Annotation CLXXVIII

”That all might believe through him.” — John 1:7

Whether faith alone suffices for those to be saved.

John Ferus, in the commentaries, expounding this sentence: “You see,” he says, “that John came for our sake; but he does not say, ‘that they might believe in him’: for faith is to be referred to God alone. But if John was sent for no other [reason] than that we might believe through him: therefore faith is the sum of Christian justice — as also elsewhere it is said, ‘The just [man] lives by faith.’” Domingo de Soto, in his Annotations, gathers from these words that Ferus holds, with the Lutherans, that faith alone is sufficient for the salvation of the soul, and that the works of charity are not necessary. See below, Annotation 212.