As Christ says,
"A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree
bring forth good fruit" (Matt. vii. 18). Now it is clear that the fruit
does not bear the tree, nor does the tree grow on the fruit; but, on the
contrary, the trees bear the fruit, and the fruit grows on the trees.
As then trees must exist before their fruit, and as the fruit does not
make the tree either good or bad, but on the contrary, a tree of either
kind produces fruit of the same kind, so must first the person of the
man be good or bad before he can do either a good or a bad work; and his
works do not make him bad or good, but he himself makes his works either
bad or good.
We may see the same thing in all handicrafts. A bad or good house does
not make a bad or good builder, but a good or bad builder makes a good
or bad house. And in general no work makes the workman such as it is
itself; but the workman makes the work such as he is himself. Such
is the case, too, with the works of men. Such as the man himself is,
whether in faith or in unbelief, such is his work: good if it be done
in faith; bad if in unbelief. But the converse is not true that, such as
the work is, such the man becomes in faith or in unbelief. For as works
do not make a believing man, so neither do they make a justified man;
but faith, as it makes a man a believer and justified, so also it makes
his works good.
Since then works justify no man, but a man must be justified before he
can do any good work, it is most evident that it is faith alone which,
by the mere mercy of God through Christ, and by means of His word,
can worthily and sufficiently justify and save the person; and that a
Christian man needs no work, no law, for his salvation; for by faith he
is free from all law, and in perfect freedom does gratuitously all that
he does, seeking nothing either of profit or of salvation--since by
the grace of God he is already saved and rich in all things through his
faith--but solely that which is well-pleasing to God.
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