole? But, alas, merciful God! These are all the cold thoughts and dreams of idle, wicked, and inexperienced men, who do not often make use of the Bible; who do not know nor experience, what a sinner feels, what the attacks of death and the devil are; who do not know at all, how entirely we forget all our merit and works, when the heart feels the wrath of God, or when the conscience is filled with terror. Secure, inexperienced men constantly pass on in the delusion, that they merit grace by their works de congruo.

For it is implanted in us by nature, highly to esteem ourselves and our works. But when the heart truly feels its sins and wretchedness, then all levity and frivolous thoughts give way to real and great seriousness; then the heart and conscience will not be quieted or satisfied, but will seek works upon works, and desires to have certainty, a foundation on which to stand and rest firmly. But these alarmed consciences deeply feel, that they can merit nothing either de condigno or de congruo, and soon sink into hopelessness and despair, unless a doctrine different from the law be preached to them; namely, the Gospel of Christ, proclaiming that he was given for us.

Thus it is related of the Barefoot monks, that they, after vainly praising, for a long time, their order and good works to St several pious persons in the hour of death, were at last obliged to be silent about their order and. Franciscus, and to say, “Dear friend, Christ hath died for thee.” This afforded relief in trouble; this alone bought peace and consolation. (Henkel Translation, p. 160-161).

*Congruity, in school divinity.—The good actions which are supposed to render it meet and equitable that God should confer grace on those who perform them. The merit of congruity is a sort of imperfect qualification for the gift and reception of God’s grace.—MILNER.
†Condignity, in school divinity.—The merit of human actions which claims reward, on the score of justice.—MILNER.