The Purpose of Good Works [Commentary on Browne: Article XII]

The necessity of good works for Christians is clearly established in Article XII: good works “do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith,” we are told, “insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known, as a tree discerned by the fruit.” The necessity spoken of here is a logical necessity—good works are a concomitant of true faith, but they are not the basis for our salvation:

The Scriptures prove, and the Church teaches, that, not upon the ground of merit, but yet according to God’s will and appointment, good works, wrought in Christ, are necessary for every Christian, are pleasing and acceptable to God, and will in the end receive “great recompense of reward,” even that “crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give in that day” (2 Tim. iv. 8).

Browne reiterates this point multiple times so that it cannot be missed: “The [Anglican] Church denies the merit of good works, and their sufficiency to screen us from the wrath and endure the judgment of God.” And again, “We cannot assign too high a place to good works, so long as we do not assign to them the power of meriting salvation.” In marked contrast, the Council of Trent holds that Christians are “accounted to have, by those very works which have been done in God, fully satisfied the divine law according to the state of this life, and to have truly merited eternal life.”^[1] To avoid any confusion, Trent also condemns the positions laid out in the Article:

If any one saith, that the justice received is not preserved and also increased before God through good works; but that the said works are merely the fruits and signs of Justification obtained, but not a cause of the increase thereof; let him be anathema.^[2]

And:

If any one saith, that the good works of one that is justified are in such manner the gifts of God, as that they are not also the good merits of him that is justified; or, that the said justified, by the good works which he performs through the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, whose living member he is, does not truly merit increase of grace, eternal life, and the attainment of that eternal life,-if so be, however, that he depart in grace,-and also an increase of glory; let him be anathema.^[3]

The role of good works thus differs considerably between the account given in the Article and that of the Romanists. For the latter, good works are meritorious and contribute to our salvation, whereas the Article expressly denies this. It may then be asked, if good works are not meritorious, why are they “pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ”?

The simple answer is that good works are pleasing to God because He has commanded us to do them: the faithful “travail in all things to please (as becometh obedient children).”^[4] Moreover, this obedience pleases God not only in itself, but also in view of those whom we serve by our good works, as we see in Nowell’s Catechism:

M. Doth not this doctrine [that good works are not meritorious] withdraw men’s minds from the duties of godliness, and make them slacker and slower to good works, or at least less cheerful and ready to godly endeavours?

S. No: for we may not therefore say that good works are unprofitable or done in vain and without cause, for that we obtain not justification by them. For they serve both to the profit of our neighbor and to the glory of God.^[5]

Luther takes up the same theme in his Treatise on Good Works:

Jesus says therefore: “Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” He does not say they should give glory and praise to themselves; rather, your work will improve their lives so that they will praise God both for himself and in you.^[6]

Previously I said the notion that we must identify good works as a condition of justification or salvation in order to preserve the necessity of good works is dubious. The basis for this observation should now be more apparent—we do good works out of love for God and our neighbor, in fulfillment of what Christ revealed to be the greatest commandment.

Notes

J. Waterworth, ed. and trans., The Canons and Decrees of the Sacred and Œcumenical Council of Trent (London: C. Dolman, 1848), Sixth Session, Chapter XVI, 43, https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct06.html. Compare Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church (Vatican: Liberia Editrice Vaticana, 2012), par. 2008‒2011, https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P70.HTM. See also Norman L. Geisler and Ralph E. MacKenzie, Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1995), 227‒28. ↑
Waterworth, Council of Trent, Sixth Session, Canon XXIV, 47, https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct06.html. ↑
Waterworth, Council of Trent, Sixth Session, Canon XXXII, 48‒49, https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct06.html. ↑
Alexander Nowell, Nowell’s Catechism, ed. G. E. Corrie, trans. Thomas Norton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1853), 143. Philip Melanchthon concurs that good works should be done for the sake of obedience: “The answer to the question, ‘Why and to what purpose is one to do good works?’ is, ‘On account of obedience, for which end God created all rational creatures.’ This is the principal answer, out of which others follow.” Melanchthon on Christian Doctrine: Loci Communes 1555, ed. and trans. Clyde L. Manschreck (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), 181. See also Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, vol. 2, ed. James T. Dennison, Jr., trans. George Musgrave Giger (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1994), 703. ↑
Nowell, Catechism, 182. ↑
Martin Luther, Treatise on Good Works, trans. Scott H. Hendrix (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012), 46. See also Luther, Treatise on Good Works, 54‒55, 78, and Turretin, Institutes, 703, 705. ↑