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In 1520, Luther wrote his “Treatise on Good Works,” in which he acknowledged that the Spirit guides us into good works, but also stresses their importance. He begins the treatise with these words: “We ought first to know that there are no good works except those which God has commanded, even as there is no sin except that which God has forbidden. Therefore whoever wishes to know and to do good works needs nothing else than to know God’s commandments. Thus Christ says, Matthew 19, ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.’”

Though the treatise deals with a variety of works expected of Christians, Luther wrote that “The first and highest, the most precious of all good works is faith in Christ.” In this, he agrees with Joseph Smith, who wrote that the first principle of the gospel was “faith in the Lord Jesus Christ” (Article of Faith 4).14

Though both Martin Luther and Joseph Smith stressed the importance and primacy of faith in Christ, both also taught that baptism was essential for the forgiveness of sins and for salvation. In his Larger Catechism, Part Fourth (”Of Baptism”), Luther wrote, “I can boast that Baptism is no human trifle, but instituted by God Himself, moreover, that it is most solemnly and strictly commanded that we must be baptized or we cannot be saved.” He added, “And this also we cannot discern better than from the words of Christ above quoted:15 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Therefore state it most simply thus, that the power, work, profit, fruit, and end of Baptism is this, namely, to save. For no one is baptized in order that he may become a prince, but, as the words declare, that he be saved. But to be saved, we know, is nothing else than to be delivered from sin, death, and the devil, and to enter into the kingdom of Christ, and to live with Him forever.” His Small Catechism, Part IV (”Holy Baptism”), II, agrees