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CHAPTER 16
REFUTATION OF THE FALSE ACCUSATIONS BY
WHICH THE PAPISTS TRY TO CAST ODIUM UPON
THIS DOCTRINE

1. DOES THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION

DO AWAY WITH GOOD WORKS?
This, in one word, is enough to refute the shamelessness of certain
impious persons who slanderously charge us with abolishing good works,
and with seducing men from the pursuit of them, when we say that men
are not justified by works and do not merit salvation by them; and again,
charge us with making the path to righteousness too easy when we teach
that justification lies in free remission of sins; and, by this enticement,
with luring into sin men who are already too much inclined to it of their
own accord. F420 These false charges, I say, are sufficiently refuted by that
simple statement. Still, I shall briefly reply to each. They contend that
through the justification of faith, good works are destroyed.
I forbear to say what sort of zealots for good works they are who thus
carp at us. Let them rail with impunity even as they wantonly infect the
whole world with their own foul lives! They pretend to be grieved that,
when faith is so gloriously extolled, works are degraded. What if, rather,
these were encouraged and strengthened? For we dream neither of a faith
devoid of good works nor of a justification that stands without them. This
alone is of importance: having admitted that faith and good works must
cleave together, we still lodge justification in faith, not in works. We have a
ready explanation for doing this, provided we turn to Christ to whom our
faith is directed and from whom it receives its full strength.
Why, then, are we justified by faith? Because by faith we grasp Christ’s
righteousness, by which alone we are reconciled to God. Yet you could not
grasp this without at the same time grasping sanctification also. F421 For he
“is given unto us for righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, and
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<460130>
redemption” [ 1 Corinthians 1:30]. Therefore Christ justifies no one
whom he does not at the same time sanctify. These benefits are joined
together by an everlasting and indissoluble bond, so that those whom he
illumines by his wisdom, he redeems; those whom he redeems, he justifies;
those whom he justifies, he sanctifies.
But, since the question concerns only righteousness and sanctification, let
us dwell upon these. Although we may distinguish them, Christ contains
both of them inseparably in himself. Do you wish, then, to attain
righteousness in Christ? You must first possess Christ; but you cannot
possess him without being made partaker in his sanctification, because he
cannot be divided into pieces [<460113> 1 Corinthians 1:13]. Since, therefore,
it is solely by expending himself that the Lord gives us these benefits to
enjoy, he bestows both of them at the same time, the one never without
the other. Thus it is clear how true it is that we are justified not without
works yet not through works, since in our sharing in Christ, which
justifies us, sanctification is just as much included as righteousness.

2. DOES THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION STIFLE ZEAL

FOR GOOD WORKS?
This charge is also very false: that men’s hearts are seduced from desiring
to do good when we take from them their regard for merit. Here, in
passing, my readers must be warned that our opponents stupidly reason
from reward to merit, as I shall afterward explain more clearly. F422 For
they obviously do not know the principle that God is no less generous
when he assigns a reward for works than when he bestows the capacity to
act rightly. But I prefer to postpone this to its proper place.
Now it will be enough to touch upon how weak their objection is. This
will be done in two ways. For first, in saying men will take no care to
regulate their lives aright unless hope of reward is held out to them, they
are completely in error. F423 For if it is only a matter of men looking for
reward when they serve God, and hiring or selling their labor to him, it is
of little profit. God wills to be freely worshiped, freely loved. That
worshiper, I say, he approves who, when all hope of receiving reward has
been cut off, still ceases not to serve him.
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Indeed, if men have to be aroused, no one can put sharper spurs to them
than those derived from the end of our redemption and calling. Such spurs
the Word of the Lord employs when it teaches that it would bespeak our
too impious ingratitude for us not to reciprocate the love of him “who first
loved us” [<620419> 1 John 4:19; cf. 5:10]; that by Christ’s blood our
consciences are cleansed from dead works, that we should serve the living
God [<580914> Hebrews 9:14]; e that it is an unworthy, unholy act for us,
once cleansed, to contaminate ourselves with new filth, and to profane that
sacred blood [<581029> Hebrews 10:29]; that “we have been delivered from
the hand of our enemies in order that we may serve him without fear in
holiness and righteousness before him all our days” [<420174> Luke 1:74-75
p.]; that we have been freed from sin to cultivate righteousness with a free
spirit [<450618> Romans 6:18]; that “our old man was crucified”
[<450606> Romans 6:6], that “we... may arise to newness of life”
[<450604> Romans 6:4 p.]. Likewise, if we be dead with Christ, as befits his
members, we must seek the things that are above, and be pilgrims on earth,
so that we may aspire to heaven where our treasure is [cf.
<510301>
Colossians 3:1-3; also <400620> Matthew 6:20]. In this “the grace of
the Lord has appeared, that, having renounced all irreligion and worldly
desires, we may live sober, holy, and godly lives in this age, awaiting our
blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior.”
[<560211> Titus 2:11-13 p.] Therefore we were not appointed to rouse wrath
against ourselves but to obtain salvation through Christ [<520509> 1
Thessalonians 5:9]. We are temples of the Holy Spirit, which it is
unlawful to profane [<460316> 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; <470616> 2 Corinthians
6:16; <490221> Ephesians 2:21]. We are not darkness but light in the Lord,
and must walk as children of light [<490508> Ephesians 5:8-9; cf. <520504> 1
Thessalonians 5:4-5]. We have not been called to uncleanness but to
holiness [<520407> 1 Thessalonians 4:7], for this is the will of God, our
sanctification, that we abstain from unlawful desires [<520403> 1
Thessalonians 4:3]. Ours is a holy calling [<550109> 2 Timothy 1:9]. It
demands purity of life and nothing less; we have been freed from sin to
this end, that we may obey righteousness [<450618> Romans 6:18]. Could we
be aroused to love by any livelier argument than that of John’s: that “we
love one another as God has loved us” [<620411> 1 John 4:11; cf. <431334> John
13:34]? that herein his children differ from the devil’s children as children
of light from children of darkness, because they abide in love [<620310> 1
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John 3:10; 2:10-11]? Again, with that argument of Paul’s: that we, if we
cleave to Christ, are members of one body [<460615> 1 Corinthians 6:15,17;
12:12], who must help one another in our mutual tasks [cf. <461225> 1
Corinthians 12:25]? Can we be more forcefully summoned to holiness than
when we hear again from John that “all who have this hope... sanctify
themselves” because their God is holy [<620303> 1 John 3:3]? Likewise, from
Paul’s lips: since we rely on the promise of adoption, “let us cleanse
ourselves of all defilement of flesh and spirit” [<470701> 2 Corinthians 7:1,
Vg.]? Or again, than when we hear Christ putting himself forward as our
example in order that we may follow his footsteps [<600221> 1 Peter 2:21; cf.
<431510>
John 15:10; 13:15]?

3. GOD’S HONOR AND GOD’S MERCY AS MOTIVES FOR

ACTION: SUBORDINATION OF WORKS
These few Scriptural proofs, indeed, I have set forth as a mere taste. For if
it were my purpose to go through every one, a large volume would have to
be compiled. All the apostles are full of exhortations, urgings, and reproofs
with which to instruct the man of God in every good work [cf. <550316> 2
Timothy 3:16-17], and that without mention of merit. Rather, they derive
their most powerful exhortations from the thought that our salvation
stands upon no merit of ours but solely upon God’s mercy. Accordingly,
Paul, when he devoted an entire letter to showing that we have no hope of
life save in Christ’s righteousness, when he gets down to exhortations,
implores us by that mercy of God which He has deigned to give us
[<451201> Romans 12:1]. And surely this one reason ought to have been
enough: that God may be glorified in us [<400516> Matthew 5:16]. But if
anyone is still not so forcibly affected by the glory of God, the
remembrance of his benefits will, nevertheless, amply suffice to arouse
such persons to well-doing. F424 But these men, since, by stressing merits,
they perchance force out some slavish and coerced observances of the law,
say falsely that we have no basis for exhorting men to good works because
we do not enter upon the same road. F425 As if such obedience were highly
pleasing to God, who declares that he “loves a cheerful giver” and forbids
anything to be given as if “grudgingly or of necessity” [<470907> 2
Corinthians 9:7]!
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And I do not say this because I either despise or neglect the kind of
exhortation that Scripture very often uses in order not to overlook any
means of arousing us. For it recalls how “God will render to every man
according to his works” [<450206> Romans 2:6-7; <401627> Matthew 16:27;
<460308>
1 Corinthians 3:8, 14-15; <470510> 2 Corinthians 5:10; etc.]. But I
deny that this is the only thing, and even the principal thing among many.
Again, I do not concede that we should take our beginning from that point.
Furthermore, I contend that it does nothing to support the kind of merits
they preach, as we shall afterward see. F426 Finally, I say that it is of no
use unless we give prior place to the doctrine that we are justified by
Christ’s merit alone, which is grasped through faith, but by no merits of
our own works, because no men can be fit for the pursuit of holiness save
those who have first imbibed this doctrine.
And the prophet beautifully suggests this when he addresses God thus:
“There is propitiation with thee, O Lord, that thou mayest be feared”
[<19D004>Psalm 130:4, cf. Comm.]. For he shows that there is no honoring
of God unless his mercy be acknowledged, upon which alone it is founded
and established. This is especially worthy of note: that we may know not
only that the beginning of honoring God aright is trust in his mercy but
that the fear of God, which the papists would have meritorious, F427 cannot
be reckoned under the term “merit” because that fear is founded upon the
pardon and forgiveness of sins.

4. THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION AS INCITEMENT

TO THE SINFUL
But it is the most worthless of slanders to say men are invited to sin,
when we affirm the free forgiveness of sins in which we assert
righteousness consists. F428 For we say that it is of such great value that it
cannot be paid for by any good of ours. Therefore, it can never be obtained
except as a free gift. Now for us indeed it is free, but not so for Christ,
who dearly bought it at the cost of his most sacred blood, apart from
which there was no ransom of sufficient worth to satisfy God’s judgment.
When men are taught this, they are made aware that they cannot do
anything to prevent the shedding of his most sacred blood as often as they
sin. Furthermore, we say that our foulness is such that it can never be
cleansed except by the fountain of this purest blood, bought not they who
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hear these things to conceive a greater dread of sin than if it were said that
they are cleansed by the sprinkling of good works? And if they have any
sense of God, how can they but dread, once purified, to wallow once more
in the mire, so as to disturb and poison, as much as they can, the purity of
this fountain? “I have washed my feet,” says the believing soul according
to Solomon, “how shall I defile them anew?” [Cant. 5:3].
Now it is plain which persons prefer to cheapen the forgiveness of sins,
and which ones to prostitute the dignity of righteousness. They make
believe that God is appeased by their wretched satisfactions, which are
but dung [<500308> Philippians 3:8]. F429 We affirm that the guilt of sin is too
heavy to be atoned for by such light trifles, that it is too grave an offense
against God to be remitted by these worthless satisfactions, that this,
then, is the prerogative of Christ’s blood alone. They say that
righteousness, if ever it fails, is restored and repaired by works of
satisfaction. F430 We count it too precious to be matched by any
compensation of works; and therefore, to recover it, we must take refuge
in God’s mercy alone. The remaining matters that pertain to forgiveness of
sins belong in the next chapter. F431