15. Ibid., 3:410 – 13.
The Gospel According to Historic Christianity
groping about for faith and searching for good works, but knows neither what faith is nor what good works are. Nevertheless, he keeps on talking nonsense about faith and good works.
. . . It is impossible, indeed, to separate works from faith, just as it is impossible to separate heat and light from fire.12
Philip Melanchthon, an associate of Luther and another leading Reformer, wrote:
It must be obvious that if conversion to God does not happen, and the heart continues in sin against conscience, that there is no true faith that desires or receives forgiveness of sins. Th e Holy Spirit is not in a heart in which there is no fear of God, but instead a continuing defi ance. As clearly expressed, I Corinthians 6:9f., "Whores, adulterers, etc., will not inherit the kingdom of heaven."13
Virtually all the creeds that came out of the Reformation identified good works as the inevitable expression of saving faith. The Augsburg Confession of 1530 said:
Moreover, ours teach that it is necessary to do good works; not that we may trust that we deserve grace by them, but because it is the will of God that we should do them. By faith alone is apprehended remission of sins and grace. And because the Holy Spirit is received by faith, our hearts are now renewed, and so put on new aff ections, so that they are able to bring forth good works. For thus saith Ambrose: "Faith is the begetter of a good will and of good actions."14
The Belgic Confession of 1561 reads:
We believe that this true faith, being wrought in man by the hearing of the Word of God and the operation of the Holy Ghost, doth regenerate and make him a new man, causing him to live a new life, and freeing him from the bondage of sin. Th erefore it is so far from being true, that this justifying faith makes men remiss in a pious and holy life, that on the contrary without it they would never do any thing out of love to God, but only out of self-love or fear of damnation. Th erefore it is impossible that this holy faith can be unfruitful in man.15
12. Ibid., 23 – 24. 13. Clyde L. Manschreck, ed. and trans., Melancthon on Chris tian Doctrine (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1965), 182. 14. Phillip Schaff , ed., Creeds of Christendom, 3 vols. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1977), 3:24 – 25. 15. Ibid., 3:410 – 13.