Works pursued for righteousness obscure Christ's glory, bring terror, and obscure knowledge of God...

In this way good works ought to follow faith.  Yet people who cannot believe and be sure that they are freely forgiven for Christ's sake, and that freely they have a reconciled God for Christ's sake, use works in a far different way.  When they see the works of saints, they judge in a human way that saints have merited forgiveness of sins and grace through these works.  So they imitate them, thinking that through similar works they merit forgiveness of sins and grace.  They think that through these works they appease God's wrath and are counted righteous for the sake of these works.  We condemn this godless opinion about works.  In the first place, it hides Christ glory when people offer to God these works as a price and atonement.  This honor, due to Christ alone, is credited to our works.  Second, they do not find peace of conscience in these works.  in true terrors, heaping up works upon works, they eventually despair because they find no work important and precious enough.  The Law always accuses and produces wrath.  Third, such persons never attain the knowledge of God, who judges and afflicts them. They never believe that they are heard.  But faith shows God's presence, since it is certain that God freely forgives and hears us.
~BOC, AP, V (III), 82-84

Christian righteousness is the faith that believes that sins are freely forgiven for Christ's sake...

Not only the people, but also those teaching in the churches, have generally been persuaded to believe in making distinctions between meats, and similar human traditions.  They believe these are useful works for meriting grace and are able to make satisfaction for sins.  From this there developed that new ceremonies, new orders, new holy days, and new fastings were instituted daily.  Teachers in the Church required these works as a necessary service to merit grace.  They greatly terrified people's consciences when they left any of these things out.  Because of this viewpoint, the Church has suffered great damage.

First, the chief part of the Gospel--the doctrine of grace and of the righteousness of faith--has been obscured by this view.  The Gospel should stand out as the most prominent teaching in the Church, in order that Christ's merit may be well known and faith, which believes that sins are forgiven for Christ's sake, be exalted far above works.  Therefore, Paul also lays the greatest stress on this article, putting aside the Law and human traditions, in order to show that Christian righteousness is something other than such works.  Christian righteousness is the faith that believes that sins are freely forgiven for Christ's sake.  But this doctrine of Paul has been almost completely smothered by traditions, which have produced the opinion that we must merit grace and righteousness by making distinctions in meats and similar services.  When repentance was taught, there was no mention made of faith.  Only works of satisfaction were set forth.  And so repentance seemed to stand entirely on these works.
~BOC, AC, XXVI, 1-7

It is the passion of Christ, not the act of a Mass, that forgives, justifies...

An opinion was added that infinitely increased private Masses.  It states that Christ, by His passion, made satisfaction for original sin and instituted the Mass as an offering for daily sins, both venial and mortal.  From this opinion has arisen the common belief that the Mass takes away the sins of the living and the dead simply by performing the outward act.  Then they began to argue about whether one Mass said for many is worth as much as special Masses for individuals.  This resulted in an infinite number of Masses.  With this work, people wanted to obtain from God all that they needed, and in the meantime, trust in Christ and true worship were forgotten.

Our teachers have warned that these opinions depart from the Holy Scripture and diminish the glory of the passion of Christ.  For Christ's passion was an offering and satisfaction, not only for original guilt, but also for other sins, as it is written, "We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, (Hebrews 10:10).  Also, "By a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14).  (It is an unheard-of innovation in the Church to teach that by His death Christ has made satisfaction only for original sin and not for all other sin.  So it is hoped that everybody will understand that this error has been rebuked for good reason),

Scripture teaches that we are justified before God, through faith in Christ, when we believe that our sins are forgiven for Christ sake. Now if the Mass takes away the sins of the living and the dead simply by performing it, justification comes by doing Masses, and not of faith.  Scripture does not allow this.
~BOC, AC, XXIV, 21-29

Without faith we can do no good for nothing in man is harmless...

Therefore, it is easy to see that this doctrine is not to be accused of banning good works.  Instead, it is to be commended all the more because it shows how we are enabled to do good works.  For without faith, human nature cannot, in any way, do the works of the First or Second Commandment.  Without faith, human nature cannot call upon God, nor expect anything from Him, nor bear the cross.  Instead human nature seeks and trusts in human help.  So when there is no faith and trust in God, all kinds of lusts and human intentions rule in the heart.  This is why Christ says, "Apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). That is why the Church sings: "Lacking Your divine favor, there is nothing in man.  Nothing in him is harmless."
~BOC, AC, XX, 35-40

Without faith one cannot believe in the forgiveness of sins...

The person who knows that he has a Father who is gracious to him through Christ truly knows God.  He also knows that God cares for him.  In a word, he is not without God, as are the heathen.  For devils and the ungodly are not able to believe this article: the forgiveness of sins. Hence, they hate God as an enemy and do not call Him and expect no good from Him.  Augustine also warns his readers about the word faith and teaches that the term is used in Scriptures, not for the knowledge that is in the ungodly, but for the confidence that consoles and encourages the terrified mind.
~BOC, AC, XX, 24-26

The Lord's Supper cures and brings life to both body and soul...

Here [the Lord's Supper] He offers to us the entire treasure that He has brought for us from heaven.  With the greatest kindness He invites us to receive it also in other places, like when He says in St. Matthew 11:38, "Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."  It is surely a sin and a shame that He so cordially and faithfully summons and encourages us to receive our highest and greatest good, yet we act so distantly toward it.  We permit so long a time to pass without partaking of the Sacrament that we grow quiet cold and hardened, so that we have no longing or love for it.  We must never think of the Sacrament as something harmful from which we had better flee, but as a pure, wholesome, comforting remedy that grants salvation and comfort.  It will cure you and give you life both in soul and body.  For where the soul has recovered, the body is also relieved.
~BOC, LC, V, 66-68

The Gospel is not a preaching of repentance or rebuke...

The doctrines of the Law and the Gospel may not be mixed and confused with each other.  What belongs to the one may not be applied to the other.  When that happens Christ's merit and benefits are easily hidden and the Gospel is again turned into a doctrine of the Law, as happened in the papacy.  For then Christians are deprived of the true comfort they have in the Gospel against the Law's terrors, and the door is again opened in God's Church to the papacy. Therefore, the true and proper distinction between the Law and the Gospel must be taught and preserved with all diligence.  Whatever causes confusion between the Law and Gospel should be diligently prevented (i.e., by which the two doctrines, Law and Gospel, may be confused and mixed into one doctrine).  It is, therefore, dangerous and wrong to convert the Gospel (properly so called, as distinguished from the Law) into a preaching of repentance or rebuke.  Otherwise, if understood in a general sense of the entire doctrine, the Apology says also several times that the Gospel is a preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins.  Meanwhile, the Apology also shows that the Gospel is properly the promise of the forgiveness of sins and of justification through Christ, and the Law is a doctrine that reproves sins and condemns.
~BOC, FSD, V, 27