Quote:
Originally Posted by
kimlva
True faith always results in works. This is what James was saying.
So then what are good works?
Started as not to change the original thread by "Orthodoxy's"
Arminians; Do Arminians teach salvation by works?
For our visitors edification.
FreeInChrist2
_A treatise on Good Works
together with the
Letter of Dedication_
by Dr. Martin Luther, 1520
Published in:
_Works of Martin Luther_
Adolph Spaeth, L.D. Reed, Henry Eyster Jacobs, et Al., Trans. & Eds.
(Philadelphia: A. J. Holman Company, 1915), Vol. 1, pp. 173-285.
THE TREATISE
I. We ought first to know that there are no good works
except those which God has commanded, even as there is no
sin except that which God has forbidden. Therefore
whoever wishes to know and to do good works needs nothing
else than to know God's commandments. Thus Christ says,
Matthew xix, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the
commandments." And when the young man asks Him, Matthew
xix, what he shall do that he may inherit eternal life,
Christ sets before him naught else but the Ten
Commandments. Accordingly, we must learn how to
distinguish among good works from the Commandments of
God, and not from the appearance, the magnitude, or the
number of the works themselves, nor from the judgment of
men or of human law or custom, as we see has been done
and still is done, because we are blind and despise the
divine Commandments.
II. The first and highest, the most precious of all good
works is faith in Christ, as He says, John vi. When the
Jews asked Him: "What shall we do that we may work the
works of God?" He answered: "This is the work of God,
that ye believe on Him Whom He hath sent." When we hear
or preach this word, we hasten over it and deem it a very
little thing and easy to do, whereas we ought here to
pause a long time and to ponder it well. For in this work
all good works must be done and receive from it the
inflow of their goodness, like a loan. This we must put
bluntly, that men may understand it.
We find many who pray, fast, establish endowments, do
this or that, lead a good life before men, and yet if you
should ask them whether they are sure that what they do
pleases God, they say, "No"; they do not know, or they
doubt. And there are some very learned men, who mislead
them, and say that it is not necessary to be sure of
this; and yet, on the other hand, these same men do
nothing else but teach good works. Now all these works
are done outside of faith, therefore they are nothing and
altogether dead. For as their conscience stands toward
God and as it believes, so also are the works which grow
out of it. Now they have no faith, no good conscience
toward God, therefore the works lack their head, and all
their life and goodness is nothing. Hence it comes that
when I exalt faith and reject such works done without
faith, they accuse me of forbidding good works, when in
truth I am trying hard to teach real good works of faith.
III. If you ask further, whether they count it also a
good work when they work at their trade, walk, stand,
eat, drink, sleep, and do all kinds of works for the
nourishment of the body or for the common welfare, and
whether they believe that God takes pleasure in them
because of such works, you will find that they say, "No";
and they define good works so narrowly that they are made
to consist only of praying in church, fasting, and
almsgiving. Other works they consider to be in vain, and
think that God cares nothing for them. So through their
damnable unbelief they curtail and lessen the service of
God, Who is served by all things whatsoever that are
done, spoken or thought in faith.
So teaches Ecclesiastes ix: "Go thy way with joy, eat and
drink, and know that God accepteth thy works. Let thy
garments be always white; and let thy head lack no
ointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest
all the days of the life of thy vanity." "Let thy
garments be always white," that is, let all our works be
good, whatever they may be, without any distinction. And
they are white when I am certain and believe that they
please God. Then shall the head of my soul never lack the
ointment of a joyful conscience.
So Christ says, John viii: "I do always those things that
J please Him." And St. John says, I. John iii: "Hereby
we know that we are of the truth, if we can comfort our
hearts before Him and have a good confidence. And if our
heart condemns or frets us, God is greater than our
heart, and we have confidence, that whatsoever we ask, we
shall receive of Him, because we keep His Commandments,
and do those things that are pleasing in His sight."
Again: "Whosoever is born of God, that is, whoever
believes and trusts God, doth not commit sin, and cannot
sin." Again, Psalm xxxiv: "None of them that trust in
Him shall do sin." And in Psalm ii: "Blessed are all
they that put their trust in Him." If this be true, then
all that they do must be good, or the evil that they do
must be quickly forgiven. Behold, then, why I exalt faith
so greatly, draw all works into it, and reject all works
which do not flow from it.
IV. Now every one can note and tell for himself E when he
does what is good or what is not good; for if he finds
his heart confident that it pleases God, the work is
good, even if it were so small a thing as picking up a
straw. If confidence is absent, or if he doubts, the work
is not good, although it should raise all the dead and
the man should I give himself to be burned. This is the
teaching of St. Paul, Romans xiv: "Whatsoever is not done
of or in faith is sin." Faith, as the chief work, and no
other work, has given us the name of "believers on
Christ." For all other works a heathen, a Jew, a Turk, a
sinner, may also do; but to trust firmly that he pleases
God, is possible only for a Christian who is enlightened
and strengthened by grace.
That these words seem strange, and that some call me a
heretic because of them, is due to the fact that men have
followed blind reason and heathen ways, have set faith
not above, but beside other virtues, and have given it a
work of its own, apart from all works of the other
virtues; although faith alone makes all other works good,
acceptable and worthy, in that it trusts God and does not
doubt that for it all things that a man does are well
done. Indeed, they have not let faith remain a work, but
have made a habitus of it, as they say, although
Scripture gives the name of a good, divine work to no
work except to faith alone. Therefore it is no wonder
that they have become blind and leaders of the blind. And
this faith brings with it at once love, peace, joy and
hope. For God gives His Spirit at once to him who trusts
Him, as St. Paul says to the Galatians: "You received the
Spirit not because of your good works, but when you
believed the Word of God."
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/work-02a.txt
