This law was fulfilled and overcome in Christ. This statement and the consequences from it have to be understood on this basis. They urge that the uncertainty should not merely be endured. For a person can certainly lose or renounce faith, and self-commitment to God and his word of promise. But if he believes in this sense, he cannot at the same time believe that God is unreliable in his word of promise.
Good works are 'merits' as a gift.
Thus the confessions can speak of a preservation of grace and a growth in it. If righteousness in Canon 24 is understood in the sense that it affects human beings, then it does not strike to us.