3. To express my meaning a little more at large. I believe, three things must go together in our justification: upon God’s part, his great mercy and grace; upon Christ’s part, the satisfaction of God’s justice, by the offering his body and shedding his blood, and upon our part, true and living faith in the merits of Jesus Christ. So that in our justification there is not only God’s mercy and grace, but his justice also. And so the grace of God does not shut out the righteousness of God in our justification, but only shuts out the righteousness of man, that is, the righteousness of our works.
4. And therefore St. _Paul_ requires nothing on the part of man, but _only a true and living faith_. Yet this faith does not shut out repentance, hope, and love, which are joined with faith in every man that is justified. But it shuts them out from the office of justifying. So that although they are all present together in him that is justified, yet they justify not all together.
5. Neither does faith shut out good works, necessarily to be done afterwards. But _we may not do them to this intent, to be justified by doing them_. Our justification comes freely, of the mere mercy of God: for whereas all the world was not able to pay any part towards their ransom, it pleased him, without any of our deserving, to prepare for us Christ’s body and blood, whereby our ransom might be paid, _and his justice satisfied_. Christ therefore is now the righteousness of all them that truly believe in him.
6. But let it be observed, the true sense of those words, _We are justified by faith in Christ only_, is not, that this our own act, _To believe in Christ_, or this our faith which is within us, justifies us, (for that were, to account ourselves to be justified by some act or virtue that is within us) but that although we have faith, hope and love within us, and do never so many good works, yet we must renounce the merit of all, of faith, hope, love, and all other virtues and good works, which we either have done, shall do, or can do, as far too weak to deserve our justification: for which therefore we must trust only in God’s mercy, and the merits of Christ. For it is he alone that taketh away our sins. To him alone are we to go for this; forsaking all our virtues, good words, thoughts and works, and putting our trust in Christ only.
7. In strictness therefore, neither our faith nor our works justify us, _i. e._ deserve the remission of our sins. But God himself justifies us, of his own mercy, through the merits of his Son only. Nevertheless, because by faith we embrace the promise of God’s mercy and of the remission of our sins, therefore the scripture says, That _faith does justify_, yea, _faith without works_. And it is all one to say, _Faith without works_, and _faith alone justifies us_, therefore the antient fathers from time to time speak thus: _Faith alone justifies us_. And because we receive faith, through the only merits of Christ, and not through the merit and virtue we have, or work we do; therefore in that respect we renounce, as it were, again, faith, works, and all other virtues. For our corruption through original sin is so great, that all our faith, charity, words and works, cannot merit or deserve any part of our justification for us. And therefore we thus speak, humbling ourselves before God, and giving Christ all the glory of our justification.
8. But it should also be observed, what that faith is, whereby we are justified. Now that faith which brings not forth good works, is not a living faith, but a dead and devilish one. For even the devils believe, “That Christ was born of a virgin, that he wrought all kind of miracles, declaring himself to be very God, that for our sakes he died and rose again, and ascended into heaven, and at the end of the world shall come again, to judge the quick and the dead.” This the devils believe, and so they believe all that is written in the Old and New Testament. And yet still, for all this faith, they are but devils. They remain still in their damnable estate, lacking the true Christian faith.
9. The true Christian faith is, not only to believe the holy scriptures and the articles of our faith are true; but also, to have _a sure trust and confidence to be saved from everlasting damnation by Christ_, whereof doth follow a loving heart, to obey his commandments. And this faith neither any devil hath, nor any wicked man. No ungodly man hath or can have this _sure trust and confidence in God, that by the merits of Christ his sins are forgiven and he reconciled to the favour of God_.