Odium: doctrine of justification does not do away with good works. He says it cleaves together faith, good works, and justification by faith. If faith is so gloriously extolled, works are degraded, he says, But it is encouraged and strengthened. Faith and good works must cleave together, he writes, provided we turn to Christ.
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Calvin - Institutes of the Christian Religion Book3 Chapter16
Odium: doctrine of justification does not do away with good works. He says it cleaves together faith, good works, and justification by faith. If faith is so gloriously extolled, works are degraded, he says, But it is encouraged and strengthened. Faith and good works must cleave together, he writes, provided we turn to Christ.
Odium: doctrine of justification does not do away with good works. He says it cleaves together faith, good works, and justification by faith. If faith is so gloriously extolled, works are degraded, he says, But it is encouraged and strengthened. Faith and good works must cleave together, he writes, provided we turn to Christ.
CHAPTER 16 REFUTATION OF THE FALSE ACCUSATIONS BY WHICH THE PAPISTS TRY TO CAST ODIUM UPON THIS DOCTRINE
1. DOES THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION
DO AWAY WITH GOOD WORKS? This, in one word, is enough to refute the shamelessness of certain impious persons who slanderously charge us with abolishing good works, and with seducing men from the pursuit of them, when we say that men are not justified by works and do not merit salvation by them; and again, charge us with making the path to righteousness too easy when we teach that justification lies in free remission of sins; and, by this enticement, with luring into sin men who are already too much inclined to it of their own accord. F420 These false charges, I say, are sufficiently refuted by that simple statement. Still, I shall briefly reply to each. They contend that through the justification of faith, good works are destroyed. I forbear to say what sort of zealots for good works they are who thus carp at us. Let them rail with impunity even as they wantonly infect the whole world with their own foul lives! They pretend to be grieved that, when faith is so gloriously extolled, works are degraded. What if, rather, these were encouraged and strengthened? For we dream neither of a faith devoid of good works nor of a justification that stands without them. This alone is of importance: having admitted that faith and good works must cleave together, we still lodge justification in faith, not in works. We have a ready explanation for doing this, provided we turn to Christ to whom our faith is directed and from whom it receives its full strength. Why, then, are we justified by faith? Because by faith we grasp Christ’s righteousness, by which alone we are reconciled to God. Yet you could not grasp this without at the same time grasping sanctification also. F421 For he “is given unto us for righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, and 278 <460130> redemption” [ 1 Corinthians 1:30]. Therefore Christ justifies no one whom he does not at the same time sanctify. These benefits are joined together by an everlasting and indissoluble bond, so that those whom he illumines by his wisdom, he redeems; those whom he redeems, he justifies; those whom he justifies, he sanctifies. But, since the question concerns only righteousness and sanctification, let us dwell upon these. Although we may distinguish them, Christ contains both of them inseparably in himself. Do you wish, then, to attain righteousness in Christ? You must first possess Christ; but you cannot possess him without being made partaker in his sanctification, because he cannot be divided into pieces [<460113> 1 Corinthians 1:13]. Since, therefore, it is solely by expending himself that the Lord gives us these benefits to enjoy, he bestows both of them at the same time, the one never without the other. Thus it is clear how true it is that we are justified not without works yet not through works, since in our sharing in Christ, which justifies us, sanctification is just as much included as righteousness.
2. DOES THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION STIFLE ZEAL
FOR GOOD WORKS? This charge is also very false: that men’s hearts are seduced from desiring to do good when we take from them their regard for merit. Here, in passing, my readers must be warned that our opponents stupidly reason from reward to merit, as I shall afterward explain more clearly. F422 For they obviously do not know the principle that God is no less generous when he assigns a reward for works than when he bestows the capacity to act rightly. But I prefer to postpone this to its proper place. Now it will be enough to touch upon how weak their objection is. This will be done in two ways. For first, in saying men will take no care to regulate their lives aright unless hope of reward is held out to them, they are completely in error. F423 For if it is only a matter of men looking for reward when they serve God, and hiring or selling their labor to him, it is of little profit. God wills to be freely worshiped, freely loved. That worshiper, I say, he approves who, when all hope of receiving reward has been cut off, still ceases not to serve him. 279 Indeed, if men have to be aroused, no one can put sharper spurs to them than those derived from the end of our redemption and calling. Such spurs the Word of the Lord employs when it teaches that it would bespeak our too impious ingratitude for us not to reciprocate the love of him “who first loved us” [<620419> 1 John 4:19; cf. 5:10]; that by Christ’s blood our consciences are cleansed from dead works, that we should serve the living God [<580914> Hebrews 9:14]; e that it is an unworthy, unholy act for us, once cleansed, to contaminate ourselves with new filth, and to profane that sacred blood [<581029> Hebrews 10:29]; that “we have been delivered from the hand of our enemies in order that we may serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days” [<420174> Luke 1:74-75 p.]; that we have been freed from sin to cultivate righteousness with a free spirit [<450618> Romans 6:18]; that “our old man was crucified” [<450606> Romans 6:6], that “we... may arise to newness of life” [<450604> Romans 6:4 p.]. Likewise, if we be dead with Christ, as befits his members, we must seek the things that are above, and be pilgrims on earth, so that we may aspire to heaven where our treasure is [cf. <510301> Colossians 3:1-3; also <400620> Matthew 6:20]. In this “the grace of the Lord has appeared, that, having renounced all irreligion and worldly desires, we may live sober, holy, and godly lives in this age, awaiting our blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior.” [<560211> Titus 2:11-13 p.] Therefore we were not appointed to rouse wrath against ourselves but to obtain salvation through Christ [<520509> 1 Thessalonians 5:9]. We are temples of the Holy Spirit, which it is unlawful to profane [<460316> 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; <470616> 2 Corinthians 6:16; <490221> Ephesians 2:21]. We are not darkness but light in the Lord, and must walk as children of light [<490508> Ephesians 5:8-9; cf. <520504> 1 Thessalonians 5:4-5]. We have not been called to uncleanness but to holiness [<520407> 1 Thessalonians 4:7], for this is the will of God, our sanctification, that we abstain from unlawful desires [<520403> 1 Thessalonians 4:3]. Ours is a holy calling [<550109> 2 Timothy 1:9]. It demands purity of life and nothing less; we have been freed from sin to this end, that we may obey righteousness [<450618> Romans 6:18]. Could we be aroused to love by any livelier argument than that of John’s: that “we love one another as God has loved us” [<620411> 1 John 4:11; cf. <431334> John 13:34]? that herein his children differ from the devil’s children as children of light from children of darkness, because they abide in love [<620310> 1 280 John 3:10; 2:10-11]? Again, with that argument of Paul’s: that we, if we cleave to Christ, are members of one body [<460615> 1 Corinthians 6:15,17; 12:12], who must help one another in our mutual tasks [cf. <461225> 1 Corinthians 12:25]? Can we be more forcefully summoned to holiness than when we hear again from John that “all who have this hope... sanctify themselves” because their God is holy [<620303> 1 John 3:3]? Likewise, from Paul’s lips: since we rely on the promise of adoption, “let us cleanse ourselves of all defilement of flesh and spirit” [<470701> 2 Corinthians 7:1, Vg.]? Or again, than when we hear Christ putting himself forward as our example in order that we may follow his footsteps [<600221> 1 Peter 2:21; cf. <431510> John 15:10; 13:15]?
3. GOD’S HONOR AND GOD’S MERCY AS MOTIVES FOR
ACTION: SUBORDINATION OF WORKS These few Scriptural proofs, indeed, I have set forth as a mere taste. For if it were my purpose to go through every one, a large volume would have to be compiled. All the apostles are full of exhortations, urgings, and reproofs with which to instruct the man of God in every good work [cf. <550316> 2 Timothy 3:16-17], and that without mention of merit. Rather, they derive their most powerful exhortations from the thought that our salvation stands upon no merit of ours but solely upon God’s mercy. Accordingly, Paul, when he devoted an entire letter to showing that we have no hope of life save in Christ’s righteousness, when he gets down to exhortations, implores us by that mercy of God which He has deigned to give us [<451201> Romans 12:1]. And surely this one reason ought to have been enough: that God may be glorified in us [<400516> Matthew 5:16]. But if anyone is still not so forcibly affected by the glory of God, the remembrance of his benefits will, nevertheless, amply suffice to arouse such persons to well-doing. F424 But these men, since, by stressing merits, they perchance force out some slavish and coerced observances of the law, say falsely that we have no basis for exhorting men to good works because we do not enter upon the same road. F425 As if such obedience were highly pleasing to God, who declares that he “loves a cheerful giver” and forbids anything to be given as if “grudgingly or of necessity” [<470907> 2 Corinthians 9:7]! 281 And I do not say this because I either despise or neglect the kind of exhortation that Scripture very often uses in order not to overlook any means of arousing us. For it recalls how “God will render to every man according to his works” [<450206> Romans 2:6-7; <401627> Matthew 16:27; <460308> 1 Corinthians 3:8, 14-15; <470510> 2 Corinthians 5:10; etc.]. But I deny that this is the only thing, and even the principal thing among many. Again, I do not concede that we should take our beginning from that point. Furthermore, I contend that it does nothing to support the kind of merits they preach, as we shall afterward see. F426 Finally, I say that it is of no use unless we give prior place to the doctrine that we are justified by Christ’s merit alone, which is grasped through faith, but by no merits of our own works, because no men can be fit for the pursuit of holiness save those who have first imbibed this doctrine. And the prophet beautifully suggests this when he addresses God thus: “There is propitiation with thee, O Lord, that thou mayest be feared” [<19D004>Psalm 130:4, cf. Comm.]. For he shows that there is no honoring of God unless his mercy be acknowledged, upon which alone it is founded and established. This is especially worthy of note: that we may know not only that the beginning of honoring God aright is trust in his mercy but that the fear of God, which the papists would have meritorious, F427 cannot be reckoned under the term “merit” because that fear is founded upon the pardon and forgiveness of sins.
4. THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION AS INCITEMENT
TO THE SINFUL But it is the most worthless of slanders to say men are invited to sin, when we affirm the free forgiveness of sins in which we assert righteousness consists. F428 For we say that it is of such great value that it cannot be paid for by any good of ours. Therefore, it can never be obtained except as a free gift. Now for us indeed it is free, but not so for Christ, who dearly bought it at the cost of his most sacred blood, apart from which there was no ransom of sufficient worth to satisfy God’s judgment. When men are taught this, they are made aware that they cannot do anything to prevent the shedding of his most sacred blood as often as they sin. Furthermore, we say that our foulness is such that it can never be cleansed except by the fountain of this purest blood, bought not they who 282 hear these things to conceive a greater dread of sin than if it were said that they are cleansed by the sprinkling of good works? And if they have any sense of God, how can they but dread, once purified, to wallow once more in the mire, so as to disturb and poison, as much as they can, the purity of this fountain? “I have washed my feet,” says the believing soul according to Solomon, “how shall I defile them anew?” [Cant. 5:3]. Now it is plain which persons prefer to cheapen the forgiveness of sins, and which ones to prostitute the dignity of righteousness. They make believe that God is appeased by their wretched satisfactions, which are but dung [<500308> Philippians 3:8]. F429 We affirm that the guilt of sin is too heavy to be atoned for by such light trifles, that it is too grave an offense against God to be remitted by these worthless satisfactions, that this, then, is the prerogative of Christ’s blood alone. They say that righteousness, if ever it fails, is restored and repaired by works of satisfaction. F430 We count it too precious to be matched by any compensation of works; and therefore, to recover it, we must take refuge in God’s mercy alone. The remaining matters that pertain to forgiveness of sins belong in the next chapter. F431