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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: doubt or without faith, but there is not one in a thousand who
does not set his confidence upon the works, expecting by them to
win God's favor and anticipate His grace; and so they make a fair
of them, a thing which God cannot endure, since He has promised
His grace freely, and wills that we begin by trusting that grace,
and in it perform all works, whatever they may be.
XII. Note for yourself, then, how far apart these two are:
keeping the First Commandment with outward works only, and
keeping it with inward trust. For this last makes true, living
children of God, the other only makes worse idolatry and the most
mischievous hypocrites on earth, who with their apparent
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