Works Neither Save Nor Damn Us

The true knowledge of Christ, or faith, does not enter into an argument about whether you have done good works for righteousness, or bad ones for damnation; but it simply holds this: If you have done good works, you will not be justified because of them; if you have done bad ones, you will not be damned because of them. I do not rob good works of their glory, and I do not praise bad ones; but I do say that in the matter of justification I must see how to retain Christ, so that He does not become useless to me by my desiring to be justified by the Law.

For Christ alone justifies me despite my bad works and without my good works. But if I judge that He requires the Law and works from me for the attainment of righteousness, He has become useless to me, and His power to save has left me.

Source: Quoted in Ewald M. Plass, What Luther Says, A Practical In-home Theology for the Active Christian. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. 1959 Edition, 10th Printing (1994), p. 491.