as he has drawn such with his own hand into his German copy of the New Testament.*)
Translated from Latin.
Adam, before he did any works and offered sacrifices to God, received the promise of the woman's seed, so that the truth would stand firm that through faith without works one attains both righteousness and forgiveness of sins before God by pure grace. Therefore, Paul rightly praises the faith of Abel in his sacrifice in Hebr. 11, 4. He even praises their faith in all the works and deeds of the saints, which God considered before the works, as only those that followed through and from faith. Accordingly, one must never allow the righteousness of faith and works to be separated from one another, as if they were two different kinds of righteousness, as the sophists tend to do, but it is only one simple righteousness, of faith and works, as God and man are one person, and as body and soul constitute one man. For as soon as you separate them, faith is lost and works alone remain. This is a false appearance, which is useless on both sides. For if it be works, they are and are done by faith. If it is faith, it expresses itself and is busy, as John 15:4 says: "A branch abiding in the vine bears fruit." Therefore the good works of the saints are only sins, if they are considered as such, as it also happens if one relies on them and builds on them. But lest they should be relied on, it is good to condemn them, and to make them sins, as they must be, when they are separated, as works of righteousness.
separate from faith. 1) But since faith by its nature precedes works, it is right to say that we are justified by faith alone. For the fact that we believe is not through works, because they are not yet there or have not yet been done, but through the word, which promises grace and gives the assurance that believers are pleasing to God and blessed, and that their sins are forgiven them; after that it is also through faith itself that we do good works, and so through works faith becomes, as it were, thick, so that it can almost be grasped and felt. Just as the Godhead alone makes Christ and a Lord; yet it becomes thick and palpable through the accepted humanity, as 1 John 1:1 says: "The Word which we have touched and which dwells in us." But as soon as you separate them, there is no other God anywhere, and the flesh is once again as harmful. For if we were justified because of the works that follow from faith, we would not be justified by faith itself, nor for Christ's sake, but for our own sake, doing works according to faith, which would mean denying Christ. For Christ is not grasped by works, but by the faith of the heart. So we must necessarily be justified by faith alone, before and without all works. The works themselves, however, are
1) So set by us. Here the old edition has Walch's: "as it should be. Where one separates the same, as of righteousness especially from faith." To this Walch made the remark: "Here the context is missing in the Latin."
*) The copy in which Luther entered these "thoughts" is, as Walch indicates, in the library of the Kirche zur Ls^iebenf Uraus in Halle. Then printed in Latin in the Kupplsrusuturn opistolarum Duttieri (Luäclsrm), x>NK. Because we do not have this at hand, we give the translation found in the old edition of Walch.
1462 D. V. a. IV, 413 f. X. Luther's writings on the law and faith 2c. W. XIX, 1776-1778. 1463
considered good for the sake of faith, considered righteous and pleasing to God. Therefore, just as it is wrong for us to be provided as righteous beforehand for the sake of future works, so it is also wrong for us to be justified for the sake of future works of faith; but just as the grace of providence brings about the works themselves afterwards, without any action on our part, and chooses and calls the one who is to be justified and do works: so faith does indeed bring about the works itself, but without works it justifies and cancels sins before works are yet evident. Faith does not come for the sake of works, but works are done for the sake of faith; and faith does not wait to be justified by them, but works wait for faith, so that they may be recognized as just by it; so that faith is to be regarded as the active righteousness of works, and works as the suffering righteousness of faith. Otherwise one would make the works the cause of righteousness.
Without which the effect of justice could not take place even in faith, although the cause of justice would not be a cause at all without the effect of it 2c.
(From this very own handwriting.)
To all passages of Scripture that seem to assert the righteousness of works, you can answer from Hebrews 11 with this single word "through faith. For example: Give alms, and you will be completely clean. Answer: Give by faith. For there the apostle prefixes this little word "through faith" to all the works of the saints, and adds the reason, because it is impossible to please God without faith. If, then, one has faith in all works, he also has righteousness without these works, because faith must exist before works. Faith alone makes one righteous; indeed, it is righteousness itself, so that the one who has been made righteous by faith first does the works of faith.