Our teachers are falsely accused of forbidding good works. Their writings on the Ten Commandments and other subjects prove the contrary, for they have taught well and helpfully about true Christian estates and works. About these matters little has been taught in former times; instead, childish and needless works such as rosaries, the cult of saints, monasticism, pilgrimages, ap…

56. For if, as they hold, the Essence of the Word being of created nature, therefore He says, 'The Lord created me,' being a creature, He was not created for us; but if He was not created for us, we are not created in Him; and, if not created in Him, we have Him not in ourselves but externally; as, for instance, as receiving instruction from Him as from a teacher. And it being …

66. For if, as has been said, because of the resurrection from the dead He is called a beginning, and then a resurrection took place when He, bearing our flesh, had given Himself to death for us, it is evident that His words, 'He created me a beginning of ways,' is indicative not of His essence , but of His bodily presence. For to the body death was proper ; and in like manner …

Of the goodness of God explained in the creation of things, and of the Trinity as found in the first words of Genesis. The story concerning the origin of the world (Genesis 1) is allegorically explained, and he applies it to those things which God works for sanctified and blessed man. Finally, he makes an end of this work, having implored eternal rest from God. Chapter 1. He Ca…

Does grace imply something in the soul? Is grace a quality? Does grace differ from infused virtue? The subject of grace Article 1. Whether grace implies anything in the soul? Objection 1. It would seem that grace does not imply anything in the soul. For man is said to have the grace of God even as the grace of man. Hence it is written (Genesis 39:21) that the Lord gave to Josep…

Christ is our righteousness. From that it follows that our works, insofar as they are good, are of Christ; but insofar as they are ours, they are neither right nor good. The property of a Christian is not to argue and fight but to do works of love, since no one is bound to do things God has not decreed.

But does not God command us to do good works before we are sanctified? Most certainly. And these are what we call works meet for repentance. These are necessary before and after justification. But they are not the ground of justification or sanctification. They are the fruits, not the root. The root is faith — faith working by love.

Q. What do we do that is good? A. Only that which arises out of true faith, conforms to God's law, and is done for his glory; and not that which is based on what we think is right or on established human tradition.

This election is not of several kinds but is one and the same election for all who were to be saved in the Old and the New Testaments. For Scripture declares that there is a single good pleasure, purpose, and plan of God's will, by which he chose us from eternity both to grace and to glory, both to salvation and to the way of salvation, which God prepared in advance for us to w…

Neither does the renewed confidence of perseverance produce immorality or lack of concern for godliness in those who have been restored after a fall, but it produces a much greater concern to observe carefully the ways of the Lord which God prepared in advance. They observe these ways in order that by walking in them they may maintain the assurance of their perseverance, lest, …

We believe that this true faith, produced in us by the hearing of God's Word and by the work of the Holy Spirit, regenerates us and makes us new creatures, causing us to live a new life and freeing us from the slavery of sin. Therefore, far from making people cold toward living in a pious and holy way, this justifying faith, quite to the contrary, so works within them that apar…

Christian faith is not an opinion or human conviction, but a most firm trust and a clear and steadfast assent of the mind, and then a most certain apprehension of the truth of God, presented in the Scriptures and in the Apostles' Creed. It is the gift of God, which is given to the elect according to the measure which God has distributed to each one. Because faith is a gift of G…

We believe a man to be not simply justified through faith alone, but through faith which worketh through love, that is to say, through faith and works. Not that the foundation and certainty of our salvation resteth upon works; for no man can do the works of God — for Christ hath said, "Without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5) — but that faith without works is dead, and worketh…

Although good works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God's judgment; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and spring out of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by its fruit.

The Formula affirms that good works necessarily follow faith and are the fruit of the Spirit, pleasing to God for Christ's sake. Believers are created in Christ Jesus for good works. It denies both that works are necessary for salvation (as a cause) and that believers may live lawlessly. Works are necessary as evidence of faith, not as a ground of acceptance before God.