Good works are done from a willing spirit.
Furthermore, the essence of good works is that they are done out of a willing spirit or — which is the same thing — out of love for God. To emphasize this properly, ancient doctrines make use of this paradox: "Good works must not only be good, but also be done well (bene fieri debent)." 165) What is not done out of a willing spirit or out of love for God and service to Him is not fulfillment but transgression of the divine law.166) To remind us of this, Luther prefaces his exposition of each commandment with the words, "We are to fear and love God." Scripture inculcates this quality of good works positively and negatively: positively, by describing works pleasing to God as occurring out of a willing spirit;167) negatively, by rejecting all works that lack this quality. From this quality of good works, of course, it follows that doing good works is an art that only Christians can do. Non-Christians do their works, which outwardly (in materia, Luther says) agree with God's law, in the best case for naturally honorable reasons, for example, out of natural inclination to work, out of natural love for parents, wife, and child, out of natural compassion, but in many cases out of a craving for fame and even in the opinion of covering sins with works and earning salvation. Out of love for God and service to Him, only those men do their works who, through the action of the Holy Spirit, believe the gospel of God's grace in Christ and, as a result of this faith, love the One who first loved them.
Here we must again recall Luther's word that good works are done out of heaven,168) that is, by those who already possess heaven through faith in Christ and therefore offer the works they do on earth to God as
that lies in the certainty of the God-ordained profession (XIII, 2218): "Let every Christian accustom himself from his youth to be certain that he is in a saved state. Whoever can do this, even if he falls down the stairs and dies, can still say: My father, my mother, my Lord, my wife has called me to go down; therefore I die in a saved state, right obedience and good work, which is pleasing to God." On the satisfaction with earthly calling that results from the knowledge of the divine order: XIII, 194 ff.
165) Kromayer, Theol. pos.-pol. II, 395; in Baier III, 324.
166) Rom. 13:8-10: πλήρωμα ovv νόμον ή αγάπη. Matt. 22:37-40.
167) Ps. 110:3; 2 Cor. 8:3. 4. 12.<w:t xml:space="preserve">168) St. L. XII, 136.
52 > Sanctification and good works. [English ed. ~ 43]
a sacrifice of thanksgiving.169) Therefore, the catechisms and dogmatics rightly include in the definition of good works the stipulation that good works are done only by believers or those who have been born again.170) In this sense, Luther constantly insists on the axiom that "the person must always be good and pious before all good works.171) And to the question of how the person becomes good and pious, he answers: "Whoever believes in Christ, that he was born for us, died and was buried, and also rose from the dead, the same is born again or born anew. There is one who is a new man; for there you have such thoughts that no other Papist or Turk has. … If then thou continue in this faith, the Holy Spirit is there, baptizing thee, strengthening and increasing thy faith, and putting new understanding into thy heart; he also awakens in thee holy and new thoughts and affections, that thou mayest begin to love God, and to abstain from all ungodly deeds, and to do heartily those things which God would have thee do, loving thy neighbor, avoiding wrath, hatred, and envy." 172)