As I have already said, I have always praised faith and rejected all works which are done without such faith in this way in order to lead men from the false, pretentious, pharisaic good works done without faith, with which all monasteries, churches, homes, and the upper and lower classes are overfilled, and to lead them to the right, true, genuine, real works of faith. Nobody strives against me in this except the unclean beasts who do not part the hoof (as the law of Moses decrees) and who will tolerate no distinction of any kind between good works, but go lumbering along. If only they pray, fast, establish endowments, go to confession, and do enough, everything is supposed to be all right, although in all this they have had no faith in the grace of God and no certainty of his approval. In fact, they regard these works most highly when they have done a great many major ones for a long time, without any such confidence, and they look for good only after the works have been performed. And so they build their confidence not on Gods favor, but on the works they have done. That is building on sand and water, and in the end they must fall, as Christ said in Matthew 7[:26-27]. This good will and favor, on which our confidence rests, was proclaimed by the angels from heaven when they sang on Christmas morn, Glory be to God on high, peace on earth, good will to men [Luke 2:14]. - Martin Luther, Treatise on Good Works
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 04:11:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015