Are we made righteous by works?
No. We are never made righteous inwardly nor accounted righteous before God through our works or merit.
Catechism for the Global Methodist Church, question 18
32I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
21But now the righteousness of God has been revealed apart from law, being attested by the law and the prophets. 22This righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, for there is no distinction. 23For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 24They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a mercy seat through faith in his blood, in order to demonstrate his righteousness by passing over the sins previously committed. 26This was done in the forbearance of God to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By works? No, but by the law of faith. 28For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not also the God of Gentiles? Yes, of Gentiles too. 30Since God is one, he will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
2For if Abraham was justified by works, he has a boast, but not before God. 3For what does the writing say? Abraham trusted God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. 4Now to the one who works, the wage is not counted according to grace but according to debt. 5But to the one who does not work, yet trusts in the one who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.
6But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
15We who are Jews by nature and not sinners from the Gentiles. 16Yet knowing that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no flesh will be justified.
8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not from works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
14Who gave himself for us, so that he might redeem us from all lawlessness and might cleanse for himself a people special, zealous for good works.
4But when the kindness and the benevolence of God our Savior appeared, 5not by works that we did in righteousness, but according to his own mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that, having been justified by that one's grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
After the doctrine of judgment the catechism asks how anyone can stand in it. The answer is drawn from Article IX of the Confession of Faith: "We believe we are never accounted righteous before God through our works or merit." Article IX of the Articles of Religion, which Wesley kept from the Church of England, teaches the same: "We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings," and adds that this doctrine "is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort."
The catechism's "No" rests on Paul. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," and "they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:23-24). "A person is justified by faith apart from works of the law" (Romans 3:28). Abraham is the test case: "Abraham trusted God, and it was counted to him as righteousness" (Romans 4:3), and Paul explains that "to the one who does not work, yet trusts in the one who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness" (Romans 4:5). "If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace" (Romans 11:6).
The answer names two things, being made righteous inwardly and being accounted righteous before God. Justification is God's pardon; regeneration, the new birth, is God's renewal of the heart. The Confession of Faith treats both in Article IX, and the catechism denies that either comes by human effort. Titus says God "saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit," according "to his own mercy" (Titus 3:5), and Ephesians says salvation "is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). Wesley preached salvation by faith as the door to every other blessing.
Good works still matter, and the catechism's next questions will say how. Ephesians follows the gift with its purpose: believers are "his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works" (Ephesians 2:10), and Christ redeems "a people special, zealous for good works" (Titus 2:14). Article X of the Confession of Faith calls good works "the necessary fruits of faith." For a Methodist this means the Christian life begins in confession rather than achievement. Jesus says, (Luke 5:32), and "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins" (1 John 1:9).