Sect. 6. — Holiness and good works attained to only by faith.
Sect. 6. — Holiness and good works attained to only by faith.
Neo. Truly sir, for my own part, I greatly marvel that my friend Antinomista should be so confident of his faith in Christ, and yet have so little regard for holiness of life, and keeping Christ’s commandments, as it seems he has. For I give the Lord thanks that now, in some small measure, I believe that I am freely and fully justified and acquitted from all my sins by Christ, and therefore I have no need either to avoid evil for fear of punishment, or to do good for hope of reward. And yet I think that I find my heart is more willing and desirous to do what the Lord commands, and to avoid what he forbids, than it ever was before I believed this way. Surely sir, I perceive that faith in Christ is not a hinderance to holiness of life, as I once thought it was.
Evan. Neighbour Neophytus, if our friend Antinomista contents himself with mere gospel knowledge, in a notionary way, and has run to fetch notions from Christ, and yet is not fetched by the power of Christ, then let us pity him and pray for him. And in the meantime, I beg you to know that true faith in Christ is so far from being a hinderance to holiness of life and good works, that it is the only way to further it. For only by faith in Christ is a man enabled to exercise all Christian graces rightly, and to perform all Christian duties rightly, which before he could not do. For example, before a man believes God’s love to him in Christ, he may have a kind of love to God as he is his Creator and Preserver, the one who gives him many good things for this present life. Yet if God opens his eyes to see what condition his soul is in — that is, if God lets him see the relation that exists between God and him according to the tenor of the Covenant of Works — then he will conceive of God as an angry Judge, armed with justice against him; and he will conceive that God must be pacified by the works of the law, to which he finds his nature opposite and contrary. Therefore he hates both God and his law, and he secretly wishes and desires there were neither God nor law. And even if God were now to give him ever so many temporal blessings, he could not love him; for what malefactor could love that judge or his law, from whom he expected the sentence of condemnation, even though he lets him feast at his table with ever so many delicacies? “But when the kindness and love of God his Saviour appeared, not by works of righteousness he has done, but according to his mercy, he saved him,” Titus 3.4, 5. That is, when by the eye of faith, he sees himself standing in relation to God according to the tenor of the Covenant of Grace, then he conceives of God as a most merciful and loving Father to him in Christ; he conceives that God has freely pardoned and forgiven him all his sins, and completely released him from the Covenant of Works. And by this means, “the love of God is shed abroad in his heart, through the Holy Ghost which is given to him,” Rom. 5.5; and then “he loves God because God first loved him,” 1John 4.19. For as a man sees and feels by faith the love and favour of God towards him in Christ his Son, so in return he loves both God and his law; and indeed it is impossible for any man to love God, till by faith he knows that he is beloved of God.
Secondly, Though before a man believes God’s love to him in Christ, he may have a great measure of legal humiliation, compunction, sorrow, and grief, and may be brought down, as it were, to the very gate of hell, and feel the very flashing of hell-fire in his conscience for his sins, yet it is not because he has offended God by it —rather, it is because he has thereby offended himself: that is, because he has brought himself into the danger of eternal death and condemnation by it. But once he believes the love of God to him in Christ, in pardoning his iniquity and passing by his transgressions, then he sorrows and grieves for offending God by his sin. He reasons like this with himself: “And is it so indeed? Has the Lord given his own Son to death for you, who have been such a vile sinful wretch? And has Christ borne all your sins? And was he wounded for your transgressions?” Oh then is the working of his inner being, the stirring of his affections, the melting and relenting of his repenting heart!
“Then he remembers his own evil ways, and his doings that were not good, and he loathes himself in his own eyes for all his abominations;” Ezek. 36.31; and looking upon Christ, “whom he has pierced, he mourns bitterly for him, as one mourns for his only son,” Zech. 12.10. Thus, when faith has bathed a man’s heart in the blood of Christ, it is so mollified that it quickly dissolves into tears of godly sorrow; so that if Christ but turns and looks at him, oh then, with Peter, he goes out and weeps bitterly! Luk 22.61-62 And this is true gospel-mourning; and this is right evangelical repenting.
Thirdly, Though before a man truly believes in Christ, he may so reform his life and amend his ways, that as touching “the righteousness which is of the law,”Rom 10.5 he may be blameless, as it was with the apostle Paul, Philip. 3.6. Yet, being under the Covenant of Works, all the obedience that he yields to the law, all his quitting of sin, and his performance of duties, all his avoiding what the law forbids, and all his doing what the law commands, is begotten by the Law of Works; it is of Hagar the bond-woman, by the force of self-love. And so, indeed, these are the fruit and works of a bond-servant who is moved and constrained to do all that he does, for fear of punishment and hope of reward. “ For,” says Luther, on the Galatians, p. 218, “the law given on Mount Sinai, which the Arabians call Agar, begets none but servants.” And so indeed, all that such a man does is but hypocrisy; for he pretends serving God; whereas, indeed, he intends to serve himself. And how can he do otherwise? For while he lacks faith, he lacks all things. He is an empty vine, and therefore he must bring forth fruit for himself, Hosea 10.1. Till a man is served himself, he will not serve the Lord Christ. No, while he lacks faith, he lacks the love of Christ, and therefore he does not live to Christ but to himself, because he loves himself. And hence, surely, we may conceive of it as Dr. Preston does: “All that a man does, not out of love, is out of hypocrisy. Wherever love is not, there is nothing but hypocrisy in such a man’s heart.”
But when a man, through the “hearing of faith, receives the Spirit of Christ,” Gal. 3.2, that Spirit, according to the measure of faith,Rom 12.3 writes the lively law of love in his heart (as Tyndale sweetly says), whereby he is enabled to work freely and of his own accord, without the co-action or compulsion of the law.
For that love with which Christ, or God in Christ, has loved him, and which he apprehends by faith, will constrain him to do so, according to those words of the apostle in 2Cor. 5.14, “The love of Christ constrains us.” That is, it will make him do so, whether he wills it or not; he cannot help but choose to do it. I tell you truly, according to the love of Christ shed abroad in the heart of any man, it is such a strong impulsion, that it carries him on to serve and please the Lord in all things, according to the saying of an evangelical man:
“The will and affection of a believer, according to the measure of faith and the spirit received, sweetly quickens and bends to choose, affect, and delight in whatever is good and acceptable to God, or to a good man — the Spirit freely and cheerfully moves and inclines him to keep the law, without fear of hell or hope of heaven.” For a Christian man, says sweet Tyndale, works only because it is the will of his Father; for after he is overcome with love and kindness, he seeks to do the will of God, which is indeed a Christian man’s nature. And what he does, he does freely after the example of Christ. As a natural son, ask him why he does such a thing. ‘Why,’ he says, ‘it is the will of my Father, and I do it so that I may please him.’ For, indeed, love desires no wages; it is wages enough to itself; it has sweetness enough in itself; it desires no addition; it pays its own wages. And therefore it is the true child-like obedience, begotten by faith, of Sarah the free-woman, by the force of God’s love. And so it is indeed the only true and sincere obedience. For, as Dr. Preston says, “To do a thing in love, is to do it in sincerity; and indeed, there is no other definition of sincerity; that is the best way to know it by.”