Chapter 18: That from the Reward, the Righteousness of Works Is Ill Gathered

Now let us pass over to those sayings which affirm that God will render to every man according to his works: of which sort are these. Every man shall bear away that which he has done in the body, either good or evil. Glory and honor to him that works good: trouble and distress upon every soul of him that works evil. And they which have done good things shall go into the resurrection of life: they which have done evil, into the resurrection of judgment. Come, you blessed of my Father: I have hungered, and you gave me food: I have thirsted, and you gave me drink, etc. And with them let us also join these sayings, which call eternal life the reward of works. Of which sort are these: The rendering of the hands of a man shall be restored to him. He that fears the commandment shall be rewarded. Be glad and rejoice, behold, your reward is plentiful in heaven. Every man shall receive reward according to his labor. Where it is said that God shall render to every man according to his works, the same is easily resolved. For that manner of speaking does rather show the order of following, than the cause. But that is without doubt, that the Lord does accomplish our salvation by these degrees of his mercy: when those whom he has chosen he calls to him; those whom he has called, he justifies; those whom he has justified, he glorifies. Although therefore he does by his only mercy receive them that are his into life, yet because he brings them into the possession thereof by the course of good works, that he may fulfill his work in them by such order as he has appointed: it is no marvel if it be said that they are crowned according to their works, by which without doubt they are prepared to receive the crown of immortality. Indeed, and after this manner it is fitly said that they work their own salvation, when in applying themselves to good works, they practice themselves toward eternal life: namely as in another place they are commanded to work for the food which perishes not, when by believing in Christ they get to themselves life: and yet it is by and by afterward added: Which the Son of man shall give you. By which appears that the word of working is not set as contrary to grace, but is referred to endeavor: and therefore it follows not that either the faithful are themselves authors of their own salvation, or that the same proceeds from their works. How then? As soon as they are taken into the fellowship of Christ, by the knowledge of the Gospel, and the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, eternal life is begun in them. Now the same good work which God has begun in them must also be made perfect until the day of the Lord Jesus. And it is made perfect, when resembling the heavenly Father in righteousness and holiness, they prove themselves to be his children not swerved out of kind.

There is no cause why we should of the name of reward gather an argument that our works are the cause of salvation. First let this be determined in our hearts, that the kingdom of heaven is not a reward of servants, but an inheritance of children, which they only shall enjoy that are adopted of the Lord to be his children: and for no other cause, but for this adoption. For the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir, but the son of the free woman. And in the very same places, in which the Holy Spirit promises to works eternal glory for reward, in expressing the inheritance by name, he shows that it comes from elsewhere. So Christ rehearses works, which he recompenses with the rewarding of heaven, when he calls the elect to the possession thereof: but he therewith adjoins that it must be possessed by right of inheritance. So Paul bids servants, which do their duty faithfully, to hope for reward of the Lord: but he adds, of inheritance. We see how they do as it were by express words prove that we impute not eternal blessedness to works, but to the adoption of God. Why therefore do they therewith together make mention of works? This question shall be made plain with one example of Scripture. Before the birth of Isaac, there was promised to Abraham a seed in which all the nations of the earth should be blessed: and a multiplying of his seed, which should match the stars of the sky, and the sands of the sea, and other like. In many years afterward, Abraham, as he was commanded by the oracle, prepared himself to offer up his son in sacrifice. When he had performed this obedience, he received a promise. I have sworn by myself (says the Lord) because you have done this thing, and have not spared your own only begotten son, I will bless you and multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and the sands of the sea: your seed shall possess the gates of their enemies, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in your seed, because you have obeyed my voice. What do we hear here? Has Abraham by his obedience deserved the blessing, the promise whereof he had received before the commandment was given? Here verily we have it without circumstances shown, that the Lord rewards the works of the faithful with those benefits which he had already given them before the works were thought of, having yet no cause why he should do good to them but his own mercy.

Yet does the Lord not deceive nor mock us, when he says that he renders as reward to works the same thing which he had before works freely given. For, because he will have us to be exercised with good works to think upon the deliverance or enjoying (as I may so call it) of these things which he has promised, and to run through them to the blessed hope set before us in heaven, the fruit of the promises is also rightly assigned to them, to the ripeness of which they do not bring us. The Apostle very fittly expressed both these points, when he said that the Colossians apply themselves to the duties of charity, for the hope which is laid up for them in heaven, of which they had before heard by the word of the true-speaking Gospel (Colossians 1:4). For when he says that they knew by the Gospel that there was hope laid up for them in heaven, he declares that the same is by Christ only, not underpropped with any works. With which accords that saying of Peter, that the godly are kept by the power of God, through faith, to the salvation which is ready to be manifestly showed at the time appointed for it (1 Peter 1:5). When he says that they labor for it, he signifies that the faithful must run all the time of their life, that they may attain to it. But lest we should think that the reward which the Lord promises us is not reduced to the measure of merit, he put forth a parable, in which he made himself a householder, who sent all them that he met to the trimming of his vineyard, some at the first hour of the day, some at the second, some at the third, yes and some [reconstructed: also] at the 11th (Matthew 12). At evening he paid to every one equal wages. The exposition of which parable, that same old writer, whatever he was, whose book is carried abroad under the name of Ambrose of the calling of the Gentiles, has briefly and truly set out. I will use rather his words than my own. The Lord (says he) by the rule of this comparison, has established the diversity of manifold calling, belonging to one grace: where without doubt they who, being let into the vineyard at the 11th hour, are made equal with them that had worked the whole day, do represent the estate of them, whom for the advancing of the excellence of grace, the tender kindness of the Lord has rewarded at the waning of the day, and at the ending of their life: not paying wages for their labor, but pouring out the riches of his goodness upon them whom he has chosen without works, that even they also who have sweated in great labor, and have received no more than the last, may understand that they have received a gift of grace, not a reward of works. Last of all, this also is worthy to be noted in these places, where eternal life is called the reward of works, that it is not simply taken for the communicating which we have with God to blessed immortality, when he embraces us with fatherly good will in Christ: but for the possessing or enjoying (as they call it) of blessedness, as also the very words of Christ do sound, In time to come, life everlasting (Mark 10:30; Matthew 25:34). And in another place, Come and possess the kingdom, etc. After this manner Paul calls adoption the revealing of the adoption which shall be made in the resurrection (Romans 8:19): and afterward expounds it the redemption of our body. Otherwise as estrangement from God is eternal death, so when man is received of God into favor, that he may enjoy the communicating of him and be made one with him, he is received from death to life: which is done by the beneficial means of adoption only. And if, as they are wont, they stiffly enforce the reward of works, we may turn against them that saying of Peter, that eternal life is the reward of faith (1 Peter 1:9).

Therefore let us not think, that the Holy Spirit does with such promise set forth the worthiness of our works, as if they deserved such reward. For the Scripture leaves nothing to us, of which we may be advanced in the sight of God. But rather it wholly endeavors to beat down our arrogance, to humble us, to throw us down, and altogether to break us in pieces. But our weakness is so helped, which otherwise would straightway slip and fall down, unless it did sustain itself with this expectation, and mitigate its tedious griefs with comfort. First how hard it is for a man to forsake and deny not only all his things, but also himself, let every man consider for himself. And yet with this introduction Christ trains his scholars, that is, all the godly. Then throughout all their life he so instructs them under the discipline of the cross, that they may not set their heart either to the desire or confidence of present good things. Briefly he so handles them for the most part, that whatever way they turn their eyes throughout the whole wideness of the world, they have on every side nothing but desperation present before them: so that Paul says, that we are more miserable than all men, if our hope be only in this world (1 Corinthians 15:19). That they should not faint in these so great distresses, the Lord is present with them, who puts them in mind to lift up their head higher, to cast their eyes further, that they find with him the blessedness which [reconstructed: they do not find] in the world. This blessedness he calls reward, wages, recompense, not weighing the merit of works, but signifying that it is a recompensing for their troubles, sufferings, slanders. Etc. Therefore nothing stands in the way, but that we may after the example of the Scripture, call eternal life a rewarding, because in it the Lord receives his own from labors into rest, from affliction into a prosperous and happy state, from sorrow into gladness, from poverty into flowing wealth, from shame into glory, and changes all the evils which they have suffered for greater good things. So it shall also be no inconvenience, if we think holiness of life to be a way, not which opens an entry into the glory of the heavenly kingdom, but by which the elect are led of their God into the disclosing of it: forasmuch as this is his good will, to glorify those whom he has sanctified. Only let us not imagine a caviling of merit and reward, wherein the sophists do foolishly stick fast, because they do not consider this end which we set forth. But how disorderly is it, when the Lord calls us to one end, for us to look to another? [reconstructed: Nothing is more suited to soothe] the weakness of our flesh with some comfort, nor to puff up our minds with glory. Whoever therefore does thereby gather the merit of works, or does in one balance weigh work with reward, he errs far from the right mark of God (Romans 8:30).

Therefore when the Scripture says that God the just judge will one day render to his own a crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8), I do not only take exception with Augustine, and say. To whom should he being a just judge, render a crown, if he had not being a merciful father given grace? And how should there be righteousness, unless grace went before which justifies the unrighteous? How should these due things be rendered, unless these undue things were first given? But also I add another thing. How should he impute righteousness to our works, unless his tender mercifulness did hide the unrighteousness that is in them? How should he judge them worthy of reward, unless he did by immeasurable bountifulness take away that which is worthy of punishment? For he is accustomed to call eternal life grace: because it is rendered to the free gifts of God when it is repaid to works. But the Scripture does further humble us, and therewith raise us up. For besides this that it forbids us to glory in works, because they are the free gifts of God, it therewith teaches that they are always defiled with some dregs, that they cannot satisfy God, if they be examined by the rule of his judgment: but lest our courage should faint, it teaches that they please by pardon alone. But although Augustine speaks somewhat otherwise than we do: yet that he does not so disagree in the matter, shall appear by his words in his third book to Boniface. Where when he had compared two men together, the one of a life even miraculously holy and perfect, the other honest in deed and of uncorrupt manners, but not so perfect but that much is lacking in him: at last he concludes thus. Even this man who in manners seems much inferior, by reason of the true faith in God of which he lives and according to which he accuses himself in all his offenses, in all his good works praises God, giving to himself the shame, and to him the glory, and taking from himself both the pardon of sins, and the love of well-doings, when he is to be delivered out of this life, he passes into the fellowship of Christ. Therefore, but because of faith? Which although it saves no man without works (for it is it, which works by love, not a reprobate faith) yet by it also sins are released, because the righteous man lives by faith: but without it even the same which seem good works are turned into sins. Here truly he does plainly confess that which we so much labor to prove, that the righteousness of good works hangs hereupon, that they are by pardon allured of God.

A very near sense to the places above recited, have these: Make to yourselves friends of the Mammon of wickedness, that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting tabernacles. Command the rich men of this world not to be proudly minded, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, to do well, to become rich in good works, to lay up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may obtain eternal life. For good works are compared to the riches, which we may enjoy in the blessedness of eternal life. I answer, that we shall never come to the understanding of them, unless we turn our eyes to the mark where the Holy Ghost directs his words. If it be true which Christ says, that our mind abides there where our treasure is, as the children of the world are wont to be earnestly bent to the getting of those things which serve for the delights of this present life: so the faithful must look, since they have learned that this life shall by and by vanish away like a dream, that they send those things which they would enjoy, there where they shall have perfect life. We must therefore do as they do which purpose to remove into any place, where they have chosen to rest their whole life. They send their goods before, and do not discontentedly want them for a time: because they think themselves so much more happy, how much more goods they have where they shall tarry long. If we believe that heaven is our country, it behooves us rather to send away our riches there than to keep them here where we must lose them with sudden removing. But how shall we send them there? If we communicate to the necessities of the poor: to whom whatever is given, the Lord accounts it given to himself. Whereupon comes that notable promise. He that gives to the poor, lends for gain to the Lord. Again: He that liberally sows, shall liberally reap. For those things are delivered into the hand of the Lord to keep, which are bestowed upon our brethren by the duty of charity. He, as he is a faithful keeper of that which is delivered to him, will one day restore it with plentiful gain. Are then our dutiful doings of so great value with God, that they be as riches laid up in store for us in his hand? Who shall fear so to say, when the Scripture does so often and plainly witness it? But if any man will leap from the mere goodness of God to the worthiness of works, he shall be nothing helped by these testimonies to the establishing of his error. For you can gather nothing rightly thereof but the mere inclination of God's tenderness toward us: forasmuch as to encourage us to well doing, although the services which we do to him are not worthy of so much as his only looking upon them, yet he suffers none of them to be lost.

But they more enforce the words of the Apostle, which when he comforts the Thessalonians in troubles, teaches that the same are sent to them, that they may be accounted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which they suffer. For (says he) it is righteous with God, to render trouble to them that trouble you: but to you, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be shown from heaven. But the author of the epistle to the Hebrews says, God is not unrighteous, that he should forget your work, and the love which you have shown in his name for that you have ministered to the saints. To the first place I answer, that there is no worthiness of merit spoken of: but because God the Father wills that we whom he has chosen to be his children, should be made like to Christ his first begotten son: as it was necessary that he should first suffer, and then enter into the glory appointed for him: so must we also by many tribulations enter into the kingdom of heaven. Therefore when we suffer tribulations for the name of Christ, there are as it were certain marks printed upon us, with which God uses to mark the sheep of his stock. After this manner therefore we are accounted worthy of the kingdom of God, because we bear in our body the marks of our Lord and master which are the signs of the children of God. To this purpose make these sayings. That we bear about in our body the mortification of [reconstructed: Jesus] Christ that his life may be shown in us. That we be fashioned like to his sufferings, that we may come to the likeness of his resurrection from the dead. The reason which is adjoined serves not to prove any worthiness, but to confirm the hope of the kingdom of God: as if he had said, As it agrees with the just judgment of God, to take vengeance of your enemies for the vexations that they have done to you: so agrees it also to give to you release and rest from vexations. The other place, which teaches that it so becomes the righteousness of God not to forget the obediences of them that be his, that it declares it to be in a manner unrighteous if he should forget them, has this meaning: God to quicken our [reconstructed: slothfulness], has given us assurance that the labor shall not be vain which we shall take for his glory. Let us always remember that this promise, as all other should bring us no profit, unless the free covenant of mercy went before, whereupon the whole assurance of our salvation should rest. But standing upon that covenant, we ought assuredly to trust, there shall also not want reward of the liberality of God to our works however they be unworthy. The Apostle, to confirm us in that expectation, affirms that God is not unrighteous, but will stand to his promise once made. Therefore this righteousness is rather referred to the truth of God's promise, than to his justice of rendering due. According to which meaning there is a notable saying of Augustine, which as the holy man sticks not to repeat often as notable, so I think it not unworthy that we should continually remember it. The Lord (says he) is faithful, which has made himself a [reconstructed: debtor] to us, not by receiving anything of us, but by promising all things to us.

There are also alleged these sayings of Paul: If I have all faith, so that I remove mountains out of their place, but have not charity, I am nothing. Again, Now there remain hope, faith, and charity, but the greatest among these is charity. Again, Above all things have charity, which is the bond of perfection. By the first two places our Pharisees affirm that we are rather justified by charity than by faith, namely by the chiefest virtue as they say. But this foolish argument is easily wiped away. For we have in another place already declared, that those things which are spoken in the first place pertain nothing to true faith. The other place we also expound of true faith, than which he says that charity is greater: not that it is more meritorious, but because it is more fruitful, because it extends further, because it serves more, because it remains always in force, whereas the use of faith continues but for a time. If we have regard to excellence, the love of God should worthily have the chief place, of which Paul here speaks not. For he enforces this thing only, that we should with mutual charity edify one another in the Lord, but let us imagine that charity does every way excel faith: yet what man of sound judgment, yes or of sound brain, will gather from that that it does more justify. The power of justifying which faith has, consists not in the worthiness of the work. Our justification stands upon the only mercy of God and the deserving of Christ, which justification when faith takes hold of, it is said to justify. Now if you ask our adversaries in what cause they assign justification to charity, they will answer that because it is a dutiful doing acceptable to God, therefore by the deserving of it righteousness is imputed to us by the acceptation of the goodness of God. Here you see how well the argument proceeds. We say that faith justifies, not because by the worthiness of itself it deserves righteousness to us, but because it is an instrument by which we freely obtain the righteousness of Christ. These men, omitting the mercy of God, and passing over Christ, (where the sum of righteousness stands) do affirm that we are justified by the benefit of charity because it excels above faith: even as if a man would reason that a king is fitter to make a shoe than is a shoemaker, because he is an infinite way more excellent. This only argument is a plain example that all the Sorbonical schools do not so much as taste with the uttermost part of their lips what the justification of faith is. But if any wrangler does yet carp and ask, why in so small a distance of place we take the name of faith in Paul so diversely: I have a weighty cause of this exposition. For since those gifts which Paul rehearses are after a certain manner under faith and hope, because they pertain to the knowledge of God, he contemns them all by way of recapitulation under the name of faith and hope: as if he should say by the prophecy, and tongues, and the grace and knowledge of interpretation tend to this mark to lead us to the knowledge of God. And we know God in this life none otherwise but by hope and faith. Therefore when I name faith and hope, I comprehend all these things together. And so there remain these three, Hope, Faith, Charity: that is to say, however great a diversity of gifts there be, they are all referred to these. Among these the chief is charity. Out of the third place they gather, If Charity be the bond of perfection, then it is also the bond of righteousness which is nothing else but perfection. First, to speak nothing of how Paul there calls perfection, when the members of the Church well set in order do cleave together, and to grant that we are by charity made perfect before God: yet what new thing do they bring forth? For I will always on the contrary side take exception and say that we never come to this perfection, unless we fulfill all the parts of charity, and thereupon I will gather, that since all men are most far from the fulfilling of charity, therefore all hope of perfection is cut off from them.

I will not go through all the testimonies which at this day the foolish Sorbonists rashly snatch out of the scriptures, as they first come to hand, and do throw them against us. For, some of them are so worthy to be laughed at, that I myself also can not rehearse them, unless I would worthily be counted foolish. Therefore I will make an end, when I shall have declared the saying of Christ, with which they marvelously please themselves. For, to the lawyer which asked him what was necessary to salvation, he answered: if you will enter into life, keep the commandments. What would we more (say they) when we are commanded by the author of grace himself to get the kingdom of God by the keeping of his commandments. As though truly it were not certain, that Christ tempered his answers to them with whom he saw that he had to do. Here a doctor of the law asks of the means to obtain blessedness, and not that only, but with doing of what thing men may attain to it. Both the person of him that spoke and the question itself led the Lord so to answer. The lawyer being filled with the persuasion of the righteousness of the law, was blind in conscience of works. Again, he sought nothing else but what were those works of righteousness, by which salvation is gotten. Therefore he is worthily sent to the law, in which there is a perfect mirror of righteousness. We also do with a loud voice pronounce that the commandments must be kept, if life be sought in works. And this doctrine is necessary to be known of Christians. For how should they flee to Christ if they did not acknowledge that they are fallen from the way of life into the headlong downfall of death? But how should they understand how far they have strayed from the way of life, unless they first understand what is that way of life? For then they are taught that the sanctuary to recover salvation is in Christ, when they see how great a difference there is between their life and the righteousness of God which is contained in the keeping of the law. The sum is this, that if salvation be sought in works, we must keep the commandments by which we are instructed to perfect righteousness. But we must not stick fast here, unless we will faint in our middle course: for none of us is able to keep the commandments. Since therefore we are excluded from the righteousness of the law, we must of necessity resort to another help, namely to the faith of Christ. Therefore as here the Lord calls back the doctor of the law whom he knew to swell with vain confidence of works, to the law whereby he may learn that he is a sinner subject to the dreadful judgment of eternal death: so in other places, without making mention of the law, he comforts others that are already humbled with such knowledge, with promise of grace, as, Come to me all you that labor and are laden, and I will refresh you, and you shall find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28).

At the last when they are weary with wresting the Scripture, they fall to subtleties and sophistical arguments. They cavil upon this, that faith is in some places called a work, and thereupon they gather that we do wrongfully set faith as contrary to works. As though truly faith, in that it is an obeying of the will of God, does with her own deserving procure to us righteousness, and not rather because by embracing the mercy of God, it seals in our hearts the righteousness of Christ offered to us in the preaching of the Gospel. The readers shall pardon me if I do not tarry upon confuting of such follies, for they themselves without any assault of others are sufficiently overthrown with their own feebleness. But I will by the way confute one objection which seems to have some show of reason, lest it should trouble some that are not so well practiced. Since common reason teaches that of contraries is all one rule, and all particular sins are imputed to us for unrighteousness, they say it is fitting that to all particular good works be given the praise of righteousness. They do not satisfy me who answer, that the damnation of men properly proceeds from only unbelief, not from particular sins. I do indeed agree with them, that unbelief is the fountain and root of all evils. For it is the first departing from God, after which do follow the particular transgressions against the law. But whereas they seem to set one self same reason of good and evil works in weighing of righteousness or unrighteousness, therein I am compelled to disagree from them. For the righteousness of works is the perfect obedience of the law. Therefore you cannot be righteous by works, unless you do follow it as a straight line in the whole continual course of your life. From it so soon as you have swerved, you are fallen into unrighteousness. Hereby it appears that righteousness comes not of one or a few works, but of an unswerving and unwearied observing of the will of God. But the rule of judging unrighteousness is most contrary. For he that has committed fornication, or has stolen, is by one offense guilty of death, because he has offended against the majesty of God. Therefore these our subtle arguers do stumble, for they mark not this saying of James, that he which sins in one, is made guilty of all, because he that has forbidden to kill, has also forbidden to steal, and so on. Therefore it ought to seem no absurdity when we say that death is the just reward of every sin, because they are every one worthy of the just displeasure and vengeance of God. But you shall reason foolishly, if on the contrary side you gather that by one good work man may be reconciled to God, who with many sins deserves his wrath.

Now let us move on to those passages that affirm God will render to every person according to his works. These include: 'Each person will receive back what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.' 'Glory and honor to the one who does good; trouble and distress to every soul who does evil.' 'Those who have done good will go into the resurrection of life; those who have done evil, into the resurrection of judgment.' 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father: I was hungry, and you gave Me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink,' and so on. To these let us also add the sayings that call eternal life the reward of works: 'The work of a man's hands will be repaid to him.' 'He who keeps the commandment will receive a reward.' 'Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.' 'Each person will receive his own reward according to his own labor.' Where it is said that God will render to every person according to his works, this is easily resolved. That way of speaking describes the order in which God works, not the cause of it. It is beyond question that the Lord accomplishes our salvation through these degrees of His mercy: those whom He has chosen He calls; those whom He has called He justifies; those whom He has justified He glorifies. Therefore, though He receives His own into life by His mercy alone, yet because He brings them to possess it through the course of good works — fulfilling His work in them by the order He has appointed — it is no surprise if it is said they are crowned according to their works, by which they are made ready to receive the crown of immortality. Indeed, in this sense it is fitting to say they work out their own salvation when, by applying themselves to good works, they press on toward eternal life — just as in another place they are commanded to work for the food that does not perish, by believing in Christ and so obtaining life for themselves. And yet it is immediately added: 'which the Son of Man will give you' — showing that the word 'working' is not set against grace but refers to effort. It does not follow that the faithful are themselves the authors of their salvation, or that their salvation comes from their works. How then does it work? As soon as they are brought into union with Christ through the knowledge of the Gospel and the illumination of the Holy Spirit, eternal life is begun in them. And the same good work that God has begun in them must be made complete until the day of the Lord Jesus. It is made complete when, resembling their heavenly Father in righteousness and holiness, they show themselves to be His children who have not turned from their nature.

There is no reason to conclude from the word 'reward' that our works are the cause of salvation. First, let this be settled in our hearts: the kingdom of heaven is not a reward given to servants but an inheritance of children — and only those adopted by the Lord as His children will enjoy it, for no other reason than that adoption itself. For 'the son of the slave woman shall not be an heir, but the son of the free woman.' And in those very same passages where the Holy Spirit promises eternal glory as a reward for works, He also — by using the word 'inheritance' — shows that it comes from somewhere else entirely. So Christ rehearses the works for which He repays with the reward of heaven, when He calls the elect into its possession — and yet He also states that it must be possessed by right of inheritance. So Paul tells servants who carry out their duties faithfully to hope for a reward from the Lord — but he adds: 'of the inheritance.' We see how, as if by express declaration, it is shown that we do not attribute eternal blessedness to works but to the adoption of God. Why then are works mentioned alongside inheritance? A single example from Scripture makes this plain. Before the birth of Isaac, God promised Abraham a seed through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed, and a multiplication of his offspring like the stars of the sky and the sands of the sea, and other similar promises. Many years later, Abraham, acting on God's command, prepared to offer his son as a sacrifice. When he had performed this act of obedience, he received a promise: 'By Myself I have sworn,' declares the Lord, 'because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.' What do we hear here? Did Abraham's obedience earn the blessing, the promise of which he had already received before the commandment was even given? Here we see plainly and without any complications that the Lord rewards the works of the faithful with benefits He had already given them before those works were even thought of — having had no reason to do good to them except His own mercy.

Yet the Lord is not deceiving or mocking us when He calls something a reward for works that He had freely given before any works were done. For because He wills us to be exercised through good works, thinking on the receiving and enjoying — if I may call it that — of the things He has promised, and running through them toward the blessed hope set before us in heaven, the fruit of the promises is also rightly credited to those works, even though the works do not bring us to maturity in those promises. The apostle expressed both of these points well when he said that the Colossians were applying themselves to deeds of love because of the hope laid up for them in heaven, of which they had already heard through the word of the true-speaking Gospel (Colossians 1:4-5). For when he says they learned from the Gospel that hope was laid up for them in heaven, he declares that this is through Christ alone and not propped up by any works. This agrees with Peter's statement, that the godly are kept by the power of God through faith to a salvation ready to be revealed at the appointed time (1 Peter 1:5). When Paul says they labor for it, he means that the faithful must run throughout their whole life in order to reach it. But lest we should think that the Lord's promised reward is strictly proportioned to merit, He set forth a parable in which He likened Himself to a householder who sent all those he met into his vineyard to work — some at the first hour of the day, some at the third, some at the sixth, and some even at the eleventh hour (Matthew 20). At evening he paid each of them the same wages. The explanation of this parable has been briefly and truthfully given by that ancient writer — whoever he was — whose book circulates under the name of Ambrose, 'On the Calling of the Gentiles.' I will use his words rather than my own: 'The Lord, by this comparison, has established the diversity of the many callings that all belong to one grace. Without doubt those who were brought into the vineyard at the eleventh hour and made equal with those who had worked the whole day represent the situation of those whom the tender kindness of the Lord has rewarded at the close of day and the end of life — for the praise of the excellence of grace. He paid them not wages for their labor, but poured out the riches of His goodness on those whom He chose without works, so that even those who had sweated through great labor and received no more than the last workers might understand that they received a gift of grace, not a reward of works.' Finally, something else is worth noting in those passages where eternal life is called the reward of works: the word there does not refer simply to communion with God in blessed immortality, in which He embraces us with fatherly goodwill in Christ. Rather, it refers to the possessing or enjoying — as they call it — of blessedness, as the very words of Christ indicate: 'in the age to come, eternal life' (Mark 10:30; Matthew 25:34). And in another place: 'Come, inherit the kingdom,' and so on. In the same way Paul calls the full revealing of adoption — to take place at the resurrection (Romans 8:19) — and then explains it as the redemption of our bodies. Otherwise, just as estrangement from God is eternal death, so when God receives a person into favor so that he may enjoy communion with Him and be made one with Him, he is brought from death to life — and this is accomplished by the gift of adoption alone. And if, as they usually do, our opponents press hard on the reward of works, we can turn against them Peter's statement that eternal life is the outcome of faith (1 Peter 1:9).

Therefore let us not think that the Holy Spirit uses such promises to set forth the worthiness of our works as if they deserved such a reward. For Scripture leaves nothing to us upon which we might advance ourselves in God's sight. Rather, its whole endeavor is to beat down our arrogance, to humble us, to cast us down, and to break us to pieces entirely. But our weakness is also helped by these promises — weakness that would otherwise slip and fall, unless it sustained itself with this expectation and soothed its weary griefs with comfort. How hard it is for a person to forsake and deny not only all that is his, but also himself — let every person consider on his own. And yet this is precisely the training with which Christ schools His disciples, that is, all the godly. Then throughout their whole lives He instructs them under the discipline of the cross, so they do not fix their hearts on the desire for or confidence in present good things. In short, He deals with them in such a way that whatever direction they turn their eyes across the whole breadth of the world, they see on every side nothing but despair — so that Paul says we are most miserable of all people if our hope is only in this world (1 Corinthians 15:19). So that they should not give up in the face of such great distress, the Lord comes to them and calls them to lift their heads higher and to look further — that they may find with Him the blessedness they cannot find in the world. This blessedness He calls a reward, wages, and recompense — not to weigh the merit of works, but to signify that it is a repayment for their troubles, sufferings, and slanders. Therefore there is nothing to prevent us from calling eternal life a reward after the manner of Scripture — since in it the Lord receives His own from labors into rest, from affliction into a prosperous and happy state, from sorrow into gladness, from poverty into abundant wealth, from shame into glory, exchanging all the evils they have suffered for greater blessings. So too there is no inconvenience in thinking of holiness of life as a path — not one that opens the entrance into the glory of the heavenly kingdom, but one by which the elect are led by their God to its revealing — since it is His will to glorify those whom He has sanctified. Only let us not imagine the sophists' quibbling over merit and reward, in which they foolishly get stuck because they do not consider the goal we are setting forth. But how disorderly is it when the Lord calls us to one end and we look toward another? Nothing is better suited to soothe the weakness of our flesh with some comfort, and nothing should puff up our minds with arrogance. Whoever draws from this a conclusion about the merit of works, or places work and reward in the same balance as equals, has gone far astray from God's purpose (Romans 8:30).

Therefore when Scripture says that God the just judge will one day render to His own a crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8), I do not only take exception with Augustine, who says: 'To whom would a just judge render a crown, if a merciful Father had not first given grace? How could there be righteousness, unless grace went before to justify the unrighteous? How could what is owed be rendered, unless what was unowed was first given?' I also add another point: how could He credit righteousness to our works, unless His tender mercy hid the unrighteousness in them? How could He judge them worthy of reward, unless He had by immeasurable generosity removed what is worthy of punishment? For he is accustomed to call eternal life grace — because it is given in response to the free gifts of God when it is repaid to works. But Scripture also humbles us further, and at the same time lifts us up. For beyond forbidding us to glory in works because they are free gifts of God, it also teaches that they are always stained with some residue and cannot satisfy God if examined by the standard of His judgment — yet lest our courage should fail, it teaches that they are accepted through pardon alone. Although Augustine speaks somewhat differently than we do, the following words from his third book to Boniface show that he does not disagree with us on the substance. After comparing two men — one whose life was miraculously holy and nearly perfect, the other honest and of upright character but far from perfect — he concludes this way: 'Even this man who in his conduct appears far inferior, because of his true faith in God by which he lives, and according to which he accuses himself in all his offenses and praises God in all his good works — giving to himself the shame and to God the glory, and receiving from God both pardon for sins and love for doing good — when he is to be taken from this life, he passes into the fellowship of Christ.' 'Why? Because of faith — which, though it saves no one without works (for it is the faith that works through love, not a reprobate faith), yet through it sins are forgiven, because the righteous man lives by faith. But without it, even those works that appear good are turned into sins.' Here he plainly confesses what we labor so hard to prove: that the righteousness of good works rests on this — that they are received by God through pardon.

Very similar in meaning to the passages discussed above are these: "Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings." "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant or to set their hope on uncertain riches, but on the living God; to do good, to be rich in good works, and to store up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, so that they may take hold of eternal life." Good works are compared to riches that we may enjoy in the blessedness of eternal life. I answer that we will never understand these passages unless we keep our eyes on the goal the Holy Spirit is aiming at. If Christ's saying is true -- that our heart stays where our treasure is -- then just as the children of this world eagerly work to acquire things that bring pleasure in this present life, the faithful must look elsewhere. Since they have learned that this life will vanish like a dream, they must send ahead to where they will have perfect life the things they want to enjoy. We must do what people do who plan to move to a place where they have chosen to settle permanently. They send their goods ahead and do not mind going without them for a while, because they consider themselves richer the more goods they have at their final destination. If we believe that heaven is our homeland, we should rather send our riches there than keep them here, where we will lose them when we suddenly move on. But how do we send them there? By sharing with the needy. Whatever is given to the poor, the Lord counts as given to Himself. This leads to that notable promise: "Whoever gives to the poor lends to the Lord." Again: "Whoever sows generously will also reap generously." The things entrusted to our brothers through charitable giving are placed in the Lord's hand for safekeeping. He, as a faithful keeper of what is entrusted to Him, will one day return it with generous interest. Are our acts of service really so valuable to God that they are like riches stored up for us in His hand? Who would hesitate to say so, when Scripture so often and so plainly testifies to it? But if anyone tries to leap from God's pure goodness to the worthiness of works, these testimonies will not help them establish that error. From these passages you can rightly conclude nothing except God's pure tenderness toward us. To encourage us to do good -- even though the services we render to Him are not worthy of even a glance from Him -- He allows none of them to be lost.

But they press harder with the apostle's words. When he comforts the Thessalonians in their troubles, he teaches that their sufferings are sent so that they may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which they suffer. He says: "It is just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, but to give you rest along with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven." The author of Hebrews says: "God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love you have shown in His name, since you have ministered to the saints." To the first passage I answer that this is not about meritorious worthiness. Rather, because God the Father wills that we whom He has chosen as His children should be conformed to Christ His firstborn Son -- just as Christ first had to suffer and then enter His appointed glory -- so we too must enter the kingdom of heaven through many tribulations. When we suffer tribulations for the name of Christ, they serve as marks printed on us, the kind God uses to mark the sheep of His flock. In this way, then, we are counted worthy of the kingdom of God: because we bear in our bodies the marks of our Lord and Master, which are the signs of God's children. These statements serve this purpose: "We carry in our body the death of Jesus, so that His life may be revealed in us." "We are conformed to His sufferings, so that we may reach the likeness of His resurrection from the dead." The reason Paul adds does not prove any worthiness or merit, but confirms the hope of the kingdom. It is as if he said: "Just as it fits God's just judgment to take vengeance on your enemies for the harm they have done to you, so it also fits to give you relief and rest from those troubles." The other passage -- teaching that it fits God's righteousness not to forget the obedience of His people, making it almost seem unjust if He did forget -- means this: God has given us assurance, to stir us from our laziness, that the effort we put in for His glory will not be wasted. Let us always remember that this promise, like all others, would bring us no benefit unless the free covenant of mercy came first -- the covenant on which the entire assurance of our salvation must rest. But resting on that covenant, we should confidently trust that God's generosity will also provide a reward for our works, however unworthy they may be. The apostle, to confirm us in this expectation, says that God is not unjust and will stand by His promise. Therefore, this righteousness refers more to the truthfulness of God's promise than to the justice of rendering what is owed. Augustine has a notable saying on this subject that he frequently repeats, and that I think is worth continually remembering: "The Lord is faithful," he says, "who has made Himself our debtor -- not by receiving anything from us, but by promising all things to us."

They also cite Paul's statements: "If I have all faith so as to move mountains but have not love, I am nothing." Again: "Now these three remain: hope, faith, and love. But the greatest of these is love." Again: "Above all, put on love, which is the bond of perfection." From the first two passages, our Pharisees argue that we are justified by love rather than by faith, since love is supposedly the greater virtue. But this foolish argument is easily refuted. We have already shown elsewhere that the things said in the first passage have nothing to do with genuine faith. We also explain the second passage as referring to true faith, which Paul says is exceeded by love -- not because love is more meritorious, but because it is more fruitful, extends further, serves more people, and endures forever, while the use of faith is only for a limited time. If we consider true excellence, the love of God would rightly hold the first place -- but Paul is not speaking about that here. He is emphasizing only that we should build up one another in mutual love in the Lord. But let us suppose that love surpasses faith in every way. What person of sound judgment -- or even sound mind -- would conclude from this that love is more effective in justifying? The power of justifying that faith has does not rest in the worthiness of the act itself. Our justification rests entirely on God's mercy and Christ's merit. When faith lays hold of this justification, it is said to justify. Now if you ask our opponents why they credit justification to love, they will answer that because love is an act pleasing to God, righteousness is credited to us through its merit and God's acceptance of it. See how well this argument works. We say that faith justifies not because it deserves righteousness by its own worth, but because it is the instrument by which we freely receive the righteousness of Christ. These people, ignoring God's mercy and setting Christ aside (where the substance of righteousness lies), claim we are justified by the merit of love because it surpasses faith. This is like arguing that a king is better at making shoes than a shoemaker, simply because the king is a far more important person. This one argument alone proves that all the Sorbonne schools have not even tasted with the tip of their lips what the justification of faith actually is. But if a persistent debater asks why, in such a short space, we interpret the word "faith" in Paul so differently, I have a strong reason for this interpretation. Since the gifts Paul lists are in a way subordinate to faith and hope (because they lead to the knowledge of God), he summarizes them all under the names faith and hope. It is as if he said: prophecy, tongues, and the gift of knowledge and interpretation all aim at leading us to know God. And we know God in this life only through hope and faith. So when I name faith and hope, I include all these gifts together. There remain, then, these three: hope, faith, and love. That is, however diverse the gifts may be, they are all gathered under these three. Among these, the greatest is love. From the third passage they argue: if love is the bond of perfection, then it is also the bond of righteousness, which is nothing other than perfection. First, even setting aside the fact that Paul is calling perfection the well-ordered unity of the church's members, and even granting that we are made perfect before God through love -- what is new about that? I will always object on the other side: we never reach this perfection unless we fulfill every part of love. From this I will conclude that since everyone is immeasurably far from fulfilling love, all hope of perfection based on it is cut off.

I will not go through every testimony that the foolish Sorbonne scholars rashly snatch from Scripture as it comes to hand and throw against us. Some of them are so ridiculous that I would rightly be considered foolish for even repeating them. So I will conclude after addressing Christ's statement that they find so delightful. When a lawyer asked Him what was necessary for salvation, He answered: "If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments." "What more do we need?" they say. "The author of grace Himself commands us to earn the kingdom of God by keeping His commandments." But it is obviously true that Christ tailored His answers to the people He was speaking with. Here a teacher of the law was asking about the way to obtain blessedness, and specifically about what works a person must do to achieve it. Both the person asking and the nature of the question led the Lord to answer as He did. The lawyer, filled with confidence in the law's righteousness, was blind to the reality of his own works. He was seeking nothing other than what works of righteousness would earn salvation. He was therefore rightly sent to the law, in which there is a perfect mirror of righteousness. We too declare loudly that the commandments must be kept if anyone seeks life through works. Christians need to know this teaching. How would they flee to Christ if they did not recognize that they have fallen from the path of life into the headlong plunge of death? How would they understand how far they have strayed from the path of life unless they first understand what that path is? They are taught to seek refuge for salvation in Christ precisely when they see the enormous gap between their lives and the righteousness of God contained in keeping the law. The point is this: if salvation is sought through works, the commandments must be kept -- the commandments that teach us perfect righteousness. But we must not stop here, or we will faint along the way. None of us is able to keep the commandments. Since we are therefore shut out from the righteousness of the law, we must turn to another help: the faith of Christ. This is why the Lord here directs the lawyer -- whom He knew was swelling with vain confidence in works -- to the law, where he could learn that he was a sinner subject to the dreadful sentence of eternal death. In other places, without mentioning the law, He comforts those who are already humbled by such knowledge with the promise of grace: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:28).

When they finally grow weary of twisting Scripture, they resort to cleverness and hair-splitting arguments. They quibble that faith is called a "work" in some places, and from this they conclude that we are wrong to contrast faith with works. As if faith, insofar as it is obedience to God's will, earns us righteousness by its own merit -- rather than by embracing God's mercy and sealing in our hearts the righteousness of Christ offered to us in the preaching of the Gospel! Readers will forgive me for not lingering over the refutation of such nonsense, since they are weak enough to collapse on their own. But I will briefly address one objection that seems to have some plausibility, in case it troubles those less experienced. Since common sense teaches that the same rule applies to opposites, and since every particular sin is counted against us as unrighteousness, they say it is only fitting that every particular good work should receive the praise of righteousness. Those who respond by saying that damnation comes properly only from unbelief, not from particular sins, do not satisfy me. I do agree with them that unbelief is the fountain and root of all evil. It is the original departure from God, from which particular violations of the law then follow. But when they try to set the same standard for good and evil works in evaluating righteousness or unrighteousness, I am forced to disagree. The righteousness of works consists in perfect obedience to the law. Therefore, you cannot be righteous by works unless you follow the law as a straight line throughout the entire course of your life. The moment you deviate from it, you fall into unrighteousness. This makes clear that righteousness does not come from one or a few works, but from an unwavering and tireless obedience to the will of God. But the rule for judging unrighteousness is the exact opposite. A person who commits adultery or steals is guilty of death by that one offense, because they have offended the majesty of God. Our clever debaters stumble here because they fail to notice James' statement: the person who breaks the law in one point is guilty of breaking it all, because the One who forbade murder also forbade theft, and so on. Therefore, it should not seem strange when we say that death is the just reward of every sin, because each one deserves God's righteous displeasure and vengeance. But you would reason foolishly if you concluded from this that a person can be reconciled to God by one good work, when they have earned His wrath through many sins.