1. Good works are only such as God has commanded in his holy Word, and not such as are devised by people without the warrant of God’s Word, out of blind zeal or any pretense of good intentions.

2. These good works, done in obedience to God’s commandments, are the fruits and evidences of a true and living faith. By them believers

• make known their thankfulness,
• strengthen their assurance,
• edify their brethren,
• adorn the profession of the Gospel,
• stop the mouths of the adversaries,
• and glorify God, whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus for good works, so that, having their fruit to holiness, they may have the goal, eternal life.

3. Their ability to do good works is not at all from themselves, but wholly from the Spirit of Christ. Also, so that they may be enabled to do good works, in addition to the graces they have already received, they need an actual influence of the same Holy Spirit to work in them to will and to do his good pleasure. Yet are they not to grow negligent based on this, as if they were not bound to perform any duty unless they receive a special motion of the Spirit; instead they ought to be diligent to stir up the grace of God that is in them.

4. Those who attain to the greatest height possible in their obedience in this life are still far from being able to earn merit for others or to do more than God requires, because they still fall short of much of the duty they are bound to do.

5. We cannot merit the pardon of sin or eternal life at the hand of God by our best works,

• because of the great disproportion between them and the glory to come,
• because of the infinite distance that is between us and God, whom we can neither profit by them nor pay for the debt of our former sins, but when we have done all we can, we have only done our duty, and are unprofitable servants,
• because if they are good, they proceed from his Spirit,
• and because they are done by us, and therefore are defiled and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection that they cannot endure the severity of God’s judgment.

6. Nevertheless, because believers are accepted in themselves through Christ, their good works also are accepted in him, not as though they were wholly blameless in this life and irreproachable in God’s sight, but because he, looking on them in his Son, is pleased to accept and reward all that which is sincere, although accompanied by many weaknesses and imperfections.

7. Works done by unregenerate people, although of their nature they may be things that God commands and may be of good use both to themselves and others, yet, because they do not proceed from a heart purified by faith, nor are they done in a right manner, that is, according to the Word, nor to a right purpose, to the glory of God, they are therefore sinful, and cannot please God, and cannot make a person acceptable to receive grace from God. Yet if those people neglect good works, it is more sinful and displeasing to God.