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By Martin Luther
Let us consider this as the first virtue of faith; and let us
look also to the second. This also is an office of faith: that it
honors with the utmost veneration and the highest reputation Him
in whom it believes, inasmuch as it holds Him to be truthful and
worthy of belief. For there is no honour like that reputation of
truth and righteousness with which we honor Him in whom we
believe. What higher credit can we attribute to any one than
truth and righteousness, and absolute goodness? On the other
hand, it is the greatest insult to brand any one with the
reputation of falsehood and unrighteousness, or to suspect him of
these, as we do when we disbelieve him.
Thus the soul, in firmly believing the promises of God, holds Him
to be true and righteous; and it can attribute to God no higher
glory than the credit of being so. The highest worship of God is
to ascribe to Him truth, righteousness, and whatever qualities we
must ascribe to one in whom we believe. In doing this the soul
shows itself prepared to do His whole will; in doing this it
hallows His name, and gives itself up to be dealt with as it may
please God. For it cleaves to His promises, and never doubts that
He is true, just, and wise, and will do, dispose, and provide for
all things in the best way. Is not such a soul, in this its
faith, most obedient to God in all things? What commandment does
there remain which has not been amply fulfilled by such an
obedience? What fulfillment can be more full than universal
obedience? Now this is not accomplished by works, but by faith
alone.
On the other hand, what greater rebellion, impiety, or insult to
God can there be, than not to believe His promises? What else is
this, than either to make God a liar, or to doubt His truth--that
is, to attribute truth to ourselves, but to God falsehood and
levity? In doing this, is not a man denying God and setting
himself up as an idol in his own heart? What then can works, done
in such a state of impiety, profit us, were they even angelic or
apostolic works? Rightly hath God shut up all, not in wrath nor
in lust, but in unbelief, in order that those who pretend that
they are fulfilling the law by works of purity and benevolence
(which are social and human virtues) may not presume that they
will therefore be saved, but, being included in the sin of
unbelief, may either seek mercy, or be justly condemned.
But when God sees that truth is ascribed to Him, and that in the
faith of our hearts He is honored with all the honor of which
He is worthy, then in return He honors us on account of that
faith, attributing to us truth and righteousness. For faith does
truth and righteousness in rendering to God what is His; and
therefore in return God gives glory to our righteousness. It is
true and righteous that God is true and righteous; and to confess
this and ascribe these attributes to Him, this it is to be true
and righteous. Thus He says, "Them that honor Me I will honor,
and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed" (1 Sam. ii.
30). And so Paul says that Abraham's faith was imputed to him for
righteousness, because by it he gave glory to God; and that to us
also, for the same reason, it shall be imputed for righteousness,
if we believe (Rom. iv.).
The third incomparable grace of faith is this: that it unites the
soul to Christ, as the wife to the husband, by which mystery, as
the Apostle teaches, Christ and the soul are made one flesh. Now
if they are one flesh, and if a true marriage--nay, by far the
most perfect of all marriages--is accomplished between them (for
human marriages are but feeble types of this one great marriage),
then it follows that all they have becomes theirs in common, as
well good things as evil things; so that whatsoever Christ
possesses, that the believing soul may take to itself and boast
of as its own, and whatever belongs to the soul, that Christ
claims as His.
If we compare these possessions, we shall see how inestimable is
the gain. Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation; the soul
is full of sin, death, and condemnation. Let faith step in, and
then sin, death, and hell will belong to Christ, and grace, life,
and salvation to the soul. For, if He is a Husband, He must needs
take to Himself that which is His wife's, and at the same time,
impart to His wife that which is His. For, in giving her His own
body and Himself, how can He but give her all that is His? And,
in taking to Himself the body of His wife, how can He but take to
Himself all that is hers?
In this is displayed the delightful sight, not only of communion,
but of a prosperous warfare, of victory, salvation, and
redemption. For, since Christ is God and man, and is such a
Person as neither has sinned, nor dies, nor is condemned, nay,
cannot sin, die, or be condemned, and since His righteousness,
life, and salvation are invincible, eternal, and almighty,--when
I say, such a Person, by the wedding-ring of faith, takes a share
in the sins, death, and hell of His wife, nay, makes them His
own, and deals with them no otherwise than as if they were His,
and as if He Himself had sinned; and when He suffers, dies, and
descends to hell, that He may overcome all things, and since sin,
death, and hell cannot swallow Him up, they must needs be
swallowed up by Him in stupendous conflict. For His righteousness
rises above the sins of all men; His life is more powerful than
all death; His salvation is more unconquerable than all hell.
Thus the believing soul, by the pledge of its faith in Christ,
becomes free from all sin, fearless of death, safe from hell, and
endowed with the eternal righteousness, life, and salvation of
its Husband Christ. Thus He presents to Himself a glorious bride,
without spot or wrinkle, cleansing her with the washing of water
by the word; that is, by faith in the word of life,
righteousness, and salvation. Thus He betrothes her unto Himself
"in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in judgment, and in
lovingkindness, and in mercies" (Hosea ii. 19, 20).
Who then can value highly enough these royal nuptials? Who can
comprehend the riches of the glory of this grace? Christ, that
rich and pious Husband, takes as a wife a needy and impious
harlot, redeeming her from all her evils and supplying her with
all His good things. It is impossible now that her sins should
destroy her, since they have been laid upon Christ and swallowed
up in Him, and since she has in her Husband Christ a
righteousness which she may claim as her own, and which she can
set up with confidence against all her sins, against death and
hell, saying, "If I have sinned, my Christ, in whom I believe,
has not sinned; all mine is His, and all His is mine," as it is
written, "My beloved is mine, and I am His" (Cant. ii. 16). This
is what Paul says: "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ," victory over sin and death, as he
says, "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the
law" (1 Cor. xv. 56, 57).
From all this you will again understand why so much importance is
attributed to faith, so that it alone can fulfill the law and
justify without any works. For you see that the First
Commandment, which says, "Thou shalt worship one God only," is
fulfilled by faith alone. If you were nothing but good works from
the soles of your feet to the crown of your head, you would not
be worshipping God, nor fulfilling the First Commandment, since
it is impossible to worship God without ascribing to Him the
glory of truth and of universal goodness, as it ought in truth to
be ascribed. Now this is not done by works, but only by faith of
heart. It is not by working, but by believing, that we glorify
God, and confess Him to be true. On this ground faith alone is
the righteousness of a Christian man, and the fulfilling of all
the commandments. For to him who fulfils the first the task of
fulfilling all the rest is easy.
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