57. I foresee that many people who are now steeped in the absurdities of this faith are going to say, “How can the intellect grasp theological teachings at all? Isn’t something spiritual a thing that is by definition transcendent? Go ahead, though, and see if you can open up the mysteries of redemption and justification so that human reason may see them and finally satisfy its curiosity!”

Anticipating this challenge, I will indeed open up these mysteries, as follows.

As everyone surely knows, there is one God; there is no God other than him. God is love itself and wisdom itself, or goodness itself and truth itself. God himself came down in the form of divine truth, which is the Word, and took on a human manifestation for the purpose of removing the hells, and therefore damnation, from the human race. He accomplished this through battles with and victories over the Devil, that is, over all the hells that were then attacking and trying to spiritually kill every person who came into the world. Afterward he glorified his human manifestation; he did this by uniting divine truth to divine goodness within himself. In this way he returned to the Father from whom he had come forth.

Once we realize this, we understand the following statement in John: “The Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh” (John 1:1, 14). And in the same Gospel, “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father” (John 16:28). From the points just made it should also be clear that if the Lord had not come into the world, no one could have been saved, and that the people who are saved are the people who believe in him and live good lives.

This is the face of faith. It appears before our [inner] sight when we have allowed the Word to bring us into the light of day. It is the face of the faith of the new church. (See the faith of the new heaven and the new church in universal form and in a specific form below, §§116, 117.)

14. Teachings from the Formula of Concord on merit:

(a) It is false that we merit the forgiveness of sins through our works. It is false that we are counted righteous because of the righteousness of our reason. It is false that reason by its own powers is able to love God above all things and to fulfill God’s law (page 64).

(b) Faith does not make people righteous because it is such a good work or such a fine virtue, but because it lays hold of and accepts the merit of Christ in the promise of the holy gospel (pages 76, 684).

(c) The promise of the forgiveness of sins and of being made righteous on account of Christ is not conditional upon our merits; it is offered for free (page 67).

(d) We sinful people are justified before God, that is, absolved of our sins and of the judgment of damnation that we deserve, and we are accepted as children and heirs of God, without the least bit of our own merit, apart from all preceding, present, or subsequent works that we do. We are justified on the basis of sheer grace, because of the sole merit of Christ, which is reckoned to us as righteousness (page 684).

(e) Good works follow faith, forgiveness of sins, and regeneration. Whatever in these works is still sinful or imperfect should not even be counted as sin or imperfection, precisely for the sake of this same Christ. Instead, we should be called, and should be, completely righteous and holy — both we ourselves and the works we do — by the pure grace and mercy that have been poured and spread over us in Christ. Therefore we cannot boast about our merit (pages 74, 92, 93, 336).

(f) Those who trust that they merit grace by works despise the merit and grace of Christ and seek a way to heaven through human powers alone without Christ (pages 16, 17, 18, 19).

(g) If people want to mix good works up with the article on justification and want to merit God’s grace through them, works are not only useless for such people but even harmful (page 708).

(h) The works of the Ten Commandments are listed, and many other things that must be done; God honors these works with rewards (pages 176, 198).

(i) We concede that works are truly meritorious, but not for the forgiveness of sins, for grace, or for justification. Works are meritorious for other bodily and spiritual rewards, which are bestowed both in this life and in the life to come. According to the passage in Paul, “Each will receive wages according to the labor of each”; and Christ says, “Your reward will be great in heaven.” Christ often says that he will repay according to each one’s deeds. We confess, therefore, that eternal life is a reward, because it is owed to the justified on account of the promise, and because God crowns his gifts, but not because of our merit (pages 96, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138).

(j) Good works in believers are an indication of their eternal salvation when these are done for the right reasons and the right purposes (that is, in the way God demands the reborn to do them). God the Father holds these works as well received and pleasing for Christ’s sake and promises a glorious reward for them in this life and in the life to come (page 708).

(k) Although good works deserve rewards, nevertheless neither by merit of fitness nor by merit of agreement do they earn us forgiveness of sins or the glory of eternal life (pages 96, 135, 139 and following; appendix, page 174).

(l) In the Last Judgment, Christ is going to hand down a sentence regarding which works were good or evil depending on whether those works were the genuine result of, and are evidence for, people’s faith (page 134; appendix, page 187).

(m) God does reward good works, but it is because of his grace that he crowns them, since they were actually gifts from him (Belgic Confession [24]).