Again, "We are justified," is the Apostle's assertion, "without the deeds of the Law." In the first chapter of this epistle to the Romans, Paul labors to show that the Gentiles had sinned against the law of nature which was written in their hearts, and in the second and third chapters, that the Jews had equally transgressed their written Law, and then, having thus shown that all the world is guilty before God, he concludes: "Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified." In other words, that good works are of no account in our justification, they cannot set us right with God,--make us acceptable with Him, cannot gain His favor. That is the teaching of the Scripture and the doctrine of the Church. Declares the Fourth Article of the Augsburg Confession: "We teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own powers, deservings, or works, but are accounted righteous in grace only through the merit of our Lord Jesus Christ received by faith."
Nor is there a lesson which we learn more slowly. It is a task most difficult for us to give up the idea of merit in ourselves, to feel that we can do nothing, absolutely nothing, towards purchasing the favor of God. Talk with the sick and the dying upon the grounds of their hope, and they will often be found pleading that they have always endeavored to live good lives, and have never been guilty of any gross sins, showing by such language that they are clinging to their own good works, instead of trusting to the heaven-procuring righteousness of God. Converse with Christians, even some of our church-members, and they will often speak in such a way as to show that they are placing some merit in their good character or endeavors to serve God. With one foot they may indeed be standing on the rock of salvation, but the other is too often still in the miry clay of our own deservings. We must learn to rest wholly on Christ. We must pray God to break down every vain dependence, to look away, with loathing and disgust, from anything that we possess or can do, to receive a crucified Redeemer as our only hope. "Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling."
This is the first proposition, that there is no acceptance with God but through faith, and that in this concern works of every kind are absolutely excluded. But this proposition, simple and plain as it is, must not be perverted. It will not do, then, to say, It matters not what our lives are, just so we only have faith in Christ. When the Scriptures assert that we are justified by faith, they do not mean a faith which leaves us indifferent to our practice. The faith that saves a man is of the kind that has a prevailing and ennobling influence upon the hearts and lives of those who possess it. Because man cannot gain salvation by his own righteousness and works, he must beware of falling into the fatal and ruinous delusion that he can abolish righteousness and good works. God demands good character and good works from His people. The same apostle who declares in the epistle: "By faith we are justified," adds: "And His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all." The Bible wants every Christian to be busy; his life should be filled with fruits of good. But these things must be put in their right place; and which is that? As an evidence of the faith within us. Faith saves us, but good character and good works prove that we have this saving faith. The truth of the matter is that to set little store on good works is an immoral and most pestilent heresy. The works by which we recommend religion and adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior; the works which spring from love to Christ and aim at the glory of God, the works by which a good man blesses society and leaves the world better than he has found it, are not worthless and "filthy rags," but they are the gracious and graceful ornament of a blood-bought soul, the fruits of God's Spirit within us, the clear and comfortable evidence of our being the children of God; and in this St. Paul and St. James agree. Whereas a faith that professes to believe in Christ, and denies Him in character and works, is not only unprofitable, but loathsome and offensive, a dead carcass.