Produced by Elizabeth T. Knuth and David Widger
CONCERNING CHRISTIAN LIBERTY
by Martin Luther
LETTER OF MARTIN LUTHER TO POPE LEO X.
Among those monstrous evils of this age with which I have now for three
years been waging war, I am sometimes compelled to look to you and to
call you to mind, most blessed father Leo. In truth, since you alone are
everywhere considered as being the cause of my engaging in war, I cannot
at any time fail to remember you; and although I have been compelled
by the causeless raging of your impious flatterers against me to appeal
from your seat to a future council--fearless of the futile decrees
of your predecessors Pius and Julius, who in their foolish tyranny
prohibited such an action--yet I have never been so alienated in feeling
from your Blessedness as not to have sought with all my might, in
diligent prayer and crying to God, all the best gifts for you and for
your see. But those who have hitherto endeavoured to terrify me with the
majesty of your name and authority, I have begun quite to despise and
triumph over. One thing I see remaining which I cannot despise, and this
has been the reason of my writing anew to your Blessedness: namely, that
I find that blame is cast on me, and that it is imputed to me as a great
offence, that in my rashness I am judged to have spared not even your
person.
Now, to confess the truth openly, I am conscious that, whenever I have
had to mention your person, I have said nothing of you but what was
honourable and good. If I had done otherwise, I could by no means have
approved my own conduct, but should have supported with all my power the
judgment of those men concerning me, nor would anything have pleased
me better, than to recant such rashness and impiety. I have called
you Daniel in Babylon; and every reader thoroughly knows with what
distinguished zeal I defended your conspicuous innocence against
Silvester, who tried to stain it. Indeed, the published opinion of so
many great men and the repute of your blameless life are too widely
famed and too much reverenced throughout the world to be assailable by
any man, of however great name, or by any arts. I am not so foolish as
to attack one whom everybody praises; nay, it has been and always will
be my desire not to attack even those whom public repute disgraces. I am
not delighted at the faults of any man, since I am very conscious myself
of the great beam in my own eye, nor can I be the first to cast a stone
at the adulteress.
I have indeed inveighed sharply against impious doctrines, and I have
not been slack to censure my adversaries on account, not of their bad
morals, but of their impiety. And for this I am so far from being sorry
that I have brought my mind to despise the judgments of men and to
persevere in this vehement zeal, according to the example of Christ,
who, in His zeal, calls His adversaries a generation of vipers, blind,
hypocrites, and children of the devil. Paul, too, charges the sorcerer
with being a child of the devil, full of all subtlety and all malice;
and defames certain persons as evil workers, dogs, and deceivers. In the
opinion of those delicate-eared persons, nothing could be more bitter or
intemperate than Paul's language. What can be more bitter than the words
of the prophets? The ears of our generation have been made so delicate
by the senseless multitude of flatterers that, as soon as we perceive
that anything of ours is not approved of, we cry out that we are being
bitterly assailed; and when we can repel the truth by no other pretence,
we escape by attributing bitterness, impatience, intemperance, to our
adversaries. What would be the use of salt if it were not pungent, or of
the edge of the sword if it did not slay? Accursed is the man who does
the work of the Lord deceitfully.
Wherefore, most excellent Leo, I beseech you to accept my vindication,
made in this letter, and to persuade yourself that I have never thought
any evil concerning your person; further, that I am one who desires that
eternal blessing may fall to your lot, and that I have no dispute with
any man concerning morals, but only concerning the word of truth. In all
other things I will yield to any one, but I neither can nor will forsake
and deny the word. He who thinks otherwise of me, or has taken in my
words in another sense, does not think rightly, and has not taken in the
truth.
Your see, however, which is called the Court of Rome, and which neither
you nor any man can deny to be more corrupt than any Babylon or Sodom,
and quite, as I believe, of a lost, desperate, and hopeless impiety,
this I have verily abominated, and have felt indignant that the people
of Christ should be cheated under your name and the pretext of the
Church of Rome; and so I have resisted, and will resist, as long as
the spirit of faith shall live in me. Not that I am striving after
impossibilities, or hoping that by my labours alone, against the furious
opposition of so many flatterers, any good can be done in that most
disordered Babylon; but that I feel myself a debtor to my brethren, and
am bound to take thought for them, that fewer of them may be ruined, or
that their ruin may be less complete, by the plagues of Rome. For many
years now, nothing else has overflowed from Rome into the world--as
you are not ignorant--than the laying waste of goods, of bodies, and of
souls, and the worst examples of all the worst things. These things are
clearer than the light to all men; and the Church of Rome, formerly the
most holy of all Churches, has become the most lawless den of thieves,
the most shameless of all brothels, the very kingdom of sin, death, and
hell; so that not even antichrist, if he were to come, could devise any
addition to its wickedness.
Meanwhile you, Leo, are sitting like a lamb in the midst of wolves,
like Daniel in the midst of lions, and, with Ezekiel, you dwell among
scorpions. What opposition can you alone make to these monstrous evils?
Take to yourself three or four of the most learned and best of the
cardinals. What are these among so many? You would all perish by poison
before you could undertake to decide on a remedy. It is all over with
the Court of Rome; the wrath of God has come upon her to the uttermost.
She hates councils; she dreads to be reformed; she cannot restrain the
madness of her impiety; she fills up the sentence passed on her mother,
of whom it is said, "We would have healed Babylon, but she is not
healed; let us forsake her." It had been your duty and that of your
cardinals to apply a remedy to these evils, but this gout laughs at the
physician's hand, and the chariot does not obey the reins. Under the
influence of these feelings, I have always grieved that you, most
excellent Leo, who were worthy of a better age, have been made pontiff
in this. For the Roman Court is not worthy of you and those like you,
but of Satan himself, who in truth is more the ruler in that Babylon
than you are.
Oh, would that, having laid aside that glory which your most abandoned
enemies declare to be yours, you were living rather in the office of a
private priest or on your paternal inheritance! In that glory none are
worthy to glory, except the race of Iscariot, the children of perdition.
For what happens in your court, Leo, except that, the more wicked and
execrable any man is, the more prosperously he can use your name
and authority for the ruin of the property and souls of men, for the
multiplication of crimes, for the oppression of faith and truth and
of the whole Church of God? Oh, Leo! in reality most unfortunate, and
sitting on a most perilous throne, I tell you the truth, because I wish
you well; for if Bernard felt compassion for his Anastasius at a time
when the Roman see, though even then most corrupt, was as yet ruling
with better hope than now, why should not we lament, to whom so much
further corruption and ruin has been added in three hundred years?
Is it not true that there is nothing under the vast heavens more
corrupt, more pestilential, more hateful, than the Court of Rome? She
incomparably surpasses the impiety of the Turks, so that in very truth
she, who was formerly the gate of heaven, is now a sort of open mouth
of hell, and such a mouth as, under the urgent wrath of God, cannot be
blocked up; one course alone being left to us wretched men: to call back
and save some few, if we can, from that Roman gulf.
Behold, Leo, my father, with what purpose and on what principle it is
that I have stormed against that seat of pestilence. I am so far from
having felt any rage against your person that I even hoped to gain
favour with you and to aid you in your welfare by striking actively and
vigorously at that your prison, nay, your hell. For whatever the efforts
of all minds can contrive against the confusion of that impious Court
will be advantageous to you and to your welfare, and to many others with
you. Those who do harm to her are doing your office; those who in every
way abhor her are glorifying Christ; in short, those are Christians who
are not Romans.
But, to say yet more, even this never entered my heart: to inveigh
against the Court of Rome or to dispute at all about her. For, seeing
all remedies for her health to be desperate, I looked on her with
contempt, and, giving her a bill of divorcement, said to her, "He that
is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him
be filthy still," giving myself up to the peaceful and quiet study of
sacred literature, that by this I might be of use to the brethren living
about me.
While I was making some advance in these studies, Satan opened his
eyes and goaded on his servant John Eccius, that notorious adversary of
Christ, by the unchecked lust for fame, to drag me unexpectedly into the
arena, trying to catch me in one little word concerning the primacy of
the Church of Rome, which had fallen from me in passing. That boastful
Thraso, foaming and gnashing his teeth, proclaimed that he would dare
all things for the glory of God and for the honour of the holy apostolic
seat; and, being puffed up respecting your power, which he was about
to misuse, he looked forward with all certainty to victory; seeking to
promote, not so much the primacy of Peter, as his own pre-eminence among
the theologians of this age; for he thought it would contribute in no
slight degree to this, if he were to lead Luther in triumph. The result
having proved unfortunate for the sophist, an incredible rage torments
him; for he feels that whatever discredit to Rome has arisen through me
has been caused by the fault of himself alone.
Suffer me, I pray you, most excellent Leo, both to plead my own cause,
and to accuse your true enemies. I believe it is known to you in what
way Cardinal Cajetan, your imprudent and unfortunate, nay unfaithful,
legate, acted towards me. When, on account of my reverence for your
name, I had placed myself and all that was mine in his hands, he did not
so act as to establish peace, which he could easily have established by
one little word, since I at that time promised to be silent and to make
an end of my case, if he would command my adversaries to do the same.
But that man of pride, not content with this agreement, began to justify
my adversaries, to give them free licence, and to order me to recant, a
thing which was certainly not in his commission. Thus indeed, when the
case was in the best position, it came through his vexatious tyranny
into a much worse one. Therefore whatever has followed upon this is the
fault not of Luther, but entirely of Cajetan, since he did not suffer me
to be silent and remain quiet, which at that time I was entreating for
with all my might. What more was it my duty to do?
Next came Charles Miltitz, also a nuncio from your Blessedness. He,
though he went up and down with much and varied exertion, and omitted
nothing which could tend to restore the position of the cause thrown
into confusion by the rashness and pride of Cajetan, had difficulty,
even with the help of that very illustrious prince the Elector
Frederick, in at last bringing about more than one familiar conference
with me. In these I again yielded to your great name, and was prepared
to keep silence, and to accept as my judge either the Archbishop of
Treves, or the Bishop of Naumburg; and thus it was done and concluded.
While this was being done with good hope of success, lo! that other and
greater enemy of yours, Eccius, rushed in with his Leipsic disputation,
which he had undertaken against Carlstadt, and, having taken up a
new question concerning the primacy of the Pope, turned his arms
unexpectedly against me, and completely overthrew the plan for peace.
Meanwhile Charles Miltitz was waiting, disputations were held, judges
were being chosen, but no decision was arrived at. And no wonder! for
by the falsehoods, pretences, and arts of Eccius the whole business was
brought into such thorough disorder, confusion, and festering soreness,
that, whichever way the sentence might lean, a greater conflagration was
sure to arise; for he was seeking, not after truth, but after his own
credit. In this case too I omitted nothing which it was right that I
should do.
I confess that on this occasion no small part of the corruptions of Rome
came to light; but, if there was any offence in this, it was the fault
of Eccius, who, in taking on him a burden beyond his strength, and in
furiously aiming at credit for himself, unveiled to the whole world the
disgrace of Rome.
Here is that enemy of yours, Leo, or rather of your Court; by his
example alone we may learn that an enemy is not more baneful than a
flatterer. For what did he bring about by his flattery, except evils
which no king could have brought about? At this day the name of the
Court of Rome stinks in the nostrils of the world, the papal authority
is growing weak, and its notorious ignorance is evil spoken of. We
should hear none of these things, if Eccius had not disturbed the plans
of Miltitz and myself for peace. He feels this clearly enough himself in
the indignation he shows, too late and in vain, against the publication
of my books. He ought to have reflected on this at the time when he was
all mad for renown, and was seeking in your cause nothing but his own
objects, and that with the greatest peril to you. The foolish man hoped
that, from fear of your name, I should yield and keep silence; for I
do not think he presumed on his talents and learning. Now, when he sees
that I am very confident and speak aloud, he repents too late of his
rashness, and sees--if indeed he does see it--that there is One in
heaven who resists the proud, and humbles the presumptuous.
Since then we were bringing about by this disputation nothing but the
greater confusion of the cause of Rome, Charles Miltitz for the third
time addressed the Fathers of the Order, assembled in chapter, and
sought their advice for the settlement of the case, as being now in a
most troubled and perilous state. Since, by the favour of God, there
was no hope of proceeding against me by force, some of the more noted of
their number were sent to me, and begged me at least to show respect to
your person and to vindicate in a humble letter both your innocence
and my own. They said that the affair was not as yet in a position of
extreme hopelessness, if Leo X., in his inborn kindliness, would put his
hand to it. On this I, who have always offered and wished for peace, in
order that I might devote myself to calmer and more useful pursuits, and
who for this very purpose have acted with so much spirit and vehemence,
in order to put down by the strength and impetuosity of my words, as
well as of my feelings, men whom I saw to be very far from equal to
myself--I, I say, not only gladly yielded, but even accepted it with joy
and gratitude, as the greatest kindness and benefit, if you should think
it right to satisfy my hopes.
Thus I come, most blessed Father, and in all abasement beseech you
to put to your hand, if it is possible, and impose a curb to those
flatterers who are enemies of peace, while they pretend peace. But there
is no reason, most blessed Father, why any one should assume that I am
to utter a recantation, unless he prefers to involve the case in
still greater confusion. Moreover, I cannot bear with laws for the
interpretation of the word of God, since the word of God, which teaches
liberty in all other things, ought not to be bound. Saving these two
things, there is nothing which I am not able, and most heartily willing,
to do or to suffer. I hate contention; I will challenge no one; in
return I wish not to be challenged; but, being challenged, I will not be
dumb in the cause of Christ my Master. For your Blessedness will be able
by one short and easy word to call these controversies before you and
suppress them, and to impose silence and peace on both sides--a word
which I have ever longed to hear.
Therefore, Leo, my Father, beware of listening to those sirens who
make you out to be not simply a man, but partly a god, so that you can
command and require whatever you will. It will not happen so, nor will
you prevail. You are the servant of servants, and more than any other
man, in a most pitiable and perilous position. Let not those men deceive
you who pretend that you are lord of the world; who will not allow any
one to be a Christian without your authority; who babble of your having
power over heaven, hell, and purgatory. These men are your enemies and
are seeking your soul to destroy it, as Isaiah says, "My people, they
that call thee blessed are themselves deceiving thee." They are in error
who raise you above councils and the universal Church; they are in error
who attribute to you alone the right of interpreting Scripture. All
these men are seeking to set up their own impieties in the Church under
your name, and alas! Satan has gained much through them in the time of
your predecessors.
In brief, trust not in any who exalt you, but in those who humiliate
you. For this is the judgment of God: "He hath cast down the mighty from
their seat, and hath exalted the humble." See how unlike Christ was to
His successors, though all will have it that they are His vicars. I fear
that in truth very many of them have been in too serious a sense His
vicars, for a vicar represents a prince who is absent. Now if a pontiff
rules while Christ is absent and does not dwell in his heart, what
else is he but a vicar of Christ? And then what is that Church but a
multitude without Christ? What indeed is such a vicar but antichrist
and an idol? How much more rightly did the Apostles speak, who call
themselves servants of a present Christ, not the vicars of an absent
one!
Perhaps I am shamelessly bold in seeming to teach so great a head, by
whom all men ought to be taught, and from whom, as those plagues of
yours boast, the thrones of judges receive their sentence; but I imitate
St. Bernard in his book concerning Considerations addressed to Eugenius,
a book which ought to be known by heart by every pontiff. I do this, not
from any desire to teach, but as a duty, from that simple and faithful
solicitude which teaches us to be anxious for all that is safe for
our neighbours, and does not allow considerations of worthiness or
unworthiness to be entertained, being intent only on the dangers or
advantage of others. For since I know that your Blessedness is driven
and tossed by the waves at Rome, so that the depths of the sea press
on you with infinite perils, and that you are labouring under such a
condition of misery that you need even the least help from any the least
brother, I do not seem to myself to be acting unsuitably if I forget
your majesty till I shall have fulfilled the office of charity. I will
not flatter in so serious and perilous a matter; and if in this you do
not see that I am your friend and most thoroughly your subject, there is
One to see and judge.
In fine, that I may not approach you empty-handed, blessed Father, I
bring with me this little treatise, published under your name, as a good
omen of the establishment of peace and of good hope. By this you may
perceive in what pursuits I should prefer and be able to occupy myself
to more profit, if I were allowed, or had been hitherto allowed, by your
impious flatterers. It is a small matter, if you look to its exterior,
but, unless I mistake, it is a summary of the Christian life put
together in small compass, if you apprehend its meaning. I, in my
poverty, have no other present to make you, nor do you need anything
else than to be enriched by a spiritual gift. I commend myself to your
Paternity and Blessedness, whom may the Lord Jesus preserve for ever.
Amen.
Wittenberg, 6th September, 1520.
CONCERNING CHRISTIAN LIBERTY
Christian faith has appeared to many an easy thing; nay, not a few even
reckon it among the social virtues, as it were; and this they do because
they have not made proof of it experimentally, and have never tasted of
what efficacy it is. For it is not possible for any man to write well
about it, or to understand well what is rightly written, who has not at
some time tasted of its spirit, under the pressure of tribulation; while
he who has tasted of it, even to a very small extent, can never
write, speak, think, or hear about it sufficiently. For it is a living
fountain, springing up into eternal life, as Christ calls it in John iv.
Now, though I cannot boast of my abundance, and though I know how poorly
I am furnished, yet I hope that, after having been vexed by various
temptations, I have attained some little drop of faith, and that I can
speak of this matter, if not with more elegance, certainly with more
solidity, than those literal and too subtle disputants who have hitherto
discoursed upon it without understanding their own words. That I may
open then an easier way for the ignorant--for these alone I am trying
to serve--I first lay down these two propositions, concerning spiritual
liberty and servitude:--
A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a
Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every
one.
Although these statements appear contradictory, yet, when they are found
to agree together, they will make excellently for my purpose. They are
both the statements of Paul himself, who says, "Though I be free from
all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all" (1 Cor. ix. 19), and
"Owe no man anything, but to love one another" (Rom. xiii. 8). Now love
is by its own nature dutiful and obedient to the beloved object. Thus
even Christ, though Lord of all things, was yet made of a woman; made
under the law; at once free and a servant; at once in the form of God
and in the form of a servant.
Let us examine the subject on a deeper and less simple principle. Man is
composed of a twofold nature, a spiritual and a bodily. As regards the
spiritual nature, which they name the soul, he is called the spiritual,
inward, new man; as regards the bodily nature, which they name the
flesh, he is called the fleshly, outward, old man. The Apostle speaks of
this: "Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day
by day" (2 Cor. iv. 16). The result of this diversity is that in the
Scriptures opposing statements are made concerning the same man,
the fact being that in the same man these two men are opposed to one
another; the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against
the flesh (Gal. v. 17).
We first approach the subject of the inward man, that we may see by what
means a man becomes justified, free, and a true Christian; that is, a
spiritual, new, and inward man. It is certain that absolutely none
among outward things, under whatever name they may be reckoned, has any
influence in producing Christian righteousness or liberty, nor, on the
other hand, unrighteousness or slavery. This can be shown by an easy
argument.
What can it profit the soul that the body should be in good condition,
free, and full of life; that it should eat, drink, and act according to
its pleasure; when even the most impious slaves of every kind of vice
are prosperous in these matters? Again, what harm can ill-health,
bondage, hunger, thirst, or any other outward evil, do to the soul,
when even the most pious of men and the freest in the purity of their
conscience, are harassed by these things? Neither of these states of
things has to do with the liberty or the slavery of the soul.
And so it will profit nothing that the body should be adorned with
sacred vestments, or dwell in holy places, or be occupied in sacred
offices, or pray, fast, and abstain from certain meats, or do whatever
works can be done through the body and in the body. Something widely
different will be necessary for the justification and liberty of the
soul, since the things I have spoken of can be done by any impious
person, and only hypocrites are produced by devotion to these things. On
the other hand, it will not at all injure the soul that the body should
be clothed in profane raiment, should dwell in profane places, should
eat and drink in the ordinary fashion, should not pray aloud, and
should leave undone all the things above mentioned, which may be done by
hypocrites.
And, to cast everything aside, even speculation, meditations, and
whatever things can be performed by the exertions of the soul itself,
are of no profit. One thing, and one alone, is necessary for life,
justification, and Christian liberty; and that is the most holy word of
God, the Gospel of Christ, as He says, "I am the resurrection and the
life; he that believeth in Me shall not die eternally" (John xi. 25),
and also, "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed"
(John viii. 36), and, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. iv. 4).
Let us therefore hold it for certain and firmly established that the
soul can do without everything except the word of God, without which
none at all of its wants are provided for. But, having the word, it is
rich and wants for nothing, since that is the word of life, of truth, of
light, of peace, of justification, of salvation, of joy, of liberty, of
wisdom, of virtue, of grace, of glory, and of every good thing. It is
on this account that the prophet in a whole Psalm (Psalm cxix.), and in
many other places, sighs for and calls upon the word of God with so many
groanings and words.
Again, there is no more cruel stroke of the wrath of God than when He
sends a famine of hearing His words (Amos viii. 11), just as there is
no greater favour from Him than the sending forth of His word, as it is
said, "He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their
destructions" (Psalm cvii. 20). Christ was sent for no other office than
that of the word; and the order of Apostles, that of bishops, and that
of the whole body of the clergy, have been called and instituted for no
object but the ministry of the word.
But you will ask, What is this word, and by what means is it to be used,
since there are so many words of God? I answer, The Apostle Paul (Rom.
i.) explains what it is, namely the Gospel of God, concerning His Son,
incarnate, suffering, risen, and glorified, through the Spirit, the
Sanctifier. To preach Christ is to feed the soul, to justify it, to set
it free, and to save it, if it believes the preaching. For faith alone
and the efficacious use of the word of God, bring salvation. "If thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom.
x. 9); and again, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
every one that believeth" (Rom. x. 4), and "The just shall live by
faith" (Rom. i. 17). For the word of God cannot be received and honoured
by any works, but by faith alone. Hence it is clear that as the soul
needs the word alone for life and justification, so it is justified by
faith alone, and not by any works. For if it could be justified by any
other means, it would have no need of the word, nor consequently of
faith.
But this faith cannot consist at all with works; that is, if you imagine
that you can be justified by those works, whatever they are, along with
it. For this would be to halt between two opinions, to worship Baal, and
to kiss the hand to him, which is a very great iniquity, as Job says.
Therefore, when you begin to believe, you learn at the same time that
all that is in you is utterly guilty, sinful, and damnable, according to
that saying, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom.
iii. 23), and also: "There is none righteous, no, not one; they are all
gone out of the way; they are together become unprofitable: there is
none that doeth good, no, not one" (Rom. iii. 10-12). When you have
learnt this, you will know that Christ is necessary for you, since He
has suffered and risen again for you, that, believing on Him, you might
by this faith become another man, all your sins being remitted, and you
being justified by the merits of another, namely of Christ alone.
Since then this faith can reign only in the inward man, as it is said,
"With the heart man believeth unto righteousness" (Rom. x. 10); and
since it alone justifies, it is evident that by no outward work or
labour can the inward man be at all justified, made free, and saved; and
that no works whatever have any relation to him. And so, on the other
hand, it is solely by impiety and incredulity of heart that he becomes
guilty and a slave of sin, deserving condemnation, not by any outward
sin or work. Therefore the first care of every Christian ought to be to
lay aside all reliance on works, and strengthen his faith alone more
and more, and by it grow in the knowledge, not of works, but of Christ
Jesus, who has suffered and risen again for him, as Peter teaches
(1 Peter v.) when he makes no other work to be a Christian one. Thus
Christ, when the Jews asked Him what they should do that they might work
the works of God, rejected the multitude of works, with which He saw
that they were puffed up, and commanded them one thing only, saying,
"This is the work of God: that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent, for
Him hath God the Father sealed" (John vi. 27, 29).
Hence a right faith in Christ is an incomparable treasure, carrying with
it universal salvation and preserving from all evil, as it is said, "He
that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth
not shall be damned" (Mark xvi. 16). Isaiah, looking to this treasure,
predicted, "The consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.
For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined
(verbum abbreviatum et consummans), in the midst of the land" (Isa.
x. 22, 23). As if he said, "Faith, which is the brief and complete
fulfilling of the law, will fill those who believe with such
righteousness that they will need nothing else for justification." Thus,
too, Paul says, "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness"
(Rom. x. 10).
But you ask how it can be the fact that faith alone justifies, and
affords without works so great a treasure of good things, when so many
works, ceremonies, and laws are prescribed to us in the Scriptures?
I answer, Before all things bear in mind what I have said: that faith
alone without works justifies, sets free, and saves, as I shall show
more clearly below.
Meanwhile it is to be noted that the whole Scripture of God is divided
into two parts: precepts and promises. The precepts certainly teach us
what is good, but what they teach is not forthwith done. For they show
us what we ought to do, but do not give us the power to do it. They
were ordained, however, for the purpose of showing man to himself, that
through them he may learn his own impotence for good and may despair of
his own strength. For this reason they are called the Old Testament, and
are so.
For example, "Thou shalt not covet," is a precept by which we are all
convicted of sin, since no man can help coveting, whatever efforts to
the contrary he may make. In order therefore that he may fulfil the
precept, and not covet, he is constrained to despair of himself and
to seek elsewhere and through another the help which he cannot find in
himself; as it is said, "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in
Me is thine help" (Hosea xiii. 9). Now what is done by this one precept
is done by all; for all are equally impossible of fulfilment by us.
Now when a man has through the precepts been taught his own impotence,
and become anxious by what means he may satisfy the law--for the
law must be satisfied, so that no jot or tittle of it may pass away,
otherwise he must be hopelessly condemned--then, being truly humbled and
brought to nothing in his own eyes, he finds in himself no resource for
justification and salvation.
Then comes in that other part of Scripture, the promises of God, which
declare the glory of God, and say, "If you wish to fulfil the law, and,
as the law requires, not to covet, lo! believe in Christ, in whom are
promised to you grace, justification, peace, and liberty." All these
things you shall have, if you believe, and shall be without them if you
do not believe. For what is impossible for you by all the works of the
law, which are many and yet useless, you shall fulfil in an easy and
summary way through faith, because God the Father has made everything to
depend on faith, so that whosoever has it has all things, and he who has
it not has nothing. "For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that
He might have mercy upon all" (Rom. xi. 32). Thus the promises of God
give that which the precepts exact, and fulfil what the law commands;
so that all is of God alone, both the precepts and their fulfilment. He
alone commands; He alone also fulfils. Hence the promises of God belong
to the New Testament; nay, are the New Testament.
Now, since these promises of God are words of holiness, truth,
righteousness, liberty, and peace, and are full of universal goodness,
the soul, which cleaves to them with a firm faith, is so united to them,
nay, thoroughly absorbed by them, that it not only partakes in, but
is penetrated and saturated by, all their virtues. For if the touch of
Christ was healing, how much more does that most tender spiritual touch,
nay, absorption of the word, communicate to the soul all that belongs to
the word! In this way therefore the soul, through faith alone, without
works, is from the word of God justified, sanctified, endued with truth,
peace, and liberty, and filled full with every good thing, and is truly
made the child of God, as it is said, "To them gave He power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name" (John i. 12).
From all this it is easy to understand why faith has such great power,
and why no good works, nor even all good works put together, can compare
with it, since no work can cleave to the word of God or be in the soul.
Faith alone and the word reign in it; and such as is the word, such is
the soul made by it, just as iron exposed to fire glows like fire, on
account of its union with the fire. It is clear then that to a Christian
man his faith suffices for everything, and that he has no need of works
for justification. But if he has no need of works, neither has he need
of the law; and if he has no need of the law, he is certainly free from
the law, and the saying is true, "The law is not made for a righteous
man" (1 Tim. i. 9). This is that Christian liberty, our faith, the
effect of which is, not that we should be careless or lead a bad life,
but that no one should need the law or works for justification and
salvation.
Let us consider this as the first virtue of faith; and let us look also
to the second. This also is an office of faith: that it honours with the
utmost veneration and the highest reputation Him in whom it believes,
inasmuch as it holds Him to be truthful and worthy of belief. For there
is no honour like that reputation of truth and righteousness with which
we honour Him in whom we believe. What higher credit can we attribute
to any one than truth and righteousness, and absolute goodness? On
the other hand, it is the greatest insult to brand any one with the
reputation of falsehood and unrighteousness, or to suspect him of these,
as we do when we disbelieve him.
Thus the soul, in firmly believing the promises of God, holds Him to be
true and righteous; and it can attribute to God no higher glory than
the credit of being so. The highest worship of God is to ascribe to Him
truth, righteousness, and whatever qualities we must ascribe to one in
whom we believe. In doing this the soul shows itself prepared to do His
whole will; in doing this it hallows His name, and gives itself up to
be dealt with as it may please God. For it cleaves to His promises, and
never doubts that He is true, just, and wise, and will do, dispose, and
provide for all things in the best way. Is not such a soul, in this its
faith, most obedient to God in all things? What commandment does there
remain which has not been amply fulfilled by such an obedience? What
fulfilment can be more full than universal obedience? Now this is not
accomplished by works, but by faith alone.
On the other hand, what greater rebellion, impiety, or insult to God
can there be, than not to believe His promises? What else is this, than
either to make God a liar, or to doubt His truth--that is, to attribute
truth to ourselves, but to God falsehood and levity? In doing this,
is not a man denying God and setting himself up as an idol in his own
heart? What then can works, done in such a state of impiety, profit us,
were they even angelic or apostolic works? Rightly hath God shut up
all, not in wrath nor in lust, but in unbelief, in order that those
who pretend that they are fulfilling the law by works of purity and
benevolence (which are social and human virtues) may not presume
that they will therefore be saved, but, being included in the sin of
unbelief, may either seek mercy, or be justly condemned.
But when God sees that truth is ascribed to Him, and that in the faith
of our hearts He is honoured with all the honour of which He is worthy,
then in return He honours us on account of that faith, attributing to
us truth and righteousness. For faith does truth and righteousness in
rendering to God what is His; and therefore in return God gives glory
to our righteousness. It is true and righteous that God is true and
righteous; and to confess this and ascribe these attributes to Him, this
it is to be true and righteous. Thus He says, "Them that honour Me I
will honour, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed" (1 Sam.
ii. 30). And so Paul says that Abraham's faith was imputed to him for
righteousness, because by it he gave glory to God; and that to us
also, for the same reason, it shall be imputed for righteousness, if we
believe (Rom. iv.).
The third incomparable grace of faith is this: that it unites the soul
to Christ, as the wife to the husband, by which mystery, as the Apostle
teaches, Christ and the soul are made one flesh. Now if they are one
flesh, and if a true marriage--nay, by far the most perfect of all
marriages--is accomplished between them (for human marriages are but
feeble types of this one great marriage), then it follows that all they
have becomes theirs in common, as well good things as evil things; so
that whatsoever Christ possesses, that the believing soul may take to
itself and boast of as its own, and whatever belongs to the soul, that
Christ claims as His.
If we compare these possessions, we shall see how inestimable is the
gain. Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation; the soul is full of
sin, death, and condemnation. Let faith step in, and then sin, death,
and hell will belong to Christ, and grace, life, and salvation to the
soul. For, if He is a Husband, He must needs take to Himself that which
is His wife's, and at the same time, impart to His wife that which is
His. For, in giving her His own body and Himself, how can He but give
her all that is His? And, in taking to Himself the body of His wife, how
can He but take to Himself all that is hers?
In this is displayed the delightful sight, not only of communion, but of
a prosperous warfare, of victory, salvation, and redemption. For, since
Christ is God and man, and is such a Person as neither has sinned, nor
dies, nor is condemned, nay, cannot sin, die, or be condemned, and since
His righteousness, life, and salvation are invincible, eternal, and
almighty,--when I say, such a Person, by the wedding-ring of faith,
takes a share in the sins, death, and hell of His wife, nay, makes them
His own, and deals with them no otherwise than as if they were His, and
as if He Himself had sinned; and when He suffers, dies, and descends to
hell, that He may overcome all things, and since sin, death, and
hell cannot swallow Him up, they must needs be swallowed up by Him in
stupendous conflict. For His righteousness rises above the sins of all
men; His life is more powerful than all death; His salvation is more
unconquerable than all hell.
Thus the believing soul, by the pledge of its faith in Christ, becomes
free from all sin, fearless of death, safe from hell, and endowed with
the eternal righteousness, life, and salvation of its Husband Christ.
Thus He presents to Himself a glorious bride, without spot or wrinkle,
cleansing her with the washing of water by the word; that is, by faith
in the word of life, righteousness, and salvation. Thus He betrothes her
unto Himself "in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in judgment, and in
loving-kindness, and in mercies" (Hosea ii. 19, 20).
Who then can value highly enough these royal nuptials? Who can
comprehend the riches of the glory of this grace? Christ, that rich and
pious Husband, takes as a wife a needy and impious harlot, redeeming
her from all her evils and supplying her with all His good things. It
is impossible now that her sins should destroy her, since they have
been laid upon Christ and swallowed up in Him, and since she has in her
Husband Christ a righteousness which she may claim as her own, and which
she can set up with confidence against all her sins, against death and
hell, saying, "If I have sinned, my Christ, in whom I believe, has not
sinned; all mine is His, and all His is mine," as it is written, "My
beloved is mine, and I am His" (Cant. ii. 16). This is what Paul says:
"Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ," victory over sin and death, as he says, "The sting of death is
sin, and the strength of sin is the law" (1 Cor. xv. 56, 57).
From all this you will again understand why so much importance is
attributed to faith, so that it alone can fulfil the law and justify
without any works. For you see that the First Commandment, which says,
"Thou shalt worship one God only," is fulfilled by faith alone. If you
were nothing but good works from the soles of your feet to the crown of
your head, you would not be worshipping God, nor fulfilling the First
Commandment, since it is impossible to worship God without ascribing to
Him the glory of truth and of universal goodness, as it ought in truth
to be ascribed. Now this is not done by works, but only by faith of
heart. It is not by working, but by believing, that we glorify God, and
confess Him to be true. On this ground faith alone is the righteousness
of a Christian man, and the fulfilling of all the commandments. For to
him who fulfils the first the task of fulfilling all the rest is easy.
Works, since they are irrational things, cannot glorify God, although
they may be done to the glory of God, if faith be present. But at
present we are inquiring, not into the quality of the works done, but
into him who does them, who glorifies God, and brings forth good
works. This is faith of heart, the head and the substance of all our
righteousness. Hence that is a blind and perilous doctrine which teaches
that the commandments are fulfilled by works. The commandments must have
been fulfilled previous to any good works, and good works follow their
fulfillment, as we shall see.
But, that we may have a wider view of that grace which our inner man
has in Christ, we must know that in the Old Testament God sanctified to
Himself every first-born male. The birthright was of great value, giving
a superiority over the rest by the double honour of priesthood and
kingship. For the first-born brother was priest and lord of all the
rest.
Under this figure was foreshown Christ, the true and only First-born of
God the Father and of the Virgin Mary, and a true King and Priest, not
in a fleshly and earthly sense. For His kingdom is not of this world; it
is in heavenly and spiritual things that He reigns and acts as Priest;
and these are righteousness, truth, wisdom, peace, salvation, etc.
Not but that all things, even those of earth and hell, are subject to
Him--for otherwise how could He defend and save us from them?--but it is
not in these, nor by these, that His kingdom stands.
So, too, His priesthood does not consist in the outward display of
vestments and gestures, as did the human priesthood of Aaron and our
ecclesiastical priesthood at this day, but in spiritual things, wherein,
in His invisible office, He intercedes for us with God in heaven, and
there offers Himself, and performs all the duties of a priest, as Paul
describes Him to the Hebrews under the figure of Melchizedek. Nor does
He only pray and intercede for us; He also teaches us inwardly in the
spirit with the living teachings of His Spirit. Now these are the two
special offices of a priest, as is figured to us in the case of fleshly
priests by visible prayers and sermons.
As Christ by His birthright has obtained these two dignities, so He
imparts and communicates them to every believer in Him, under that law
of matrimony of which we have spoken above, by which all that is the
husband's is also the wife's. Hence all we who believe on Christ are
kings and priests in Christ, as it is said, "Ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should
show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into
His marvellous light" (1 Peter ii. 9).
These two things stand thus. First, as regards kingship, every Christian
is by faith so exalted above all things that, in spiritual power, he is
completely lord of all things, so that nothing whatever can do him
any hurt; yea, all things are subject to him, and are compelled to be
subservient to his salvation. Thus Paul says, "All things work together
for good to them who are the called" (Rom. viii. 28), and also, "Whether
life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours; and
ye are Christ's" (1 Cor. iii. 22, 23).
Not that in the sense of corporeal power any one among Christians has
been appointed to possess and rule all things, according to the mad and
senseless idea of certain ecclesiastics. That is the office of kings,
princes, and men upon earth. In the experience of life we see that we
are subjected to all things, and suffer many things, even death.
Yea, the more of a Christian any man is, to so many the more evils,
sufferings, and deaths is he subject, as we see in the first place in
Christ the First-born, and in all His holy brethren.
This is a spiritual power, which rules in the midst of enemies, and is
powerful in the midst of distresses. And this is nothing else than that
strength is made perfect in my weakness, and that I can turn all things
to the profit of my salvation; so that even the cross and death are
compelled to serve me and to work together for my salvation. This is
a lofty and eminent dignity, a true and almighty dominion, a spiritual
empire, in which there is nothing so good, nothing so bad, as not to
work together for my good, if only I believe. And yet there is nothing
of which I have need--for faith alone suffices for my salvation--unless
that in it faith may exercise the power and empire of its liberty. This
is the inestimable power and liberty of Christians.