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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: although good works neither can nor ought to be absent, just as
we cannot exist without food and drink and all the functions of
this mortal body. Still it is not on them that our justification
is based, but on faith; and yet they ought not on that account to
be despised or neglected. Thus in this world we are compelled by
the needs of this bodily life; but we are not hereby justified.
"My kingdom is not hence, nor of this world," says Christ; but He
does not say, "My kingdom is not here, nor in this world." Paul,
too, says, "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the
flesh" (2 Cor. x. 3), and "The life which I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith of the Son of God" (Gal. ii. 20). Thus our
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