On Faith and Works 17–30

“But the people of Israel were first led through the Red Sea, by which baptism is signified, and afterwards received the law, in which they would learn how to live.” Why, then, do we hand on the creed to those to be baptized and require them to recite it back? For nothing of the kind was done for those whom God freed from the Egyptians through the Red Sea. But if they rightly understand that this is signified by the preceding mysteries of the blood of the lamb smeared on the doorposts and of the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, why do they not also understand, as a consequence, that the separation itself from the Egyptians signifies the departure from sins that those to be baptized profess? For to this belongs what Peter said, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” as though he said, “Depart from Egypt and cross through the Red Sea.” Hence also in the letter inscribed to the Hebrews, when the first steps of those being baptized are mentioned, repentance from dead works is placed there. For it says thus: “Therefore, leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us look to completion, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the teaching of washing, of the laying on of hands, of the resurrection of the dead too, and of eternal judgment.” Scripture testifies clearly and openly enough that all these belong to the first steps of new converts. And what is repentance from dead works but repentance from those things that must be put to death so that we may live? If adulteries and fornications are not such, what is to be named among dead works? But a profession of withdrawal from such things is not enough unless all past sins, which pursue as it were, are also blotted out by the washing of regeneration; just as it was not enough for the Israelites to depart from Egypt unless the multitude of enemies pursuing them perished in the waves of the same sea which opened for God's people to cross and be freed. How, then, will he who professes that he does not wish to change from adultery be led through the Red Sea, when he still refuses to depart from Egypt? Then they do not notice that in the law given to that people after the crossing of the Red Sea, the first commandment is: “You shall have no other gods besides me. You shall not make for yourself idols or any image of anything in heaven above or on earth below or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them,” and the rest that belongs to this commandment. So let these people affirm, if they like, against their own assertion, that the worship of one God and the avoidance of idolatry should be preached not to those still to be baptized but to those already baptized; and let them no longer say that only faith in God is to be taught to those about to receive baptism, and that after receiving that sacrament they are to be instructed about the conduct of life, as though about the second commandment, which concerns love of neighbor. For the law that the people received after the Red Sea, as after baptism, contains both; nor were the commandments so divided that before crossing that sea the people were taught to avoid idolatry, and after they crossed they heard that father and mother are to be honored, that one must not commit adultery, must not kill, and the rest of good and innocent human conduct.

If, then, someone comes to ask for the holy washing professing that he will not withdraw from sacrifices to idols except perhaps later, when he pleases, yet demands baptism here and now and begs to become a temple of the living God, being not only a worshiper of idols but even persisting in some such wicked priesthood, I ask these people whether they think he should be made even a catechumen. They will certainly cry out that this must not be done; nor should anything else be thought of their hearts. Let them give an account, then, according to the testimonies of the Scriptures which they think should be understood in their way, of how they dare to contradict this man, and to maintain that he should not be admitted, when he protests and says: “I have learned and I venerate Christ crucified; I believe that Christ Jesus is the Son of God; do not put me off any longer; ask nothing more of me. Those whom the apostle was begetting through the gospel he wanted to know nothing more at that time than Christ crucified; after the eunuch's words, in which he answered that he believed Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, Philip did not delay baptizing him at once. Why do you forbid me the worship of idols and not admit me to the sacrament of Christ before I have left it? I learned that from childhood; I am weighed down by a very heavy habit there. I will do it when I can, when it is convenient; and even if I do not do it, I will not end this life without the sacrament of Christ, lest God require my soul at your hands.” What do they think should be answered to him? Do they think he should be admitted? Far from it; I would never believe they go so far. What, then, will they answer to one who says this, and adds that nothing at all about giving up idolatry ought to have been said to him before baptism, just as that first people heard nothing about it before the Red Sea, since this is contained in the law which they received when already freed from Egypt? Surely they will say to the man: “You are to be a temple of God when you have received baptism; and the apostle says, ‘What agreement has the temple of God with idols?’” Why, then, do they not see that it must likewise be said: “You are to be a member of Christ when you have received baptism; the members of Christ cannot be the members of a prostitute”? For the apostle says this too, who says in another place: “Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters,” and the rest that he lists there, “will possess the kingdom of God.” Why, then, do we not admit idolaters to baptism, yet think the sexually immoral should be admitted, when to these and to the other wicked ones he says: “And such were some of you; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God”? What reason is there, then, when there is power to forbid both, that I should allow the sexually immoral man coming to baptism to remain so, and not allow the idolater, when I hear it said to both: “And such were some of you, but you were washed”? But these people are moved by the thought that the salvation of those who have believed in Christ and received his sacrament, that is, been baptized, is safe, though through fire, even if they are so negligent about correcting their conduct that they live wickedly. What is to be held about this according to the Scriptures I will soon examine, if God helps.

For now I am still engaged with this question, in which they think the baptized should be warned about the conduct belonging to the Christian life, but that only faith should be taught to those to be baptized. If this were so, besides the many things we have said, John the Baptist would not have said to those coming to his baptism, “Brood of vipers, who showed you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit, then, worthy of repentance,” and the rest, in which he certainly admonishes not about faith but about good works. Hence also, when soldiers said, “What shall we do?”, he did not say, “Meanwhile, believe and be baptized; afterwards you will hear what you must do”; but he said it first, he warned them first, so that, as forerunner, he might clear the way in their hearts for the Lord who was coming: “Extort from no one, accuse no one falsely, be content with your pay.” Likewise, when the tax collectors asked what they should do, he said: “Collect no more than what is appointed you.” By mentioning these briefly the evangelist (for he did not need to insert whole catechetical instructions) indicated clearly enough that it belongs to the one by whom a person to be baptized is catechized to teach and admonish about conduct. And if they had answered John, “We will certainly not bear fruits worthy of repentance; we will accuse falsely, we will extort, we will exact what is not owed us,” and he nevertheless baptized them after this profession, even so it could not be said, which is the present question, that when someone is to be baptized it is not the time for him first to be told how he ought to lead a good life.

To pass over other things, let them recall what the Lord himself answered when that rich man asked him what good he should do to obtain eternal life. “If you wish to come to life,” he said, “keep the commandments.” He said, “Which?” Then the Lord listed the commandments of the law: “You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery,” and the rest. When the man answered that he had done these from his youth, he added also the commandment of perfection: that he should sell all he had and give it in alms to the poor, so as to have treasure in heaven, and follow the same Lord. Let them see, then, that he was not told to believe and be baptized, by which help alone these people think a man comes to life, but that commandments about conduct were given to the man, which certainly cannot be kept and observed without faith. Nor, because the Lord seems here to have said nothing about teaching faith, do we lay down and contend that only commandments about conduct should be spoken to people who desire to reach life. For the two are bound to each other, as I said before, because neither can there be love of God in a man who does not love his neighbor, nor love of neighbor in one who does not love God. And so Scripture is sometimes found to mention one without the other, whichever it is, as full teaching, so that in this way too it may be understood that one cannot be without the other: because whoever believes God ought to do what God commands, and whoever does it because God commanded must believe God.

Therefore let us now look at what must be driven out of devout hearts, so that they may not lose their salvation through a bad security, thinking that faith is enough to obtain it, while neglecting to live well and to keep God's way by good works. For even in the time of the apostles, since certain somewhat obscure sayings of the apostle Paul were not understood, some thought he was saying, “Let us do evil that good may come,” because he had said, “The law came in so that trespass might abound; but where trespass abounded, grace superabounded.” This is true for this reason: people who received the law, presuming most proudly on their own strength, and not obtaining by right faith the divine help for overcoming evil desires, were burdened with more and graver trespasses, having even transgressed the law. And so, driven by great guilt, they fled to faith, by which they might merit the mercy of pardon and help from the Lord who made heaven and earth, so that, with love poured into their hearts by the Holy Spirit, they might do with love what was commanded against the desires of this world, according to what had been foretold in the psalm: “Their infirmities were multiplied; afterwards they made haste.” When, then, the apostle says that he holds that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law, he does not mean that, once faith has been received and professed, the works of righteousness may be despised, but that each should know that he can be justified by faith even if works of the law have not gone before. For they follow the one justified; they do not precede the one to be justified. There is no need to argue this at greater length in the present work, especially since I have published a long book on this question entitled On the Spirit and the Letter. Since, then, this opinion had arisen at that time, other apostolic letters, of Peter, John, James, and Jude, direct their aim against it, so as to establish forcefully that faith without works is of no profit; just as Paul himself defined not any faith whatever by which one believes in God, but that saving and plainly evangelical faith whose works proceed from love. “And faith,” he says, “which works through love.” Hence he asserts that the faith which seems to some enough for salvation is of so little profit that he says, “If I have all faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” But where faithful love works, there without doubt one lives well; for love is the fullness of the law.

Hence Peter in his second letter plainly, when he was urging holiness of life and conduct and foretelling that this world will pass away, while new heavens and a new earth are awaited, to be given to the righteous to dwell in, so that from this they might consider how they ought to live in order to become worthy of that dwelling, knowing that some wicked people had taken occasion from certain somewhat obscure sayings of the apostle Paul not to care about living well, as though secure of the salvation that is in faith, mentioned that there are some things hard to understand in his letters, which people pervert, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction; though that apostle too held the same as the other apostles about eternal salvation, which would be given only to those who live well. So Peter says: “Since all these things are thus perishing, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of the Lord, through which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved and the elements melted with the heat of fire. But according to his promises we wait for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these things, be diligent to be found by him unharmed and without blemish, in peace; and count the patience of our Lord as salvation, as our most beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of these things in all his letters, in which there are some things hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable pervert, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. You, then, most beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest, led astray by the error of the unhappy, you fall from your firmness; but grow in the grace and understanding of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and to the day of eternity.”

James, however, is so strongly opposed to those who hold that faith without works avails for salvation that he even compares them to demons, saying: “You believe that God is one? You do well; the demons also believe and tremble.” What could be said more briefly, more truly, more forcefully, since we also read in the gospel that the demons said this, when they confessed Christ as the Son of God and were rebuked by him, which was praised in Peter's confession? “What will it profit, my brothers,” says James, “if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?” He also says that faith without works is dead. How long, then, will they be deceived who promise themselves eternal life from a dead faith!

Therefore we must pay careful attention to how that saying of the apostle Paul, plainly hard to understand, is to be taken, where he says: “For no one can lay any other foundation than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. But if anyone builds on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will be made manifest. For the day will declare it, because it will be revealed in fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one's is. If anyone's work that he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward; but if anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” They think this should be understood as meaning that those seem to build gold, silver, and precious stones on this foundation who add good works to the faith that is in Christ; but those build wood, hay, and straw who, though they have the same faith, act wickedly. Hence they think that such people can be purified by certain punishments of fire so as to receive salvation on the merit of the foundation.

If this is so, we admit that these people strive with praiseworthy love for all to be admitted to baptism without distinction, not only adulterous men and women who, against the Lord's sentence, allege false marriages, but even public prostitutes persisting in their most shameful profession, whom certainly no church, even the most negligent, has been accustomed to admit unless first freed from that prostitution. But on that reasoning I do not see at all why they should not by all means be admitted. For who would not prefer that, with the foundation laid, even if they heap up wood, hay, and straw, they should be purified by a fire, certainly somewhat longer, rather than perish for ever? But then those sayings will be false which have no obscurity or ambiguity: “If I have all faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing”; and, “What will it profit, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?” This too will be false: “Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor the effeminate nor men who lie with males nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor robbers will possess the kingdom of God.” False also this: “The works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornications, impurities, licentiousness, idolatry, sorceries, enmities, strife, jealousies, fits of anger, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, carousings, and the like, of which I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God.” These will be false. For if they only believe and are baptized, though they persist in such evils, they will be saved through fire; and so those baptized in Christ, even though they do such things, will possess the kingdom of God. And it is said in vain, “Such were some of you, but you were washed,” when even after being washed they are such. That saying of Peter too will seem empty: “So baptism also, in like form, saves you, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the appeal of a good conscience,” if baptism saves even those who have the worst consciences, full of all disgraceful acts and crimes and not changed by repentance for those evils; for because of the foundation that is laid in that baptism they will be saved, though through fire. Nor do I see why the Lord said, “If you wish to come to life, keep the commandments,” and listed those that belong to good conduct, if even without keeping these one can come to life by faith alone, which without works is dead. Then how will it be true, what he will say to those whom he will set on the left: “Go into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels”? He does not rebuke them for not believing in him, but for not doing good works. For surely, so that no one may promise himself eternal life from a faith that without works is dead, he said that he would separate all nations, which, mixed together, were using the same pastures; so that it may appear that those will say to him, “Lord, when did we see you suffering this and that and did not minister to you?”, who had believed in him but had not cared to do good works, as though one could reach eternal life from that very dead faith. Or perhaps those who did not do works of mercy will go into the eternal fire, and those will not go who seized others' goods, or who, by corrupting the temple of God in themselves, were merciless to themselves? As if works of mercy were of any use without love, though the apostle says, “If I distribute all I have to the poor, but have not love, it profits me nothing”; or as if anyone loves his neighbor as himself who does not love himself. For “whoever loves iniquity,” it says, “hates his own soul.” Nor can it be said here, as some deceive themselves, that the fire is called eternal, not the punishment itself. For they think that those to whom, because of a dead faith, they promise salvation through fire will pass through a fire that will be eternal; so that, namely, the fire itself will be eternal, but their burning, that is, the working of the fire, will not be eternal against them. But the Lord, foreseeing this too, as Lord, concluded his sentence thus: “So these will go into eternal burning, but the righteous into eternal life.” The burning, then, will be eternal, like the fire; and the Truth said that those would go into it whom he declared to have lacked not faith but good works.

If, then, all these and the other innumerable things that can be found said without ambiguity throughout the Scriptures are false, that understanding of the wood, hay, and straw can be true, that those will be saved through fire who, holding only faith in Christ, have neglected good works. But if these are both true and clear, then without doubt another understanding must be sought for that saying of the apostle, and it must be counted among those things which Peter says are in his writings, some things hard to understand, which people ought not to pervert to their own destruction, so as, against the most evident testimonies of the Scriptures, to make the most wicked secure of receiving salvation, though they cling most stubbornly to their wickedness and are not changed by amendment or repentance.

Here perhaps I may be asked what I myself think about this saying of the apostle Paul and how I think it should be understood. I confess that on this I would rather hear those more intelligent and learned, who would explain it so that all those things remain true and unshaken which I have mentioned above, and whatever others I have not mentioned, by which Scripture testifies most plainly that faith is of no profit except that which the apostle defined, that is, which works through love; and that without works it cannot save, either apart from fire or through fire, because if it saves through fire, it is certainly faith that saves. But it is said absolutely and openly: “What does it profit if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?” Yet I will say, as briefly as I can, what I myself think about that saying of the apostle Paul, which is hard to understand; provided that what belongs to my profession is chiefly kept in mind, namely that I said I would rather hear better men on it. Christ is the foundation in the building of the wise architect. This needs no explanation, for it is said openly: “For no one can lay any other foundation than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.” But if Christ, then without doubt faith in Christ; for Christ dwells in our hearts through faith, as the same apostle says. And if faith in Christ, then certainly that faith which the apostle defined, which works through love. For the faith of the demons, since they too believe and tremble and confess Jesus as the Son of God, cannot be taken as the foundation. Why? Only because it is not the faith that works through love, but the faith that is wrung out by fear. So the faith of Christ, the faith of Christian grace, that is, the faith that works through love, laid as the foundation, allows no one to perish. But what it is to build on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, and wood, hay, straw, I fear that, if I try to discuss it too subtly, the explanation itself may be harder to understand; yet I will strive, as far as the Lord helps, to set out what I think briefly and as clearly as I can. Look: that man who asked the good master what he should do to have eternal life, and heard that, if he wished to come to life, he must keep the commandments, and, when he asked which commandments, was told, “You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother,” and, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”: if he did these things in the faith of Christ, he would without doubt hold the faith that works through love. For he would not love his neighbor as himself unless he had received the love of God, without which he would not love himself. And further, if he did what the Lord also added, saying, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me,” he would be building on that foundation gold, silver, precious stones; for he would think of nothing but the things of God, how to please God. And these thoughts are, I think, gold, silver, precious stones. But if he were held by a certain carnal affection for his riches, even though he gave much alms from them and did not contrive any fraud or robbery to increase them, nor, from fear of their diminution or loss, fall into some crime or disgraceful act (otherwise he would in that way withdraw himself from the stability of that foundation), but, because of the carnal affection, as I said, that he had for them, by which he could not do without such goods without pain, he would be building on that foundation wood, hay, straw; especially if he also had a wife in such a way that on her account too he thought of the things of the world, how to please his wife. Since, then, these things, loved with carnal affection, are not lost without pain, those who have them in such a way that they have as their foundation the faith that works through love, and do not for any reason or desire put these things before it, suffer loss in losing them and arrive at salvation through a kind of fire of pain. And each is the more secure from this pain and loss the less he has loved these things, or the more he has had them as though not having them. But whoever, to keep or obtain them, has committed murder, adultery, fornication, idolatry, and the like, will not be saved through fire because of the foundation, but, having lost the foundation, will be tormented in eternal fire.

Therefore, as for what they say, as if wanting to prove how much faith alone avails, where the apostle says, “But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; for a brother or sister is not subject to bondage in such cases” (that is, that for the faith of Christ a lawfully joined wife may be left without any fault, if she refuses to remain with a Christian husband because he is a Christian): they do not notice that she is quite rightly let go in this way if she says to her husband, “I will not be your wife unless you heap up riches for me even by robbery, or unless, even as a Christian, you carry on the pimping you used to carry on, by which you supported our house,” or anything else criminal or disgraceful that she knew in her husband, in which she took pleasure, and by which she either satisfied her lust, or had an easy living, or even walked about better dressed. For then he to whom his wife says this, if he truly repented of dead works when he came to baptism and has as his foundation the faith that works through love, will without doubt be held more by love of divine grace than of his wife's flesh, and will bravely cut off the member that causes him to stumble. But whatever pain of heart he endures in this separation because of carnal affection for his wife, this is the loss he will suffer, this is the fire through which, as the hay burns, he himself will be saved. But if he already had his wife as though not having her, not for lust but for compassion, in case perhaps he might save her, rendering rather than demanding the marriage debt, he will surely not grieve carnally when such a marriage is separated from him; for in her he thought of nothing but the things of God, how to please God. And so, to the extent that he was building gold, silver, precious stones on those thoughts, to that extent he would suffer no loss, to that extent his building, which was not of hay, would be burned by no fire.

Whether, then, people suffer these things only in this life, or whether some such judgments follow even after this life, this understanding of the saying is not, I think, out of keeping with the account of truth. Yet if there is another which does not occur to me, it should rather be chosen. As long as we hold this one, we are not forced to say to the unrighteous, the insubordinate, the wicked, the defiled, parricides, matricides, murderers, the sexually immoral, men who lie with males, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, which is according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God: “If you only believe in Christ and receive the sacrament of his baptism, you will be saved even if you do not change this very evil life.”

Hence that Canaanite woman does not set a precedent against us either, because the Lord gave her what she asked after he had said, “It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs”; for he, the searcher of hearts, saw that she had changed when he praised her. And so he did not say, “O dog, great is your faith!” but, “O woman, great is your faith!” He changed the word because he saw that her disposition had changed and knew that that rebuke had reached its fruit. I would be surprised if he praised in her faith without works, that is, a faith not such as could already work through love, a dead faith, and, what James did not hesitate at all to say, the faith not of Christians but of demons. Finally, if they will not understand that this Canaanite woman changed her corrupt ways when Christ refuted her by scorning and rebuking her, then let them heal the children, if they can, of all those whom they find merely believing, while not even hiding a most defiled life, but openly professing it and refusing to change, as the daughter of the Canaanite woman was healed; but let them not make them members of Christ, while they do not cease to be members of a prostitute. They do indeed understand, not absurdly, that one sins against the Holy Spirit and is guilty of eternal sin without pardon who refuses until the end of life to believe in Christ; but they should understand rightly what it is to believe in Christ. For this is not to have the faith of demons, which is rightly called dead, but the faith that works through love.