Posted on 01/13/2020 6:06:12 AM PST by Gamecock
Martin Luther called it “the doctrine upon which the church stands or falls.” He called on pastors to take it back to their churches and “beat it into their heads continually.” The Reformation saw untold numbers of believers across Europe go willingly to the flames because they refused to loosen their grip on this single conviction:
Sola fide—justification by faith alone.
It’s good to remember believers who explored theology not merely as an academic exercise but as a life-and-death endeavor. It’s good for us to pause and remember the doctrines for which our forebears in the faith died. And it’s good to ask if these are the doctrines for which we are living.
Justification is the gracious act of God by which he declares a sinner righteous solely through faith in Jesus Christ. Unearned. Unmerited. Incredible.
Let’s break that down a bit.
“Justification is the gracious act of God . . .”
No one is right before God, and absolutely no one can make themselves right before God. It is God alone who can make us right before him (Ps. 143:2). No amount of penance, regret, service, or suffering can even the scales weighed down by our wanton rebellion against a holy and righteous God. We cannot achieve salvation by works. We can only receive it by faith as a free gift earned by Christ on Calvary.
“. . . by which he declares a sinner righteous . . .”
Sinful man has no case before the just Judge of the universe. We stand completely guilty before him, but he declares us righteous. Let’s not gloss over that fact—we stand utterly guilty, yet God declares us righteous in his sight. How can this be? How can God do that and still be God? “Here is a problem,” Luther said, “which needs God to solve it.”
And on the cross, the Son of God did indeed solve that problem. God loved us so much that he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to live the life we could not live and die the death we deserved to die. Christ took the wrath we rightly deserve and gave us the righteousness we cannot merit.
“. . . solely through faith in Jesus Christ.”
“Believe in Jesus Christ, and you will be saved,” Paul tells the Philippian jailer (Acts 16:31, emphasis added).
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” Paul tells the church at Rome (Rom. 10:9, emphasis added).
“Repent and believe the good news,” Jesus proclaimed (Mark 1:15, emphasis added).
Faith in Christ is the single and sufficient requirement for justification. All we can do and all we must do is trust completely in the work Christ Jesus has accomplished with his death, and we are saved.
When we turn to Christ in faith, our old, sinful selves are completely burned away by his sacrifice. We die to ourselves and to our every attempt to earn God’s favor according to our own merit. We are justified by faith alone, and we live by faith alone. Not a single corner of our lives is left untouched by this truth.
“Our every move is made in the full assurance of Christ’s power, the complete sufficiency of his sacrifice, and the overwhelming joy of his victory.”
Do not give into the subtle temptation to embrace justification by faith alone, yet try and do life and ministry in the flesh alone. Christ loved you enough to die for you two thousand years ago, and Christ loves you enough to live in you today, to enable you with his sustenance and empower you with his strength.
Every step we take away from the cross of Calvary, we take in the same faith that brought us to the feet of Christ. Our every move is made in the full assurance of Christ’s power, the complete sufficiency of his sacrifice, and the overwhelming joy of his victory.
Furthermore, if all of this is true, we cannot keep silent. If God truly justifies sinners solely through faith in Jesus Christ, then we must make this doctrine known. It is not simply a doctrine to be understood; it is an eternity shaping truth that demands to be told. We, undeserving sinners, have experienced the love of God. And when you know the depth of God’s love for sinners, you’ll lose your life that they might know his salvation.
The martyrs of the Reformation didn’t die simply because they believed the gospel. They died because they proclaimed the gospel. They didn’t just love the gospel. They loved the people who needed the gospel, and they were willing to die so others may know it. So they shared it in their homes, they taught it in their churches, they proclaimed it in their towns, and it cost them everything they had.
And it was worth it.
Salvation by faith alone is the best news we could possibly hear or deliver. If we lose that, we lose everything. So let us rejoice in that salvation, and let sola fide ring out from our lips in the church and among the lost until the day when such faith finally becomes sight.
I’ll leave it then. For now.
Next question then. You are telling me that someone who has faith but either is unable or dies before he is able to earn salvation with good works is condemned to Hell?
But if Catholic confession assuredly made you as if you were just baptized (which itself still does not make you as good as Purgatory is said to be there for you to achieve) and by which you offered sufficient expatiation for sins (and how do you know? And the lack of which is also why Purgatory is said to be necessary) then there would be no need for Purgatory.
Yes, but all those who study it still use the term. Not unlike medical doctors using Latin to describe body parts or diseases.
As with sola fide not being contrary to works (as it refers to a faith that effects works) so there is no contradiction btwn sola fide and free will.
The sinner would not even turn to the Lord Jesus unless God, in grace, had convicted him of sin, righteousness and judgment, not drawn him and granted repentance and opened his heart and given faith, (Jn. 6:44; 16:8; Acts 11:18; 16:14; Eph. 2:18,9)
Thus in conversion and obedience man is both enabled and motivated by God to do what he otherwise could not and would not do, to the glory of God.
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: (John 16:8) No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. (John 12:32)
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: (John 16:8)
And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. (Acts 16:14)
And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. (Acts 15:7-9)
When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. (Acts 11:18)
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)
Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. (Hebrews 10:35-36)
And yet God rewards faith in recognition of what it effected by grace. (1 Co. 3:8ff; Revelation 11:18) Meanwhile the only thing man can properly take credit for and must, is that of resisting God, of sinning and even drawing back into perdition. (Gal. 5:1-4; Heb. 3:12; 10:26-39; 1 Co. 11:32).
as well as those who follow their teaching and think they can earn their way to Heaven. That’s a lot of carnage to leave in their wake.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
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James says otherwise!
Aquinas rightly says that all our discourse about God is by analogy. The reality is too big for our categories.
So yes, I hear Trent and the current CCC. But I understand (correctly? Who knows?) that all this condign merit, etc. is not to be understood as God owing me anything but as itself a gift. It ALL comes down (and goes up) to him.
It's like Ptolemaic astronomy. There is “the motion of the same” which carries the entire cosmos in a revolution every day. All things, all the 7 planets are governed by that motion and the most obvious appearance is the daily motion.
Beneath that, the planets have their idiosyncratic differences.
To a worldview in which my freedom is threatened by the will of others, including God, to think of my deserving anything is ... difficult. Where freedom of choice is primary (or very high up) a set of differences arises. Usually or often, people who have that view consider marriage and parenthood a loss of freedom: you've failed go keep your options open.
To me, the argumentative (in a good way) question was, “What good are your options if you never exercise them?”
I thought then that the exercise of freedom cannot in principle conflict with freedom. Then I thought, after working with addicts, some exercises of freedom actually do lead to disaster.
SO the idea became the RIGHT exercise of freedom does not conflict with freedom even if it does limit your choices.
So Pope St. J2P2 says (something like) freedom is the capacity to know the good, to choose it, and to act on your choice.
When you do that, goodness abounds. Some of that abundant goodness, since virtue is a habit, seems to attach to the person who knew, chose, and did the good. Prudent acts develop prudence positively, while imprudent acts MAY demonstrate why prudence is good, but they don't otherwise help us act prudently, except maybe “materially.”
But all this takes place under “the motion of the same,” so to speak. The body fit to be animated by the rational soul, every thing that leads up to the moments of decision and action, ALL is maintained by God's act. The inner harmony or integrity by which one acts on what one perceives to be good, the choice of strait and narrow, all are made by God's generous act.
And, piling grace upon grace, he then assigns some “merit” to the actor. Thus we often ask for a saint's intercession “ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Cristi.” NOT that we may BE worthy but that we may be MADE worthy of the promises of Christ. It's a HUGE ask, and we dare to ask it, because we hope in God's good will continuing to heal, restore, and all that.
I think this is psychologically congruent with the double experience of a good outcome. We stick with a diet and lose 40 lbs. We are grateful knowing that we achieved something, yet it was achieved in us. “For [he] has accomplished everything we have done.
So when I present this battered and stained self on the last day I'll rely not on myself but on the good work God does in me.
What does Lewis say? It is like a child asking, “Daddy, give me 5 dollars so I can buy you a present.” Nobody thinks Daddy came out ahead in the transaction but all are happy, and Daddy says, “What a nice present!”
...
In the objections I think I see a sense that we are saying that we have something called merit which we hold as a claim against God. But if I were to say, “Here are your 5 talents, and 5 talents more!” I would know (Catherine of Siena again, HE is the way) that the first 5, the increment, the getting of the increment, and my self were all his.
So who are you going to believe James or Paul? When the whole of Scripture is take. in context it is clear we are saved by faith and demonstrate that Salvation by works which flow from our salvation not contribute to it. In fact as the Bible teaches we are not capable of works apart from Christ. You take your one verse and hang onto it and try to earn your salvation. When you get tired of your futile efforts Christ is there to offer freely what you can never earn.
Source: Cited from the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (ed. Gerald Bray), NT, vol. 11, p. 31.
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All based on erroneous understandings of the Holy Scriptures, and consequently refuted by Holy Mother Church!
Don’t take the mark, regardless if a billion Catholics are taking it.
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What mark? The mark of the beast? Don’t know anyone who has such a mark, do you?
I think this is a version of or kin to the Nominalist v Realist problem.
It also, I think, shows a difference about the need for analogy, for several analogies, in theology.
Only one of many approach, one I don't like much, sticks close to the Anselm, bookkeeping approach to Purgatory. My big metaphor is physical therapy.
I allowed myself to get weak. (venial sins, also vice) On the farm I had several repetitive tasks which, in my weakened condition, abraded my, ahem, subacromial ligament. (Mortal sin.) This caused so much pain that I could no longer work, sit, lie, do anything with that arm.
Thus sin compromises the will, we can't do the good we want to do.
So PT ... Purgatory. The beautiful young woman who was very nice (angels running Purgatory, helping us through) said we needed to strengthen the relevant muscles and increase my range of motion. Some of this was quite pleasant. Then she had me lie on a table and proceeded to try to tear my arm from my shoulder.
This wasn't to collect payment on a debt. It was to heal and correct the consequences of weakness and abuse, end the pain, restore my ability to use my body correctly so that I could enjoy life and do good ... on the farm anyway.
Repeated small sins weaken the will. A weak will not only has trouble choosing the good and acting on it. It will also develop less good ways to cope with life. Vices. Vices MAY eventuate in really serious harm to the will.
Now to be in Heaven, to see God as he is and become somehow like him demands virtue. It is the apex of virtue ... always willing to love God and all the company of heaven. Most souls needs a certain amount of repair to exercise such constant, strong love. Them harps won't play themselves, y’know. :-)
In a way you could say my time in PT was paying my debt down to the last farthing. But why? Nice people who knew what they were doing lovingly made me whole and repaired the damage I had done to myself.
This is the worst of the Anselm-Reformation adoption of the monetary metaphor. It's okay to think of God's being satisfied and the devil receiving his ransom. But it's not only an incomplete metaphor, it is misleading.
I don't CARE whether you believe it or not. It's the plain truth that Catholicism lied to you when it claimed that "faith alone" only started 1500 years after Christ.
If "holy mother church" lies to you about easily verifiable history, what else is it lying to you about?
Good question, and the reality is that RCs can and do have variant understanding of them to a degree, as they can (and even more so) with the Bible (even Haydock versus some NAB notes), not even counting those of the liberals. But that limited allowance is not allowed of us by typical RC apologists.
Who knows?) that all this condign merit, etc. is not to be understood as God owing me anything but as itself a gift. It ALL comes down (and goes up) to him.
Well, maybe condign merit is actually earning what is proportionally deserved (Adam condignly merited Hell by his disobedience), while congruent merit is actually earning rewards by grace thru merit (really becoming good enough by grace), while pactum merit is rewards not earned by actually being deserving but are freely given according to agreement, that of rewards freely promised to one who shows by works that he does believe but that do not actually make him morally deserving, but are given to sinners who obey even though they actually deserve Hell.
To a worldview in which my freedom is threatened by the will of others, including God, to think of my deserving anything is ... difficult.
Well, we are actually deserving of some thing. Punishment.
To me, the argumentative (in a good way) question was, “What good are your options if you never exercise them?”
And freedom of choice is use-less if there is nothing to choose btwn. But apart from grace, man will choose evil.
Thus we often ask for a saint's intercession
Not by praying to created beings in Heaven.
NOT that we may BE worthy but that we may be MADE worthy of the promises of Christ.
Better put, "worthy" as it being fitting in God's sight to bless such in the light of what God has done in and thru them, so that we may be of those who faith is rewarded in the light of what it effected by God who both inspired and enabled such.
So when I present this battered and stained self on the last day I'll rely not on myself but on the good work God does in me.
Rather, rest on the work Christ did and thus the "obedience of faith" that God has freely promised He will reward will result.
In the objections I think I see a sense that we are saying that we have something called merit which we hold as a claim against God.
Well, as I asked, how do you think Catholics would understand the works-emphasis words of Trent? By nature man believes that somehow his works will, to some degree, actually make him fit to being Heaven, that they did enough good works to outweigh the bad, one close to it, with some mercy and grace thrown in.
Most RCs I have dealt with on this in person basically express this, and which I think the face-value words of Trent fosters, that their hope of Heaven resting upon their overall good life, with faith in their church and the mercy of God, if rather ambiguous.
Few have come to the place of coming to the risen Lord Jesus as a damned and morally destitute sinners and cast all their faith on the risen Lord Jesus to save them, on His account, by His sinless shed, and so be baptized to follow Him.
Instead, their hope is too much like one RC expressed it,
I feel when my numbers up I will appoach a large table and St.Peter will be there with an enormous scale of justice by his side. We will see our life in a movie...the things that we did for the benefit of others will be for the plus side of the scale..the other stuff,,not so good will..well, be on the negative side..and so its a very interesting job Pete has. I wonder if he pushes a button for the elevator down for the losers...and what .sideways for those heading for purgatory..the half way house....lets wait and see.... ” http://forums.catholic.com/showpost.php?p=4098202&postcount=2
Thus when dealing with the subject Scripture emphasizes the moral destitution of man, and of faith as the only recourse rather than merit, but a faith that effects works, as being salvific.
No, hence the good thief on the cross. Although you could say the good thief’s profession was a good work.
That is totally up to God. There is something called the baptism of desire. It’s in the catechism. I just haven’t found it yet.
You know we Christians ought to concentrate on our common beliefs instead of arguing about the fine points.
I remember years ago reading in Vatican II that we should only concentrate on the Real Presence. That is actually the reason.I became Catholic. Also I was invited to a novena prayer on a Monday night. I had no idea what that was but I’m glad I did. Praying the rosary has gotten me through many trials.
One time though I got a flat on a fairly cold day. And I spent a very long time trying to get the lug nuts loose. But they wouldn’t budge. So I stopped and prayed an Our Father. The very next thing I knew I was driving home. I really don’t remember changing that tire.
Another time my wife and I attended a Holy Spirit seminar in our church in New York. It was seven Wednesdays in a row. On the last one they had confession and then if you wanted a group would pray over you. I was alone in.my area in the huge church and I was afraid to go up because people were being slain in the spirit and falling down and I had broken my back years ago in a car accident. Then very clearly I heard a voice say in my right ear, “Don’t be afraid to come to me.” I looked around and there was no one anywhere near me.
I went up and they prayed over me and quite suddenly I was on the floor.
You are sorely mistaken on the sacramental effects of Confession and the necessity of the purgation of most holy souls. It's no wonder you've left the Catholic Church.
Your fantasy flows from false theology. For while the premise that to see God as he is and become somehow like him demands virtue is valid, yet as said,
In contrast, wherever Scripture clearly speak of the next conscious reality for believers then it is with the Lord, (Lk. 23:43 [cf. 2Cor. 12:4; Rv. 2:7]; Phil 1:23; 2Cor. 5:8 [“we”]; 1Cor. 15:51ff'; 1Thess. 4:17)
And rather than Purgatory conforming souls to Christ to inherit the kingdom of God, the next transformative experience that is manifestly taught is that of being made like Christ in the resurrection. (1Jn. 3:2; Rm. 8:23; 1Co 15:53,54; 2Co. 2-4) At which time is the judgment seat of Christ And which is the only suffering after this life, which does not begin at death, but awaits the Lord's return, (1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Timothy. 4:1,8; Revelation 11:18; Matthew 25:31-46; 1 Peter 1:7; 5:4) and is the suffering of the loss of rewards (and the Lord's displeasure!) due to the manner of material one built the church with. But which one is saved despite the loss of such, not because of. (1 Corinthians 3:8ff)
And your premise would also exclude the contrite criminal of Luke 23:43 from being with Christ at death, yet who was told by the Lord that he would be with Christ in Paradise that day. And likewise imperfect Paul, (Philippians 3:13) who attested that to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:7; cf. Philippians 1:23) And indeed it would exclude all believers who were told that they would be forever with the Lord if He returned in their lifetime (1 This. 4:17) though they were still undergoing growth in grace, as was Paul.
In contrast to becoming actually good enough to be with God thru Purgatory, salvation by grace does not mean salvation by attaining to actual, practical perfection in this life or in Purgatory, but that of being accepted in the Beloved on His account, (Eph. 1:6) resulting finally in the resurrection of the body, which is the final conformity to Christ after this life. (1 John 3:2) And with obedience with holiness in this life being its effects/fruits, but which effects are not the cause of justification, though works justify one as being a believer. (Heb. 6:9,10)
And while God does reward faith (Hebrews 10:35) by rewarding the obedience of faith, (Mt. 25:31-40) and which obedience attests that one is a believer and thus it is appropriate that they be blessed, (Rv. 3:4) yet the "worthiness" here is not because moral attainment itself has made such accepted in the Beloved, and made them to sit together with Christ in Heaven,(Eph. 1:6; 2:6) and given them access to into the holy of holies in Heaven to pray, (Heb. 10:19) but as in conversion, it is because the faith that effects obedience is imputed for righteousness, (Rm. 4:5) and which thus results in God rewarding the obedience of faith. Thus they are exhorted, "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward." (Hebrews 10:35)
Because of original sin we are too weak to overcome sin. And yet even after baptism we sin. But we are made higher than the animals who have no free will. I have read Romans and like Peter said, he is difficult to follow and confusing.
It seems to me that we Christians should reunite. This animosity to the Catholic Church is not a good thing. But as Chesterton once said , “the Protestant churches serve one purpose. There are some people who will accept nothing from the CAtholic Church.” Except of course their Bible.
Wait.
Who left the Catholic Church?
Not you, that I know of, and not I.
Scripture doesn’t belong to Catholics.
Amazing how Catholics will eagerly claim the work of the Holy Spirit for themselves.
It would be good if Christians reunite, but I would rather remain in disunity and even give up my life instead of be unified under the falsehoods Catholicism preaches.
There’s plenty of time for unity after Jesus returns.
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