A Treatise on Good Works
1520
A Treatise on Good Works
1520
Translated by Johann Michael Reu
In this incendiary 1520 treatise, Martin Luther rewires the moral imagination of Christianity. Writing as a pastor haunted by his congregation's spiritual anxiety, Luther attacks the comfortable medieval notion that ritual observance alone can earn God's favor. True good works, he argues, are not self-elected acts of piety but commands of God that flow naturally from genuine faith. The treatise functions as both theological manifesto and pastoral counsel: Luther defends his emerging doctrine of salvation by faith alone while patiently guiding ordinary believers toward a radical new understanding of what it means to live justly. He will systematize this argument through the Ten Commandments, revealing how divine instruction transforms mundane actions into sacred witness. This is not abstract theology but urgent practical wisdom for anyone who has ever wondered whether they are doing enough, being enough, earning enough. Luther's answer still resonates: righteousness is not a transaction but a relationship.
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“many pass for saints on earth whose souls are in hell.””
— Martin Luther
“The truth of the matter is rather as Christ says, "He who is not with me is against me." ... He does not say "He who is not with me is not against me either, but merely neutral.””
— Martin Luther
“Here again you confuse and mix everything up in your usual way.””
— Martin Luther
“That is what Reason can neither grasp nor endure, and what has offended all these men of outstanding talent who have been so received for so many centuries. Here they demand that God should act according to human justice, and do what seems right to them or else cease to be God.””
— Martin Luther
“from you, my dear Erasmus, let me obtain this request, that just as I bear with your ignorance in these matters, so you in turn will bear with my lack of eloquence.””
— Martin Luther
“For the kingdom is not being prepared, but has been prepared, while the sons of the Kingdom are being prepared, not preparing the Kingdom; that is to say, the Kingdom merits the sons, not the songs the Kingdom. So all hell merits and prepares its children rather than they it.””
— Martin Luther
“Why do you rant and brag with such a spate of words, as if you wanted to overwhelm me with a sort of tempest and deluge of oratory-which nevertheless falls with the greater force on your own head, while my ark rides aloft in safety?””
— Martin Luther
“I frankly confess that even if it were possible I should not wish to have free choice given to me, or to have anything left in my own hands by which I might strive for salvation.””
— Martin Luther
“But to be brief. The clearness of the Scripture is twofold; even as the obscurity is twofold also. The one is external, placed in the ministry of the word; the other internal, placed in the understanding of the heart. If you speak of the internal clearness, no man sees one iota in the Scriptures, but he that hath the Spirit of God. All have a darkened heart; so that, even if they know how to speak of, and set forth, all things in the Scripture, yet, they cannot feel them nor know them: nor do they believe that they are the creatures of God, nor any thing else: according to that of Psalm xiv, 1. "The fool hath said in his heart, God is nothing." For the Spirit is required to understand the whole of the Scripture and every part of it. If you speak of the external clearness, nothing whatever is left obscure or ambiguous; but all things that are in the Scriptures, are by the Word brought forth into the clearest light, and proclaimed to the whole world.””
— Martin Luther
