That a man should be justified by works is an opinion settled in nature, as may appear in them who crucified our Savior Christ. For when they were pricked in their hearts at Peter’s sermon, they said, “Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved?” [Acts 2:37]. And the young man, before named, said not “What should I believe?” but “What should I do to be saved?” [Mark 10:17; John 6:28]. So then, in them it appears that it is a natural opinion of all men to think that they must be saved by [the] doing of something. A papist will say, [that] though this is natural thus to think, yet it may be good, for there is some goodness in nature. I answer that the wisdom of the flesh is enmity to God’s wisdom (Rom. 8:7), and [that] all men by nature are nothing but flesh, for naturally they are the children of wrath.
William Perkins, A Treatise Tending unto a Declaration whether a Man is in the Estate of Damnation or in the Estate of Grace, in Works, 8:545.
RESOURCES
- Subscribe To The Heidelblog!
- Download the HeidelApp on Apple App Store or Google Play
- The Heidelblog Resource Page
- Heidelmedia Resources
- The Ecumenical Creeds
- The Reformed Confessions
- The Heidelberg Catechism
- Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008)
- Why I Am A Christian
- What Must A Christian Believe?
- Heidelblog Contributors
- William Perkins On Justification
- Support Heidelmedia: use the donate button or send a check to
Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
USA
The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
Inwoo Lee
Inwoo Lee (BA, UCSD) earned his MA (Historical Theology) in 2020 from Westminster Seminary California and is author of “Righteous Before God: William Perkins’ Doctrine of Justification in Elizabethan England” (MA Thesis, Westminster Seminary California, 2020). He lives in the Great Seoul area, in South Korea with his wife Holly.
More by Inwoo Lee ›