THinking about good works getting ready for Higher Things next week.
From 1530, the Augsburg Confession. Beautiful stuff!
1 Our teachers have been falsely accused of forbidding good works.
2 Their writings on the Ten Commandments, and other writings as well, show that they have given good and profitable accounts and instructions concerning true Christian estates and works.
3 About these little was taught in former times, when for the most part sermons were concerned with childish and useless works like rosaries, the cult of saints, monasticism, pilgrimages, appointed fasts, holy days, brotherhoods, etc.
4 Our opponents no longer praise these useless works so highly as they once did,
5 and they have also learned to speak now of faith, about which they did not preach at all in former times.
6 They do not teach now that we become righteous before God by our works alone, but they add faith in Christ and say that faith and works make us righteous before God.7 This teaching may offer a little more comfort than the teaching that we are to rely solely on our works.
8 Since the teaching about faith, which is the chief article in the Christian life, has been neglected so long (as all must admit) while nothing but works was preached everywhere, our people have been instructed as follows:
9 We begin by teaching that our works cannot reconcile us with God or obtain grace for us, for this happens only through faith, that is, when we believe that our sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, who alone is the mediator who reconciles the Father.
10 Whoever imagines that he can accomplish this by works, or that he can merit grace, despises Christ and seeks his own way to God, contrary to the Gospel.
11 This teaching about faith is plainly and clearly treated by Paul in many passages, especially in Eph. 2:8, 9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—not because of works, lest any man should boast,” etc.
12 That no new interpretation is here introduced can be demonstrated from Augustine,
13 who discusses this question thoroughly and teaches the same thing, namely, that we obtain grace and are justified before God through faith in Christ and not through works. His whole book, De spiritu et litera, proves this.15 Although this teaching is held in great contempt among untried people, yet it is a matter of experience that weak and terrified consciences find it most comforting and salutary. The conscience cannot come to rest and peace through works, but only through faith, that is, when it is assured and knows that for Christ’s sake it has a gracious God,
16 as Paul says in Rom. 5:1, “Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God.”19 In former times this comfort was not heard in preaching, but poor consciences were driven to rely on their own efforts, and all sorts of works were undertaken.
20 Some were driven by their conscience into monasteries in the hope that there they might merit grace through monastic life.
21 Others devised other works for the purpose of earning grace and making satisfaction for sins.
22 Many of them discovered that they did not obtain peace by such means. It was therefore necessary to preach this doctrine about faith in Christ and diligently to apply it in order that men may know that the grace of God is appropriated without merits, through faith alone.
23 Instruction is also given among us to show that the faith here spoken of is not that possessed by the devil and the ungodly, who also believe the history of Christ’s suffering and his resurrection from the dead, but we mean such true faith as believes that we receive grace and forgiveness of sin through Christ.
24 Whoever knows that in Christ he has a gracious God, truly knows God, calls upon him, and is not, like the heathen, without God.
25 For the devil and the ungodly do not believe this article concerning the forgiveness of sin, and so they are at enmity with God, cannot call upon him, and have no hope of receiving good from him. Therefore, as has just been indicated, the Scriptures speak of faith but do not mean by it such knowledge as the devil and ungodly men possess. Heb. 11:1 teaches about faith in such a way as to make it clear that faith is not merely a knowledge of historical events but is a confidence in God and in the fulfillment of his promises.
26 Augustine also reminds us that we would understand the word “faith” in the Scriptures to mean confidence in God, assurance that God is gracious to us, and not merely such a knowledge of historical events as the devil also possesses.
27 It is also taught among us that good works should and must be done, not that we are to rely on them to earn grace but that we may do God’s will and glorify him.
28 It is always faith alone that apprehends grace and forgiveness of sin.
29 When through faith the Holy Spirit is given, the heart is moved to do good works.
31 Before that, when it is without the Holy Spirit, the heart is too weak.
32 Moreover, it is in the power of the devil, who drives poor human beings into many sins.
33 We see this in the philosophers who undertook to lead honorable and blameless lives; they failed to accomplish this, and instead fell into many great and open sins.
34 This is what happens when a man is without true faith and the Holy Spirit and governs himself by his own human strength alone.
35 Consequently this teaching concerning faith is not to be accused of forbidding good works but is rather to be praised for teaching that good works are to be done and for offering help as to how they may be done.
36 For without faith and without Christ human nature and human strength are much too weak to do good works,
37 call upon God, have patience in suffering, love one’s neighbor, diligently engage in callings which are commanded, render obedience, avoid evil lusts, etc.38 Such great and genuine works cannot be done without the help of Christ,
39 as he himself says in John 15:5, “Apart from me you can do nothing.[Theodore G. Tappert, ed., The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959), 41–46.]
That was a stunning bit of writing.
And because I can’t just annoy Pastor Matthew Zickler with my bad puns, I’m sharing. -Lin ( Mrs. Ezekiel Johnson)
A man in ancient Greece walks into a tailor’s shop carrying a pair of torn pants.
“Euripides?” says the tailor.
“Yes, Eumenides”, replies the man
The section you cite is wonderful, it’s from Article XX and worthy of reading repeatedly. As a new Lutheran I am excited about stuff like this.
I see now how decades spent in pentecostal services designed to manipulate the emotions conditioned me to believe spirituality had only to do with me and what I did; attending life in the spirit seminars, listening to the latest teaching about how God is doing a “new thing”, maintaining positive confessions – IT WAS ALL WORKS!. As many times as I had read and heard about faith in the finished work of Christ it never registered that I was living a life of faith in my own works! I was in the Assemblies of God for a long time and am thankful to have stumbled into Lutheran theology in 2017. The objective, outside-of-myself, and nothing-to-do-with-me, work of Christ offered in the Lord’s Supper has changed my life. The confession and absolution has exposed me to be a selfish and wayward child, unable to do anything apart from Christ. Lutheran theology reveals the work of the Holy Spirit with the Word of God in a way I find to be “most comforting and salutary” [15].
Q: Does God still do miracles?
A: Yes, every week in the divine service.
In the divine service He miraculously touches his people through the Holy Spirit by His word and sacrament. He miraculously penetrates and softens our hearts. He miraculously transfers his divine love into our hearts giving us love for our neighbor that makes no natural sense.