Scriptural theology really is simple and clear, and the Augsburg Confession is a simple and clear sum of Christian theology. When we look at its first part, the first twenty-one articles, it is surprising how simple and concise it is. In a recent English translation the first part occupies only 289 lines of text, about the size of a typical chapter in a bestselling novel. The problem for us is that sin, and the doubt that it brings to our hearts, makes those few simple, clear lines more difficult to understand than the chapter of the paperback we read last night and set on our bedside nightstand.

Article Twenty of the Augustana (another name for the Augsburg Confession), Concerning Faith and Good Works, accounts for one-third of those 289 lines. So, we can see that the reformers knew this subject was not well understood in their day. In fact, the very character of the medieval church had been shaped in large measure by its misunderstanding of the right relationship between faith and good works. “In former times, consciences were vexed by the doctrine of works; they did not hear consolation from the gospel. Conscience drove them into the desert, into monasteries, where they hoped to merit grace through the monastic life” (AC XX:19-20, Kolb-Wengert, p. 55). The very meaning of God’s grace had been lost, and with it the nature of saving faith. Faith had come to be understood not as the gift of a gracious God, as the reformers boldly affirm on the basis of Ephesians 2:8-9 (AC XX, 11), but merely as an initial act of man’s will, to which he must add good works or be lost forever.

It is dispiriting and dangerous to peoples’ souls to direct them to good works for their comfort rather than to God’s forgiveness freely given in Christ. “All who trust that they merit grace by works despise the merit and grace of Christ and seek a way to God without Christ through human powers.” (AC XX, 10) This misunderstanding, the confessors of Augsburg insisted, caused consciences to become very troubled.

In Article Twenty the reformers were simply stating the practical result of Article Four’s declaration: “Human beings cannot be justified before God by their own powers, merits, or works. But they are justified as a gift on account of Christ through faith when they believe that they are received into grace and that their sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by his death made satisfaction for our sins. God reckons this faith as righteousness.” Saving faith is not mere knowledge about God on which man must act. No, saving faith is trust in the good and gracious God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Only this heaven-sent trust “consoles and encourages terrified minds” (AC XX, 26).

Terrified minds, when they are consoled and encouraged by God, are changed minds. Why? “Because the Holy Spirit is received through faith, consequently hearts are renewed and endowed with new affections so as to be able to do good works” (AC XX 29). It is not the case that man knows God and His will, and then can do good works because of his knowledge. It is rather the case that saving faith, given freely to man by God, changes the heart and leads it to good works. “It is necessary to do good works,” the reformers point out, only because it is in the very nature of God-given faith to do good works.

Pretty simple and clear, isn’t it? How consoling and encouraging it is to meditate from time to time on these 289 lines of the Augsburg Confession. It helps us keep things simple, and clear. It helps us focus our faith on Christ alone.

Steven Sparley is pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Grants Pass, Oregon.