Christ has obtained for us this favour, if we believe in Him: that just
as we are His brethren and co-heirs and fellow-kings with Him, so we
should be also fellow-priests with Him, and venture with confidence,
through the spirit of faith, to come into the presence of God, and cry,
"Abba, Father!" and to pray for one another, and to do all things
which we see done and figured in the visible and corporeal office of
priesthood. But to an unbelieving person nothing renders service or work
for good. He himself is in servitude to all things, and all things turn
out for evil to him, because he uses all things in an impious way for
his own advantage, and not for the glory of God. And thus he is not a
priest, but a profane person, whose prayers are turned into sin, nor
does he ever appear in the presence of God, because God does not hear
sinners.
Who then can comprehend the loftiness of that Christian dignity which,
by its royal power, rules over all things, even over death, life, and
sin, and, by its priestly glory, is all-powerful with God, since God
does what He Himself seeks and wishes, as it is written, "He will fulfil
the desire of them that fear Him; He also will hear their cry, and will
save them"? (Psalm cxlv. 19). This glory certainly cannot be attained by
any works, but by faith only.
From these considerations any one may clearly see how a Christian
man is free from all things; so that he needs no works in order to be
justified and saved, but receives these gifts in abundance from faith
alone.
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