) when he makes no other work to be a Christian one. Thus
Christ, when the Jews asked Him what they should do that they might work
the works of God, rejected the multitude of works, with which He saw
that they were puffed up, and commanded them one thing only, saying,
"This is the work of God: that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent, for
Him hath God the Father sealed" (John vi. 27, 29).
Hence a right faith in Christ is an incomparable treasure, carrying with
it universal salvation and preserving from all evil, as it is said, "He
that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth
not shall be damned" (Mark xvi. 16). Isaiah, looking to this treasure,
predicted, "The consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.
For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined
(verbum abbreviatum et consummans), in the midst of the land" (Isa.
x. 22, 23). As if he said, "Faith, which is the brief and complete
fulfilling of the law, will fill those who believe with such
righteousness that they will need nothing else for justification." Thus,
too, Paul says, "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness"
(Rom. x. 10).
But you ask how it can be the fact that faith alone justifies, and
affords without works so great a treasure of good things, when so many
works, ceremonies, and laws are prescribed to us in the Scriptures?
I answer, Before all things bear in mind what I have said: that faith
alone without works justifies, sets free, and saves, as I shall show
more clearly below.
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