The guardians of ‘free-will’ have exemplified the saying: ‘out of the frying-pan, into the fire.’ In their zeal to disagree with the Pelagians they start denying condign merit, and by the very form of their denial they set it up more firmly! By word and pen they deny it, but really, in their hearts, they establish it, and are worse than the Pelagians upon two counts. In the first place, the Pelagians confess and assert condign merit straightforwardly, candidly and honestly, calling a spade a spade and teaching what they really hold. But our friends here, who hold and teach the same view, try to fool us with lying words and false appearances, giving out that they disagree with the Pelagians, when there is nothing that they are further from doing! ‘If you regard our pretences, we appear as the Pelagians’ bitterest foes; but if you regard the facts and our hearts, we are Pelagians double-dyed.’ (Luther, Bondage of the Will)
Roman Catholicism sets out a form of merit that they call “condign merit.” It refers to a merit that God rewards and must reward with grace if He is just. They insist that this form of merit comes because of the work of the Holy Spirit in and on the sinner and the sinner who does good works by the Spirit will be given condign merit. What this does, then, according to Rome, protects them against Pelagianism while still allowing them a place for good works in their theology of grace. What follows is a quote from the Council of Trent, Canon 32:
“If anyone says that the good works of the one justified are in such manner the gifts of God that they are not also the good merits of him justified; or that the one justified by the good works that he performs by the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, whose living member he is, does not truly merit an increase of grace, eternal life, and in case he dies in grace, the attainment of eternal life itself and also an increase of glory, let him be anathema.”
Luther pointed out something very important in his time and is something very important in the modern day as well as any day that is to come. Pelagianism taught that one is saved by the works that he does. One is either declared just on the basis of works or is kept saved by the works that are done. This is thought of in terms of a kind of merit where God rewards works with grace. But of course in Scripture there is in no sense or way that God gives grace based on works. Paul put it this way in Romans 3:28, as well as several other places, “we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.” God justifies sinners apart from works of the Law.
Luther is quite clear and agrees that Rome denies Pelagianism with its mouth and pen, but he is just as clear that Rome teaches it in reality. But even more, Luther says that Rome is worse than Pelagianism. But if they are both teaching the same thing in essence, what makes Rome worse than Pelagianism? It is because they deny teaching it and “try to fool us with lying words and false appearances.” They opposed Pelagianism with their words, but in their hearts they were Pelagians. In other words, they tricked themselves into believing and practicing what they said was wrong by using words to escape the truth. Then they deceived others into the belief and practice of Pelagianism under a guise as well.
Luther is telling us and warning us of the fact that people can and do believe things in their hearts that they deny by their spoken and written words. In our day we have a lot of people who profess to believe things that they really don’t and profess to deny things that they really believe in their hearts. It is not enough to say we believe that Pelagianism is wrong if our hearts are Pelagian. It is not enough to say that we are not Pelagian when our actions are Pelagian. It is not enough to say that we are Arminian if we are in fact Pelagian. It is not enough to say we are Reformed if our hearts are Arminian or Pelagian. It is not enough to say we hold to the Westminster Confession of the London Baptist Confession if our hearts don’t believe the same things those men taught. It is not enough to assert that we believe in justification by faith alone if we only believe it is the truth in our brains. It is not enough to assert that justification by faith alone is true if we deny what the Bible really teaches on the subject. In fact, those who claim to hold to justification by faith alone and yet deny it in their hearts and practices are worse than those who outright deny it. The Reformed doctrine of justification by faith alone has been growing in numbers as to those who profess to believe it, but that does not mean that the numbers who profess to believe it are those who really believe it. Could it be that in God’s judgment upon the professing Church that He has given us a blindness to the Gospel in the very name of orthodoxy? God blessed Luther’s generation with the Gospel and then the blessings that attend the Gospel. The modern generation has neither despite its outward profession.
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