Institutes 3.15.6 — THE BOASTED MERIT OF WORKS SUBVERSIVE BOTH OF THE GLORY OF GOD, IN BESTOWING RIG

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**THE BOASTED MERIT OF WORKS SUBVERSIVE BOTH OF THE GLORY OF GOD, IN BESTOWING RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND OF THE CERTAINTY OF SALVATION.**

For a long time the world has been taught very differently. A kind of good works called moral has been found out, by which men are rendered agreeable to God before they are ingrafted into Christ; as if Scripture spoke falsely when it says, “He that has the Son has life, and he that has not the Son of God has not life,” ( 1 John 5:12 ). How can they produce the materials of life if they are dead? Is there no meaning in its being said that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin?” ( Rom. 14:23 ); or can good fruit be produced from a bad tree? What have these most pestilential Sophists left to Christ on which to exert his virtue? They say that he merited for us the first grace, that is, the occasion of meriting, and that it is our part not to let slip the occasion thus offered. O the daring effrontery of impiety! Who would have thought that men professing the name of Christ would thus strip him of his power, and all but trample him under foot? The testimony uniformly borne to him in Scripture is that whose believeth in him is justified; the doctrine of these men is, that the only benefit which proceeds from him is to open up a way for each to justify himself. I wish they could get a taste of what is meant by these passages: “He that hath the Son hath life.” “He that hearth my word, and believeth in him that sent me,” “is passed from death unto life.” Whose believeth in him “is passed from death unto life.” “Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” “He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him.” God “has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ.” “Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” John 5:12 ; John 5:24 ; Rom. 3:24 ; John 3:24 ; Eph. 2:6 ; Col. 1:13

Source

• source-manifest/institutes — Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, tr. Beveridge 1845 (PD)
• evidence_grade: D_doctrinal_textbook