Man Merits Nothing Before God

Then he said: 'If one should lend you an hundred pieces of gold, and ye should spend those pieces, could ye say to that man: "I give thee a decayed vine-leaf; give me therefore thine house, for I merit it"?'

The scribe answered: 'Nay, Lord, for he ought first to pay that which he owed, and then if he wished for anything, he should give him good things, but what booteth a corrupted leaf?'

Jesus answered: 'Well hast thou said, O brother; wherefore tell me, Who created man out of nothing? Assuredly it was God, who also gave him the whole world for his benefit. But man by sinning hath spent it all, for by reason of sin is all the world turned against man, and man in his misery hath naught to give to God but works corrupted by sin. For, sinning every day he maketh his own work corrupt, wherefore Isaiah the prophet saith: Our righteousnesses are "as a menstruous cloth."

'How, then, shall man have merit, seeing he is unable to give satisfaction? Is it, perchance, that man sinneth not? Certain it is that our God saith by his prophet David: "Seven times a day falleth the righteous"; how then falleth the unrighteous? And if our righteousnesses are corrupt, how abominable are our unrighteousnesses! As God liveth, there is naught that a man ought to shun more than this saying: "I merit." Let a man know, brother, the works of his hands, and he will straightway see his merit. Every good thing that cometh out of a man, verily man doeth it not, but God worketh it in him; for his being is of God who created him. That which man doeth is to contradict God his creator and to commit sin, whereby he meriteth not reward, but torment.'