by his sentence, that "in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but faith working through love."
Faith, in the biblical and evangelical sense, is a vital force which engages all the powers of
man and apprehends and appropriates the very life of Christ and all his benefits. It is the child of
grace and the mother of good works. It is the pioneer of all great thoughts and deeds. By faith
Abraham became the father of nations; by faith Moses became the liberator and legislator of Israel;
by faith the Galilean fishermen became fishers of men; and by faith the noble army of martyrs
endured tortures and triumphed in death; without faith in the risen Saviour the church could not
have been founded. Faith is a saving power. It unites us to Christ. Whosoever believeth in Christ
"hath eternal life." "We believe," said Peter at the Council of Jerusalem, "that we shall be saved
through the grace of God," like the Gentiles who come to Christ by faith without the works and
ceremonies of the law. "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved," was Paul’s answer to
the question of the jailor: "What must I do to be saved?"
Protestantism does by no means despise or neglect good works or favor antinomian license;
it only subordinates them to faith, and measures their value by quality rather than quantity. They
are not the condition, but the necessary evidence of justification; they are not the root, but the fruits
of the tree. The same faith which justifies, does also sanctify. It is ever "working through love"
(Gal. 5:6). Luther is often charged with indifference to good works, but very unjustly. His occasional
unguarded utterances must be understood in connection with his whole teaching and character.
"Faith" in his own forcible language which expresses his true view, "faith is a living, busy, active,
mighty thing and it is impossible that it should not do good without ceasing; it does not ask whether
good works are to be done, but before the question is put, it has done them already, and is always
engaged in doing them; you may as well separate burning and shining from fire, as works from
faith."
The Lutheran doctrine of Christian freedom and justification by faith alone, like that of St.
Paul on which it was based, was made the cloak of excesses by carnal men who wickedly reasoned,
"Let us continue in sin that grace may abound" (Rom. 6:1), and who abused their "freedom for an
occasion to the flesh" (Gal. 5:13). All such consequences the apostle cut off at the outset by an
indignant "God forbid."
The fact is undeniable, that the Reformation in Germany was accompanied and followed
by antinomian tendencies and a degeneracy of public morals. It rests not only on the hostile
testimonies of Romanists and separatists, but Luther and Melanchthon themselves often bitterly
complained in their later years of the abuse of the liberty of the gospel and the sad state of morals
in Wittenberg and throughout Saxony.^13
But we should remember, first, that the degeneracy of morals, especially the increase of
extravagance, and luxury with its attending vices, had begun in Catholic times in consequence of
(^13) The weight of Döllinger’s three volumes on the Reformation (1848) consists in the collection of such unfavorable testimonies from
the writings of Erasmus, Wizel, Haner, Wildenauer, Crotus Rubeanus, Biblicanus, Staupitz, Amerpach, Pirkheimer, Zasius, Frank, Denk,
Hetzer, Schwenkfeld, Luther, Melanchthon, Spalatin, Bugenhagen, and others. They give, indeed, a very gloomy, but a very one-sided
picture of the times. Janssen makes good use of these testimonies. But both these Catholic historians whose eminent learning is undeniable,
wrote with a polemic aim, and make the very truth lie by omitting the bright side of the Reformation. Comp. on this subject the controversial
writings of Köstlin and Ebrard against Janssen, and Janssen’s replies, An meine Kritiker, Freiburg i. B. 1883 (Zehntes Tausend, 227 pages),
and Ein zweites Wort an meine Kritiker, Freib. 1883 (Zwölftes Tausend, 144 pages).