Geneva Catechism (111 - 120)

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Q. 111. What good accrues to us from this faith, when we have once obtained it?

A. It justifies us before God, and this justification makes us the heirs of everlasting life.

Q. 112. What! are not men justified by good works when they study to approve themselves to God, by living innocently and holily?

A. Could any one be found so perfect, he might justly be deemed righteous, but as we are all sinners, guilty before God in many ways, we must seek elsewhere for a worthiness which may reconcile us to him.

Q. 113. But are all the works of men so vile and valueless that they cannot merit favour with God?

A. First, all the works which proceed from us, so as properly to be called our own, are vicious, and therefore they can do nothing but displease God, and be rejected by him.

Q. 114. You say then that before we are born again and formed anew by the Spirit of God, we can do nothing but sin, just as a bad tree can only produce bad fruit? (Matt. vii. 18.)

A. Altogether so. For whatever semblance works may have in the eyes of men, they are nevertheless evil, as long as the heart to which God chiefly looks is depraved.

Q. 115. Hence you conclude, that we cannot by any merits anticipate God or call forth his beneficence; or rather that all the works which we try or engage in, subject us to his anger and condemnation?

A. I understand so; and therefore mere mercy, without any respect to works, (Titus iii. 5) embraces and accepts us freely in Christ, by attributing his righteousness to us as if it were our own, and not imputing our sins to us.

Q. 116. In what way, then, do you say that we are justified by faith?

A. Because, while we embrace the promises of the gospel with sure heartfelt confidence, we in a manner obtain possession of the righteousness of which I speak.

Q. 117. This then is your meaning-that as righteousness is offered to us by the gospel, so we receive it by faith?

A. It is so.

Q. 118. But after we have once been embraced by God, are not the works which we do under the direction of his Holy Spirit accepted by him?

A. They please him, not however in virtue of their own worthiness, but as he liberally honours them with his favour.

Q. 119. But seeing they proceed from the Holy Spirit, do they not merit favour?

A. They are always mixed up with some defilement from the weakness of the flesh, and thereby vitiated.

Q. 120. Whence then or how can it be that they please God?

A. It is faith alone which procures favour for them, as we rest with assured confidence on this-that God wills not to try them by his strict rule, but covering their defects and impurities as buried in the purity of Christ, he regards them in the same light as if they were absolutely perfect.

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