3. Does then the good Shepherd seek and save only those that are found already? No. He seeks and saves that which is lost. He pardons those who _need_ his pardoning mercy. He saves from the guilt of sin (and at the same time from the power) sinners of every kind, of every degree: men who till then were altogether ungodly; in whom the love of the Father was not; and consequently, in whom dwelt no good thing, no good or truly Christian temper: but all such as were evil and abominable, pride, anger, love, of the world, the genuine fruits of that _carnal mind, which is enmity against God_.
4. These _who are sick, the burden of whose sins is intolerable_, are they that _need a physician_; these who are guilty, who groan under the wrath of God, are they that need a pardon. These who are _condemned already_, not only by God, but also by their own conscience, as by a thousand witnesses, of all their ungodliness, both in thought and word and work, cry aloud for him that _justifieth the ungodly, through the redemption that is in Jesus: the ungodly and him that worketh not_; that worketh not before he is justified; any thing that is good, that is truly virtuous or holy, but only evil continually. For his heart is necessarily, essentially evil, till the love of God is shed abroad therein. And while the tree is corrupt, so are the fruits; _for an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit_.
5. If it be objected, “Nay, but a man, before he is justified, may feed the hungry, or clothe the naked; and these are good works:” the answer is easy. He _may_ do these, even before he is justified. And these are, in one sense, _good works_; they are _good and profitable to men_. But it does not follow, that they are, strictly speaking, good in themselves, or good in the sight of God. All truly _good works_ (to use the words of our church) _follow after justification_. And they are therefore good and _acceptable to God in Christ_, because they _spring out of a true and living faith_. By a parity of reason, all _works done before justification, are not_ good, in the Christian sense, _forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ_ (tho’ from some kind of faith in God they may spring) _yea rather, for that they are not done, as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not_ (how strange soever it may appear to some) _but they have the nature of sin_.
6. Perhaps those who doubt of this, have not duly considered the weighty reason which is here assign’d, why no works done before justification, can be truly and properly good. The argument plainly runs thus:
No works are good which are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done:
But no works done before justification are done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done:
Therefore no works done before justification are good.
The first proposition is self-evident. And the second, that no works done before justification, are done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, will appear equally plain and undeniable, if we only consider God hath willed and commanded, that _all our works_ should _be done in charity_, (ἐν ἀγάπη) in love, in that love to God, which produces love to all mankind. But none of our works can be done in this love, while the love of the Father (of God as our Father) is not in us. And this love cannot be in us, till we receive the _Spirit of adoption, crying in our hearts, Abba, Father_. If therefore God doth not _justify the ungodly_, and him that (in this sense) _worketh not_, then hath Christ died in vain; then notwithstanding his death, can no flesh living be justified.
IV. 1. But on what terms then is he justified, who is altogether _ungodly_, and till that time, _worketh not_? On one alone, which is faith. He _believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly_. And _he that believeth is not condemned_: Yea, he _is passed from death unto life_. For _the righteousness_ (or mercy) _of God is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe:――Whom God hath set forth for a propitiation, through faith in his blood: that he might be just, and_ (consistently with his justice) _the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus: therefore we conclude, that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law_: without previous obedience to the moral law, which indeed he could not till now perform. That it is the moral law, and that alone which is here intended, appears evidently from the words that follow. _Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law._ What law do we establish by faith? Not the ritual law: not the ceremonial law of _Moses_. In no wise; but the great unchangeable law of love, the holy love of God and of our neighbour.