Faith Alone

Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. ROMANS 3:28

When Luther translated Romans into German at the Wartburg, he came to Paul’s great conclusion in the third chapter — that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law — and added a word. In his German the verse says that a man is justified by faith alone. His enemies pounced: he had tampered with Scripture. Luther replied, in a lively little book of 1530 on translating, that the word alone was not in the Greek, but the sense was, and that a German who wished to say what Paul said would have to put it in. Whatever one thinks of the translation, the word stuck. Faith alone became the banner of the Reformation.

What faith is

It matters enormously what Luther meant by faith, because the phrase is easily misheard. He did not mean believing that certain facts are true. He was blunt about that. Preaching on the birth of Christ, he says that merely believing the history is worth nothing, for even the damned believe it. True faith, he says, is this:

“The right and gracious faith which God demands is, that you firmly believe that Christ is born for you, and that this birth took place for your welfare.”

Faith, for Luther, is trust. It is the heart’s leaning its whole weight on Christ and His promise. It is the empty hand that receives what God gives. That is why faith does not compete with grace as a kind of work of our own. Faith contributes nothing except its emptiness. It is simply the way a beggar takes bread.

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. ROMANS 4:5

Notice the startling phrase in that verse: him that justifieth the ungodly. God does not justify people once they have become godly. He justifies the ungodly, and godliness follows. Luther never tired of this. In The Freedom of a Christian he compares faith to a wedding ring: in the marriage of the soul to Christ, all that is the soul’s — its sin, its death, its damnation — becomes Christ’s, and all that is Christ’s — His righteousness, life and salvation — becomes the soul’s. He called it a happy exchange.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. EPHESIANS 2:8–9

Why alone?

Why did Luther insist on the word alone? Because anything added to faith as a condition of our acceptance destroys it. If I am justified by faith plus my sorrow, I must ask whether my sorrow is deep enough. If by faith plus my love, whether my love is pure enough. If by faith plus my good works, whether I have done enough. Every addition sends the conscience back into the anxious self-examination from which the gospel came to rescue it. Luther had lived there for years. He knew there was no floor to it.

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. GALATIANS 2:16

So faith alone is not a narrow slogan. It is a pastoral mercy. It says to the trembling conscience: your standing with God does not rest on anything in you, not even on the strength of your faith, but on Christ, whom faith receives. Weak faith holding a strong Christ is saved as surely as strong faith.

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ROMANS 5:1

Faith that works

But Luther was just as clear that faith alone is never alone. The faith that justifies is a living thing, and it cannot help but love. In his preface to Romans, written in 1522, he describes faith as a lively, busy, active power that does good works before anyone has asked whether it ought to — the very words that, read aloud in a London meeting-room in 1738, warmed the heart of John Wesley. In his sermon on the appearing of the grace of God, he puts it in a single line:

“He is not idle; for faith is never inactive.”

The order matters. Good works do not make a person good; a good person does good works. A tree does not become good by bearing fruit; it bears fruit because it is good. In his sermon on Paul’s praise of love, Luther turns this into a firm rule against those who said faith needs love to complete it:

“Justification of necessity precedes love. One does not love until he has become godly and righteous. Love does not make us godly, but when one has become godly love is the result.”

For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. GALATIANS 5:6

An honest qualification

Luther’s zeal for faith alone sometimes carried him too far in his judgement of other parts of Scripture. In the preface to his New Testament of 1522 he called the Epistle of James an epistle of straw compared with the letters that preach Christ most clearly, because he thought it set works against faith. He was wrong about James, and later editions of his preface quietly dropped the phrase. James is not opposed to Paul. He is opposing a dead faith that says the words and does nothing, which is exactly what Luther opposed too.

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. JAMES 2:17

Paul and James use the word justify in different ways, and they are fighting different enemies. Paul is fighting those who would add works to faith as the ground of acceptance; James is fighting those who would use faith as an excuse for doing nothing. Luther’s own sermons, full of the love of neighbour, show that at his best he knew this. We need both apostles. The faith that justifies is the faith that works.

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. GALATIANS 2:20

That last verse was one of Luther’s favourites, and he loved its final words most of all: who loved me, and gave himself for me. It is faith alone that can say them. And it is faith alone that, having said them, goes out gladly to love.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Finish the sentence honestly: “God accepts me because …” If anything other than Christ creeps in, cross it out and write His name.

2. Notice whether you treat your faith as a work — worrying whether it is strong enough. Turn your attention from your faith to its object.

3. Read Luther’s picture of the happy exchange and list what Christ has taken from you and what He has given you.

4. Choose one practical act of love for a neighbour this week, done not to earn anything but because you have already received everything.

5. Read the second chapter of James alongside Romans 4, and thank God that both apostles are in your Bible.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, I come to You with empty hands, for I have nothing to bring but my need.

Thank You that You justify the ungodly, and that my standing before the Father rests on You and not on me.

Where my faith is weak, hold me fast; where I am tempted to add my works to Your grace, humble me.

And let the faith You give me be busy in love, so that my neighbour may taste the kindness You have shown to me. Amen.