Starts discussion on the love of God with the whole heart ...
By Martin Luther

       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 I
       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 I
       Him shall do sin." And in Psalm ii: "Blessed are all E
       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 1 finds
       his heart confident that it pleases God, the work is 5
       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."
      
       V. In this faith all works become equal, and one is like
       the other; all distinctions between works fall away,
       whether they be great, small, short, long, few or many.
       For the works are acceptable not for their own sake, but
       because of the faith which alone is, works and lives in
       each and every work without distinction, however numerous
       and various they are, just as all the members of the body
       live, work and have their name from the head, and without
       the head no member can live, work and have a name.
      
       From which it further follows that a Christian who lives
       in this faith has no need of a teacher of good works, but
       whatever he finds to do he does, and all is well done; as
       Samuel said to Saul: "The Spirit of the Lord will come
       upon thee, and thou shalt be turned into another man;
       then do thou as occasion serves thee; for God is with
       thee." So also we read of St. Anna, Samuel's mother:
       "When she believed the priest Eli who promised her God's
       grace, she went home in joy and peace, and from that time
       no more turned hither and thither," that is, whatever
       occurred, it was all one to her. St. Paul also says:
       "Where the Spirit of Christ is, there all is free." For
       faith does not permit itself to be bound to any work, nor
       does it allow any work to be taken from it, but, as the
       First Psalm says, "He bringeth forth his fruit in his
       season," that is, as a matter of course.
      
       VI. This we may see in a common human example. A When a
       man and a woman love and are pleased with each A other,
       and thoroughly believe in their love, who teaches them
       how they are to behave, what they are to do, leave
       undone, say, not say, think? Confidence alone teaches
       them all this, and more. They make no difference in
       works: they do the great, the long, the much, as gladly
       as the small, the short, the little, and vice versa; and
       that too with joyful, peaceful, confident hearts, and
       each is a free companion of the other. But where there is
       a doubt, search is made for what is best; then a
       distinction of works is imagined whereby a man may win
       favor; and yet he goes about it with a heavy heart, and
       great disrelish; he is, as it were, taken captive, more
       than half in despair, and often makes a fool of himself.
      
       So a Christian who lives in this confidence toward God, a
       knows all things, can do all things, undertakes all
       things B that are to be done, and does everything
       cheerfully and F freely; not that he may gather many
       merits and good works, N but because it is a pleasure for
       him to please God thereby, and he serves God purely for
       nothing, content that his service pleases God. On the
       other hand, he who is not at one with God, or doubts,
       hunts and worries in what way he may do enough and with
       many works move God. He runs to St. James of Compostella,
       to Rome, to Jerusalem, hither and yon, prays St.
       Bridget's prayer and the rest, fasts on this day and on
       that, makes confession here, and makes confession there,
       questions this man and that, and yet finds no peace. He
       does all this with great effort, despair and disrelish of
       heart, so that the Scriptures rightly call such works in
       Hebrew A v e n a m a 1, that is, labor and travail. And
       even then they are not good works, and are all lost. Many
       have been crazed thereby; their fear has brought them
       into all manner of misery. Of these it is written, Wisdom
       of Solomon v: "We have wearied ourselves in the wrong
       way; and have gone through deserts, where there lay no
       way; but as for the way of the Lord, we have not known
       it, and the sun of righteousness rose not upon us."
      
       VII. In these works faith is still slight and weak; let
       us ask further, whether they believe that they are
       well-pleasing to God when they suffer in body, property,
       honor, friends, or whatever they have, and believe that
       God of His mercy appoints their sufferings and
       difficulties for them, whether they be small or great.
       This is real strength, to trust in God when to all our
       senses and reason He appears to be angry; and to have
       greater confidence in Him than we feel. Here He is
       hidden, as the bride says in the Song of Songs: "Behold
       he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the
       windows"; that is, He stands hidden among the sufferings,
       which would separate us from Him like a wall, yea, like a
       wall of stone, and yet He looks upon me and does not
       leave me, for He is standing and is ready graciously to
       help, and through the window of dim faith He permits
       Himself to be seen. And Jeremiah says in Lamentations,
       "He casts off men, but He does it not willingly."
      
       This faith they do not know at all, and give up, thinking
       that God has forsaken them and is become their enemy;
       they even lay the blame of their ills on men and devils,
       and have no confidence at all in God. For this reason,
       too, their suffering is always an offence and harmful to
       them, and yet they go and do some good works, as they
       think, and are not aware of their unbelief. But they who
       in such suffering trust God and retain a good, firm
       confidence in Him, and believe that He is pleased with
       them, these see in their sufferings and afflictions
       nothing but precious merits and the rarest possessions,
       the value of which no one can estimate. For faith and
       confidence make precious before God all that which others
       think most shameful, so that it is written even o, death
       in Psalm cxvi, "Precious in the i sight of the Lord is
       the death of His saints." And just as the confidence and
       faith are better, higher and stronger at this stage than
       in the first stage, so and to the same degree do the
       sufferings which are borne in this faith excel all works
       of faith. Therefore between such works and sufferings
       there is an immeasurable difference and the sufferings
       are infinitely better.
      
       VIII. Beyond all this is the highest stage of faith,
       when; God punishes the conscience not only with temporal
       sufferings, but with death, hell, and sin, and refuses
       grace and mercy, as though it were His will to condemn
       and to be 4 angry eternally. This few men experience, but
       David cries out in Psalm vi, "O Lord, rebuke me not in
       Thine anger." To believe at such times that God, in His
       mercy, is pleased with us, is the highest work that can
       be done by and in the creature; but of this the
       work-righteous and doers of good works know nothing at
       all. For how could they here look for good things and
       grace from God, as long as they are not certain in their
       works, and doubt even on the lowest step of faith.
      
       In this way I have, as I said, always praised faith, and
       1 rejected all works which are done without such faith,
       in ] order thereby to lead men from the false,
       pretentious, pharisaic, unbelieving good works, with
       which all monastic houses, churches, homes, low and
       higher classes are overfilled, and lead them to the true,
       genuine, thoroughly good, believing works. In this no one
       opposes me except the unclean beasts, which do not divide
       the hoof, as the Law of Moses decrees; who will suffer no
       distinction among good works, but go lumbering along: if
       only they pray, fast, establish endowments, go to
       confession, and do enough, everything shall be good,
       although in all this they have had no faith in God's
       grace and approval. Indeed, they consider the works best
       of all, when they have done many, great and long works
       without any such confidence, and they look for good only
       after the works are done; and so they build their
       confidence not on divine favor, but on the works they
       have done, that is, on sand and water, from which they
       must at last take a cruel fall, as Christ says, Matthew
       vii. This good-will and favor, on which our confidence
       rests, was proclaimed by the angels from heaven, when
       they sang on Christmas night: "Gloria in excelsis Deo,
       Glory to God in the highest, peace to earth, gracious
       favor to man."
      
       IX. Now this is the work of the First Commandment, which
       commands: "Thou shalt have no other gods," which means:
       "Since I alone am God, thou shalt place all thy
       confidence, trust and faith on Me alone, and on no one
       else." For that is not to have a god, if you call him God
       only with your lips, or worship him with the knees or
       bodily gestures; but if you trust Him with the heart, and
       look to Him for all good, grace and favor, whether in
       works or sufferings, in life or death, in joy or sorrow;
       as the Lord Christ says to the heathen woman, John iv: "I
       say unto thee, they that worship God must worship Him in
       spirit and in truth." And this faith, faithfulness,
       confidence deep in the heart, is the true fulfilling of
       the First Commandment; without this there is no other
       work that is able to satisfy this Commandment. And as
       this Commandment is the very first, highest and best,
       from which all the others proceed, in which they exist,
       and by which they are directed and measured, so also its
       work, that is, the faith or confidence in God's favor at
       all times, is the very first, highest and best, from
       which all others must proceed, exist, remain, be directed
       and measured. Compared with this, other works are just as
       if the other Commandments were without the First, and
       there were no God, Therefore St. Augustine well says that
       the works of the First Commandment are faith, hope and
       love. As I said above, such faith and confidence bring
       love and hope with them. Nay, if we see it aright, love
       is the first, or comes at the same instant with faith.
       For I could not trust God, if I did not think that He
       wished to be favorable and to love me, which leads me, in
       turn, to love Him and to trust Him heartily and to look
       to Him for all good things.
      
       X. Now you see for yourself that all those who do not at
       i at all times trust God and do not in all their works or
       sufferings, life and death, trust in His favor, grace and
       good-will, but seek His favor in other things or in
       themselves, do not keep this Commandment, and practise
       real idolatry, even if they were to do the works of all
       the other Commandments, and in addition had all the
       prayers, fasting, obedience, patience, chastity, and
       innocence of all the saints combined. For the chief work
       is not present, without which all the others are nothing
       but mere sham, show and pretence, with nothing back of
       them; against which Christ warns us, Matthew vii: "Beware
       of false prophets, which N come to you in sheep's
       clothing." Such are all who wish with their many good
       works, as they say, to make God favorable to themselves,
       and to buy God's grace from Him, as if He were a huckster
       or a day-laborer, unwilling to give His grace and favor
       for nothing. These are the most perverse people on earth,
       who will hardly or never be converted to the right way.
       Such too are all who in adversity run hither and thither,
       and look for counsel and help everywhere except from God,
       from Whom they are most urgently commanded to seek it;
       whom the Prophet Isaiah reproves thus, Isaiah ix: "The
       mad people turneth not to Him that smiteth them"; that
       is, God smote them and sent them sufferings and all kinds
       of adversity, that they should run to Him and trust Him.
       But they run away from Him to men, now to Egypt, now to
       Assyria, perchance also to the devil; and of such
       idolatry much is written in the same Prophet and in the
       Books of the Kings. This is also the way of all holy
       hypocrites when they are in trouble: they do not run to
       God, but flee from Him, and only think of how they may
       get rid of their trouble through their own efforts or
       through human help, and yet they consider themselves and
       let others consider them pious people.
      
       XI. This is what St. Paul means in many places, where he
       ascribes so much to faith, that he says: Justus ex fide
       sua vivit, "the righteous man draws his life out of his
       faith," and faith is that because of which he is counted
       righteous before God. If righteousness consists of faith,
       it is clear that faith fulfils all commandments and makes
       all works righteous, since no one is justified except he
       keep all the commands of God. Again, the works can
       justify no one before God without faith. So utterly and
       roundly does the Apostle reject works and praise faith, ;
       that some have taken offence at his words and say: "Well,
       then, we will do no more good works," although he
       condemns such men as erring and foolish.
      
       So men still do. When we reject the great, pretentious
       works of our time, which are done entirely without faith,
       they say: Men are only to believe and not to do anything
       good. For nowadays they say that the works of the First
       Commandment are singing, reading, organ-playing, reading
       the mass, saying matins and vespers and the other hours,
       the founding and decorating of churches, altars, and
       monastic houses, the gathering of bells, jewels,
       garments, trinkets and treasures, running to Rome and to
       the saints. Further, when we are dressed up and bow,
       kneel, pray the rosary and the Psalter, and all this not
       before an idol, but before the holy cross of God or the
       pictures of His saints: this we call honoring and
       worshiping God, and, according to the First Commandment,
       "having no other gods"; although these things usurers,
       adulterers and all manner of sinners can do too, and do
       them daily.
      
       Of course, if these things are done with such faith that
       we believe that they please God, then they are
       praiseworthy, not because of their virtue, but because of
       such faith, for which all works are of equal value, as
       has been said. But if we doubt or do not believe that God
       is gracious to us and is pleased with us, or if we
       presumptuously expect to please Him only through and
       after our works, then it is all pure deception, outwardly
       honoring God, but inwardly setting up self as a false
       god. This is the reason why I have so often spoken
       against the display, magnificence and multitude of such
       works and have rejected them, because it is as clear as
       day that they are not only done in doubt or without
       faith, but there is not one in a thousand who does not
       set his confidence upon the works, expecting by them to
       win God's favor and anticipate His grace; and so they
       make a fair of them, a thing which God cannot endure,
       since He has promised His grace freely, and wills that we
       begin by trusting that grace, and in it perform all
       works, whatever they may be.
      
       XII. Note for yourself, then, how far apart these two
       are: keeping the First Commandment with outward works
       only, and keeping it with inward trust. For this last
       makes true, living children of God, the other only makes
       worse idolatry t and the most mischievous hypocrites on
       earth, who with their apparent righteousness lead
       unnumbered people into their way, and yet allow them to
       be without faith, so that they are miserably misled, and
       are caught in the pitiable babbling and mummery. Of such
       Christ says, Matthew xxiv: "Beware, if any man shall say
       unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there"; and John iv: "I
       say unto thee, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in
       this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship God, for the
       Father seeketh spiritual worshipers."
      
       These and similar passages have moved me and ought to
       move everyone to reject the great display of bulls,
       seals, flags, indulgences, by which the poor folk are led
       to build churches, to give, to endow, to pray, and yet
       faith is not mentioned, and is even suppressed. For since
       faith knows no distinction among works, such exaltation
       and urging of one work above another cannot exist beside
       faith. For faith desires to be the only service of God,
       and will grant this name and honor to no other work,
       except in so far as faith imparts it, as it does when the
       work is done in faith and by faith. This perversion is
       indicated in the Old Testament, when the Jews left the
       Temple and sacrificed at other places, in the green parks
       and on the mountains. This is what these men also do:
       they are zealous to do all works, but this chief work of
       faith they regard not at all.
      
       XIII. Where now are they who ask, what works are good;
       what they shall do; how they shall be religious? Yes, and
       where are they who say that when we preach of faith, we
       shall neither teach nor do works? Does not this First
       Commandment give us more work to do than any man can do?
       If a man were a thousand men, or all men, or all
       creatures, this Commandment would yet ask enough of him,
       and more than enough, since he is commanded to live and
       walk at all times in faith and confidence toward God, to
       place such faith in no one else, and so to have only one,
       the true God, and none other.
      
       Now, since the being and nature of man cannot for an
       instant be without doing or not doing something, enduring
       or running away from something (for, as we see, life
       never rests), let him who will be pious and filled with
       good works, begin and in all his life and works at all
       times exercise himself in this faith; let him learn to do
       and to leave undone all things in such continual faith;
       then will he find how much work he has to do, and how
       completely all things are included in faith; how he dare
       never grow idle, because his very idling must be the
       exercise and work of faith. In brief, nothing can be in
       or about us and nothing can happen to us but that it must
       be good and meritorious, if we believe (as we ought) that
       all things please God. So says St. Paul: "Dear brethren,
       all that ye do, whether ye eat or drink, do all in the
       Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord." Now it cannot be done in
       this Name except it be done in this faith. Likewise,
       Romans vii: "We know that all things work together for
       good to the saints of God."
      
       Therefore, when some say that good works are forbidden
       when we preach faith alone, it is as if I said to a sick
       man: "If you had health, you would have the use of all
       your limbs; but without health, the works of all your
       limbs are nothing"; and he wanted to infer that I had
       forbidden the works of all his limbs; whereas, on the
       contrary, I meant that he must first have health, which
       will work all the works of all the members. So faith also
       must be in all works the master-workman and captain, or
       they are nothing at all.
      
       XIV. You might say: "Why then do we have so many laws of
       the Church and of the State, and many ceremonies of
       churches, monastic houses, holy places, which urge and
       tempt men to good works, if faith does all things through
       the First Commandment?" I answer: Simply because we do
       not all have faith or do not heed it. If every man had
       faith, we would need no more laws, but every one would of
       himself at all times do good works, as his confidence in
       God teaches him.
      
       But now there are four kinds of men: the first, just
       mentioned, who need no law, of whom St. Paul says, I.
       Timothy i, "The law is not made for a righteous man,"
       that is, for the believer, but believers of themselves do
       what they know and can do, only because they firmly trust
       that God's favor and grace rests upon them in all things.
       The second class want to abuse this freedom, put a false
       confidence in it, and grow lazy; of whom St. Peter says,
       I. Peter ii, "Ye shall live as free men, but not using
       your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness," as if he
       said: The freedom of faith does not permit sins, nor will
       it cover them, but it sets us free to do all manner of
       good works and to endure all things as they happen to us,
       so that a man is not bound only to one work or to a few.
       So also St. Paul, Galatians v: "Use not your liberty for
       an occasion to the flesh." Such men must be urged by laws
       and hemmed in by teaching and exhortation. The third
       class are wicked men, always ready for sins; these must
       be constrained by spiritual and temporal laws, like wild
       horses and dogs, and where this does not help, they must
       be put to death by the worldly sword, as St. Paul says,
       Romans xiii: "The worldly ruler bears the sword, and
       serves God with it, not as a terror to the good, but to
       the evil." The fourth class, who are still lusty, and
       childish in their understanding of faith and of the
       spiritual life, must be coaxed like young children and
       tempted with external, definite and prescribed
       decorations, with reading, praying, fasting, singing,
       adorning of churches, organ playing, and such other
       things as are commanded and observed in monastic houses
       and churches, until they also learn to know the faith.
       Although there is great danger here, when the rulers, as
       is now, alas! the case, busy themselves with and insist
       upon such ceremonies and external works as if they were
       the true works, and neglect faith, which they ought
       always to teach along with these works, just as a mother
       gives her child other food along with the milk, until the
       child can eat the strong food by itself.
      
       XV. Since, then, we are not all alike, we must tolerate
       such people, share their observances and burdens, and not
       despise them, but teach them the true way of faith. So
       St. Paul teaches, Romans xiv: "Him that is weak in the
       faith receive ye, to teach him." And so he did himself,
       I. Corinthians ix: "To them that are under the law, I
       became as under the law, although I was not under the
       law." And Christ, Matthew xvii, when He was asked to pay
       tribute, which He was not obligated to pay, argues with
       St. Peter, whether the children of kings must give
       tribute, or only other people. St. Peter answers: "Only
       other people." Christ said: "Then are the children of
       kings free; notwithstanding, lest we should offend them,
       go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the
       fish that first cometh up; and in his mouth thou shalt
       find apiece of money; take that and give it for me and
       thee."
      
       Here we see that all works and things are free to a
       Christian through his faith; and yet, because the others
       do not yet believe, he observes and bears with them what
       he is not obligated to do. But this he does freely, for
       he is certain that this is pleasing to God, and he does
       it willingly, accepts it as any other free work which
       comes to his hand without his choice, because he desires
       and seeks no more than that he may in his faith do works
       to please God.
      
       But since in this discourse we have undertaken to teach
       what righteous and good works are, and are now speaking
       of the highest work, it is clear that we do not speak of
       the second, third and fourth classes of men, but of the
       first, into whose likeness all the others are to grow,
       and until they do so the first class must endure and
       instruct them. Therefore we must not despise, as if they
       were hopeless, these men of weak faith, who would gladly
       do right and learn, and yet cannot understand because of
       the ceremonies to which they cling; we must rather blame
       their ignorant, blind teachers, who have never taught
       them the faith, and have led them so deeply into works.
       They must be gently and gradually led back again to
       faith, as a sick man is treated, and must be allowed for
       a time, for their conscience sake, to cling to some works
       and do them as necessary to salvation, so long as they
       rightly grasp the faith; lest if we try to tear them out
       so suddenly, their weak consciences be quite shattered
       and confused, and retain neither faith nor works. But the
       hardheaded, who, hardened in their works, give no heed to
       what is said of faith, and fight against it, these we
       must, as Christ did and taught, let go their way, that
       the blind may lead the blind.
      
       XVI. But you say: How can I trust surely that all my
       works are pleasing to God, when at times I fall, and
       talk, eat, drink and sleep too much, or otherwise
       transgress, as I cannot help doing? Answer: This question
       shows that you still regard faith as a work among other
       works, and do not set it above all works. For it is the
       highest work for this very reason, because it remains and
       blots out these daily sins by not doubting that God is so
       kind to you as to wink at such daily transgression and
       weakness. Aye, even if a deadly sin should occur (which,
       however, never or rarely happens to those who live in
       faith and trust toward God), yet faith rises again and
       does not doubt that its sin is already gone; as it is
       written I. John ii: "My little children, these things I
       write unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we
       have an Advocate with God the Father, Jesus Christ, Who
       is the propitiation of all our sins." And Wisdom xv: "For
       if we sin, we are Thine, knowing Thy power." And Proverbs
       xxiv: "For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up
       again." Yes, this confidence and faith must be so high
       and strong that the man knows that all his life and works
       are nothing but damnable sins before God's judgment, as
       it is written, Psalm cxliii: "In thy sight shall no man
       living be justified"; and he must entirely despair of his
       works, believing that they cannot be good except through
       this faith, which looks for no judgment, but only for
       pure grace, favor, kindness and mercy, like David, Psalm
       xxvi: "Thy loving kindness is ever before mine eyes, and
       I have trusted in Thy truth"; Psalm iv: "The light of Thy
       countenance is lift up upon us (that is, the knowledge of
       Thy grace through faith), and thereby hast Thou put
       gladness in my heart"; for as faith trusts, so it
       receives.
      
       See, thus are works forgiven, are without guilt and are
       good, not by their own nature, but by the mercy and grace
       of God because of the faith which trusts on the mercy of
       God. Therefore we must fear because of the works, but
       comfort ourselves because of the grace of God, as it is
       written, Psalm cxlvii: "The Lord taketh pleasure in them
       that I fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy." So we
       pray with perfect confidence: "Our Father," and yet
       petition: "Forgive us our trespasses"; we are children
       and yet sinners; are acceptable and yet do not do enough;
       and all this is the work of faith, firmly grounded in
       God's grace.
      
       XVII. But if you ask, where the faith and the confidence
       1 can be found and whence they come, this it is certainly
       most necessary to know. First: Without doubt faith does
       not come from your works or merit, but alone from Jesus
       Christ, and is freely promised and given; as St. Paul
       writes, Romans v: "God commendeth His love to us as
       exceeding sweet and kindly, in that, while we were yet
       sinners, Christ died for us"; as if he said: "Ought not
       this give us a strong unconquerable confidence, that
       before we prayed or cared for it, yes, while we still
       continually walked in sins, Christ dies for our sin?" St.
       Paul concludes: "If while we were yet sinners Christ died
       for us, how much more then, being justified by His blood,
       shall we be saved from wrath through Him; and if, when we
       were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of
       His Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved
       by His life."
      
       Lo! thus must thou form Christ within thyself and see how
       in Him God holds before thee and offers thee His mercy
       without any previous merits of thine own, and from such a
       view of His grace must thou draw faith and confidence of
       the forgiveness of all thy sins. Faith, therefore, does
       not begin with works, neither do they create it, but it
       must spring up and flow from the blood, wounds and death
       of Christ. If thou see in these that God is so kindly
       affectioned toward thee that He gives even His Son for
       thee, then thy heart also must in its turn grow sweet and
       kindly affectioned toward God, and so thy confidence must
       grow out of pure good-will and love -- God's love toward
       thee and thine toward God. We never read that the Holy
       Spirit was given to any one when he did works, but always
       when men have heard the Gospel of Christ and the mercy of
       God. From this same Word and from no other source must
       faith still come, even in our day and always. For Christ
       is the rock out of which men suck oil and honey, as Moses
       says, Deuteronomy xxxii.