rks good.

Since then works justify no man, but a man must be justified before he
can do any good work, it is most evident that it is faith alone which,
by the mere mercy of God through Christ, and by means of His word,
can worthily and sufficiently justify and save the person; and that a
Christian man needs no work, no law, for his salvation; for by faith he
is free from all law, and in perfect freedom does gratuitously all that
he does, seeking nothing either of profit or of salvation--since by
the grace of God he is already saved and rich in all things through his
faith--but solely that which is well-pleasing to God.

So, too, no good work can profit an unbeliever to justification and
salvation; and, on the other hand, no evil work makes him an evil and
condemned person, but that unbelief, which makes the person and the tree
bad, makes his works evil and condemned. Wherefore, when any man is made
good or bad, this does not arise from his works, but from his faith or
unbelief, as the wise man says, "The beginning of sin is to fall away
from God"; that is, not to believe. Paul says, "He that cometh to God
must believe" (Heb. xi. 6); and Christ says the same thing: "Either make
the tree good and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and
his fruit corrupt" (Matt. xii. 33),--as much as to say, He who wishes to
have good fruit will begin with the tree, and plant a good one; even
so he who wishes to do good works must begin, not by working, but by
believing, since it is this which makes the person good. For nothing
makes the person good but faith, nor bad but unbelief.

It is certainly true that, in the sight of men, a man becomes good or
evil by his works; but here "becoming" means that it is thus shown and
recognised who is good or evil, as Christ says, "By their fruits ye
shall know them" (Matt. vii. 20). But all this stops at appearances and
externals; and in this matter very many deceive themselves, when they
presume to write and teach that we are to be justified by good works,
and meanwhile make no mention even of faith, walking in their own ways,
ever deceived and deceiving, going from bad to worse, blind leaders of
the blind, wearying themselves with many works, and yet never attaining
to true righteousness, of whom Paul says, "Having a form of godliness,
but denying the power thereof, ever learning and never able to come to
the knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. iii. 5, 7).

He then who does not wish to go