"There is no difference at all between a papist, a Jew, a Turk, or a
sectarian. Their persons, locations, rituals, religions, works, and forms of
worship are, of course, diverse; but they all have the same reason, the same
heart, the same opinion and idea. The Turk thinks the very same as the
Carthusian, namely, 'If I do this or that, I have a God who is favorably
disposed toward me; if I do not, I have a God who is wrathful.' There is no
middle ground between human working and the knowledge of Christ; if this
knowledge is obscured, it does not matter whether you become a monk or a
heathen afterwards.

Therefore it is completely insane when the papists and the Turks do battle
against each other about religion and the worship of God; each contends that
he has the true religion and worship of God. In fact, even the monks are not
in agreement among themselves; one wants to be regarded as holier than
another merely because of some foolish outward ceremonies, when in their
hearts the opinions of them all are more alike than eggs. For this is what
they all think: 'If I do this work, God will have mercy on me; if I do not,
He will be wrathful.' Therefore every man who falls away from the knowledge
of Christ necessarily rushes into idolatry; for he must invent a form for
God that does not exist anywhere, as the Carthusian trusts that because of
his observance of his monastic rule, and the Turk that because of his
observance of the Koran, he pleases God and will receive from Him the reward
for his labor.

A God of this kind, who forgives sins and justifies in this manner, cannot
be found anywhere. Therefore it is all a vain imagination and a dream, the
invention of an idol in the heart. For nowhere has God promised that He
intends to justify men and save them on account of religious orders,
observances, and forms of worship that have been thought up and established
by men. In fact, as all Scripture attests, nothing is more abominable to God
than such self-chosen works and forms of worship; He even overthrows
kingdoms and empires on account of such things. Therefore all those who
trust in their own ability and righteousness are serving a god who by nature
is no god but is a god only in their opinion. For He who is true God by
nature speaks this way: 'I am not pleased with any righteousness, wisdom, or
religious observance except the one by which the Father is glorified through
the Son. Whoever takes hold of this Son and of Me or of My promise in Him
through faith--to him I am God, to him I am Father; him I accept, justify,
and save. All the rest remain under wrath, because they worship him who by
nature is no god.'

Whoever defects from this doctrine will necessarily fall into an ignorance
of God and an ignorance of the righteousness, wisdom, and proper worship of
God. He will be an idolater, remaining under the Law, sin, death, and the
rule of the devil; and everything he does will be lost and condemned.
Therefore when an Anabaptist imagines that he is pleasing to God if he is
rebaptized; if he forsakes his house, wife, and children; if he mortifies
his flesh; and if he endures many discomforts or even death itself, there is
not even a tiny bit of the knowledge of Christ in him. Having excluded
Christ, he is the captive of his own dreams about works, about forsaking
everything, and about self-mortification. In spirit or in heart he is no
different from a Turk, a Jew, or a papist, except so far as the outward
appearance, ritual, or work that he chooses for himself is concerned. Thus
all the monks have the same trust in works, even though they differ so far
as their garb and other externals are concerned.

Thus there are many others today who want to be counted as evangelical
theologians and who, so far as their words are concerned, do teach that men
are delivered from their sins by the death of Christ. Meanwhile, however,
they insult Christ most grievously by distorting and overthrowing His Word
in a villainous and wicked manner. In addition, they teach faith in a way
that attributes more to love that to faith; for they imagine that God
regards and accepts us on account of the love with which we love God and our
neighbor after we have already been reconciled. If this is true, then we
have no need whatever of Christ. In this way they serve, not the true God
but an idol of their own heart--an idol which they have made up for
themselves. For the true God does not regard or accept us on account of our
love, virtue, or newness of life (Rom. 6:4); He does so on account of
Christ. But they raise the objection: 'Yet He commands that we love Him with
all our heart.' All right, but it does not follow: 'God has commanded;
therefore we do so.' If we loved God with all our heart, etc., then, of
course, we would be justified and would live on account of that obedience,
according to the statement (Lev. 18:5): 'By doing this a man shall live.'
But the Gospel says: 'You are not doing this; therefore you shall not live
on account of it.' For the statement, 'You shall love the Lord,' requires
perfect obedience, perfect fear, trust, and love toward God. In the
corruption of their nature men neither do nor can produce this. Therefore
the Law, 'You shall love the Lord,' does not justify but accuses and damns
all men, in accordance with the statement (Rom. 4:15): 'The Law brings
wrath.' But 'Christ is the end of the Law, that everyone who has faith may
be justified' (Rom 10:4).

Thus a Jew who observes the Law with the intention of making himself
pleasing to God through this obedience is not worshiping the God of his
fathers; on the contrary, he is an idolater, adoring a dream and an idol of
his own heart that does not exist anywhere. For the God of his fathers, whom
he claims to be worshiping, promised Abraham an Offspring who was to bless
all nations. Thus God is known and the blessing is granted, not through the
Law but through the Gospel of Christ."