Saving faith is never without good works, . Indeed, it is itself a most excellent virtue, by which God is supremely glorified as the Lord of love, who because of His grace in Christ Jesus receives and absolves penitent sinners, . But though faith is itself a most precious work1 and the unfailing source of constant good works, it does not save as a good work or as the source of good works, but solely as the means (medium ληπτικόν), by which the believer apprehends the grace of God and the merits of Christ which are offered to him in the Gospel. Again, although faith is an act of both the intellect and the will of man, — for not the Holy Ghost, but the believer himself trusts in the mercy of God, — yet it does not justify inasmuch as it is an act or work of man.
These two truths are of the greatest importance for the right understanding of the Christian doctrine of salvation by faith (sola fide). Our dogmaticians have embodied them in the statement:
“Faith does not justify in itself2, that is, as an act or habit of believing, nor through the works which it produces, but in view of its object, namely, because it apprehends the grace secured by Christ and offered in the Gospel.”
Hollaz writes:
“Justifying faith is the receptive organ and, as it were, the hand of the poor sinner by which he applies and takes to himself, lays hold of, and possesses, those things which are proffered in the free promise of the Gospel. God, the supreme Monarch, extends from heaven the hand of grace, the grace obtained by the merit of Christ, and in it offers salvation. The sinner, in the abyss of misery, receives as a beggar in his hand of faith what is thus offered to him. The offer and the reception are correlatives. Therefore the hand of faith, which seizes and appropriates the offered treasure, corresponds to the hand of grace which offers the treasure of righteousness and salvation.” .
So also the Formula of Concord says:
“Faith is the gift of God by which we apprehend aright Christ, our Redeemer, in the Gospel.”
“It is faith alone, and nothing else whatever, which is the means and instrument by which the grace of God and the merit of Christ in the promise of the Gospel are embraced, received, and applied to us.”
All who teach and believe that saving faith justifies inasmuch as it is a good work itself or the source of good works (papists, Arminians, rationalists, Modernists) have fallen from grace and renounced the Christian faith. Luther:
“Christ alone justifies me over against my evil works and without my good works. If I regard Christ in this way, then I apprehend the right Christ.” .