A Treatise on Good Works | Page 5

effective in good works must be added
to the formless faith, as its complement and its content, well pleasing to
God. In Luther's time every one who was seriously interested in
religious questions was reared under the influence of these ideas.
Now, since Luther had opposed the doctrine of justification by love and
its good works, he was in danger of being misunderstood by strangers,
as though he held the bare knowledge and assent to be sufficient for
justification, and such preaching would indeed have led to frivolity and
disorderly conduct. But even apart from the question whether or not the
brother of the Elector was disturbed by such scruples, Luther must have
welcomed the opportunity, when the summons came to him, to dedicate
his book Of Good Works to a member of the Electoral house. At any
rate the book could serve to acquaint him with the thoughts of his
much-abused pastor and professor at Wittenberg, for never before had
Luther expressed himself on the important question of good works in
such a fundamental, thorough and profound way.
2. The Contents of the Work. -- A perusal of the contents shows that
the book, in the course of its production, attained a greater length than
was originally intended. To this fact it must be attributed that a new
numeration of sections begins with the argument on the Third
Commandment, and is repeated at every Commandment thereafter,
while before this the sections were consecutively numbered. But in
spite of this, the plan of the whole is clear and lucid. Evidently the
whole treatise is divided into two parts: the first comprising sections
1-17, while the second comprises all the following sections. The first,
being fundamental, is the more important part. Luther well knew of the
charges made against him that "faith is so highly elevated" and "works
are rejected" by him; but he knew, too, that "neither silver, gold and
precious stone, nor any other precious thing had experienced so much
augmentation and diminution" as had good works "which should all

have but one simple goodness, or they are nothing but color, glitter and
deception." But especially was he aware of the fact that the Church was
urging nothing but the so-called self-elected works, such as "running to
the convent, singing, reading, playing the organ, saying the mass,
praying matins, vespers, and other hours, founding and ornamenting
churches, altars, convents, gathering chimes, jewels, vestments, gems
and treasures, going to Rome and to the saints, curtsying and bowing
the knees, praying the rosary and the psalter," etc., and that she
designated these alone as truly good works, while she represented the
faithful performance of the duties of one's calling as a morality of a
lower order. For these reasons it is Luther's highest object in this
treatise to make it perfectly clear what is the essence of good works.
Whenever the essence of good works has been understood, then the
accusations against him will quickly collapse.
In the fundamental part he therefore argues: Truly good works are not
self-elected works of monastic or any other holiness, but such only as
God has commanded, and as are comprehended within the bounds of
one's particular calling, and all works, let their name be what it may,
become good only when they flow from faith, the first, greatest, and
noblest of good works." (John 6:29.) In this connection the essence of
faith, that only source of all truly good works, must of course be rightly
understood. It is the sure confidence in God, that all my doing is
wellpleasing to Him; it is trust in His mercy, even though He appears
angry and puts sufferings and adversities upon us; it is the assurance of
the divine good will even though "God should reprove the conscience
with sin, death and hell, and deny it all grace and mercy, as though He
would condemn and show His wrath eternally." Where such faith lives
in the heart, there the works are good "even though they were as
insignificant as the picking up of a straw"; but where it is wanting,
there are only such works as "heathen, Jew and Turk" may have and do.
Where such faith possesses the man, he needs no teacher in good works,
as little as does the husband or the wife, who only look for love and
favor from one another, nor need any instruction therein "how they are
to stand toward each other, what they are to do, to leave undone, to say,
to leave unsaid, to think."

This faith, Luther continues, is "the true fulfilment of the First
Commandment, apart from which there is no work that could do justice
to this Commandment." With this sentence he combines, on the one
hand, the whole argument on faith, as the best and noblest