Sect. 8. — The evil of Legalism.
Sect. 8. — The evil of Legalism.
Nom. But, sir, if seeking justification by the works of the law is an error, yet it seems that, by Luther’s own confession, it is but an error on the right hand.
Evan. Yet I tell you, it is such an error that, by the apostle Paul’s own confession, so far as any man is guilty of it, he makes his services his saviours, and he rejects the grace of God; he makes the death of Christ of no effect, and he perverts the Lord’s intention, both in giving the law and in giving the gospel; and he keeps himself under the curse of the law, and makes himself the son of a bondwoman, a servant, yes, and a slave; and he hinders himself in the course of well-doing, Gal. 5.4; 3.19; 1.6, 7; 3.10; 4.25; 5.7, and 2.11. In short, he seeks an impossible thing, and so he loses all his labour.
Nom. Why then, sir, it would seem that all my seeking to please God by my good works, all my strict walking according to the law, and all my honest course of life, has done me hurt rather than good?
Evan. The apostle says that “without faith it is impossible to please God,” Heb. 11.6; that is, says Calvin (Instit. p. 370) “Whatever a man thinks, purposes, or does, before he is reconciled to God by faith in Christ, it is accursed; it is not only of no value to righteousness, but is certainly deserving of damnation.” Luther says on Galatians, p. 63, “Whoever seeks to please God with works going before faith, seeks to please God with sin; which is nothing else but to heap sin upon sin, to mock God, and to provoke him to wrath.” Indeed, says Luther (p. 23), “if you are without Christ, your wisdom is double foolishness; your righteousness is double sin and iniquity.” And, therefore, though you have walked very strictly according to the law, and led an honest life, yet if you have rested and put your confidence in it, and thus come short of Christ, then it has indeed done you hurt rather than good. For, says a godly writer, a virtuous life according to the light of nature, turns a man further from God, if he does not add to it the effectual working of his Spirit. And, says Luther, “for those who have regard only for an honest life, it would be better for them to be adulterers and adulteresses, and to wallow in the mire.” And surely it is for this reason that our Saviour tells the strict Scribes and Pharisees, who sought justification by works, and rejected Christ, that “publicans and harlots would enter the kingdom of God before them,” Mat. 21.31. And it was for this reason that I said, “For all I know, my neighbour Neophytus might be in Christ before you.”
Nom. But how can that be when, as you know, he has confessed that he is ignorant and full of corruption, and comes far short of me in gifts and graces?
Evan. Because, just as the Pharisee had more to do before he could come to Christ than the publican had, so I conceive you have more to do than he has.
Nom. Why, sir, I ask you, what must I do, or what would you advise me to do? For truly I would be content to be ruled by you.
Evan. Why, what you must do before you can come to Christ, is to undo all that you have ever done already.
That is to say, whereas you endeavoured to travel toward heaven by way of the Covenant of Works, and thus have gone the wrong way, you must go all the way back again, before you can tread one step in the right way. And whereas you attempted to build up the ruins of old Adam, and build upon yourself, like a foolish builder, building a tottering house on the sand — you must tear down and utterly demolish that entire building, and not leave a stone upon another, before you can begin to build anew. And whereas you conceived that there is some sufficiency in yourself to help to justify and save yourself, you must conclude in that case, that there is not only an insufficiency in you, but also a non-sufficiency. Indeed that sufficiency which seemed to be in you, is to your loss. In plain terms, you must deny yourself, as our Saviour says in Mat. 16.24. That is, “you must utterly renounce all that you ever are, and all that you have ever done;” all your knowledge and gifts; all your hearing, reading, praying, fasting, weeping, and mourning; all your wandering in the way of works, and strict walking — all these must fall to the ground in a moment. In short, whatever you have counted gain in the case of your justification, you must now, with the apostle Paul in Philip. 3.7-9, “count as loss for Christ,” and judge it to be “dung, that you may win Christ, and be found in him, not having your own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”