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Treatise on Good Works

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A Treatise on Good Works began as sermon material for his congregation, but soon grew into a small book. In it, Martin Luther was particularly concerned to refute the criticism that a stress upon justification by faith alone leads to a neglect of good works and to general antinomiamism. He elaborated his argument in the context of a discussion of the Decalogue - this Text comes from the opening sections on the first Commandment.

In the work as a whole, the medieval distinction between 'religious' good works (fasting, prayer, recitations, church attendance, etc.) and 'secular' good works is challenged. For Luther, it was just as important that an individual should be a good father in faith as that he should do 'religious' works in faith.

About the Author
Martin Luther was born the son of the miner on November 10, 1483 in Eisleben, Germany. He later became an Augustinian monk and then an ordained priest.

Luther is most famous for the symbolic blow that began the Reformation when he nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church on October 31, 1517. His Ninety-Five Theses contained an attack on papal abuses and the sale of indulgences by church officials.

However, Luther himself saw the Reformation as something far more important than a revolt against ecclesiastical abuses. He believed it was a fight for the gospel. Luther even stated that he would have happily yielded every point of dispute to the Pope, if only the Pope had affirmed the gospel.

At the heart of the gospel, in Luther's estimation, was the doctrine of justification by faith - the teaching that Christ's own righteousness is imputed to those who believe; and, on that ground alone, they are accepted by God.

Some of Luther's best known works are: Commentaries on Galatians, Romans, Peter and Jude, The Bondage of the Will, Larger and Smaller Catechism, Smalcald Articles, and Table Talk.