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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon: in his De Vocatione Gentium he says as follows: Redemption by
the blood of Christ would become of little value, neither
would the preeminence of man's works be superseded by the
mercy of God, if justification, which is wrought through
grace, were due to the merits going before, so as to be, not
the free gift of a donor, but the reward due to the laborer.
But, although this doctrine is despised by the inexperienced,
nevertheless God-fearing and anxious consciences find by
experience that it brings the greatest consolation, because
consciences cannot be set at rest through any works, but only
by faith, when they take the sure ground that for Christ's
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